The use of drama in English language teaching

by O.C.G. Senapathi

All languages are picked up by juniors as they hear them from their elders or seniors. So, language learning basically is an A to Z environmental activity in every society; But as all picked up things should be cleaned before consumption, various segments of a language an infant picks up should also be cleaned or rather corrected if not totally discouraged if they are incorrect, indecorous or unsuitable for them to imitate or learn or else their parents or teachers in later years will never be able to correct them. Thus it is essential that children be brought up amidst well-mannered, good and competent speakers or elders.

According to profound educational psychologists a child until seven years of age should be loved, fondled, spoken to, instructed, coached and taught in its mother tongue which utters the most loving sounds the baby relishes cuddling in a mother's warmth. A child's mother tongue is the gateway to knowledge, exposure to the outer world and the instilling of self confidence in its ego.

The child with a basic competence and substantial self confidence in its mother tongue is quite capable of learning a second language provided that the child hears it more often. This is where well mannered, good, competent language teachers are required.

When we consider English language teaching in Sri Lanka today this requirement is not at all sufficiently catered to by most of the educational authorities and institutes, and this condition is very pathetic in government schools, especially in primary sections where fundamentals of language learning should be solidly instilled.

Missionaries

English education in Sri Lanka was originally in the hands of American Catholic and English Christian missionaries, the pioneers of the high school educational system in Sri Lanka. Since they were native English speakers, local students at missionary schools mostly sons of farsighted Sinhalese and Tamil parents were fortunate to be brought up amidst those native English speakers.

Thus, they were able to pick up flawless English utterances, accent, and pronunciation and correct grammar which made them the first eloquent English speakers of Sri Lanka. So, within a very short period of time the British colonial rulers cold manage their administrative work very smoothly with the help of a set of English educated locals. Later many of those English educated Tamils and Sinhalese were appointed teachers at subsequent missionary schools under the stable and efficient guidance of native English speakers.

Those were not preschools but primary to secondary schools where children started their college education at the age of five or little above five when they were able to speak in their mother tongue very steadily and confidently; so from their primary level those students heard correct English more often, while learning their subjects in an English environment in addition to their English language learning.

The system was followed at a few B.T.S. (Buddhist Theosophical Society) schools too where some Sinhalese children also had opportunities of learning English from the "horse's mouth" as some native English speakers happened to be teachers in those schools. But this system of education came to an end in many schools when vernacular education was stressed upon them and a little later when those schools were taken over by the then government.

The revival of the vernacular education was truly a blessing for the younger generation of the poor and lower middle class since it provided the children of the underprivileged a large number of educational opportunities from primary to tertiary level increasing our literacy level to greater heights. This step indeed would have been a progressive one had it been implemented without proscribing English and keeping it as a compulsory subject in syllabi.

Consequently only a very few English educated men and women from private or semi-government missionary schools were available later to be trained as specialist English trained teachers at government training colleges at Maharagama and later Peradeniya.

After 1977 this condition was worsened when the specialist teachers training college at Maharagama was transformed to the N.I.E. (National Institute of Education) a deliberate hypocritical attempt to do away with quality education in Sri Lanka and quality specialist English trained teachers as well as specialist trained teachers of mathematics, science, commerce, handicrafts and home science became a rarity and this condition precipitated the well calculated end of quality English education in Sri Lanka.

Deficiency

So due to this deficiency most of our locally graduated doctors, engineers, lawyers, university lecturers, teachers and most other professionals who started their schooling after 1977 display a very poor English knowledge. Most of them use only their limited professional jargon but not complete grammatical sentences when communicating with others.

Though our literacy level is commendable, the surreptitious negligence of English education (Government, just providing students with free English text books and appointing just somebody as an English teacher is the major part of this step motherly treatment to English teaching) has decimated the number of qualified, competent and eloquent English teachers who could speak grammatically flawless English with a correct accent and pronunciation before our children in classes.

Most unfortunately or perhaps lacking conventional expertise such a breed of English teachers has not been promoted by the Ministry of Education but instead just to counter balance the liquidation of the specialist trained teachers' training college at Maharagama the Ministry of Education has been carrying out just a paltry teachers training program for some young men and women with a pitiable English education background who should be accountable for the poor standard of English in our schools today. This is the greatest disaster that has been brought about on English education in Sri Lanka.

When teaching a foreign language the teacher concerned should be well acquainted with the social, cultural, historical and religious specially the literature of that language and not be just a frog in a local well reading a text book and doing some written work in a class.

English teachers compulsorily should be familiar at least to a certain extent with Christianity, European history, European way of life and Greco Roman civilisation and then only the teacher would make his or her lesson very appealing and intelligible to the students so that they would learn it very enthusiastically.

This special breed of specialist trained English teachers has been dying out for the last three decades and regrettably no substitutes of such calibre have been produced by the Ministry of Education up to now and it is very pathetic to see that the Ministry of Education seems to be totally inconsiderate about such a calamity.

Language

As mentioned earlier, a language should be heard first to learn it later. Thus the Ministry of Education should take every step to revive the "Maharagama" type specialist English teachers training program immediately at Maharagama or elsewhere to generate more and more professionally qualified, competent, conversant, eloquent, specialist trained teachers of English to meet the great demand for English learning at schools (from primary to tertiary level) technical colleges, agricultural schools, nurses training schools, universities, various other professional institutes and all armed forces plus police.

Until such a program materialises the next most appropriate and practical step to take is to introduce light short English plays in schools and other institutions mentioned before with the help of the handful of professionally qualified, eloquent English teachers available (still in service or competent retirees).

In this way children will hear correct segments of language and parrot them and start to use English orally without stage fright but with confidence. Thus they will develop themselves as confident speakers of English.

It is often proved how children learn languages fast and speak it confidently when they are in group participation without being despised, ridiculed and denounced of their language mistakes.

Drama makes language learning more meaningful because in a play social situations are involved and children practise the language in real context in which words, phrases and sentence become more meaningful to them. It has been observed that when words and grammar are combined with activities children learn the language in total efficiency and enthusiastically.

Actually plays or dramas or even skits develop a child's personality and make him more confident in life, more expressive in speech to communicate more freely with others.

Once an experienced teacher of English said dramas draw out children and they respond more quickly and happily than when teachers just throw English at them in lacklustre manner all day long inside class rooms.

Method

When an efficient and eloquent teacher with correct pronunciation and flawless grammar demonstrates the context of a play as a model, children while trying to imitate their teacher improve speech habits, correct pronunciation, stress and intonation and even grammar which they find very difficult to learn from books with abstruse exercises in awful monotony.

Though productive, progressive and genuine patriotic educationists in almost all developed countries very emphatically use this method in second language teaching our English syllabi very indifferently allocate only a minute portion of each lesson for language learning activities and role plays and hardly ever for oral drilling and testing at term tests. Most of our English teachers are still being anaesthetised by dull traditional classroom teaching which is not at all conducive to language learning.

So, as a prologue to this "Project Drama" to diversity the stagnant mammoth monotony in English language classes in our schools, it is essential to perform demonstrative plays in schools islandwide to attract young energetic and optimistic English teachers and school children, specially principals to get a little time allocated in school time tables for English drama practices.

I believe this is where the NYC (National Youth Council) can contribute immensely with all its facilities to make this project a success and I strongly believe the minister could be of great help in this national endeavour to uplift English education in our motherland which is a "must" for the educational, professional, social and intellectual development of our younger generation.