newSRILANKA Team External Links 7 September 2009 252 views No Comment  Print This Post  Email This Post

English is not only a premier world language but also the most accessible one for Sri Lankans. Besides, its use and utility has increased with the spread of the Internet and development of mobile electronic communication technology. Globalization with its drive for hegemony has also helped to ensure the dominance of the English language. The rapid increase of migration across borders with increased job opportunities in foreign countries, especially for citizens of the Third World has also increased the thirst for English language competency in developing countries.

Sri Lanka is no exception to this global trend. The rapid expansion of service industries, especially those in the financial sector has created many opportunities for those proficient in English. Accordingly, young people today, find it a necessary means of finding employment and enhancing their upward social mobility.

Today, school leavers have many opportunities that were unheard of a decade ago. There is a wide range of choices from medicine, engineering to marketing and dress designing that demand competency in English. At least a rudimentary knowledge of English has become part of functional literacy too. In the old days, the yardstick for such functional literacy was the ability to read and understand a telegram message (Those days telegrams could be sent in English only). Now a little bit of English would become handy even to read the instruction manual of a domestic appliance in the market.

All this explains why there is a craze for English. Most parents want their offspring to be well versed in the English language. Unfortunately, many fraudsters have made use of this popular yearning and have opened up tuition classes to cater to the growing demand. Since there is no regulatory system to monitor and ascertain the quality of education imparted, many have fallen prey to people with bogus qualifications. Some of these tuition masters have not even a pass in the English language at the G.C.E. (Ordinary Level) Examination.

Even the notorious fraudster Sakviti Ranasinghe, who ran an illegal financial concern and fled the country leaving thousands of depositors losing millions of rupees claimed that he was born to teach English. Though there are hundreds of institutions and individuals teaching English throughout the length and breadth of the country, there is no discernible improvement in the English language literacy among the population.

One reason for this situation is that those who follow these classes hardly use the language for communication. It’s some dumb learning. No one could retain one’s language skills if they are not practised in daily life. In fact, it is true of any subject.

The system of English language teaching in schools also leaves much to be desired. Even after nine years of schooling, the performance of students in the English language at the G C E (Ordinary Level) Examination is quite poor. Therefore, one may safely conclude that there must be a grave fault in the teaching of the language. Lack of resources including qualified teachers, lack of enthusiasm among the students and many other factors could be the reasons for this poor performance.

Read more at Dailynews

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