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by C. T. M. Fernando, Ex-Principal, Royal College, retd. Director of Education (Continued from yesterday)

22. Research aimed at narrowing the intermediate reading-gap between the basal-centred primary stage and the broader non-basal secondary grades, that is between "Learning to Read" and "Reading to Learn", should be attempted as an exercise in itself. Reading or instructional material carefully selected and organised should be made available to bridge this gap, with a bias towards the arts and literature as aforementioned related to the former (learning to read) and a bias towards the core-subjects related to the latter, (reading to learn) recognising at the same time that both these segments are complementary to each other, preserving the balance in the total educational programme.

23. Language learning is not merely and purely a mental exercise, as quite often we are inclined to believe. Almost all the faculties of the human being come into play, in various degrees of course, in language learning although it may not simply be evident to the layman.

Thus physiologically too it becomes imperative that the various aspects of language learning become related to these sense faculties to a greater or lesser degree depending on the situation in which the learner is at the time of learning the language.

The Direct or Activity method finds meaning in this principle. Action reinforces meaning. The subtle play of muscles is an involuntary bodily function connected with the nervous system and the functioning of the brain, so that in language learning, activity of the entire body - not only the mental faculty - comes into play. 24. Tests and examinations lend themselves as instruments of evaluation, leading even to diagnosis, provided test construction conforms to basic essential norms.

Briefly a test should be both valid and reliable - the former indicating that it gives the same result under the same conditions whenever it is administered to the testee, while the latter indicates, that it assess unambiguously only that aspect which it purports to assess. A prerequisite of any good test is that it should be subjected to standardisation in respect of its various items in order to convert the marks to more realistic norms of measurement.

In a subject like English (language) the various identifiable elements that go to make up language like vocabulary, idiom, syntax, pronunciation, comprehension, and may be even the cultural component etc. cannot be compositely tested; though the mistaken notion persists, that the performance in any one or two of them will give an idea to the level of attainment in another. It is essential to test each item separately, and independently and may be under "controlled" conditions. Hence the need for a battery of tests.

It is thus understandable why we have to depend on good tests, which will serve as an index to the achievements of individual pupil, and also the effectiveness (or otherwise) of the methodology, teaching material, etc. used, enabling us to adopt remedial measures if needed. Tests which measure items in isolation will also reveal incongruous situations in a bi-lingual systems as in Sri Lanka when both the native langauge and the foreign langauge are well developed, having a fairly long history behind each of them.

25. In any programme of sustained language learning the need for an adequate library service of supplementary reading material can hardly be over emphasised.

In the Sri Lankan context it is the lack of English teachers that is being augmented by the lack of library facilities. Even the available facilities are unevenly distributed. There is a woeful lack of suitable library books in the vast majority of school.

Libraries will come in as useful supporting services both at the basal level and the post-basal level, more so at the latter stage when diversity in content area has to be coped with to satisfy a need for "Reading to Learn". The public libraries in the main towns are geared to supplement this need to a certain extent but that will not be a substitute to the school libraries where the reading material will be selected in keeping with the needs of students, correlated to the rest of the curriculum.

26. Use of mass media in teaching foreign languages, has its limitations more when catering to the masses than to school children.

The clientele in the former case has to be reached at a time convenient to each individual of a heterogeneous group, and the mass media using the oral/aural method can hardly fit into that kind of demand; true there are certain hours of the day like the early morning hours and the late evening hours which look very feasible but still much will depend on economic and sociological factors generally affecting a community - depending whether rural or urban. Further the exercise will be of short duration even if evenly spaced out for a long spell of time. Then the problem of re-enforcement and recapitulation has to be overcome.

These points however do not cover the entire gamut of English teaching problems or possibilities and therefore are the results of a hubble attempt at a not-too-deep analysis.

(Concluded)

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