Year of English and Information Technology

A.S. JAYAWARDENE

The Presidential Secretariat has officially declared the year 2009 as ‘The Year of English and Information Technology’.

The English language and Information Technology have become a major impetus that manipulates the globe. We pass an era in which knowledge is considered the most precious, durable and useful wealth. Hence, in this writing I shall bring to the surface some innovative sentiments in the field of learning English and information technology.

The focus of learning a language is to enhance the receptive skills as well as the productive skills. Unfortunately due to the need of the era masses run a mad rat race to upgrade their spoken abilities, perhaps the path that they take is incorrect. In other words the needy have become victims of money making ventures.

Especially in the Sri Lankan context most of the English educated are already well established in their respective designations.

All in all English has become everything. Once a trishaw owner whom I encountered uttered that in the near future English will be essential even to buy a loaf of bread or to get into a trishaw.

If the importance of learning English has reached the very end such as this what would be the other general issues? Since English language plays the role of a link language the importance of learning this language has reached its very climax.

English seems to be everything in the modern world due to which strengthening our skills stands as an inevitable requirement of the era.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Moderating the regular, perhaps conventional ways of learning English, should be done with immediate effect. The wrong beliefs and attitudes that the masses have on developing their English language skills should be changed for if not none of these new implementations would bring any effective outcome.

Hence I wish to stress the following;

* Learning a language is a process through which progress is achieved gradually.

* When learning a language our attention should be paid equally to receptive skills (reading, listening) and productive skills (writing, speaking).

* It is due to this that we should not anticipate anything called ‘spoken English’ separately since all these four areas are interconnected.

* Maintaining a diary would be the best and the first thing a learner could do in order to accelerate one’s writing pace as well as to develop writing skills.

Moving a step beyond the conventional writing in which people are limited to reference their daily routine, I would like to add that the writer includes his thoughts, analysis etc. relevant to the day’s happenings. In this way the maximum benefit of such a task would be gained.

* Listening to the BBC, CNN news broadcasts will give you a wide range of information while the problem of listening to the different accents is gradually being resolved.

* Reading any document we come across is therefore considered as one of the best things that a learner should do. Among the various writings editorials, official letters, and paper articles are at the forefront in significance.

* If the learner is asked to read and listen it would be an ineffective suggestion. Let the learner listen or read the areas he is interested in or needs to be specialised. For an instance, some do not like to read feature articles such as this whereas their interest is to read articles based on sports, science and so on.

They attract the learner in no time. It is this turning point that should be identified and then the learner should be motivated to do more reading in the capacity he is interested in. Afterwards let them analyze, compare and suggest their ideas. Listening skills too can be developed in the same way

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

A computer has become an indispensable apparatus of our daily routine. This fact, in fact is not a strange thing in this era of information.

At the outset I wish to bring to the surface a great service of a great son of the soil who is dedicated to impart information technology to his brotherhood in his remote village.

He as an innovative path breaker and as a painstaking IT teacher teaches his subject in school during the school hours and the poor fathers of these students are taught after the regular school hours.

At the beginning most of the conventional farmers were reluctant to step into the computer lab but as the program proceeded they realized the value of the program that they were being taught.

The teacher had commenced his work for the farmers with a chilly plant and explained the modern strategies of cultivating and nurturing in order to have a better harvest. Not terminating there these farmers were assisted to find profitable markets both at home and offshore.

In recognition of the voluntary service that this Information Technology teacher had rendered to upgrade the living condition of these poor villagers, his school was granted 50 laptops by the Education Ministry.

Thus this IT teacher has ushered into the world what the use of IT really should be rather than hanging on them playing games or handling regular correspondence.

At the other extreme a group of German Researchers had discovered that the children use about 50 abbreviations to serve their wrong purposes.

Even though parents constantly supervised their children they are unable to comprehend what is going on due to their lack of knowledge. POS which stands for ‘point of selling’ is misinterpreted for ‘parent on shoulders’.

Having kept on a wrong chatting when the parents appear on the scene they type POS and send to the responder so that in his return mail he receives something good. Being unaware of these happenings can we imagine where our young ones would stop eventually?

SCHOOL CURRICULUM

We should be grateful for the modern place the Science and Technology holds which has provided much apparatus for a speedier education.

Most of the subjects that had been included in the school curriculum can really be taught using the latest technology through which more efficient results can be anticipated and obtained.

For instance rather than using hand drawn pictures, diagrams etc. on the classroom blackboard in the conventional teacher centered education system if we use compact disks in which we are provided with live presentation, the learner would learn the real thing as well as and its pragmatism or the practical value.

We should bear in mind; instead of evaluating the pros and cons at the subject of information technology in the surface value we should get into its depth and see the gravity of harmful consequences we might have if it is misused as well as the very many advantages that can be achieved through an accurate utilization.

(The writer is a lecturer London Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Sri Lanka)