English education in Sri Lanka

Standard Sri Lankan English and English teaching in the context of International Standard English

The first part of this article was published yesterday.

Methsiri COORAY- Attorney at Law and Vice President of the OPA

Public discourse on Sri Lankan English began with its discovery by the Presidential Initiative in the precincts of Sri Lankan academia and its adoption as a kind of ideological flagship by the Presidential Task Force on English and IT which is mandated by President Rajapaksa to ‘nationalize’ the English language so to say: to transform it from an instrument of social oppression and elitism into a common property resource or ‘life skill’ to be owned by all: in other words to convert the English language from its present form of an elitist para basa (or foreign language) into a new form of a people owned swabasa (or one of our own languages).

Lalith Weerstunga, Presidential Secretary, Erudite Educationist, IT Visionary and ‘Force behind the Presidential Task Force’ and Sunimal Fernando, Presidential Advisor and ‘Public Face of the Task Force’ have often made clear the objectives of the President. Knowledge of English is uplifting. Why? Because in our society English has certain values attached to it.

Hence whether we like it or not, knowing English is prestigious. Whether correct or otherwise, persons who speak English are considered in our society to be more rational, intelligent and knowledgeable than those who don’t. And for better or worse if you can speak English you win respect as a person having knowledge of the world outside.

Current achievements

Hence because of the values attached to it by our society, ability to speak English gives you power to uplift your life and to face society with better tools. It opens doors for you within the country and also outside. It will improve the quality of what you can access both within the country and from outside. Wide dissemination of spoken English skills will also break down elitism and help democratize society.

English in our country thus has a pragmatic appeal as an instrument of social empowerment. Hence the goal of the Presidential Task Force as I understand it is to empower the people, especially the young and those within the school system, by delivering to them the skills and competences of speaking the kind of English that the best English speakers in the country speak today, namely Standard Sri Lankan English. Towards this end the Presidential Task Force is reported to have achieved in a very short period of time a phenomenal degree of success at national and provincial levels.

They have mobilized the English teacher community and the general public behind them; evolved a strong new national cadre of master trainers in Spoken English from all nine Provinces; already trained more than half the English teachers of the country to teach the Sri Lankan variety of Spoken English through an accelerated on-going program; targeted to test listening and speaking skills at the O Level Examination in 2012; started re-visiting the school English syllabi; produced the country’s first Teacher Guide for Spoken English; established with Indian assistance a Sri Lanka India Centre for English Language Training in Peradeniya; successfully negotiated Indian assistance to establish nine Provincial Sri Lanka India Centres for English Language Training with state-of-the-art teaching technology and residential facilities for 80 trainees in each Centre; almost completed the production of a 100 hour curriculum with teaching aids for a Certificate Course in Basic English for the general public including school leavers, together with a public examination for a Certificate in Basic English to be conducted by the Commissioner General of Examinations; and commissioned an academic committee to prepare a Teacher Guide on ‘ Sri Lankan English Standards - Phonology, Vocabulary and Syntax (including Grammar, Word Order and Idiom) by the end of August 2010.

The story of SLE

However despite all the commendable achievements both in the field of academic research over the past sixty years as well as in English teaching practice more recently through the intervention of the Presidential Task Force, I don’t think the whole story about Sri Lankan English has been told either in the research studies or in the many papers and articles written on the Presidential Initiative.

Michael Meyler

Many of the studies, including Michael Meyler’s dictionary, are based on the way English is used informally, in situations of informal interaction where colloquial speech is used at home, and with friends, peers and close acquaintances. Little is said about how Sri Lankans speak English in formal situations like official meetings, business meetings, presentations, academic discussions and lectures etc. Here, what is patently obvious is that the way we speak in formal situations comes quite close to an International Standard English (ISE). In this context I would hesitate to emphasize Standard British English (SBE), because while we are still more British in our formal speech, we do increasing use many American idioms as well.

International Standard English (ISE) itself is an evolving variety. While it still remains largely an blend of Standard British English (SBE) and Standard American English (SAE), facets of Indian English and to a lesser extent of other varieties as well are slowly but surely entering the evolving mix call. For better or for worse, many linguists have ignored this reality.

Any linguist or language teacher will agree that one’s language skill is seen in how well the speaker can change the level of formality according to the situation.

A proficient speaker of any language will know exactly when and how to speak informally and colloquially, and when to “switch” to a more formal style. This is what most Sri Lankan speakers of English do - we will say aiyo, a maara thing happened to me at the junction no men when we relate an incident to our friends, but we know how to change it to “an interesting experience” if we’re writing about it to the local paper or speaking about it at a conference.

We do this all the time in our mother tongues, Sinhala and Tamil, which are much more sharply defined than English when it comes to the colloquial and the formal.

The formal style

A child in grade three starts to learn liyana baasaawa when he has to move from using the informal variety to the formal variety of Sinhala at school, and a significant part of his linguistic education will be to master the use of the formal and informal varieties of language according to the situation. English, or Sri Lankan English, is no different. The liyana baasaawa in Sri Lankan English comes pretty close to International Standard English which though continuously evolving as a distinct variety is still very close to Standard British English.

This has not been helped by people promoting Sri Lankan English as if it is a different language that has to replace what we already know and use. This applies in particular to the formal written style of the language. A few months ago creative writers were urged to only write in “Sri Lankan English” by the judges of a prestigious literary prize.