Spoken English test from 2012

Disna Mudalige

An Spoken English test will be introduced to the Ordinary Level Examination from 2012, said Presidential Advisor and Special Presidential Task Force Coordinator on "English as a Life Skill" Sunimal Fernando.

This will be initiated to improve students English speaking fluency.

The English syllabus has already been changed to give priority for speech rather than writing and reading. Up to date teaching methods will be used to approach this new system.

English is taught five hours per week for 12 over years students.

According to a Presidential Task Force research, there are about 2,400 private institutions to teaching English outside the classroom. Even with such enormous effort and resources to teach English, students who can speak three or four sentences in English confidently are rare," he said. He also revealed that the elite and the new entrants to it try to keep their English language monopoly to them by creating an artificial fear to speak the language.

"They ridicule at the pronunciation that differs slightly from the British or American way. They discourage to speak English if not adhering to the British pronunciation. To change this situation we need to generate a whole attitudinal change in the country. A national level program is needed to encourage our students to speak English confidently in the Sri Lankan way" he said.

He added that an unnecessary fear is generated by emphasizing on grammar too much, and the natural way to learn language is as a spoken language.

Today with the intervention of state an appropriate method to teach English has been formulated, Fernando said.