Ten Year National Action Plan for a Trilingual Sri Lanka:

Redefining language

Sajitha PREMATUNGE

Nearly 90 percent of Sinhala speaking people cannot communicate in Tamil and cannot communicate effectively in English, whereas 70 percent of Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka cannot communicate in Sinhala. But the new Presidential initiative on a trilingual Sri Lanka plans to change this.

A salient feature of the Presidential initiative for a trilingual Sri Lanka is the redefinition of language. “The initiative will not promote Sinhala and Tamil as mere instruments of communication, but as a holistic cultural package,” said Presidential Advisor and Coordinator of the programme ‘English as a life skill’ and the initiative for a trilingual Sri Lanka, Sunimal Fernando. “Language is an expression of culture. Knowledge of Tamil culture will facilitate empathy and affection for its culture in the Sinhala people and thereby encourage people to learn the Tamil language. The same goes for Sinhala.”

Sunimal Fernando is currently in Mysore India liaising with Central Institute of Indian Languages, dedicated to teaching second languages, regarding the trilingual initiative. He expressed the following views in an interview with the Daily News.

Continued from yesterday

Q: Why differentiate Sinhala and Tamil as languages of discourse, debate and discussion and English as a ‘life skill’ and as an instrument of communication that is desired for its utility value?

A: For the simple reason that Sinhala and Tamil are national languages. Moreover no matter how much effort we make it will take perhaps decades for Sri Lankans, especially those in rural areas, to be competent enough in the English language to make it a medium for discussion, debate and discourse. On the other hand, it would cost the state an enormous amount of resources to provide those competencies to the people. Cost and time factor apart there is no requirement to do so. We have our own national languages.

In fact it is a little known fact that Sinhala and Tamil are the two oldest languages with a literary tradition in South Asia. As a nation it is our duty to protect and promote these two languages as our contribution to the world heritage of language.

Q: Is it a ‘job oriented’ English with no focus on the languages’ cultural and literary values?

A: If we are talking about literature and culture, then German, French, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Hindu literature are equally rich, perhaps even more so. English is not the only language with a rich literary culture. During the colonial period, English was the expression of British colonial power. Between then and now this role of English has changed in England itself. English today is largely a communication tool for commerce and trade. Moreover there are many varieties of English in the world. It is no longer exclusively a ‘white man’s language’. There is no concept of a ‘correct English’. English is interpreted by Cambridge University as simply an instrument of communication across Europe. English in Europe has become a qualification with which to obtain a job. It is a very different type of English, where pronunciation and even grammar is not given undue importance as long as it is intelligible. This is nothing specific or limited to Sri Lanka.

Q: Does fluency in English ensure job opportunities? If every one is equally competent in the English language as envisioned by the Trilingual initiative, English will lose the very ‘utility value’ that it is being promoted for. Please comment.

A: English will always be a necessity for obtaining particular kinds of jobs, jobs that require communication with another culture. In which case English would be an absolute necessity. This way it will never lose its utility value. If everyone were equally competent in English, competence in English will be inconsequential.

Q: What is the approach to teaching Sinhala and Tamil, is it speech based as in the ‘Speak English our way’ programme? What about the listening component?

A: Listening and speaking are two components that were totally neglected in the school system where English was concerned. This is already changing. The speech-based approach to learning a language is the most effective. The approach to Tamil and Sinhala will be the same.

Q: ‘Speaking English our way’ programme does not place much emphasis on pronunciation. Will it be the same in teaching Sinhala or Tamil?

A: Pronunciation will not be neglected but will be checked to an extent, without inculcating fear in students of reprisal if it is not upheld. Pronunciation should not be a bottleneck for mastering the language.

Q: Which dialect of Tamil will the initiative promote?

A: There are three dialects of Tamil in Sri Lanka. The majority speaks Northern and Eastern Tamil. It is a Tamil Sri Lankans are proud of, untainted by Sanskrit terms. In fact it is unique to Sri Lanka. There is another dialect spoken by Tamil people of plantations. This is very similar to the Tamil spoken in Tamil Nadu, heavily influenced by Sanskrit. The third dialect is a variety spoken by the Muslims living close to Sinhala communities.

The North and Eastern Tamil will be the ideal candidate.

Q: When will the component of providing state-of-the-art language teaching equipment, technology and resource persons, be launched?

A: Nine centres of English language training in the nine provinces will be established in the course of the next six months. This is funded by the national budget under the programme ‘English as a life skill’. Each centre will have residential facilities, auditorium, lecture halls library and language labs. From day one these can be used as training centres for Sinhala and Tamil as well.

The President also hopes to expand them to other languages such as Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, German, French, depending on the demand. Over the years these centres will be transformed to nine language campuses of a Language University of Sri Lanka.

We also hope to develop a cadre of master trainers to train teachers of all three languages as second languages and train a set of master trainers for translators. These translators will function in state departments and agencies.

Q: What about schools?

A: The Education Ministry has a programme for installing language labs in schools as resources permit. But this will expand to 1,000 schools under the 1,000 school programme of the Education Ministry. The trilingual initiative would also focus on developing language facilities in these 1,000 schools first.

We need at least 23,000 teachers to make the project a reality. Training such a cadre will be a daunting task. It will be ideal to employ teachers whose mother tongue is Tamil to teach Tamil and the same for Sinhala. But they will have to be somewhat conversant in the other national language as well.

Q: What are the criteria for selecting the master trainers?

A: They will be selected from among teachers. There will be an equitable number of trainers from all provinces.

Q: Will the master trainers for this initiative be trained in India as well?

A: The expertise brought in by the master trainers of the ‘Speak English our way’ programme needs only to be adapted to teaching Sinhala and Tamil.

A state-of-the-art bank of expertise with regards to teaching second languages has been developed in the last two years by these master trainers. The training strategies, teaching techniques, teaching and IT tools at their disposal are equally relevant for teaching Sinhala and Tamil.

Q: Will it be effective; they are completely different languages after all?

A: Although the domain is different, the techniques used to teach languages are basically the same. The techniques of the master trainers combined with the domain knowledge of either Sinhala or Tamil scholars can be used to develop techniques, tools and strategies for training teachers of Sinhala and Tamil as second languages.

In my personal view it is always better to refer the trainers to the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, dedicated to teaching second languages. They, together with the English language master trainers can develop the strategies for teaching Tamil and Sinhala as second languages.

Q: What is the model you are planning to use, is it the Indian model as in the ‘Speak English our way’ programme? Will it be compatible?

A: Even for the ‘Speak English our way’ programme we were determined not to use any foreign models. We only acquired experience, expertise tools and techniques, which we moulded according to the Sri Lankan situation. Very soon our master trainers realised that the models used in India are not relevant here.

The reason for this incompatibility is that a certain amount of ‘passive English’ have already been instilled in Sri Lankans through so many years of learning English at school.

Our master trainers therefore had to adapt the techniques brought from India to transform this passive English into active English. In the long run there was nothing Indian about the programme. Concluded