Socio-political dimension of English in Sri Lanka

Revisiting the four principles underpinning the Presidential Initiative: English as a Life Skill:

Keynote address by Presidential Advisor and Coordinator of the Presidential Initiative on English as a Life Skill Sunimal Fernando at the workshop on Innovative Pedagogical Practices in the 21st Century: English in Practice, organized by the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka at Belihul Oya

It was in November 2008 that the President requested me to coordinate for him a national initiative to take English language skills across the country. We were faced with a daunting task. The President explained to me that although every child learns English at school continuously for 10 years - Five hours a week, 95 percent of our children - or perhaps even more - leave school without the ability to speak two sentences together in English.

There are well staffed ELTUs in every university but the vast majority of our university students are known to graduate without the ability to speak fluently in English. President affirmed insistently that there was obviously something fundamentally wrong with the mainstream system of English teaching and learning in the country. A far reaching transformation was required: A strong determination to take the country along a new course of action. A paradigm shift in the teaching and learning of the English language seemed to be the President's call.

Breaking with the past

Reluctant as I was to embark on a venture in which I had no experience whatever, I explained I had never been an English teacher or a teacher of any language for that matter ever in my life. Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga responded to say that this would be my real advantage. I would have to therefore think creatively, out of the box, with a mind not cluttered with the trivia of innumerable ELT theories and models picked from the shelves and dustbins of foreign countries. Having requested a firm assurance from Lalith that he would be my guide and guru, I accepted the challenge offered to me by the President.

The task thereafter was to translate into action the strategies and sharp insights provided to me by the President and the sincere guidance that has never been denied to me by his Secretary Lalith Weeratunga. It was the Secretary to the President who at the very inception of the initiative encapsulated the President's approach to English in one short phrase - 'English as a Life Skill'.

Learning from the grass roots

Guide I will always be was Lalith's promise to me. But the broad advice the President gave me that day was that the gurus must be sought at the grass roots. They must be sought from among the English learners in our Tamil and Sinhala speaking villages.

The English teachers must be from Sinhala and Tamil speaking homes teaching English in our village schools. He wanted me to find answers from rural English teachers. They would know as to why our children are unable or afraid to speak in English.

President advised me to learn from them and from the grass roots. He directed me to apply my innate intellect to the new experience once I felt confident that I had all the answers from them.

With Lalith's guidance, he instructed me to embark on carefully developing a creative and coherent set of policies, strategies and action plans to transform the English teaching and learning environment in the country.

Enjoying the President's confidence and assured of his unhindered support I undertook the task that was given to me with passion and determination.

Straight to the provinces

I recall that the President arranging the first discussion for me on the subject of taking English to the masses. We decided not to waste our time with the so-called ELT specialists who had failed the country over several decades.

The levels of success demonstrated by them are extremely small in proportion to the vast amounts of state resources expended on their activities. At the first meeting, he arranged for me to meet several Chief Ministers over lunch at Temple Trees.

I was provided with a heap of new insights and ideas on how to take English successfully to the rural masses. Several Chief Ministers arranged for me to have discussions with groups of village English teachers in their provinces. But I recall it was the Chief Minister of Sabaragamuwa who systematically took me in hand that day and provided me a multi-faceted account of the English teaching and learning reality at the village and small town level.

From the very inception therefore Chief Minister of Sabaragamuwa Maheepala Herath has been a formidable source of strength to the Presidential Initiative. It has been our privilege in turn to support him as well as to receive his support and encouragement in a most consistent manner.

It is therefore appropriate we are able to recall and record these early beginnings of the Presidential Initiative in no other place than here itself in the University of Sabaragamuwa in the province to which Maheepala Herath himself gives leadership.

From November 2008 till April of the following year I spent my time learning from groups of rural English learners and teachers in different parts of the country. They lead me through the contours of English teaching and learning over the years as seen from a rural perspective while evolving with them a new orientation for the Presidential Initiative.

Under the Presidential Initiative on English as a Life Skill, indigenous modelling of teaching methods and strategies based on Sri Lankan rural experience interpreted by rural English teachers deeply rooted in the soil of rural Lanka started replacing the accepted wisdom in the field. The former teaching methods and strategies drew inspiration largely from foreign Euro-American models and Euro-American experience. They were in turn interpreted by urban Sri Lankan ELT specialists mainly from English speaking homes.

A changing national mindset

Until the Presidential Initiative started showing dramatic successes on the ground especially in the rural schools, the academia and the old, unsuccessful ELT community looked on us with a mix of trepidation and amusement. This was with the exception of Prof. Manique Gunesekera, Prof. Arjuna Parakrama, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha and a few others.

The master trainers were regarded as a gang of charlatans. They were akin to pretenders hardly able to speak ‘the Mythical Queen’s English’, but having the nerve to walk and pollute the sacred ground of English speaking achievement in the country. The dramatic successes of the Presidential Initiative witnessed from around 2010 made the academia and the ELT community to recognize, respect and accept the basic principles and teaching methods of the Presidential Initiative, English as a Life Skill. They witnessed changes in the national mindset on speaking English our way. Children had gradually lost the fear to talk in English, make mistakes, correct them and learn in the process. This was accompanied by the emergence of English speaking children in hundreds of rural schools even in economically very backward parts of the country.

Transforming the community of English teachers

The Presidential Initiative also resulted in the near dramatic transformation of the country’s English teacher community. The spoken English re-training programme aimed at the cadre of 400 English language master trainers had successfully changed the community of English teachers. Systematic monitoring of the impact of the Presidential Initiative on the child, the teacher and the school is currently in progress in all nine provinces. The impact evaluation of the Presidential Initiative in all these provinces will be presented in several months. Meanwhile a random overview of the monitoring formats highlight the indicators of a radical transformation of English teaching and learning in the public school system through the Presidential Initiative, English as a Life Skill.

Socio-political dimension of language learning

As all indications are that the Presidential drive to take English skills across the country has been successful unlike the many past efforts with the same objective, it is useful to outline the basic principles on which this particular Initiative was built, because practice has proved them to be correct.

To be continued