Task Force for Trilingual Sri Lanka appointed

Disna MUDALIGE

A Presidential Task Force for a Trilingual Sri Lanka had been appointed under the Chairmanship of Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga to implement the 10 - year national plan which was launched officially on January 21.

Advisor to the President Sunimal Fernando holds the Vice Chairmanship while Prof J B Dissanayake, Kumar Nadeshan, Earle Fernando,

Marina Mohammed and R C Karunakaran who are experts in the field hold membership in this panel. The taskforce appointed last month is entrusted with number of duties including the coordination of Institutions and Agencies relating to the dissemination of language skills, development of a central mechanism to respond appropriately to the language requirements of the country.

The Task Force would ensure that Sinhala and Tamil will be the languages of modern intellectual discourse, debate, perception and discussion within the country along with English as a life skill and an instrument of communication within and outside the country.

It will review all Sinhala, Tamil and English language courses designed and conducted for non-native speakers including syllabi, curricular, text books and teacher guides with a view to restructuring them in keeping with state-of the-art developments in second language teaching in South Asia. Another task assigned to this panel is to modernize language training in the country through researching, and acquiring up to date language technology such as e-learning and e-translation tools.