'Language attitudes' as an academic discipline

Dr Asantha U. Attanayake

Considering the uniqueness of the language attitudes prevalent in Sri Lanka with regard to the three main languages in the country and the interplay between and among them, I feel it is timely to develop an academic discipline on the said domain.

This by no means is an easy task for many reasons: one, it is not easy to measure attitudes; two language attitudes, like any other attitude can change from time to time, therefore they are not static; three, even if we gather data and find attitudes, the very sensitivity of the whole issue would make the discourse of disseminating the knowledge of the existing language attitudes a difficult endeavour. However, the second reason, i.e.,the changing nature of attitudes could be considered as the very reason for developing such a discipline when we consider the attitude problems attached to the three main languages that are used in this country.

An academic discipline would support us in eliminating negative attitudes and developing positive attitudes through a formal, logical and systematic teaching-learning process. Once such a discipline is developed academically and included it in the tertiary level and professional education, mainly in the teacher training programmes, the changing of attitudes towards languages among the next generation of our country could be done methodically.

I would like to emphasize on the fact that this discourse be developed for tertiary and professional education purposes, considering the importance of ways to impart the correct attitudes towards languages to our next generation for a harmonious Sri Lanka.

When we analyse the attitudes among people towards the languages that exist in the society, it is essential to locate any such dialogue in the discussion of the main functions of language, namely, (a) language as an instrument of culture, (b) language as a political instrument and (c) language as an instrument of knowledge. The understanding of these aspects of language as discrete entities is pivotal to the understanding of the interplay among them in a given society as such an interplay takes plays as a result of the attitudes of people in that given society towards languages.

Language policy

In analysing the attitudes among people towards the languages in the society, it is important to do it under a variety of categories. One such would be to analyse the language attitudes of different segments of the society. In other words, upper class, middle class and working class attitudes could be considered for such an analysis as class division is known to be a generator of variety of attitudes in any given society not only towards languages, but also towards various social entities.

Also, the attitudes of people towards languages in terms of age can be used as another category. For instance, students in lower secondary and upper secondary classes in schools; undergraduates; students who study in both tertiary education and vocational education centres could also be considered to procure data on language attitudes prevalent in the country.

Another analysis of language attitudes could be done with regard to professionals of various disciplines. According to the educational level of the people, public-private sector variation in terms of education and employment, etc. would be some other categories through which language attitudes could be analysed.

To begin with, I wish to show some of the findings related to an inquiry made in to language attitudes of the professionals in teaching. The research I carried out for my PhD from 2005 till mid 2009 examined - in addition to the language policy and perspectives of English language and its teaching - the perceptions of the university English language teachers on the three main languages in Sri Lanka. The sample consisted of English language teachers from three universities namely, the University of Colombo, representing the metropolitan, well established universities in the country; Sabaragamuwa University, representing the newly established, regional universities and the University of Jaffna, representing the universities in conflict areas.

Teachers' views

Teachers were asked to give their opinion on the positioning of the English language in the context of Sinhala and Tamil.

All the teachers accepted the importance of English and the status it enjoys in the society, which functions by and large in the context of Sinhala and Tamil languages. The responses of the teachers in relation to the positioning of the three languages in the society were three fold: teachers viewed them as (i) entities existing side-by-side, competing with each other; (ii) entities placed hierarchically; and (iii) English as a replacement of the others two languages.

(i) As entities existing side-by-side and competing alternatively

This category encompasses the teachers' views of negative attitudes that are prevalent in the society towards English. Such views stemmed from the idea that English was hostile to native cultures (as opposed to certain views that kaduwa concept has vanished). Yet, the teachers were of the opinion that without English there was no progress, thus there was a dichotomy. One teacher's personal view was, "English is very very important". Another observed, "In our country, there is always a feeling of threat by another language."

See diagram

ii) Entities placed in a hierarchy

The other view was that in the presence of the two native languages namely, Sinhala and Tamil, English was more prestigious and more powerful. The teachers who articulated this view associated English with words like 'freedom', 'benefits', 'advantages', 'respect', 'power', 'prestige' and 'more useful'. It seemed that they experienced positive social encounters by virtue of English, which resulted from the positive attitude of the society towards English.

Some teachers viewed that the place of English in the context of native languages depended on the social, political and economic scenario of a country. English has been considered as the language of the rulers which would give more prestige, higher reputation and superior social status to a person which the native languages would be incapable of giving. English has been bestowed upon with more recognition and people considered it as higher than both Sinhala and Tamil. In addition, there was the perception that English was important in the global context and that Sinhala and Tamil were unable to reach the standards required for a process like globalization.

ii) One (English) as the replacement of the others

There was the opinion that English should be the 'only official language' and medium of education in the country so that it would help solve the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka. This view came mainly from the teachers of the University of Jaffna.

The implications

Competition

The perception that languages exist side-by-side and compete encompasses the views of languages as 'threatening' and being 'hostile' to each other in their collaborative function of communication in the society. While the native languages serve the purposes of sustaining national and ethnic identity, English helps ascertain new or additional identities within a society. Depending on the kind of identity one aspires to establish in a given situation or depending on the task one wants to accomplish, the respective language comes into the foreground trying to defeat or suppress the others.

Power hierarchy

This view could be considered as a reminiscence of kaduwa concept that prevailed in the Sri Lankan society in relation to the power associated with English some decades ago. English surpasses the native languages and empowers an individual with power and prestige which the native languages are unable to do. The views that certain languages are useful because of their association with power and prestige while others are of less value corroborate this positioning of languages in the society.

Replacement

The need to replace the native languages with English as the medium of instruction in education in all strata indicates that neither of the native languages is important nor useful in education.

The view of replacing the native languages with English implies that competition between the other two languages needs to be done away with. This in turn shows the acceptance of English as a neutral language, more specifically a mediator, in a context like Sri Lanka, which has been torn apart by language issues.

None of the teachers viewed the three languages as confluencing or complementing each other.

The presence of different attitudes vis-à-vis the co-existence of languages shows the way concepts are emerging giving way to some prominent perceptions and concepts associated with languages that dominated the language attitudes in the past. It is not clear through the findings of this study which perception is representative of the larger section of the society.

This aspect clearly merits further investigation. The responses of the teachers however, indicate that the coexistence of languages by and large is in a non-friendly manner.

The emergence of such perceptions of languages positioning and power structure associated with it in Sri Lanka is similar to the identification of the same in another post-colonial context, namely India. Ramanathan (2005) describes:

Any understanding of English and Vernacular education has to begin first by locating them side by side (as opposed to arranging them in a hierarchy). Doing so is the first step not only in addressing language-related inequalities on the postcolonial ground but in recognizing ways in which English and the vernaculars while simultaneously divided and dichotomous from some points of view are also simultaneously overlapping and conjoined. (p.3)

None of the teachers viewed the three languages as confluence or complementing each other. The significance of the above perception patterns in relation to the coexistence of languages in a multilingual context like Sri Lanka is high with a recent history as a nation that faced traumatic experiences due to language issues.

If language attitudes could be made an academic discipline via scientific research and such knowledge be disseminated to the professionals in the language field (mainly), eliminating the negative attitudes and inculcating positive attitudes in the next generation of our country towards the three main languages would not be a difficult task as a separate discipline on language attitudes would make us aware of the existing scenario and the areas that need to be rectified.

The writer is a lecturer in English Language, English Language Teaching Unit, University of Colombo