What Sort Of English….

By Manel Atapattu

With the attainment of independence in Sri Lanka in 1948, it was naturally felt that the study of a national language should be given preference. It was also realised that the study of English ought not to be done away with, with the study of the official language. Today the English language has to be studied as a second language in Sri Lanka.
English today has become an international language widely spoken throughout the world and its importance in the life of every educated individual is being felt everyday. Recruits to the country’s administrative and diplomatic circles will need to have a high standard of English education. In order to  keep diplomatic, commercial, cultural and intellectual contacts with the West, we need an English education. English is vital in order to be employed in the private sector.
Books dealing with important subjects like scientific knowledge, engineering, medicine etc. exist in the English language. It is generally admitted that English possesses some of the richest literature in the world. Books written by William Shakespeare who was born in 1564 are being used even in 2011 in international and private schools in Sri Lanka and the world over.
However, the question that arises today  is what sort of English is to be put to use in education. It is quite clear that the  standards of students of English before 1956 cannot be hoped for in the coming years.  This is mainly because the teaching of other subjects in the school curriculum which were done in English before are now being done through the national language and English is merely a ‘subject.’
More distressing is the fact that  there are signs that the English being learnt in Sri Lankan schools and colleges now are of a peculiar nature and stricter standards have to be maintained.
The main difficulty found in the implementation of an Education Policy regarding English is the lack of capable teachers whose own knowledge of the ‘English language’ is far from perfect.
I could cite two classic examples of how English is being taught. An English teacher in a girls’ school in Mount Lavinia had given answers to 15 questions in an English exercise. A student’s father who is well known to me had some doubts and came to me to verify the answers. I  checked the answers one by one and gave the father the correct answers and 12 answers out of 15 were totally wrong. When her English teacher gave these questions at the school English test, she was compelled to write the wrong answers (given by the teacher) because these were the ‘correct’ answers given by her. When the student answers a government question paper, she has to write the correct answers given by me. What a critical situation for a student!
The other example is in a leading college of English. Some teachers who teach English are not qualified in English. In this institution there was a physical training instructress, who was my neighbour, teaching English to the students. One day when the teachers looked into the exercise books of the children whom she had taught, it was shockingly revealed that what she had taught was completely incorrect. In this college of English some teachers are teachers of mathematics, Sinhala-only teachers  and teachers who have done English for the Sinhala Medium  Ordinary Level (they have not done English for Advanced Level or degree level and have never studied in a training college for two years).
Many senior teachers of English feel that short term English crash courses conducted as training courses by the Department of Education  for a few weeks or a few months are meaningless. In order to get the their teaching posts to ‘permanent’ status, these young teachers are satisfied with the short term certificate.
By giving this category of teachers ‘posts’ of English teachers, who will be ultimately cheated and hoodwinked? Naturally, the students who know next to nothing of English and depend so much on these teachers to teach them ‘correct’ English.
Furthermore experienced teachers feel that the cheap malaise of distributing ‘A’ distinction passes in English at the GCE Ordinary Level examination should be reduced to a great extent as these students could hardly understand what they read or write. Neither are they able to converse in English. Teachers also ought to have a basic knowledge of child psychology, phonetics, and methods of teaching.
Teaching is a noble profession. Every teacher is responsible for the lives of children whom she teaches. Teaching should not be a business transaction. Teaching appointments in Sri Lanka are mostly politically motivated. I know some individuals who do not like teaching but have accepted appointments. They have done so ‘whether they like it or not’ because they want to receive a salary and enjoy an unusual number of holidays.
Having taught English for over 50 years, I have observed that many of the young teachers who are teaching English today, especially those who had studied in the Sinhala medium of instruction are engaged in teaching ‘Singlish’ to students. They hardly know the tenses nor the correct pronunciation, nor do they know the meaning of words, and the correct answers to the grammatical exercises in the text books. There were instances when certain intelligent students asked the meaning of a particular word or a grammatical question, thereby putting these young teachers of English in a great ‘fix.’ Needless to say the immediate training of the present day English teacher is vital if chaos is not to ensue. Students being taught the ‘wrong’ English means that they are being mislead from a younger age. It is certainly like the blind leading the blind.
No teacher can claim that he or she is the best. It is the student who will decide. The authorities should watch a lesson being conducted by the teacher and arrive at a honest conclusion.
Fifty years after, as I look back, I realise English is a specialised subject and teaching is even more special. There are hundreds of students who have passed my way, some are in successful careers in Sri Lanka but many are overseas.
Let us always remember the saying of Thomas Fuller, the great educationist. He describes a good school teacher “as one who has studied the scholars’ natures as carefully as their works.” “Education is for life and education is life itself.”