{"id":7835,"date":"2012-07-08T01:28:22","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T05:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=7835"},"modified":"2012-07-08T01:28:22","modified_gmt":"2012-07-08T05:28:22","slug":"standards-may-have-dropped-but-english-is-not-dying-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=7835","title":{"rendered":"‘Standards’ May have Dropped but English is not Dying in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Namini Wijedasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the learning of English in Sri Lanka, the divide between the haves and the have-nots is growing, warned Michael Meyler, author of A Dictionary of Sri Lankan English.<\/p>\n

In June, Meyler was awarded the title of a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services he provided to the English language. Now, seated in a noisy Colombo restaurant, I strained to hear the soft-spoken Brit explain why he rejected the idea that English was dying in Sri Lanka.
\n
\nStandards have dropped<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people would argue that, since 1956, Sri Lankan standards of English have dropped,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably true to a large extent because so many English speaking people emigrated and English was not taught as a medium in school for a generation or two. Those are obvious reasons why the English standard has fallen in the country as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there has been a revival,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are international schools. There\u2019s probably much more connection with the outside world now, with the internet, than there was before. By no means is English dying in Sri Lanka but, a bit like economics, the divide between the haves and have-nots is growing. There\u2019s an increasingly international school-educated or foreign-returned elite who are competent in English. And there is the other, mainly rural community who don\u2019t have the same access to the same facilities to learn English.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyler came to Sri Lanka as an English teacher in 1985 and has worked at the British Council since 1995. He has a degree in modern language and qualifications in English language teaching. The Dictionary of Sri Lankan English was published in 2007. Today he teaches a beginner\u2019s (colloquial) Sinhala course for foreigners at the British Council.
\nSome of the reasons why English language skills are not equally distributed, he mused, might be insufficient teachers, inadequate facilities and infrastructure for English teaching, and not enough institutions to develop English language teaching. \u201cThese are probably insufficient to deal with the huge demand,\u201d Meyler observed, stressing that he is not an expert in this.<\/p>\n

I asked him whether there were immediate steps that could be taken to reverse the decline. He replied, \u201cNot really, because I think it\u2019s a huge task and I don\u2019t have an easy answer to that question. The only point I would like to raise from my one experience is that I had hoped \u2018Speak English our Way\u2019 might be one positive way of making the language more relevant to a local situation , making it more accessible to people in a more practical way.\u201d<\/p>\n

This has not happened, Meyler said. \u201cI do think Sri Lankan English as a concept has a small role to play in making the language more accessible, more relevant and more practical for learners of the language in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stripping off colonial baggage<\/p>\n

Meyler was reluctant to comment further on the government\u2019s \u2018Speak English our Way\u2019 initiative saying he did not know how it was progressing. But in a presentation made in October at the \u2018Language and Social Cohesion Conference,\u2019 he observes that, \u201cAs a publicity campaign it seems to have been remarkably successful. Suddenly everyone was talking about \u2018English our Way.\u2019 The comments at the time seemed to divide roughly evenly between those that welcomed the initiative as a way of taking ownership of the English language, stripping it of its colonial baggage, and making it relevant to the practical needs of ordinary Sri Lankans, and those who feared that it was a sign of falling standards, creating and validating a devalued variety of English which would disadvantage Sri Lankans on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seemed that scarcely a day went by that there was not an article about Sri Lankan English or \u2018English our Way\u2019 and the two terms started to be used interchangeably, Meyler said at the time. \u201cThe confusion was understandable, but I feel it is important to differentiate between the two terms because of their different origins and connotations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyler explained that \u2018Sri Lankan English\u2019 was an inclusive term incorporating all the various ways in which English is used in Sri Lanka, by people from different regions, different ethnic and linguistic groups, different religions, different generations, different social classes, etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the political context in which it was introduced, the term \u2018English our Way\u2019 aroused suspicions that \u2018our\u2019 was not an inclusive term, but one which defined English the Colombo way, or the Sinhala way, or some other way which was not necessarily what everyone would call \u2018ours.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Not agreed or clarified<\/p>\n

In his interview with LAKBIMAnEWS, Meyler said there was uncertainty because a lot of people interpreted it as saying teaching English or teaching people to speak anyway they liked, with no standards. \u201cI said at the time that if by \u2018our way\u2019 they meant standard Sri Lankan English, it would be a very good idea,\u201d he asserted. \u201cIt would be a good, sensible policy to have rather than trying to teach an outdated British standard which is not really relevant to the current situation in Sri Lanka. But my impression is that what they mean by \u2018our way\u2019 has not been agreed or clarified. Therefore, the critics are probably right to be concerned about what is really meant by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that you can\u2019t each a language without having some kind of standard and there are two meanings of the word \u2018standard,\u2019\u201d Meyler said. \u201cWhen they talk of Standard English, they mean Standard British or Standard American English. But there are many different standards of English around the world. In the Sri Lankan context, Standard Sri Lankan English is a valid one to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gee, all know some English…<\/p>\n

Commenting on the teaching of languages in Sri Lankan schools, Michael Meyler \u2013 who has two sons, said, he wished there was a bilingual culture within educational institutions. \u201cI had some reservations when I wanted to admit my children to school,\u201d he confessed. \u201cThe regret I had was that there was not a genuinely bilingual educational opportunity for my children, where students could study maybe some subjects in English and maybe some subjects in Sinhala or English and Tamil.\u201d<\/p>\n

His children attended a local private school \u2013 where they studied in the Sinhala medium up to age 11 after which they were both enrolled in international schools. \u201cIt was because of this lack of bilingual education that we made the decision that we want our kids to come out of the (local) education system,\u201d Meyler explained.<\/p>\n

That said, there is definitely a widespread knowledge of English in Sri Lanka, he noted. \u201cThere are so many English words used in Sinhala or Tamil so even somebody who speaks no English still does know English,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey know \u2018car\u2019 and \u2018van\u2019 and \u2018bus\u2019 and \u2018jeep\u2019 and \u2018train\u2019 and \u2018glass\u2019 and so many other words. All these are used every day in their Sinhala or in their Tamil. I think it\u2019s probably true to say that everybody in Sri Lanka has a fair knowledge of English vocabulary, in some cases several hundred words of English.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much everybody knows the alphabet even though they don\u2019t know much about what to do with it,\u201d Meyler pointed out. \u201cThey know A-B-C-D, they know how to form the letters and they recognize the letters. That\u2019s a big thing.\u201d courtesy: LakbimaNews<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Namini Wijedasa In the learning of English in Sri Lanka, the divide between the haves and the have-nots is growing, warned Michael Meyler, author of A Dictionary of Sri Lankan English. In June, Meyler was awarded the title of a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services he provided to …<\/p>\n

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