Failing in English language

Recently, local nurses earned headlines when only four out of four hundred passed an English language test in order to qualify for work in the United States. If a similar test is conducted for local doctors and lawyers of a certain age group, I am afraid that the success rate would only be a little better. The tragedy, perhaps, is that many of our English teachers would also fail an English language test relevant to their profession.

A few years back, the twin daughters of a neighbor sought my help with their English. They attended the local maha vidyalaya and were in tenth grade. On the first occasion we met, I asked them to read aloud from their English text book. Neither could; they said that their English teacher never read aloud in class. Hence, they lost the only opportunity to hear the sounds English. What interest would young learners have in a language if they couldn’t even pronounce its sounds?

Subsequently, whenever I met local English teachers – at formal and social events – I attempted to converse with them in English. Only the English teachers from so called international schools were fluent. Eventually, I would also ask these teachers what they read in English. Hardly anyone did. Few even bought an English newspaper.

Language education recognizes the difference between acquisition and learning. Acquisition is the subconscious assimilation of a language through first hand exposure – mainly through reading and listening. Vocabulary, syntax, and even pronunciation could be acquired. Learning, on the other hand, is conscious comprehension. It’s a deliberate activity, such as memorizing the rules of grammar in a classroom setting.

Acquisition is more powerful than learning. Here is a simple test. Think of all the English words you know. Did you learn all of them in English class? Obviously not. Most were acquired from reading and listening.

So, if our English teachers don’t read, listen to, and speak in English, their knowledge and skills in English are going to stagnate. Their lack of enthusiasm for English will show, and their students will be discouraged.

If we are to fix the problem of English in Sri Lanka, we need to start with the English teachers. We could encourage them to read more. I don’t mean Shakespeare and Dickens; we can start with the English newspapers, and extend the habit with reading circles. Encourage these teachers to watch the news in English rather than their first language. Eventually, these habits will trickle down to their students. Instead of an annual English Day at school, the need is for active English clubs and the availability of daily English newspapers and other reading material for students. The cost will be minimal.

In forty years of teaching English in four countries – from the primary to post-graduate level – instead of sticking to the teaching methods I had been taught, I learned to adapt. Sometimes, reading aloud from the text is more meaningful than silent reading. So is recitation.

GEORGE BRAINE