Teaching of English to undergo radical change On the advice of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the teaching of English will be subjected to a radical and rapid transformation in line with the governments initiative to create a trilingual society, Presidential Task Force on English and IT Coordinator, Sunimal Fernando said. He said so at a function organised to advice and offer air tickets to 12 officers, who are leaving for India to formulate a road map for the radical and rapid transformation in English teaching in Sri Lanka. The event was held on Wednesday with the participation of First Secretary (Press & Information) of the India High Commission in Sri Lanka Esha Srivastava. The 12 representatives will leave for the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, India to formulate the Action Plan for English teaching. The move comes under the 10-Year National Master Plan, which comprise two categories: English as a Life Skill initiative and Trilingual Sri Lanka program. The President has stated at the launch that his vision for the country is a trilingual Sri Lanka where Sinhala and Tamil people could relate to each other in their own languages. This will promote the reconciliation process. English would be as a life skill for employment and provider of knowledge from the outside world, Fernando said. Sri Lanka has 23,500 English teachers for 9,500 schools. Every child learns English for 10 years. They attend an English class for five hours per week. Despite these facts around 97 percent of the students pass out of school without being able to put three English sentences correctly together. Our research has revealed that the problem lies in the transactional stage, which is in the design and the delivery of English teaching to English learners, Fernando said. According to Fernando, the 12 member group will discuss measures for creating and developing all sectors relating to the Action Plan. Under this they will develop a syllabus, study material, teaching methods, strategies etc. After their return those methods and directive will be utilized in teaching English.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 03:55:00 +0000
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