Bilingual Sri Lankan Universities, a Necessity- a newspaper article

   Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan

·         Gnanaseelan, J. (2001, February 24). Bilingual Sri Lankan Universities, a Necessity. The DailyMirror

Bilingual Srilankan Universities, a Necessity?

Establishing bilingual educational institutions, that is, institutions in which both the mother tongue and English are used as media of instruction, has not been really related to party politics. Unfortunately, from the beginning of the post-colonial period, many events have inevitably dragged it into the field of party politics in Sri Lanka; but it still remains a social and educational question that is ‘national’ in the widest sense of the word. Therefore I want to approach my topic-the problems in using English as the medium of instruction for academic purposes-without the distortion that belongs to party politics. I am confident that majority people in Sri Lanka have realized that all who wish to see our younger generation better acquainted with each other through a link language that is English or with each other’s language should support the idea of bilingual educational institutions, whatever their party allegiance may be.

 

In the last resort the issue depends on the government, not on the parents or students, in implementing the idea of bilingualizing the educational institutions in Sri Lanka. Regarding the protest against the educational reform, it is the proposals related to the advanced level education that made them rebellious, not anything related to English language teaching proposals. I think that if, the parents and the students who desire dual medium instruction were to unite and demand their rights, the government would be ready to make the necessary arrangements. Further I strongly say, in Sri Lanka, it must be trilingual: Sinhala, Tamil and English. Since my topic is not related to the idea of trilingualism or nationalism or national unity or integration, my analysis would be concerned with English as the medium of instruction.

Dr.Ernest Barker has written: “Language is not mere words. Each word is charged with associations that touch feeling and evoke thoughts. You can not share feelings and thoughts unless you can unlock their associations by having the key of language. You can not enter the heart and know the mind of a nation unless you know its speech. Conversely, once you have learned that speech, you find that with it and by it you imbibe a deep and pervasive spiritual force.”  (Rational character p. 13)

One of my students at Vavuniya Campus clearly expressed his dilemma saying “ sir, university education is really a nuisance; we couldn’t do it in English because we are not good enough in using it, either in Tamil because we don’t have the appropriate Tamil equivalents to meet the standards, the only way out is that we should be allowed to use Taminglish for university purposes”

Some conditions related to the improvement of the medium

Broadly speaking, the students must be liberal in attitude to English. They must be anxious to learn English. The laws of the institutions affecting the English medium must be fair. Subsidies can be granted to the institutions that use English as the medium of instruction. Both the mother tongue and English could be used as medium by teaching half of the subjects through the medium of English. From the beginning of the post-independence era, we should also remember that the medium of English have been fast becoming artificial, due to the implementation of using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction solely. Very rarely has the English language been given a chance to show its capabilities. Even at the university level, apart from Medicine and Engineering, the authority has made the second language optional. The reason for the low standard of the second language learning in Sri Lanka is that it is ‘learned up’ as a subject and is not used as an instrument of expression, or as a medium of instruction in order to be learned effectively. One of the most needed reforms is the reorganization of the teachers’ Training Colleges.

Today all the unilingual teachers trained by all the unilingual colleges go back to their unilingual institutions or schools to teach. So monolingualism continues. Soon we shall be unable to find bilingual teachers. The reform is most urgent. What we want is at least the application of the dual-medium principle to all training colleges.

Save the younger generation

Many students who have graduated form the monolingual universities and colleges, used to regret bitterly of their weakness in the English Language. They felt themselves economically and socially handicapped. Many students who have been to monolingual institutions are unable to speak the second language.

There is an increase in the student population who shows ignorance of the second language. Ignorance brings a feeling of inferiority, and that, in turn, brings aggressive assertion that it is a good thing to be unilingual and that strength lies in isolationism. So it is time to save our younger generation from isolationism. Our students, with all the worries of a busy life and the handicap of an unfavorable environment, find it difficult to acquire a new language and to break down group barriers or to learn other subjects in the English medium. As we all know, the world is moving away from the isolationist principle. More, in politics, in economics, in education, the realization must dawn that the world is in the sense that no part can be completely isolated from the rest. Fullness of life, educationally and spiritually, is not compatible with the barbed-wire fences of racial politics. With the sun of a new world rising over the grandeur of our limitless knowledge and experiences, the darkness of our estranging barriers will yield.

Complicating factors 

There is a number of complicating factors, which can not go into in this limited discussion as where knowledge of special set of terms is required for following the special degrees, for instance, accountancy and finance. Thus, though the general ability to use a language may be identical in the case of all the students of all the subjects, some may study bioscience requiring knowledge of botanical and zoological terms and some may deal with mathematics where a total different set of terms is required. Here, These are to be looked upon as specialization. Because of their relatively circumscribed nature, once the students have a good general knowledge of the language, the students can, as a rule, master without many difficulties. To acquire it takes time. The ability may be wide and does not come as a result of merely studying a few technical terms and a few grammatical rules. It requires months of actual use and experience with inspiration and commitment. This must be supplemented and accelerated by the universities where facilities for the use of the English medium and experience in it must be provided; where the necessary discipline must also be given in an accurate happy use of words to express thoughts and attitudes related to the course of study and subject matters.

Needs Analysis

There is unfortunately no particular evidence that the staffs of the Srilankan universities are, at this stage carrying out research into the genres and rhetorical styles that the students need to acquire to gain success in their academic careers. Lecturers of specified subject areas don’t do or are prepared to do a team work with the staff of the English Language Teaching Units or English Departments of their universities on identifying the students’ needs to teach their particular subjects in arts, commerce, management, and sciences. This lack of cooperation between these two categories of university staff members spoils the tertiary education of our university students. Frankly speaking, it is nothing but the status quo problems between these two categories! Both designation and salary wise the former is in good position so they sometimes feel ‘uneasy’ in depending on the latter for an efficient medium support. This mutual dependence means losing your dignities!

So it is a must to form a tradition of research-mindedness in using and studying English as a medium of instruction in Sri Lanka. It is understandable that the increased sophistication of the research will also be apparent. It is of an applied nature and it involves the close examination of background, needs, problems, and texts that the students have to grapple with in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in subject matters of the degree programs.

We have to make a careful distinction between (a) the teaching and learning of English as a subject, and (b) the use of English as medium of instruction in other subjects. Failure to make this simple distinction has been the cause of a good deal of confusion of thought on this subject. At the school level the first issue has been a matter of failure. When the students of these schools enter the universities, they are introduced to the English medium, which is not in practice in schools. So this sudden exposure to this medium causes new problems. Sri Lanka is a multilingual country. We can not expect that the complete use of English as the medium of instruction in Sri Lanka where the principle of home language medium has been strongly entrenched in the law of the land. In general, there are four different principles according to which the medium of instruction is determined in this multilingual country: (a) by the language of the home or the family, (b) by the religious allegiance of the community-for example, Christian students during the colonial or post-colonial period received their instruction through English. (c) By the place where the students live. (d) by the State. Regarding the medium policy of the universities, both the institution and the State determine it depending on some inevitable circumstances encountered in educating the students.

Inefficiency of Staff

The inefficiency of the university staff in using English also causes additional problems for the success of the bilingual institutions. Here, I would say that the staff members also might have come from the same background the students had. Lecturers can offer individual or group consultation after their lectures in English to the first year students.

Enlightenment

Slovenliness in language leads to slovenliness in thoughts-no matter what the subject is. So when we conduct courses in English, we must prepare the students to face the challenges. The problems in using this medium are due to the development of separate, single medium (or the mother tongue) schools instead of dual medium institutions during the post- independence era. However, almost all the students prefer the English medium, whether they find it difficult or not, to become a ‘global man’.

The Tamil community in Sri Lanka has learnt it lesson. The students are well aware of the worse consequences of not being bilingual in a country like Sri Lanka where the Tamils are a minority. When I interviewed some of the university students regarding this, they pointed out this inevitable nature of the need -either English or Sinhala or both. The students in their lives have learnt many lessons and these lessons have been ingrained in their minds, so now the law is no longer essential and we can rely on enlightenment rather than compulsion!