Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan
Gnanaseelan, J. (2011). English Language Performance
and Teaching Profession - a Case Study of the Conflict-affected Vavuniya
District of Sri Lanka. Samodhana, the Journal of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities,Vol. II/2011 of the Rajarata University.
English Language Performance and Teaching
Profession - a Case Study of the Conflict-affected
Vavuniya District of Sri Lanka
Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan*
ABSTRACT
The English Language
Teaching, especially in the war-torn North of Sri Lanka where the English Language
Teaching (ELT) profession on its decline in the context of the politico-military instability in the past in
that region, has begun to recognize the need for expanding its knowledge base
and for professionally-trained teachers, apart from the teaching methods and
materials used. This study reports a survey study among the sampled twenty secondary
teachers of English who were serving in the five major schools of the Vavuniya
district of Sri Lanka in 2005. The results indicate that the challenges these
teachers face especially in relation to student and teacher performance lapses were
connected with the past and present jeopardized ESL educational systems in
practice in the war-torn region. The findings also provide an understanding of
their needs and attitudinal changes and entail implications on ESL teacher
education programs in such a context and probe their attitudes to error
treatment methodology by means of questionnaire and interview. In this study,
the ESL teachers emerged as more tolerant of error, both in theory and in
practice. Presumed differences in the teachers
were less general than had been supposed, and that their ESL status was
less significant than other factors like language ability, professional
training of varying national and cultural identities. Being a more complex area,
it needs in-depth investigations.
Key words: English Language Teaching,
Performance Lapses, Conflict region, attitudes, challenges
1.
Introduction
In light of the
sociopolitical context in Sri Lanka, the idea of creating bilingual –bicultural
Tamil – English coeducation has been in and of itself, an enterprise to
facilitate social harmony through a third medium, English. Unfortunately, the
Sri Lankan language education system has not facilitated a trilingual (Tamil,
Sinhala and English) system which has been one of the original causes of the
protracted conflict.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Dr. Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan is
a Senior
Lecturer in English, English Language Teaching Unit, Vavuniya Campus,
University of Jaffna [e-mail: jeya86@hotmail.com]
It is necessary
to initiate and foster egalitarian Tamil – Sinhala cooperation in education,
primarily through the development of ELT programs and bilingual and
multicultural coeducational institutions. The core of language teacher education must centre on the
activity of the teaching itself, the teacher who does it, the context in which it
is done, and the pedagogy by which it is done (Freeman and Johnson, 1998). Teacher
education is posing great challenges to teachers within the English as a second
language (ESL) context in countries, such as Sri Lanka in particular. This
context requires the language teachers to have "a
combination of competencies and background that may be unprecedented in the
preparation of language teachers" (Curtain and Pesola, 1994: 241).
However, relatively little has been studied in ESL teacher education, even less
among Sri Lankan Tamil teachers of English teaching at the school level.
The treatment of learner error,
grappling with such issues as whether, when, what and how to correct, has been
described as ‘a potential crisis point’ in a teacher’s classroom life (Allwright,
1988:198) .The present government of Sri Lanka introduced many educational
reforms at all levels of education suitable for the 21st century. One of the
key components addressed the urgent needs for professional development for
in-service teacher education, which has the impact on the secondary teachers of
English, and millions of students learning English at the secondary level in
Sri Lanka. Upgrading their subject and pedagogical knowledge of this enormous
number of teachers—with only less than 10% of the secondary teachers of English
respectively holding a university degree either in English or ELT at the moment
of this study—provides a daunting task for Colleges of Education Colleges and
Teacher Training Colleges.
2.
Problematization: English Education in
Conflict-Ridden Areas
English language
education has the potential to help overcome a wide variety of societal and
cultural tensions. However it remains controversial and frequently
misunderstood. The present study is also based on a context in which
socio-historical and political factors, in conflict-ridden areas, influence
language attitudes and the implementation of bilingual and ELT educational
initiatives geared toward encouraging socio-cultural tolerance and the
recognition of each of the participating groups while enabling students to
become bilingual. More specifically, it is necessary to look at how a
particular bilingual Tamil–English or ELT program is interpreted and
implemented in an integrated Government educational initiative in the war-torn
Northern Sri Lanka. The current effort hopes to stimulate educators, English
Language teachers, students and policymakers into thinking about how to develop
dual-language or ELT programs to address the particular contextual challenges
which, when left unaccounted for, can prejudice their ELT and bilingual educational efforts. It will
further ignite the conflict situation with ethno-nationalism.
Like all the
other programs, in ELT programs, intergroup power relations play an important
role in either reproducing or overcoming conditions that subordinate language
minority students and their communities (Paulson, 1994). The language practices
of educational institutions are caught-up in the legitimization of power
relations among ethno-linguistic groups. Recent studies conducted by
Papademeter and Routoulas (2001) emphasize the ambivalence reflected in the
views and opinions of minority groups toward bilingual and bicultural
education. Bissonauth and Offord (2001) suggest that the association of language
with high status and prestige influences language use in multilingual
societies. Obeng (2000) shows how attitudes encompassing a wide spectrum of
values, beliefs, and emotions concerning language influence participants’
perspectives toward languages in general and toward educational bilingual
initiatives in particular. As has been shown in recent ethnographic studies,
there is no doubt that political and historical contexts affect people’s
judgments and opinions about languages and their use (Obeng, 2000). Yet, for
the most part, studies in language attitudes have paid little attention to
these.
3.
Objectives
The present
study is a partial attempt to understand and approach these challenges on the
part of English teachers in the war-torn Northern Sri Lanka. The study is
concerned with the influence of social, historical, and political contexts in
conflict-ridden areas on the implementation of bilingual and ELT educational
initiatives geared toward encouraging tolerance and the recognition of each of
the participating groups while also enabling the students to become bilingual.
It was decided to survey a group of ESL teachers in Vavuniya
as an initial case study. The purpose of this study is
1. to explore
who these ESL teachers are,
2. to explore
under what teaching context these teachers are teaching,
3. to explore
what their professional development goals are in TESL.
4. to identify
the teacher attitudes to error treatment.
4. Literature
Review
4.1.The
Sociopolitical and Educational Background
As much as any
other modern nation-state, the state of Sri Lanka is a product of an invented
national identity institutionalized through public education, a standardized
legal system. The protracted linguistic conflict in the provinces of the North
and East and the awakening of Sinhala and Tamil national consciousness have
problematized the seemingly natural construct of the role of English. Paraphrasing Edward Said, it
could be said that we are dealing with “two asymmetrical communities with
symmetrical fears” (1994, p. 9). Both sides believe they have a monopoly on the
objective truth of the conflict and on the identification of the perpetuating
villain. These perceptions undermine the prospects for conflict resolution. The
traditional and nonindustrial social and cultural character of Tamil society in
the context of Sri Lanka’s modern semi- industrialized makeup has further
implicated the ELT in the North.
All school
sectors fall under the umbrella of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education. In
spite of the structural constraints reflected in the educational system, the
Tamil population of Sri Lanka has made great progress in literacy. The ELT professionals lacked physical
facilities, teacher qualifications, retention rates, and levels of special
services especially in this conflict situation.
Some of the
features of the Tamil educational system in Sri Lanka reflect the unique
sociocultural background of this population. Within the classroom, there exists
an authoritarian model of student–teacher relationships and a formal teaching
approach that is pedagogically very traditional. For teachers there is a sense
of conflict regarding their loyalty toward both their employer, the Ministry of
Education, and their loyalty toward their Tamil community. The Ministry of
Education imposes curricular constraints on the English education by, for
example, not allowing schools to freely choose their own narratives concerning
issues related to their cultural and national histories. The security measures
traditionally used by Sri Lankan officialdom (e.g., authorization permits) to
restrict teacher appointments is one evidence. Consequently, an enormous gap
has developed between the two systems, leaving the Tamil educational system
decades behind.
4.2.Conceptual
Background
‘English Language Performance Lapses’
accommodates all the performance deviations such as errors, lapses, and
mistakes (Corder, 1973). But the definition of each differs from the other.
Errors are not recognizable to the learner and so are not amenable to
self-correction, but lapses are recognizable, being those slips of the tongue
or pen, false starts, and confusions of structure or ‘syntactic blends’,
typical of native speaker and ESL learner alike. Allwright & Bailey, (1991:88)
say they are not failings in competence and lapses are sometimes referred to as
‘performance errors’. Mistakes are
‘inappropriate utterances’ (Corder, 1973), where there is a failure to match
the language to the situation. These
distinctions are valuable
for the teacher
at classroom level
in determining when
and how to
treat a deviation,
but identifying the
category of a
deviation is problematic.
It can be done only through
analysis, based on
detailed knowledge of
the situation and
the learner (Dulay, Burt
& Krashen; 1982:1939).
A
study in this
area is complicated
by the fact
that there are
potentially a large
variety of factors
which can influence
the extent to
which a teacher
reacts to learner
error. The level,
needs and purposes
of the learner,
the aims of
the course, the
cultural mores of the society,
in particular its
attitudes to language
regularity and its
perceptions of the
roles and status
of teachers and
students, are among
the factors which
can operate here.
There is consequently
a danger of
confounding the effect
of different variables
(Chaudron; 1988:185) and
research needs to
be interpreted with
this caution in
mind.
James
(1977) compared the
responses of seventeen
native speaker teachers and
seventeen non-native speaker teachers
to fifty sentences
demonstrating a range
of syntactic and
lexical errors, and
concluded that the
latter tended to
mark more severely.
However, James observed
that they tended
to fall into
two groups; one,
relatively tolerant of
error in line
with the former,
the other, intolerant. His study speculated
on the relationship
between the differing
ESL teacher tendencies and levels
of language proficiency
and teacher training.
Hughes &
Lascaratou (1982) showed
the native speakers, particularly
the non-teachers, judged
errors much more
leniently than the non-native
speakers. The difference between these two groups was rated significant. Intelligibility was
indeed the main
criterion for determining
gravity among the natives,
while the latter
were more concerned
with the extent
to which an
error infringed a
basic rule that
they felt these
students should already
have mastered.
Hughes &
Lascaratou surmised that
the greater leniency
of the native speakers was probably
attributable to better
knowledge of the
language, and to
a greater awareness
of the wide
and flexible scope
of its norms.
The results had
implications for the
teaching style of ESL
teachers, whom they felt
should pay more
attention to the
communicative focus of
ELT and to the criterion
of intelligibility rather
than to accuracy
alone.
Sheorey’s (1986) study also confirmed the findings of Hughes & Lascaratou showing native speakers much
more tolerant of
error. Sheorey sees
these results as
instructive for non-native teachers. Based
on the premise
that it is
important for them
to acquire a
native-like sensitivity to
error and, he
urges the ESL teachers to
move into line
with native speaker teachers, adopting
a more lenient
approach and adjusting
their perceptions of
the relative gravity
of different error
categories.
Another vexed
question here is why non-native teachers appear
to be less
tolerant of error.
Hughes & Lascaratou
attribute it to
differential language proficiency
between native and non-native, the native speaker teachers’ tolerance being
based on ‘better
knowledge of the
language, particularly of
the wide variety
held, as
a survey of
over two hundred
teachers, the majority
of whom were
the latter, confirms (Medgyes
: 1994). The picture of the latter emerges as one
where they are “usually
preoccupied with accuracy,
the formal features
of English, the
nuts and bolts
of grammar, the
printed word and
formal registers. Many
lack fluency, have
a limited insight
into the intricacies
of meaning, are
often in doubt
about appropriate language
use, have poor
listening and speaking
skills, and are
not familiar with
colloquial English” (Medgyes :
1994:59).
He
sees this as
explaining the results
of error treatment
studies where the latter lay great
stress on grammatical
errors and priorities
accuracy over intelligibility. The native teachers generally
regard language as
a means of
achieving a communicative
goal but the non-native
teachers regard English
primarily as a
school subject to
be learnt and
only secondarily as
a communicative medium
to be used.
Nevertheless, he insists that
‘deficient knowledge of
English’ is the
main factor in
determining error treatment
practice (Medgyes; 1994:63).
5.
Research
Methodology
The tools were mainly structured
questionnaire and interview and a correction task secondarily. The random sample
consisted of twenty Vavuniya district ESL teachers belonging to the available five
national schools in the Vavuniya Divisional Secretariat area. Four teachers
from each school were selected. Most of
the schools had four English teachers in average. It follows that sound sampling
procedures can compensate
for restricted sample
size (brown :
1988). Teachers who were accessible to the researcher were chosen
through personal contacts and those were the ones more or less available in
these five major schools in Vavuniya. It has been called ‘convenience’ and
‘purposive’ sampling (Cohen & mannion:
1985). Such a
sampling procedure is
common in small-scale
or preliminary studies,
though this too
reduces the generalisability of
the data (Nunan;
1992:142). The names of the schools selected were such as Rambaikulam
Girls Maha Vithiyalayam (RGM), Muslim Maha Vithiyalayam (MMV), Saivapragasa
Ladies College (SLC), Tamil Maha Vithiyalayam (TMV), and Vibulanantha Maha
Vithiyalayam (VMV).
Qualitative data
were carefully analyzed, looking for patterns and thematic issues of relevance.
Quantitative data obtained from the structured questionnaires were submitted to
statistical analyses, mainly for comparisons. This study analyses teacher
attitudes, professional efficiency, bilingual perspectives, and strategies,
based primarily on qualitative data on educational events and contextual
sociocultural processes involved in the functioning of the schools.
6.
Data
Analysis and Findings
The chart 1 gives information about
the English language learning situation when they were at the school. It proves
that their social environment was not conducive to learning English and most of
them studied in Tamil medium. However, they expressed their satisfaction in
learning English in general.
Most fundamental to the sampling
procedure was a valid application of ESL teaching concepts. Though there were some significant
personal, educational and professional differences among the sampled
respondents, the sample were tried to confine to less controversial cases. 80%
of the respondents were between the age ranges of 30-40 years.
Chart. 1. Respondents’ ELL at the
School Level
Source: Field Survey 2004/2005
The
sample consists of
people for whom
English is their
second language, which they
acquired primarily in school and English mass media. While
the distinctions between
international varieties of
English are somewhat
elusive, this is
a ‘British English’ they have learned and teach. The ESL teachers were themselves largely
schooled in British English. Being Tamils, 75% were Hindus.
They were born in the Northeast of
Sri Lanka and Tamil is as their mother tongue. All had
their first contact
with English at
school and learnt
the language through
formal instruction. Learning
began before puberty
in all cases,
which is seen
by some as conferring a
decisive advantage (Lanneberg:
1967). If early
exposure is significant, this
is relevant to the concern of this study to
identify the teachers whose
level of English
is high, for
only then would
individual differences be
meaningful. 45% possessed only Advanced Level (A/L) academic
qualification. 55% were graduates.
For these teachers, it also seemed
important to establish criteria for professional competence. The untrained ‘teachers’ of English were
fewer than they were. It would be natural to
find that they
had difficulties in
judging acceptability or had an
incoherent approach to
error treatment. Thus,
all the respondents had some professional grounding in ELT. The
ESL teachers were all
either graduates of the
Sri Lankan universities or the trained teachers of the Sri Lankan state
teacher-training colleges. They
were therefore well-acquainted with
the issues this
study is concerned
with, and their
language level was
more or less high.
Although some had passed out very
recently, they were
in general an
experienced group of
teachers. It is customary in Sri Lanka to teach before and sometimes, during
one’s training. They had
experience teaching learners
of all ages
and all had
taught up to
at least the Ordinary Level under the Sri Lankan
educational system. 30% of the
respondents were appointed as teachers in-between 1984-1990; 15% in-between
1991-1995; 20% in-between 1996-2000; only 35% were appointed in-between
2001-2005. So the majority are senior teachers.
Chart 2 illustrates the years of service of the teachers.
Chart. 2. Years of ELT Experience
Source: Field Survey 2004/2005
They
included respondents with
post-graduate study experience,
and three of
them were currently
teaching at the tertiary level institutions such as
Vavuniya Campus, Technical College, College of Education and so on. Some had
as a minimum
requirement such as the Certificate
in English or ELT, while
Five of them
had either the PGD in
Education or TESL or Diploma in
English. Eleven of them were
university graduates. Some were good
at using Sinhala language available in Sri Lanka as well.
Chart .3. Professional
Qualifications
Source: Field Survey 2004/2005
Thus, levels of linguistic awareness and ability
were high. The average
length of teaching
experience for them
was six years,
involving work with
most age groups
and levels, including, in
all cases. All were currently employed
at both public and private language institutes in the North of Sri Lanka.
Further as Chart 3 shows, 50% underwent English Teacher Training (ET) and the
other 50% possessed Postgraduate qualification in Educational Training.
The female representation in the
sample was 75%. Though the researcher is not aware
of any research
suggesting that gender
is a significant
factor in error
treatment, they were
less balanced in
terms of this
factor than ideally
he would have
liked. They were broadly
comparable as regards age.
Another possible interference
factor, though based
on rather impressionistic evidence,
may be cultural.
From
the experience of the
respective educational systems,
the British system
would be characterized as
tending to be
relatively permissive and
democratic. It allowed the
learner more freedom
of expression and
more autonomy in
general. The Sri Lankan system
and the teachers were educated as
relatively rigid and
authoritarian, reflecting in
large measure the
ethic of orthodoxy
encouraged by the
hegemony of the
Hindu and Catholic Church missionary schools, recent experience
of military and ethnic conflict and the consequent
upheaval of Tamil and Sinhala nationalisms.
95% started learning English while they were six to eleven years
old.
6.1.The Teachers
It was discovered that among the 20
teachers in the survey 78.7% of them
started to learn English when they were in junior secondary school (Grade 7-9,
Age 13-14), and 8.5% started during senior secondary (Grade 10-12, Age 16-17).
Only 12.8% started learning English when they were in elementary school. It has
been studied (Krashen's critical period hypothesis, 1985) in the second
language acquisition (SLA) that the age at which learning of another language
starts is a crucial factor determining how proficient a learner can achieve.
This indicates majority of these teachers started to learn English after the
critical period.
When the teachers were asked to
identify the kind of teaching methods when they were learning English, many
reported grammar-translation method, very few reported communicative method and
audio-lingual method respectively. However, the rest reported other methods and
a combination of different methods. Regarding the context of their education,
majority of them received their education from rural areas and small towns respectively.
There is a disparity in regional distribution of the resources in Sri Lanka. Due
to the poor staffing and relevant teaching facilities in Sri Lanka, the quality
of English education varies to a great extent. The quality of teachers,
teaching resources and the amount of time spent on English in class can vary
depending on where a learner receives his/her education. Cities tend to have
advantages over the quality of the teachers and teaching resources in Sri
Lanka.
When these teachers were asked about
their educational qualifications, many of them had a three-year degree
certificate from teachers' colleges. A considerable number had a bachelor's
degree, and 1 out of 20 teachers had a master's degree. Among the teachers,
majority of them were currently teaching at the junior secondary level. As is
reported in Sri Lanka, many teachers of English who are teaching at the junior
secondary school do not have a bachelor degree with English or ELT or applied
linguistics as a subject. However, the result also indicates that this group of
teachers was relatively experienced.
From the result, it is understood
that this group of teachers of English started to learn English after puberty.
They were taught predominately by traditional teaching method. Majority of them
had only three-year college education. They were, however,’ very experienced’
teachers; many of them have more than 10 years' experience. Experience is measure red in terms of years of
service than proficiency and performance. This shows a typical group of
secondary teachers in the Sri Lankan context with limited English language
proficiency and teaching methodologies, yet they are the major teaching force
in Sri Lankan secondary schools.
6.2.The ELT
Implementation
All teachers made great
efforts to apply the “rule” during class periods. In each classroom, they
planned the activities, allocating equal amounts of time for instruction in
each language irrespective of the subject. Nonetheless, in spite of these
efforts, symmetry has not been easy to achieve. Their students had only a very
limited, if any, knowledge of English. English teachers, like all Tamil
citizens in Sri Lanka, are generally bilingual having grownup in a context that
uses English as the second language of communication. In addition, all the
teachers in the schools had been trained in one of the regular English Teachers’
colleges. The teachers, when engaging their students, sought to sustain the
conversation in English although they switched to Tamil when they felt that
they were not understood. The teachers communicated primarily in English, and
more so with the Tamil children. The students preferred to interact with the
teacher from their own national background.
The teachers’ language
proficiencies revealed that English instruction could have been more successful
among the Tamil students provided that good attention had been paid on other
aspects of ELT. Both the observations and the language assessment tests
articulated this fact and made obvious that, an ideology based on symmetry
would not in itself be sufficient to achieve the cherished dual-bilingual and
English Language Learning (ELL) goals as fully as desired.
Though teachers’
interactions were officially conducted in English on certain formal but rare
occasions, and Tamil was the reigning language of teachers’ meetings, training
sessions, parents’ meetings, and steering committee meetings. On the other
hand, it has to be accepted that, with the introduction of English into the
school curriculum, teachers and their students increasingly abandoned learning the
language of the majority community, that is, Sinhala, or alternatively they
reduced the amount of time invested in such instruction. That may be a drawback
in the language education system of Sri Lanka, for, in many schools, there are
no Sinhala or Tamil teachers and teaching these languages is not in the
curriculum planning or implementation. However, teachers also expressed
positive feelings toward increasing the time allotted to the study of the
English language.
6.3.The Teaching Context
The education qualifications required
to teach in their current schools, their workload, their class size, and the
influence of standardized testing on their instruction are analyzed below. Further
it looks into their teaching responsibilities, their teaching activities, their
teaching evaluation, the factors influencing their teaching, and the challenges
they face in teaching English in Sri Lanka. This study explores from the
teachers' perspectives the challenges their students face in learning English
and the kind of activities they do to motivate their students to learn.
They reported that a certificate from
teachers' colleges was required to teach in their current schools. None of the
schools where the teachers were teaching required a master's degree. The rest
commented that a combination of qualifications was required to teach in their
schools. This again indicates a teaching force with limited language
proficiency and lack of teaching methodology training within a three-year
teacher education program. The teachers were teaching 25 hours per week. This
seemed to be heavy considering the size of their classes. Many were teaching a
class of 50 students which were extremely large for a language classroom where
language interaction is a great challenge to these teachers. This demanding
teaching context together with the lack of language proficiency and teaching
methodology contribute to the current English language teaching situation in
Sri Lankan secondary schools. In addition, within this environment, they
commented that their students had to take standardized testing at the national,
provincial, or district levels and such testing was influencing their teaching.
When asked how often certain teaching
activities in their teaching were conducted, it was shown that the majority
listed reading as the most commonly used activity whereas some mentioned
practicing grammar items and learning vocabulary as the other two frequently
used activities respectively in their teaching followed by doing mock exams and
writing. Group discussion and conducting games are the least frequent
activities in these teachers' classrooms. From this, we can almost sense the
English teaching and learning atmosphere in Vavuniya secondary schools.
6.4.Teaching Responsibilities
When the teachers were asked about
the kind of teaching responsibilities they had in their schools, it turned out
that 77% of the teachers were mainly involved in teaching. No one was involved
with curriculum development. Very few teachers were involved with material
development and administration (3%) and research (1%) respectively, 16% were
involved with testing. When they were asked how their teaching was evaluated in
their schools, it turned out that 75% of the teachers were evaluated by their
students' test and examination scores. This indicates the important role that
standardized testing plays in teaching and learning in Sri Lankan schools, and
what would drive teachers to do more in their classrooms. However, teachers'
opinions seemed to split half when they were asked about the impact of testing
on their instruction. Completion of the subject contents and evaluation by
principals or school inspectors were preferred by 7.5%; the rest of the choices such as evaluation by
colleagues by 5.25%; own reflections on teaching by 2%; inspection of students' work by 1.5% and anonymous
student evaluation of teaching by 1.25% trail behind. Furthermore, the factors
mainly influencing these their teaching were also public examination (56.5%) followed
by the need to obtain satisfaction in teaching (21.75%) and teaching experience
and beliefs (9.5%). Professional training (4%), learners' expectations (2%), academic
seminars or workshops (1.5%), teaching syllabus and past experience as a
language learner (1.75%) and textbooks (1.25%) came next in the scale of
significance.
Chart .4. Satisfaction in the way you teach
English
Source: Field Survey 2004/2005
When asked about the challenges these
teachers were facing teaching English in Vavuniya, 26% listed teaching methods,
followed by 20.5% standardized testing, which also indicates an
examination-driven teaching context. Besides, more than half of the teachers
commented to be concerned about their own language proficiency (12%) and skills
in English (10.5%), which is consistent considering the teachers'
characteristics discussed above. And half were concerned about ways to motivate
their students to learn (10.%). Poor English learning environment (15% and
fewer class hours (6%) were given low priority.
Chart 4 shows that many were not
satisfied with getting feedback from the students but all were satisfied with
teacher-student interactions. Further many were satisfied with their
methodology of teaching and even 60% with the materials they used.
Satisfaction in the class room
organization and arrangement was another positive trend. The other two such as
teachers’ encouragement to the students and counseling also were in practice.
Then the answer to the question why there was such a poor performance on the
students’ part is that still many of them possessed the traditional and
prescriptive attitudes regarding these issues. Still many practiced
teacher-centred, chalk and talk methodology. Communicative pair and group
activities were rarely encouraged. It seems that most of the respondents responded
to these questions on the basis of the theoretical knowledge of ELT not of the
way they really practiced.
Chart 5 shows whether the issues
mentioned restricted their teaching. All the issues such as knowledge and use
of mother tongue, our cultural and traditional out looks and practices, student
number in the class room, course duration, and course syllabus, current
political and economical situations are restricting factors except teacher and
students’ ages. It becomes clear that still teachers feel that knowledge and
use of mother tongue, our cultural and traditional out looks and practices are
restricting factors but the modern ELT experts have even proposed that these
two, if properly integrated with ELT, will become supporting factors.
Chart 5. Do the
Issues Restrict your Teaching?
Source: Field Survey 2004/2005
Many comparative language studies
have emerged. Error analysis and L1 interference have become matters of ELT
field to accommodate these issues. The other three such as student number in
the class room, course duration, and course syllabus can be restricting factors
if they appear in quantitatively unmanageable proportions. It is interesting to
note that though they were satisfied with their teacher-student interactions,
methodology of teaching, and the materials they used. The last issue-current
political and economical situations- was also really a restricting factor in
the Vavuniya district of Sri Lanka.
Vavuniya has been a place exposed to
the destruction and vagaries by the intensive conflict. It has caused lot of
unnecessary obstacles to ESL teachers and students. Everybody is blaming
everybody else for what has happened. The senior teachers accused the juniors
of not having been productive enough, ironically speaking, amidst a political
and social situation destructive enough for the last three decades. They claim
that it is the junior teachers’ fault for every drawback the students’ academic
works. There is nobody taking a lead with research, which discourages the
juniors to adapt the right path. There are Little Cliques meeting in the school
corridors. The school environment should have a mature democracy in which all
can have a good ‘academic row’ with good humor. Marking the examination papers
is also another overburdened task as there are a large number of students in
large number of ELT classes. Unfortunately Vavuniya district has shortage of
ELT staff to cater the needs of the whole district.
Another sad state of affairs is the
zero level of student counseling especially when it comes to their financial
pressing situation or their highly negative and demotivating attitudes to
learning English and learning other subjects in English medium and this trend
could be witnessed. Generally, very
rarely students dared to come to the student counselor to address their
personal problems but harmful to education. There is no any welfare service or
the grants which are available at the time of necessity.
The vehicle facilities for transport
too were very poor in the district due to the war situation in the past. Both
the students and the staff had to spend lot of money for it. Being located in
the peripheries of Sri Lanka, and endangered by war threats, no any academic
expert dared to visit the district to deliver his or her training service to
the teachers. The ESL Teachers and students could not have the means to access
internet ELT and ELL websites for fulfilling this need. It had been a severe
demoralizing deprivation as it is realized in all the parts of the world that
Internet can provide and guide both teachers and students living any parts of
the world to become the students with international standards.
As colleagues, teachers need the
cooperation of others to have a critical understanding of the changing career
context appropriate to the war context and its region. Many schools suffered
from serious problems of acquiring the essential infrastructure facilities and
staffing in promoting ELT. They could not fulfill the task of training junior
teachers to the changing trends and practices. Vavuniya lacked the ESL academic
character of collaboration with others within and across institutions,
departments and disciplines. Shaw and Perrons (1995:7) say that individual may
be able to exert some influence of the culture of an organization, the shape of
the hierarchy or the methods of recruitment and promotion, but they cannot,
alone, affect the political, welfare or economic contexts in which we all live;
only organized collective action can achieve change at this level.
The students showed more
interest (majority with the intention of merely passing the English exams not
acquiring the skills) in following the English classes. It will be clear that,
only when the students feel the real necessity for using it in real situations
like seeking jobs, and working in places where English is the medium of
interaction, they give importance to it. Sadly the students had some “other
real situations” like surviving in the conflict constraints which did not press
any importance in learning this language. In the classroom interaction, 65% of
the respondents used both English and Tamil; 20% used only English and the rest
use these two approaches depending on the classroom and lesson needs in
turn.
Teachers have experienced that some students, though
feeling indifference towards learning, they followed for the sake of obtaining
a pass so that they can fulfill the job requirements. The ELT staff of the
district could not manage the teaching part; sometimes it was very difficult to
conduct the ELT activities due to physical, social, professional and
attitudinal differences. There were shortcomings. Though teachers were paid,
and conduct the sessions without fail, still it is difficult to say how
efficiently they did it. Sometimes it was felt that it is difficult to convince
the staff members older in age, about some innovations in ESL teaching as they
look at the modern trends doubtfully. Really it has been a disappointing
experience in the district.
6.5.Challenges and Activities
A/L General English is meant for the A/L
student of science, commerce and arts streams. It has been found that, these
students showed slight interest in learning the language. They seem to have
excitement for the oncoming adventure of entering the university. With lot of hopes,
tension and “romance”, they seem to have no time in learning the language
earnestly. Major expectation on the part of the students is that the sessions
should be “enjoyable and ‘socializable’. When these teachers were asked about
the challenges their students face in aspects of learning English, 55% listed
speaking and test-oriented educational system, followed by poor English
learning environment (50%) listening (35%), memorization of new words (30%),
how to use grammar and communication skills (25%) and writing (20%). Combining
with the results about what teachers do mostly in their teaching, it is not
surprising that speaking is the most challenging task. There is any time for
practicing speaking in their classrooms.
When teachers were asked about the
ways they used in their teaching to motivate their students, doing more
simulated exam papers were again rated highly by 50% of the teachers, followed
by organizing real-life activities and interesting language games (20%).
Encouraging students to learn was commented by only 20% of the teachers and 25%
mentioned better classroom discipline. To use more authentic materials (15%), to
create a positive attitude toward language learning and to provide student with effective
language learning strategies (10%) come last.
6.6.Teachers’
Professional Development
This analysis first explores the kind
of teaching methods these teachers used in their teaching, the activities they
were involved for professional development and the kind of professional
development activities they participated, the learning experience that
contributed to their professional development, and access to teaching
resources. Then it explores what they wish to learn more about teaching, and
what they wish to do to improve their teaching. It explores further the reasons
why they entered the teaching profession, whether they wanted to continue the
profession and the reasons for the continuation.
When asked about the most popular
teaching method these teachers used in their teaching, many mentioned that they
used communicative teaching method, followed by grammar translation method and
audiolingual method. When they were asked to rank two professional development
activities they had been involved over the past five years, developing teaching
materials was the first choice for 30% of the teachers and test preparation was
chosen as the second choice by 25% of the teachers. Curriculum/syllabus (15%),
organizing extracurricular activities in English (10%) and research reports
(5%) were preferred after that.
When asked about the kinds of
professional development activities they participated over the five years, only
10 % commented on observing other teachers’ classes, 15% of them mentioned
attending courses, 10% conferences, and surprisingly 50% workshops and 10%
visiting other schools respectively. Generally workshops were conducted on a
regular basis at the District Education office. Furthermore, 30 % commented
working with other teachers in their schools had contributed to their
professional development. About 25 % of the teachers felt that membership in
professional teachers’ association and writing reflective journals helped their
professional development. Only 20% of the teachers said they had access to
English teaching journals, books, 25% membership in English teachers'
association, 30% other informal learning and (5%) internet resources. Many of
the teachers (80%) said that they did not have access to the above resources,
which might be due to the economically undeveloped nature of this war-torn town
in the province where these teachers taught.
The teachers were also asked to rank
two things that they would like to learn more about English language teaching.
55% of them commented on communicative language teaching as their first choice.
35% of the teachers ranked computer-based and assisted teaching and learning as
their second choice, material development (15%) and classroom management and
unit, lesson, and curriculum (syllabus) planning (10%) were preferred
respectively. Surprisingly, only 10% commented on the desire to learn more
about testing and evaluation in such a highly examination-driven context even
though many of the teachers’ teaching was evaluated by their students’ test
scores. In the ways they wished to do to improve their teaching, 50% mentioned
pursuing advanced degrees, followed by working with other teachers (20%), and
mentors (25%), attending workshops and courses (15 %). Distance programs (or
self-study) (10%) and being observed by others and receiving feedback (5%) come
last.
The
type of students they had for their classes did not enter the class rooms with
real motivation and interest. The sad truth is that many of them were keen in
only passing the A/L to enter the universities, not the competency and job
skills required. So it is a real
challenge on the part of the teachers to create a positive atmosphere for
effective and efficient learning and teaching in Vavuniya. The impact of the
war was another big hurdle to leap over successfully.
We
see “the process of development as the process of increasing our conscious
choices about the way we think, feel and behave as a teacher. It is about the
inner world of responses that we make to the outer world of the classroom.
Development is as a process of becoming increasingly aware of the quality of
the learning atmosphere we create, and as a result becoming more able to make
creative moment by moment choices about how we are affecting our learners
through our personal behaviour” Underhill (1991). This idea clearly
demonstrates that the teaching staff should not be biased and prejudiced or
disappointed about the learning atmosphere or about the attitudes students
have. The teachers have a great responsibility to change the existing
atmosphere into a positive one. As the ESL teacher, it was a real experience
for them to overcome these problems in an objective and understanding manner
among staff and students.
Teachers were then asked why they
chose to be an English language teacher, 85% said English is useful but,
surprisingly, 30% said they simply like English (affective and ideological
inclination). Other reasons such as loving children, liking to be a teacher and
personal reasons were commented by 40%, 60% and 80% of the teachers
respectively. The majority of the teachers said that they would continue to
teach, yet more than one third of them indicated that they were unsure at the
time of the survey, no teachers said no to continue to teach English. The
reasons for them to continue to teach are listed as liking teaching English by
35% teachers, loving teaching by 65%, English being useful by 80% and loving
children by 25%.
7.
Discussion
and conclusion
7.1.ELT Professional Challenges
The case study helps to understand
this group of teachers in Vavuniya within the context described. Fewer empirical
studies have been conducted at the secondary level or in the light of the Sri
Lankan government's mandate to upgrade these teachers' knowledge and skills
within a short period of time. Overall, they were less prepared in their
subject matter knowledge compared with TESOL teachers in the other parts of Sri
Lanka and of the world. Though many of them had two year-teaching diploma, it
indicates the lack of subject content knowledge, probably pedagogical content
knowledge. However, they had been in the teaching profession for more than 10
years. Yet the majority of them only started to learn English when they reached
Grade 7, and were taught predominately by grammar and translation method. These
factors could have serious implication on their English proficiency and on the
way they teach English in their classroom. Improving their English language
ability, subject content knowledge and language awareness, and pedagogic
content knowledge in English, should have been the task for pre-service teacher
education before they enter the teaching profession. Also in order to succeed
in second language teaching as indicated by Schrier (1993), they need a much
wider array of knowledge and skills. Further they also need the language
culture, the culture of the school's community, expert in curricular design and
implementation. They are technologically sophisticated. This indicates that the
professional upgrading of teachers of English in Sri Lanka is an urgent need
and requires a great deal of research.
The teaching context where these
teachers taught was involved with very large classes—80% of the teachers with
more than 50 students, and highly influenced by standardized testing—75.% of
the teachers commented that their students were required to take standardized
testing. 90% of their teaching is evaluated by students' test scores and 60% agreed
that public exam is the most influencing factor in their teaching. This finding
pictures a context where standardized testing plays a dominating role and has a
tremendous impact on instruction. The challenges that these teachers face are
teaching methods, high-stakes testing, their language proficiency and ways to
motivate their students to learn English. Such a context can also be found in
other parts of the world especially within the ESL teaching and learning
context where English is taught as a subject in schools (Cheng & Watanabe
with Curtis, 2003).
To meet these challenges, 85% of the
participants mentioned that the predominant communicative language teaching
(CLT) was what they needed to gain more knowledge. And computer-based and
computer-assisted teaching and learning technology was the second choice in
their professional development needs (40.%), which demonstrated the significant
role that technology could play in the ELT when the learning of English is not
immersed in aspects of life. With the advance of technology and Internet
development, more and more information and English language input should be
available to those teachers if proper guidance and training is included in this
type of professional development course. Among this group of teachers, 85%
commented they would continue their English teaching profession, which is
encouraging for English language education in Sri Lanka.
The results from this survey offer
some implications for the large-scale in-service teacher education endeavor and
further serve as a window to understand the kind of challenges that the
secondary teachers and learners of English are facing. In terms of methodology,
we recognize the limitation of this small case study using a questionnaire with
a small group of informants from a single research site. The ideal situation
would be to conduct follow-up interviews with the teachers and observations of
their classroom teaching, which can offer a much richer source of data. Also
due to the small sample, I could not conduct more detailed analysis thus
limiting me looking at the data only at the descriptive level.
This study, however, offers
implications to other ESL contexts where teachers of English who started
learning English later in secondary school, were taught mostly through
traditional teaching methods, and were lack of advanced subject and pedagogical
knowledge in English. Furthermore, this study helps to inform other teaching
contexts where there is also a predominated centralized examination driven
system. In addition, we recognize the reconceptualization of what language
teachers are and what they do is necessary. But the transformation will not
occur in Sri Lanka or in other similar ESL contexts unless teachers themselves
feel the need for such a transformation.
7.2.The
Socio-Ideological Context of the ELT
All Tamil
children learn English in schools, starting in the third grade, for 3 to 5
hours per week from Tamil- speaking teachers of English that integrates
children, parents, and the rest of the community jointly with governmental
institutions (Ministry of Education local authorities) in building a
cooperative framework structured on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
The bilingual study can be instrumental
in deepening each group’s understanding of the other, and mentions that
bilingual education is an empowering pedagogy which helps increase the
self-esteem of minority students.
The
present concern about ELT development is restricted to Vavuniya, where a
quality ELT and literature program should be at the core of its mission.
Moreover, the focus is from an inner and outer standpoint regarding the schools
and the ESL courses. On the one hand, it could be perceived that both less and more
experienced teachers are regularly confronted with a variety of situations and
contexts where they are required to make use of professional expertise in
an autonomous and self-directed way. On the other hand, there is a slow but
steady increase in the number of private English language schools and
institutes in the town that must share the local demand for English language
services, to put it in economic terms. Therefore, promoting this
discipline in the district, and competing on the basis of sound professional
teaching should be regarded as surviving tactics.
7.3.Attitudes to error treatment
An
attitude questionnaire showed
that they were broadly favourable
to a tolerance
of error in
learners, and to
other error treatment
practices in line
with the emphases
of communicative language
teaching. While this
tendency was rather
more pronounced among
them, thus challenging
previous research assumptions. Though
the difference was
statistically significant, there
must be doubts
as to how
meaningful the difference
is, bearing in
mind the inherent
limitations of attitude
surveys and the
mismatch between attitude
scores and observed
error treatment practice.
All
teachers proved quite
traditional in the
categories of error
they responded to,
focusing more on
sentence level errors
than discourse errors.
They were also
more conservative in
practice than in
attitude as regards
their tolerance of
error, though this
may reflect the
fact that they
were dealing with
an Advanced Level student
preparing for an
General English examination. Nevertheless, in
the course of
the interviews, the
view was often
expressed that teachers
have a responsibility to
deal thoroughly with
errors, that this
is one of
the teacher’s principal
duties, and that
if learners wanted
a more naturalistic
approach they would
not take language
lessons. This, of
course, rather assumes
that learners have
a choice in
the matter, which
is not always
the case.
8.
Suggestions
and Recommendations
English
teachers should engage in to promote their professional development and the
students’ academic development by updating recent developments in her/his
field; reflecting on her/his own professional activity in order to improve
her/his own practice; collaborating with other teachers in their practice and
also sharing experiences with them; interacting with the students flexibly so
that he/she can improve the learning environment positively for the students
since this discipline is linguistically, culturally and socially distanced from
those of the learners who were mostly Tamils from the North and East of Sri
Lanka.
I
firmly believe that “academic development takes place when teachers, as
individuals or in a group, consciously take advantage of such resources to
forward their own professional learning” (Ur, 1999: 318). Development does not
just happen with time, it happens with awareness of a need to change.
The
society also plays a significant role in critical reflection. In order for ESL
teachers to become critically reflective, they have to transcend the
technicalities of traditional academic administration and think beyond the need
to improve their instructional and innovative techniques. Thus they should be
made like to locate ELT in its broader social and cultural context. Sharing experiences,
problems and successes are necessary. Some possible activities are meetings or
discussions with colleagues, spontaneous, informal chats, or, a kind
of more formal interaction. Conscientious professionals may be sympathetic
and suggest solutions or encourage their peers to look for their solution; individual
presentation on new teaching ideas, classroom experiences, something they have
read, etc.; observation of other teachers’ classes. In this particular case,
certain understandings need to be negotiated ahead of time since observation
has always been a sensitive issue; journal writing should be carried out alone
or in groups if teachers built in some ground rules on the entries to be
included.
9.
Implications and suggestions for further
research
There
may be limits
to the extent
to which differences
previously observed apply
in all contexts.
With the respondents of the Vavuniya ESL teachers
at least, the
differences postulated by
other researchers do not hold.
It may be
that they should
not be treated
as an undifferentiated mass,
and that a
number of other
variables, like training
and cultural background
for example, could
be more important
than mere teacher status ( James, 1977).
The
sample was small and
the attitude questionnaire
was not adequately
supported by interview
data and one
correction task seems insufficient. A larger sample and more data are necessary. Ideally
too, data needs
to be collected
from what teachers
actually do day by
day
when dealing with
student writing. The
teachers interviewed were
very positive about
the focus of
this research. Responding
to the survey
helped concentrate their
minds on issues
which they saw
as fundamental to their everyday
practice and they
were keen to
receive feedback on
the study. The
more teachers had
the opportunity to
reflect upon the
issues involved in
treating error.
10. Conclusion
Research has suggested that ESL Teachers
and users, even those with high levels of competence and proficiency have
considerable difficulty when it comes to making judgments of acceptability. Cultural
dislocation and linguistic alienation, inappropriate professional training and
inappropriate conflict context for practicing ELT have been the reasons for the
existing level of performance and the implications for the error treatment
practice of ESL teachers, in terms of their identification of error and of
their assessment of the gravity of different types of error. If so, this may
explain research findings which have shown significant differences in the ESL
teachers’ reactions to error both quantitatively and with respect to
perceptions of relative gravity.
The current study has attempted to explore
English Language performance and teaching profession in the conflict context of
the Vavuniya district of Sri Lanka, where the Sri Lankan Tamil community prevails
primarily. After some consideration of the validity of the concept and of
issues relevant to error treatment pedagogy in general, the procedure and
results of the study were described. Substantial differences did show up in
terms of attitude to error. Differences were less marked in the way they
responded to the actual piece of student writing. Moreover, the differences
that did emerge in attitude and actual error treatment were the consequent
results identified in the conflict context of the Vavuniya district of Sri
Lanka.
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