Sri Lankan English (SLE, en-LK) or Ceylonese English is the English language as it is spoken in Sri Lanka. However, the classification of SLE as a separate dialect of English is controversial.English in Sri Lanka is fluently spoken by approximately 48% of the population, and widely used for official and commercial purposes. It is the native language of approximately 74,000 people.
World Englishes and Sri Lankan English
World Englishes is a field of sociolinguistic study that traces the evolution of different varieties of English and describes how English is spoken in different parts of the world.
During colonisation, Standard British English was promoted in the colonies as the only way to speak English properly. The British colonies included America, Australia and Canada, as well as countries in Africa and Asia. The varieties of English that developed in these countries during this time, whether they were American English, Sri Lankan English, Indian English, Australian English, Singapore English, Nigerian English or Jamaican English, were looked down upon as ‘incorrect’ and ‘substandard’.
However, now, in the 21st century, this attitude has undergone a change. The variety of English used in most English speaking countries has now gained legitimacy, and are considered valid varieties of English by language experts. Now most of these countries use their own variety of English, without a feeling of inferiority to Standard British English. The standard variety of Sri Lankan English, therefore, is the variety of English that is used by the educated speakers of English in this country, and Standard Sri Lankan English is used by them for official and educational purposes, for informal and formal communication, including international communication.
Therefore, speaking English our way, in Sri Lankan English, primarily, is an act of freedom from colonisation. It is an assertion of a national and cultural identity, an identity which has now accommodated English as a local language with local speakers and functions, rather than a ‘foreign’ language.
Speaking Sri Lankan English is also a practical necessity. World Englishes like Sri Lankan English evolved because the Standard British English variety in its ‘pure’ form was inadequate to reflect the reality of the speakers. Standard British English is often inadequate to give expression to the culture and the traditions the speakers, and their natural environment that includes the flora and fauna and its geographical features. For example, there are no words in Standard British English to describe ‘kiribath’, so we have borrowed this Sinhala term and also coined the term Milk-rice into our variety of English. Both these words are therefore in the Sri Lankan English vocabulary, and are not part of the Standard British English lexicon. Religious and cultural terms like "Poya", "Arangetram", Thai Pongal, Sinhala and Tamil New Year, are also part of the Standard Sri Lankan English vocabulary for this same reason.
Speaking Sri Lankan English is also an empowering act because it is the variety that is natural to us. It is the variety that most Sri Lankans speak and hear, and therefore it is the most appropriate variety to learn. For this reason, it should also be the easiest variety to learn.
Standard British English is also an outdated model for teaching / speaking. This is most obvious when we consider the accent associated with it – Received Pronunciation, or RP. This is the accent that is associated with the educated and the upper classes in Britain, also known as Queen’s English and BBC English. This was also the accent that was spread to the colonies as the ‘purest’ and best form of the English language. Thus in colonial times, considerable time and effort was spent on trying to master this accent, in order to sound like a ‘proper Englishman’.
However, with the end of colonisation, there was a rejection of this slavish attitude. Now, English is considered one of the local languages in many former colonies, one that is used for many purposes within the country, as well as an indispensable means of international communication. Most people in our country also accept the fact that English is one of the most useful tools to possess in the 21st century.
It should be remembered that even in the days of the British Empire, less than 3% of Britain spoke Standard British English with an RP accent. Even now, it is not spoken by the vast majority of people in Britain. There is increasing resistance to the RP accent in Britain, with people taking more pride in speaking with their regional accent, such as the Yorkshire, Cornish, Estuary, Newcastle, Liverpool, and the London accent. The increase in the pride in such regional accents and varieties is even reflected in the BBC now. In contrast, the RP accent is often caricatured on television and in the theatre in Britain.
However, it is worthwhile remembering the words of Prof Colin McCabe, who, in a recent visit to Sri Lanka said "at present, RP is alive and well only in South Asia" referring to the way people in our region still worship and try to imitate this outdated model of speaking English. This is unfortunately true of our country, where some uninformed people revere RP, holding up the former as the correct model for speech, and looking down upon the Standard Sri Lankan English accent.
So although it is outdated, we can see how RP lives in a corrupted form in the elocution industry in Sri Lanka. While most respected speakers of English in our country do not speak in this accent, it still continues to make an appearance in schools on stage during English Day concerts and recitations. This ‘elocution’ accent is unnatural and difficult to teach, and poses far more phonological hurdles to the learner of the language than the Standard Sri Lankan English accent.
More importantly, the elocution accent is of limited purpose and function in Sri Lanka. Those who learn it do not use it for communication, either locally or internationally. It is only used as a ‘performance’ language, on stage, for drama and speech contests, but it has to be pointed out that it is the more low quality productions that imitate this accent. Children taught to speak with an elocution accent do not use it to speak naturally.
Sri Lankan English, far from being ‘broken English’, or a ‘pidgin’, has been described as a valid variety of English since 1943, in international and local publications, by academics such as Prof H A Passé, Thiru Kandiah, Chitra Fernando, Siromi Fernando, Arjuna Parakarama, and Manique Gunesekera. In addition, it has been documented by World Englishes experts such as Prof Braj Kachru of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champagne and Prof Jennifer Jenkins of the University of Southampton. Such studies attest to the fact that Sri Lankan English is a fully-fledged variety with its own phonology, vocabulary and syntax, with styles ranging from the formal to the informal.
Teaching and learning Sri Lankan English
Most Sri Lankans learn English from local teachers speaking Sri Lankan English, although a few learn it at home from their parents, who, once again, speak SLE. So whether we like it or not, it is Sri Lankan English, not Standard British English that we have been teaching in the classroom. However, recent studies have shown that many people still think that we speak British English. These studies have also shown that teachers in particular actually know very little about the features of Standard British English.
So we have to admit the impossibility and the absurdity of trying to impose on ourselves an irrelevant model from outside that fails to address our needs and functions. It is a model that is also unknown, and therefore unteachable in a context of learning where the majority of the people in the country depend on the classroom to learn the language. At present, rules of Standard Sri Lankan English have been codified in academic texts, and steps are underway to describe and publicise the rules of standard Sri Lankan English to educate the teachers of English in our country. This will naturally provide a much more appropriate model for teaching English in Sri Lanka.
Myths about Sri Lankan English
In addition to the ‘myth’ of the RP accent, there are other myths about Sri Lankan English that need to be dispelled. Some of them are:
"It is broken English"
Sri Lankan English is considered ‘broken English’ or ‘substandard English’ by some uninformed people. However, experts have pointed out that it is has rules, ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ usages, and formal and informal usages. Speaking Sri Lankan English is a reality that is around us, and not a situation of anarchy where any error is allowed. There are rules of correctness in every aspect of Standard Sri Lankan English: its phonology or pronunciation and accent, its vocabulary and its grammar. Therefore, any mistake that a student makes cannot be called an example of Sri Lankan English.
"SLE is being promoted for the underprivileged masses, while the elite in Colombo learns and speaks a ‘better’ variety"
Another myth is that a substandard variety is being promoted in the country at large while the elite in Colombo guards its ownership of the ‘correct’ way to speak English, the idea expressed in the popular Sinhala idiom "kolambata kiri, gamata kekiri". This is a misconception, because most proficient speakers of English speak SSLE, even those who are looked up to as "good speakers" who are leading figures in education, commerce, politics and the government. Proficient speakers are able to manipulate several registers – the informal, and the formal.
"The rest of the world will not understand us if we speak Sri Lankan English" Standard Sri Lankan English poses very few problems of intelligibility, as most proficient speakers of English in this country have demonstrated. Many respected public figures in our country address international meetings and conferences in Standard Sri Lankan English, and have been praised for their command of the language. Also, awareness of World Englishes such as Indian and Sri Lankan English is growing in the developed world, as a result of increased travel, migration, communications and the Internet.
Teaching speech in English – some issues that need our attention
Teaching speaking skills in English requires teaching students to speak spontaneously, to communicate with others in English – in other words, to produce "unplanned speech", as opposed to "planned speech" where students prepare or memorise a poem or a speech. Planned speech usually entails formal language. However, unplanned speech is not confined to the formal. Learning to speak spontaneously requires learning to speak both formal and informal varieties of Sri Lankan English.
Getting students to speak will invariably require an acceptance of Sri Lankan English. As discussed above, it is the ‘natural’ way we speak. Students will not be able to effectively describe their own surroundings without using Sri Lankan English vocabulary. Any description of their homes, their families, the food they eat, the clothes they wear will require Sri Lankan English words to convey meanings with specificity and accuracy.
Teachers will need to address the inhibitions and to build the confidence of their students when teaching speech, as the lack of confidence and the inhibitions of the students will greatly hamper their willingness to speak. Often, teachers themselves will need to build their own confidence and fluency in order to speak in, and teach, English.
The attitude towards errors will also have to be much more tolerant in the speech class. Errors in the language class tend to be seen negatively, and students are even ridiculed for making mistakes in class. However, making mistakes is part of the process of learning to speak. Students, both adult and children, will make many errors as they speak. Their errors have to be corrected in a way that does not have a negative impact on their fluency or on their confidence.
0 Comments