Spoken English by............................?

I recently read a booklet published by a Sri Lankan English tutor who claims that he can make any L2 learner speak English fluently provided that he/she completes this special tutor’s Spoken English course. Moreover, this specific tutor promises to pay the money back to any learner who proves that he/she is unable to speak English after completing his special spoken English course.

One might become curious to know more about such a capable and skilled tutor who can teach English conversation to any L2 learner irrespective of his/her maturational, cognitive and, affective factors which have been proved to affect language acquisition by a number of studies. It remains true that ‘Spoken English’, which is popularly known in Sri Lankan context, occupies a specific place in Sri Lanka. Because of the power and prestige that English holds for many Sri Lankans, a word such as ‘Kaduwa’ meaning the sward has come into use among the Sri Lankan youths who generally come from villages where there are no opportunities to learn or use English for communicative purposes as the people who live in major cities do.

Returning to the topic under discussion, it would be appropriate for me to state that there has been a resurgence of English education in Sri Lanka. As a result, public and private sectors have placed much emphasis on the development learners’ skills related to English language. Any English program launched by the public sector comes under the preview of a government body, whereas the private sector is never supervised or evaluated whatever programs they conduct for learners. Because of this kind of weakness on the part of government, it is seen that in Sri Lanka, English tutors consist of people from different walks of life ranging from actors, news readers to retired government officials (Not English teachers). Most of the so-called tutors have either their own language learning centers offering a number of English courses which are developed by them or they join an institute run by big company. However, some of these tutors are English educators while others have studied English as a second language. Some of those English tutors use print and electronic media to give a wide publicity for their English classes/ programs. I found a booklet published by a private tutor who has written a lengthy description of his English program. After I had read the booklet, I was forced to write my opinion which centers round the booklet with special emphasis on the tutor’s claim that he can teach any learner to speak the target language fluently. Furthermore, based on what he has written in his booklet (International Spoken English (n.d.) on page 14 under sentence patterns is examined from the point of second language acquisition view.

According to some second language acquisition theories, it is claimed that learners’ innate capacity plays a major role while some theories place emphasis on the role of environmental factors such as providing learners with opportunities to interact with speakers of the target language (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). In addition to L2 acquisition theories, one may find a number of hypotheses and models for explaining L2 acquisition.  Among them, interaction hypothesis proposed by Long (1983, 1996) seems relevant to speaking more than other hypotheses or models because, as indicated by a number of authors (Hatch, 1978; Krashen, 1983, 1985; Pica, 1998; Gass, 1997), interaction is a necessary condition for language acquisition. According to Krashen, L2 learners should be exposed to comprehensible language input so that they can acquire language. However, Krashen (2012) states that input should not just be interesting but compelling and understandable for learners to acquire language. While agreeing with Krashen, Long (1983) asserts that modified interaction is a necessary mechanism for making language comprehensible. What Long means through modified interaction is that learners should be given opportunities to interact with other speakers so that that they can work together. By working together on a given task, learners can ask for clarification from their interlocutors. This sort of interaction makes input comprehensible and comprehensible input promotes acquisition. Therefore, Long (1983) suggests that interactional modification promotes acquisition.

                         Wijesinghe, P. (2012). International Spoken English (p. 14)

                            Wijesinghe, P. (2012). International Spoken English (p. 15)

Wijesinghe, P. (2012). International Spoken English (p. 16)

Given the theories, hypotheses, and models described above, it is difficult to claim that exposing learners to a selected sentence patterns with no context can help them acquire a second language such as English in contexts where learners get no adequate opportunities to use it. Moreover, there are no studies that can support the view that languages are learned mainly through rote memorization of sentence patterns.

I now turn to examine another claim made by this tutor. It says (p. 8) that the academics of Youth English Foundation of Colombo have realized that no learner can speak English fluently without using a dictionary. In the first place, I should say that this is a naive claim because anybody with an iota of sense knows that a dictionary cannot teach learners a language to use it fluently. The extract below from Lightbown and Spada (2006) testify that acquiring vocabulary will not help learners use the target language fluently.

Even if learners acquire a vocabulary of 5000 words and a good knowledge of the syntax (Grammar) and morphology (the structure and form of words in a language) of the target language, they can still encounter difficulty in using language. They also need to acquire skills for interpreting requests, responding politely to complements or apologies, recognizing humor, and managing conversations.

(Lightbown & Spada, 2006, pp. 100-101).

                                 Wijesinghe, P. (2012). International Spoken English (p. 8)

Wijesinghe, P. (2012). International Spoken English (p. 3)

Translation-page 3

2012 is the year in which you speak English. Despite the level of your English knowledge, by completing this course, you can definitely acquire the ability to speak English fluently. If you fail to speak English after completing this course, we will pay you 2 million as compensation.

The vagueness of the claim he has made above shows not only the breadth and length of his understanding about L2 teaching and learning but also it clearly shows his naivety. This kind of claim indicates that this particular tutor is ignorant of the factors that are internal and external to L2 learners. Poor learners become pray to this kind of money making tutors who believe that it is easy to make a learner proficient by teaching a set of isolated sentences such as “Speak English”, “Don’t speak English”, and “Come to speak English” (quoted from page 14).