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Train ‘natural’ speakers to spread English
By J. B. Müller
Sri Lanka has been cleft in two by the terrible, sharp sword or kaduva that clearly and effectively delineates the athi-haki from the nathi-barri or the haves from the have-nots.

Today, the universal cry is for peace, one people, and one Sri Lanka, but how this is to be accomplished has not been spelled out or defined in a feasible or viable manner by anyone.

One fundamental problem that has to be addressed and redressed is the ill-conceived 1944 proposal for the uniform imposition of two national languages and its tragic sequel after 1956.

The ground realities of international communication in today's world have established English as the foremost medium of communication. The vagaries of time, circumstance and history have bequeathed to us a valuable, if yet unrecognized, legacy that lies unutilized. That resource is the critical mass of natural English language speakers drawn from all ethnic groups, classes/castes, and religious affiliations.

When we look at our problem (defined as the lack or dearth of English teachers) and the human resource of English speakers that we possess, it becomes apparent that what is needed are: (1) mature volunteers of either sex who are natural English speakers; (2) an assessable aptitude and temperament to be trained as trainers; and (3) a willingness to professionally replicate themselves as trainers by training others to the point of certification.

In such a train-the-trainer scenario, 40 trainers in two batches of 20 each would be trained for 100 hours over a period of 25 weeks, and, after examination and certification, each trainer would undertake to train 40 others like him/herself.

In a period of one year (more or less), a pool of 40 x 40 or 1,600 trained and certified trainers would be available. If there is a 25 per cent dropout rate during training (it usually happens in the best programmes), there would remain a pool of 1,200 trainers. In turn, these trainers each train 20 others, and five drop out, we would have 18,000 trainers, more than adequate for every school in the island to have at least one trained and certified trainer who would go on to train teachers in the methodology of teaching English.

The obvious advantage of this programme is that Sri Lanka does not have to import foreign trainers/teachers; does not have to incur any foreign exchange cost; does not have to get into debt; does not have to contend with the problem of culture shock which is the norm with foreign teachers. This is an entirely home-grown scheme using a resource the country possesses. It is for Sri Lankans, by Sri Lankans and it is conducted in an environment that is familiar to all participants.

The economic benefits of the English Language Initiative will be apparent inside of five years . It has been estimated that the initial phase of the proposed programme could cost around Rs. 2 million to implement and produce 40 certified trainers. To the private sector this means an investment of Rs. 50,000 per trainer in a programme that will snowball. It must be said that the ultimate beneficiaries will be the private sector, which will be thus enabled to function at its full potential.

A knowledge of English is not the panacea for all our multifarious problems, but, it is the door to opportunity that each and every citizen could avail him/herself of and that will release the latent potential of every individual. The English Language Initiative Train-the-Trainer Programme could be reached on e-mail by communicating with: jbm@eol.lk/jbm@ucsc.cmb.ac.lk

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