The Language Horizon in South-East Asia

The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, 2012

The British East India Company, founded in 1599, introduced English in India in the elitist domains of power-government, administration, judiciary, military, education, commerce, and the media-between the 18th and the 19th centuries. British language policy, aimed at governing the empire (Cohn, 1985), passed from an Orientalist to an Anglicist phase following T. B. Macaulay's famous "Minute" of 1835 when English came to be used for elitist and higher education. Thus English became part of "cultural politics" (Pennycook, 1994) and was taught through its classics, which created an idealistic and morally inspiring image of the British and gave moral justifi cation to British rule in India (Viswanathan, 1989). By the time British rule came to ended in 1947 English was a coveted "linguistic capital" in Bourdieu's (1991, p. 70) sense of the term. As such, it was an elite social class marker facilitating upward social mobility in urban, professional circles in South Asia. English continues to enjoy this dominant status in South Asia despite resistance to it in

English became a dominant language in most of the countries as a result of colonizing policy of the Great Britain, and English language was adopted with the norms of local languages by those nations. Latter, this became a trend in those countries to introduce vernacular versions of English such as Indian English, Chinese English (Chinglish), Singaporean English (Singlish) etc. Sri Lankan version of English became Singlish where we find pronunciation, syntactic and even phonological differences in comparing to native English. Now the authorities have decided to promote this natural effect as a policy to teach English for local learners by designating the same as " Speaking English our Way " in Sri Lanka. The major objective of this research effort is to problematize the consequences of promoting language mistakes as a standard in a non-native country. This paper also attempts to critically examine the pros and cons of this endeavor. The method of this research work is empirical data analysis on theoretical foundations. There is a norm that " no one else can communicate a language like native speakers ". When the outsiders are using a native language, it is apparent that the mistakes may appear due to several reasons such as first language interference, lack of knowledge and other matters, but how correct promoting these mistakes and other changes as a standard? This will lead to something else which is not matching with the original norms of the language and will not be accepted as English by native speakers. This is the master piece and major discussion of this paper and ultimately this paper concludes that the effort of teaching speaking English our way will surely be a lingual anarchy in the future rather than becoming a life skill.

Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the Sri Lankan education system spanning from the colonial era to present day Sri Lanka. Beginning with the teaching of Buddhist scriptures, education has evolved through the influence of Portuguese (1505), Dutch (1656) and British rule (1796). English was given priority until Sri Lanka regained its independence in 1948. The Sinhala Only Act (1956) and reversed Act of 1958 reduced the role of English as an official language and allowed for the proliferation of schools in Sinhala and Tamil. The dominance of the regional languages shifted due to the implementation of open economy (1977) and spread of globalization. While the education system has attempted to integrate new changes like bilingual education and English as a life skill program to address the global needs of English, uneven distribution of facilities appears to be a continual problem faced by present day Sri Lanka. Keywords: bilingual, education system, English education, colonial impact, Sinhala Only Act.

The Politics of English: South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific, L. Wee, R.B.H. Goh & L. Lim, eds, 2013

e politics of English is inseparable from the politics of other languages in multicultural, multilingual (South and Southeast) Asia; in few other places is this more painfully felt than Sri Lanka, where ethnolinguistic issues have embroiled the country in civil war for a quarter of a century. A source of this con ict, its origin in British rule, is the provision of English education, as a scarce commodity, a ording better employment opportunities and socioeconomic advancement. With the Tamil minority viewed as privileged in the colonial system, more protectionist measures were sought in independence for the Sinhala ethnic majority through a 'Sinhala Only' language policy, all this leading to the country's polarization. Crucially, English has continued to be the major instrument of the dominant bilingual westernized elite, the kaduva (Sinhala 'sword'), with the power to divide those with and without access to the language. More recent state discourse, however, reframes English as a functionally di erent tool, one for communication for knowledge and employment. Two aspects are notable: (i) that English be delivered and desired purely for its utility value, while Sinhala and Tamil associate with cultural values and identities; and (ii) that English be an important tool (along with ICT) for rural empowerment, with user-friendliness rather than correctness of grammar and pronunciation emphasized (contrasting interestingly with Singapore's situation). Such a shi , in users and competence in English, beyond the exonormative, elite minority may mean a development of Sri Lankan English(es) more in line with the broader multilingual ecology, holding intriguing possibilities for its evolution and appropriation. e politics of English is inseparable from the politics of other languages in multicultural, multilingual (South and Southeast) Asia; in few other places is this more painfully felt than Sri Lanka, where ethno-linguistic issues have embroiled the country in civil war for more than a quarter of a century, a con ict which has © . John Benjamins Publishing Company All rights reserved Lisa Lim claimed more than 70,000 lives. Speaking of the country's language context and terrorist situation in the same breath is a given. On February 13 2009, the president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, at the ceremonial launch of "2009 -Year of English And Information Technology", declared that 2009 is our country's Year of English and IT. With the liberation of our people from the clutches of terrorism which destroyed our country for more than 25 years, 2009 will also be our country's Year of Peace, our country's Year of Reconciliation, and our Year of true Independence. 1

SILHOUETTE 2000-2001: Journal of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy , 2001

The prestige that the English Language used to enjoy in Sri Lanka during the British rule did not diminish or disappear even after her independence in 1948. While English continues to be the global language in Sri Lanka for several important fields of activity such as trade and commerce, science and technology, medicine and engineering, law and international relations, those who are competent in English receive priority in employment and higher education, leaving behind the others whose knowledge of the language is limited or insufficient. Although the national education policy allows every schoolchild a teaching programme of ten years leading to a working knowledge of English, which is a compulsory subject at the GCE (O/Levels) Examination, the products of all the schools in Sri Lanka do not achieve the recognised standard of the language which has remained for ever a mystery. Facilities available for learning English have become a criterion for a school to be graded as popular or prestigious. The male or female or mixed schools in this category are few, and there is an eternal competition among the parents to get their children admitted to them. Admission to such a school alone does not guarantee a child's competence in English, he or she has to be given "private" tuition for linguistic and communicative competence and has to be sent to an "elocution" class to pronounce the words in a style locally appreciated as aristocratic. The average schools do not have any emphasis on the nitty-gritty of what the parents, teachers, and children of these popular schools bother about. Those children do not receive any attention in their efforts to master the language. However, the national media and the educational authorities talk about a vast progress achieved in the teaching and learning of English in post-colonial Sri Lanka.

The research study critically traces the historical background of the introduction of the western education system with English as the medium of instruction in the Indian subcontinent and its impact on the teaching of various subjects and local languages in the postcolonial phase. It analyzes the transitional shift from the indigenous/regional vernaculars to engraftment (translating western knowledge into indigenous languages for teaching) and eventual shift to English as the medium of instruction, which thwarted the process of engraftment and development of indigenous languages. The study analyzes that how the education in the subcontinent was affected in the wake of diametrical shift in the British political policy from orientalism, engraftment, conciliation and consolidation to hostility, antagonism and oppression. Although, the study repudiates the popular myth of the revolutionary changes claimed by the British education system in the subcontinent, yet it establishes that how in the longer term it contributed to the academic, literary, social, political and economic advancement of the region. Nevertheless its repercussions for the regional languages were immense. The study reveals that how English, which was the language of power, authority and center, became a means of retaliation, communication and resistance at the hands of natives. The study, in its nature, is descriptive and historical one.

Journal of English Language Teaching 62(5), 2020

In an increasingly globalized world, English has emerged as one of the primary languages of global communication. The influence and dominance of English are evident in the realms of popular culture, media, science and technology, and commerce, to name a few. In this context, India is considered to have an English advantage over countries such as Japan, China, and even parts of Europe, as it has 125 million speakers of the English language as a first, second, or third language (Krishnaswamy & Krishnaswamy, 2006; Times News Network, 2010). How did a country which is defined by multilingualism and linguistic diversity come to speak a language that does not originate in the Indian subcontinent? This paper attempts to understand the answer to this question by conducting a historical analysis of the introduction of English language education in India during the colonial period and the language policies in the education system of India at the time.

The most recent (2009) policy intervention in English language teaching in Sri Lanka – the 'Speak English-Our-Way' movement attempts to 'indigenize' English and teach it as a Life-skill. This paper will examine the ideological underpinnings and goals of this movement, what is meant by 'nationalization' and the rationale for 'nationalizing' a language that has been used in the country for over two centuries. It endeavors to understand and critically interpret the forces driving the movement against the larger context of historical associations with English and contemporary events. Since there are no formal policy documents and academic discussion, the statements issued and the interviews given by the authors of the movement, and the views expressed by its advocates and detractors in the media were used as data. The analysis demonstrates how extralinguistic factors such as the desire to transfer power to the counter-elites and to create a neo-national post-conflict 'Sri Lankan' identity impinge on language policy planning.

Journal of Education and Research

The educational language policy of the British Raj undervalued the indigenous languages of Indian sub-continent and promoted English to construct ‘a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect’ (Macaulay, 1972) in the educational system of the sub-continent. This threatened our cultural and linguistic diversities by imposing cultural values and ideologies of the west. The Raj educational system constructed a distinct identity of peoples speaking diverse languages of the sub-continent devaluing these languages and promoting the English language. The English language was instrumental for linguistic and cultural assimilation of these people speaking diverse languages against the linguistic and cultural heterogeneity of the region. The Raj succeeded in instilling the western ideology intervening the educational system. Gradually, the peoples of the region have widely adopted the western values and created a gap between the...