Assessing English as Lingua Franca in Sri Lankan Education Dr. Subathini Ramesh Dept.Linguistics&English University of Jaffna Sri Lanka IATEFL Testing, Evaluation and Assessment SIG Conference Hosted by Universita per Stranieri di Siena 22 November 2013, Friday

Establishment of English Education in Sri Lanka Used for multiple purpose ( Portuguese, 1656-1796) Being the only official language(Dutch and British 1796- 1956) Constitutionally neither an official language nor a national language since British period Being a link language occupies a peculiar position for nearly 300 years Served as the ‘Lingua Franca’ and language of choice.

Post Colonial Education and English Language Ceylon now called as Sri Lanka had its indigenous traditional system of education. The Portuguese, the Dutch and the British ruled the country from 1505 to1948. After that English automatically became the major language of administration, law, secular education, business and transport displacing the native languages. English was also served as lingua franca during the colonial time when people were divided by language barriers even within the country.

Proficiency in ELF? • Successful ELF communication requires different types of competence: In a context where we have to constantly shuttle between different varieties and communities, proficiency becomes complex. To be really proficient in English today, one has to be multidialectal. This does not mean that one needs production skills in all the varieties of English. One needs the capacity to negotiate diverse varieties to facilitate communication. The passive competence to understand new varieties is part of this multidialectal competence … Proficiency means, then, the ability to shuttle between different varieties of English and different speech communities. (Canagarajah,2006,p.233)

What would an ELF look like? The ability to tolerate and comprehend different varieties of English: different accents, different syntactic forms and different discourse styles The ability to negotiate meaning when meaning is ambiguous The ability to use those phonological features which are crucial for intelligibility across speakers of different L1 backgrounds An awareness of appropriate pragmatics (e.g., awareness of politeness in cross-cultural situations) The ability to accommodate your interlocutor, to make yourself understandable to whomever you are speaking with The ability to notice and repair breakdowns in communication Others?

The role of English as a second language in Sri Lanka English functions not only as a lingua franca, but also as the vehicle of a superior civilization.  English provides a code of communication to linguistically and culturally diverse groups of people for interpersonal communication. At the tertiary level English is used as the medium of instruction in all. Service English courses are given at all the universities. Technical institutes, colleges of Education and Teachers' Training schools offer Diploma and professional courses in English.

How might the assessing English as a lingua franca (ELF) affect the life of teachers and Students in Sri Lanka Teaching / Learning Context ( outer circle) Main Contexts : a) a native speaker background b) the language is used for some official purposes has developed into a ‘nativized variety’ c) a context in which English has no official status apart from being learnt in schools and possibly used in popular culture and mass media These three contexts represent Kachru’s (1985) classification.

Teachers’ focus on teaching Teachers whether they are native or non-native speakers must have both declarative knowledge “knowledge about Something” and procedural knowledge—“ability to do things” in at least three key areas: knowing about and how to use the target language knowing about and how to teach in culturally appropriate ways knowing about and how to behave appropriately in the target culture (Kaplan, 1999, quoted in Pasternak & Bailey, 2004, p. 158)

Students’ focus on Learning Communication between two (or more) non-native speakers (sometimes NNS – NS communication) English now spoken by 25% of world population (Source: British Council) More ELF conversations daily than conversations between native speakers Current testing practice takes an “orthodox” approach with only native-speaker varieties represented in listening test input (e.g., IELTS, TOEFL)

What next? Tests of ELF may be on the horizon Raises issues of fairness – who should take these tests? Native speakers too? More research required to understand what is important in lingua franca communication World Englishes perspective needs to be incorporated in good test design – for validity’s sake Views of stakeholders sought at every step of the process As English changes, so must assessment practices

Future directions Assessing English as a Lingua Franca? It seems to me that there is a great need for re- thinking the construct involved in language assessment. I think we are at a moment of very significant change, the sort of change that only comes along once in a generation or longer – the challenge that is emerging in our developing understanding of what is involved in ELF communication. (McNamara, 2011)

Conclusion Assessing English as LF in non-native contexts brings with it a very unique set of problems and issues. All these issues explore English teaching in schools and universities of Sri Lanka. In a multilingual environment, the system of English education can be challenged by policy makers in this country. The outcome of the paper also indicates congruence between personal choice and official policy in contemporary Sri Lanka as evidenced by the views expressed regarding the media of instruction, bilingualism and the approbation of English .

Thank You Comments & Questions ???

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