Building confidence to learn English
Recently I was invited for the English Day of a leading International School. I had to deliver a speech and I made use of the opportunity to convey some of the ideologies/perceptions I have on English language, its teaching and related issues to the audience that was present for the occasion. I focused my speech on four areas: difference between a speaker of Sinhala/Tamil and a speaker of English; English as a link; varieties of English; West and Europe and Sri Lankan identity.
All the concepts and ideas I have been propagating throughout my engagement in the discourse of English language teaching in Sri Lanka mainly after the research pertinent to my PhD have been woven and revolving around one major concept: Building confidence. That is, building confidence is central to teaching English in the Sri Lankan context and not teaching grammars or structures.
English need not represent West