English Language Teaching in its Social Context

ETHNOGRAPHY OF A SRI LANKAN CLASSROOM 223the promise of social and economic advancement English holds, and (especially for Tamilstudents today) thc uses of English as a buffer against Sinhala nationalism and passport forexodus as political or economic refugees abroad.The grammar-based, product-oriented learning which students alternatively desired(as exemplified in the lived culture as well as their statements) is one way for them toreconcile this conflict. That is, grammar learning enabled the students to be detached fromthe language and the course, avoid active use of the language which could involveinternalization of its discourses, and thereby continue their opposition to the reproductivetendencies of the course. At the same time, this strategy enabled them to maintain theminimal contact necessary with the language in order to acquire the rules of grammar --which in their view was the most efficient preparation for getting through the examination.This strategy while enabling them to preserve their cultural integrity (however tenuously)also enabled them to accommodate the institutional requirement of having to pass Englishand thus bid for the socioeconomic advantages associated with the language.Although noting that grammar learning functions as a possible strategy to negotiate theconflicts studcnts face in the ESOL classroom, we have to realize that there are significanthistorical and cultural reasons which motivate them to adopt this strategy. The populardemand for grammar among all Sri Lankan university students is attested to by thechairperson for English Language Teaching Centres in the country (R. Raheem, personalcommunication, September 28th, 1991). Students’ desire to be simply given the abstractrules of the language by the teacher could be influenced by traditional styles of learning inTamil society (or, for that matter, Sri Lankan society), which have been largely productoriented and teacher centered. Although it is hard to generali~e about the differentinstitutions of learning that have existed historically (such as thinnai, or “house front,” andtemple schools), it can be said that typically the teacher (always male) passed on his stockof received knowledge orally to the disciple at his feet (see Jeyasuriya, no date; Sirisena,1969; Somasegaram, 1969). The disciples had to cultivate the art of listening meditativelyand memorizing accurately the huge stock of information to be preserved withoutcorruption.Thc reverence paid to the guru, as to the knowledge he transmitted, was almostreligious in character. This tradition is directly inherited by private institutes incontemporary Tamil society, enjoying immense popularity among parents and students (andpitted by my own students as a corrective to the university ESOL course), which intensivelyprepare passive students for competitive examinations.Moreover, traditional descriptions of language and pedagogies of language teachingdisplay a penchant for prescriptive, deductive, and formalistic methods. Although thewell-known Dravidian scholar Emeneau (1 955) outlines the fundamental influence ofHindu linguistic tradition on Western descriptive linguistics, he also notes: “Intellectualthoroughness and an urge toward ratiocination, intellection, and learned classification fortheir own sakes should surely be recognized as characteristic of the Hindu higher culture.. . . They become grammarians, it would seem, for grammar’s sake” (pp. 145-146).Similarly, as late as the colonial period, the teaching of local languages to Europeanadministrators was primarily based on studying and memorizing learned grammaticaltreatises (see Wickramasuriya, 198 1).Anthropological approaches based on a narrowly conceived egalitarianism wouldencourage us to fashion a method of language teaching that resembles the native traditionof a community (see, e.g., a description of the KEEP project in Watson-Gegeo, 1988).However, the grammar focused tradition of Tamils - which resembles the now disreputedgrammar-translation method inTESOL - drives to a reductio ad absurdum such attempts.Critical ethnography would posit that native learning traditions have to be interrogated for