Return to Reading: An appeal to reconsider the pedagogy of Teaching English as a Second Language in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This paper calls for a rethinking about the pedagogy of teaching English in Sri Lanka and suggests an alternate and effectively possible way through getting students to read for pleasure.  In answering the question as to how we can bring in an impactful, low-cost solution – as other ways seem difficult in this country at the moment - to improving the teaching/learning of English in Sri Lanka, this paper hopes to show, through research done in this area by Second Language Acquisition theorists, that reading for pleasure especially at young ages, but also among adult learners, is a practically possible and suitable solution to this country, which has a strong public library system in place.  Therefore, the focus is mainly on the necessity and the worth of such a programme to university students - the tertiary education sector being where the researcher is mainly involved in - and will bring in the ideas of SLA theorists, mainly Stephen D. Krashen, to advocate a particular pedagogy.  Therefore, the paper will limit itself to showing why such a programme is necessary and how it can be put in place, using the work that has been done so far in this field through the English for Fun project, centered at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and taken across the country through the National Library and the public libraries under its purview.  The idea is to demonstrate the actual possibilities that arise when educational systems and the national library system work together, to put parallel and even alternate ways of teaching in place in this field that is crying out for innovation. 

KEYWORDS: TESL, Reading, Poverty, Pleasure, Libraries