English Language Projects of Matugama Education Zone

The Zonal Education Office, Matugama has already taken steps to implement the following projects in order to raise the standard of English in schools in 2011 STUDENT-BASED PROJECTS Five day Basic English Course for very weak students in Grade Nine Zonal English language drama and singing competitions Certificates awarding ceremony Spoken English Test for Grade Ten pupils G.C.E (O/L) English language results improvement G.C.E...

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Minister denies misinterpretations of English language requirement for Sri Lankan university entrants

Feb 17, Colombo: Sri Lanka Minister of Higher Education S.B. Dissanayake rejected the misinterpretations made by certain quarters regarding the G.C.E. Advanced Level General English paper. He reiterated that a pass in General English is not compulsory for the university admission. However, the candidates are directed to sit for the General English paper to have an assessment regarding their aptitude in English language. The...

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Zonal Language Training Centre of Matugama Education Zone now in operation

Zonal Language Training Centre (ZLTC) of the Matugama Education Zone was opened by the Zonal Director of Education of Matugama Mrs. K.K.P.M. Jayathilake on February 11, 2011 at 10.30 a.m.. The official blog of the English Department of the Matugama Education Zone was launched by Western Provincial Council Member Mr. Keerthi Kariyawasam. on the same day. The Grade 5 students of Mihindu Primary College, Agalawatta were the first...

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Zonal Language Training Centre(ZLTC) of the Matugama Education Zone is to be opened

The Zonal Language Training Centre(ZLTC) of the Matugama Education Zone is to be opened today (February 11, 2011) by the Zonal Director of Director of Education Mrs. K.K.P.M. Jayathilake. The ZLTC provides facilities for the teachers and students to improve their language skills. The centre is equipped with state of the art multimedia facilities, books and a classroom.  The blog of the English Department of the ZLTC will...

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Instructions to English teachers

WP/MT/ ED DEV/ ENG 2011/ 2Zonal Education OfficeMatugama January 15, 2011 Through principals to the teachers of English Instructions to English teachers 1. You are directed to implement the 2011 School English Development Programme, annexed herewith, in your schools. 2. Conduct the morning assembly in English medium at least once a week. 3. Implement English as a Life Skill Project in your schools. The progress of the project will be constantly monitored. 4. Writing term notes and lesson plans is compulsory since...

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I Have A Dream by ABBA

This song is prescribed for Grade 9 students in their text book. LYRICS Songwriters: Andersson, Benny Goran Br; Ulvaeus, Bjoern K.; I have a dream, a song to sing, to help me cope with anything If you see the wonder of the fairy tale You can take the future even if you fail I believe in angels, something good in everything I see I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me I'll cross the stream, I have a dream I have a dream, a fantasy, to help me through reality And my destination makes it worth the...

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European English: (A comic story)

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English". In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly,...

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Too many subjects spoil the soup

During the past decade many educationists, researchers, academics, and journalists have written reams on shortcomings of English language teaching in schools in Sri Lanka. Hence I do not intend to discuss them in this brief article. Instead I wish to focus the attention of the reader on some proposals that I have been pondering on during the past few months. To begin with, it is necessary to write here that the government has...

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A corpus for Sri Lankan English

Language and culture are inter-depending phenomena. Since each language relates to a culture, bilingualism or multilingualism can be considered blending cultures often creating cultural conflict in societies. Each word in a language possesses a cultural etymology and it is not easy to transfer that base to a target language through translation. In English, the word ‘tank’ is used to mean the Sinhala word weva. But, can the word...

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