Abstract:
University work in English Language Teaching (ELT) to young adults commenced in Sri Lanka in 1960, with an
intensive course in English to new entrants to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ceylon in Peradeniya. Similar
work commenced in Colombo in 1964 with the inauguration of the so-called “Ashva Vidyalaya”. The policy for this
intensive course came from Faculty recognition of a need for Sinhala and Tamil medium Arts entrants, to enhance
their English skills in order to cope with their advanced academic reading tasks in English. Although the 1960
course conducted by James Sledd at Peradeniya addressed more than the reading tasks, the immediate needs of
academic reading were central to its policy.
Within the next four decades, universities in Sri Lanka multiplied, intensive courses were extended to all faculties
and also to on-going courses in Faculties of Arts, Law, Management etc. Some faculties conducted their courses in
the English medium, and therefore their immediate needs extended from academic reading tasks to listening to
lectures, taking notes, following instructions at ‘practicals’, speaking at tutorial and discussion groups, writing
assignments etc.
In addition, by about the 1970s, international research in ELT influenced university work in Sri Lanka, where
communicative methodology recognized the teaching of all four skills, i.e. Listening, Speech, Reading and Writing,
emphasizing the use of meaningful communicative activities rather than the teaching of formal grammar, meaning
over form or structure and fluency over accuracy. It also began to be recognized that undergraduates were not
achieving adequate reading proficiency in order to cope with their advanced reading tasks. Research on second
language acquisition had started to show that tying students to academic reading and the study of grammar had not
shown sufficient benefit. In response to all these issues, the initial policy widened to developing all four skills with
more communicative activity.
By about the 1980s, Sri Lanka began to experience serious problems regarding the use of English. Due to the
underplaying of English in the national policy, it became clear that English skills were desperately neede d not only
by undergraduates, but also by thousands of young adults and adults in Sri Lanka. State departments and institutions
and private sector industries and companies were experiencing massive problems over recruiting suitable staff and
managing their routine career tasks that needed to be done in the English medium. As a result, objectives underlying
ELT developed from the narrow objective of meeting immediate pre-sessional needs through relatively short
intensive courses to a comprehensive aim of providing for the total immediate and deferred needs of adults and
young adults through on-going in-sessional courses in tertiary educational institutions and through pre-service and
in-service career courses.
The Extension Courses in English in Colombo were inaugurated in 1984 in response to these needs. Being the
metropolitan university, the University of Colombo could and should cater to as many adults and young adults who
were in need of English skills, as a former Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Stanley Wijesundera, recognized. As a result, he
encouraged the Department of English & ELTU to run modestly priced service-oriented courses for outside persons,
using the expertise and resources available to set up relevant and competent courses.