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Alternative education for children is vital in an education system where there is not much of choice. In Sri Lanka the rigidity in teaching English language is due to lack of creative teachers and therefore classroom teaching of English has become a difficult task for many teachers. If a survey done in the country one could identify that language teachers lack proper English. There is a dearth of English teachers and more than that creative teaching is not visible in any of the institutions that teach English language for the teachers. Thus the quality of English has dropped drastically despite numerous tuition classes around the country. What solution is available at this critical moment to enhance the standard of teaching English? online mba degrees
The only alternative we could see is that to employ drama trained teachers with good English to conduct English language classes. Drama could be seen as an alternative to language teaching with voice practice, expressions, dialog reading, script writing and performing, however, the authorities have failed to see this aspect and still rely on those students who enter teacher's colleges with minimal understanding on the creative aspect of English language education.
It has to be mentioned that there are private tutors who are qualified in speech and drama and conduct classes for international examinations but they do not want to engage themselves in government schools for a meager salary. The authorities have failed to look into this matter and employ competent teachers for higher salaries to develop alternative education in the country. In Sri Lanka English theatre is a powerful arena even though it has a limited audience, an audience that is well acquainted with foreign plays and are fully aware of the language styles employed by different playwrights. Therefore, the government has all the opportunity to employ the English theatre dramatists in Sri Lanka to conduct English language teaching creating a different environment in the sphere of education. Thus a choice will be opened for the children to be creative as well as to make themselves move with the language without much difficulty as the dramatist will know how the speech practice should be conducted. jobs in india
It is evident that the small number of speech and drama specialists in the country will not be able to conduct classes for all the schools but at least they could conduct classes in the Teachers Colleges and make those come to qualify as teachers to realize that teaching English is not mere teaching grammar and giving writing practice, instead, to make the child to converse in the language without any blocks. Here, there is a demand to make the classroom active which most of the principals do not like in this country. If a classroom is noisy the principals have a negative feeling towards that class which is psychologically wrong as the child needs to be active to learn. The Victorian type classrooms and the prison-type confinement of children in the class means still the country is in archaic teaching practices and have not attempted in altering or changing the conditions for the child to learn creatively and actively. Therefore, the learning-teaching process has become, especially, in the language classroom a bleak experience.
Changing of attitudes of the educationists is one of the important aspects in having good choices for alternative education. In a developing world with all the modern technology language teaching requires new methods through internet facility. This, too, is a good choice since in most houses the internet facility is available and children engage in browsing and conversing with their friends through skype and in other meeting sites. Therefore, if the authorities provide adequate computers with internet facility, the teachers in English could creatively engage making the children to explore into areas that even the text book cannot highlight on. For instance, writing letters could be practiced through emails. Further, studies on nature is easy by locating the places as videos and snapshots are available in the internet. The child will receive a good knowledge on the world of which he needs to communicate with others. accelerated online degrees
First and foremost, it is suggested that an openness in the minds of the authorities should be visible in order to make the children in the country to be explorers of the world. Language classroom is a place where peace studies could be activated. A country like Sri Lanka needs its classrooms to be multicultural classrooms in order to build peace among communities as the country experienced a three decade long civil war. The ethnic harmony depends on how far the country's education could contribute towards it. As we know in every school there is a mixture of ethnicities and that is a good resource for the language classrooms to bring out language styles, meanings, interpretations, and then to see the identity of each language with its cultural patterns. Each language has its cultural roots and such cultural norms are good choices as alternative educational approaches in making students to appreciate the identities of the 'Other' or to accept the diversity. There will be humor, drama and reconciliation through multi-linguistic approaches in the language classroom.
Here, there is a vital point for the policy-makers in the country to see that education is given to the children appreciating the diversity of the languages, their cultural patterns, linguistic roots and social harmony. A country that is engulfed in racial differences need to think on this good choice for alternative development in education so that the future of the country will not see any conflicts on racial grounds.
