Six-month stay to help local teachers in English courses / Cooperation with GIZ
30.11.2016
Students of English at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have the opportunity to spend six months in Sri Lanka starting in September 2016 to provide support to local English teachers. Currently there are already two students in Kilinochchi, in the north of the island, where they are gathering teaching experience at the Sri Lanka German Technical Training Institute (SLGTTI). English is very important in the trilingual country as it represents the shared medium of communication between the Sinhalese- and Tamil-speaking populations. This student-based project of the Department of English and Linguistics at JGU, managed by Professor Britta Mondorf, is being undertaken at vocational education centers in the north and east of the country that are subsidized by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
After Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, was granted independence within the British Commonwealth in February 1948, the simmering conflict between the Buddhist, Sinhalese-speaking majority in the country and the primarily Hindu Tamil-speaking minority, resident mostly in the north and east of the country, came to the boil. Sinhalese was declared the sole official language of the country, and unrest ultimately sparked a civil war in which the Tamil minority fought to establish its own national territory. "Since the end of the civil war in May 2009, the country has been slowly recovering, especially in the northern and eastern provinces of the island," said project coordinator Anke Lensch of the JGU Department of English and Linguistics. "In the interim, Tamil has joined Sinhalese as an official language of the country, while English, originally the language of their colonial masters, was declared a 'linking language'." English thus continues to enjoy a high priority as a lingua franca. It is the language used by the Sri Lanka Supreme Court and the leading universities in the country teach in English. The English language actually acts as a link in Sri Lanka between the population groups and across the various religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity.
Since the end of the war, GIZ has been helping the local authorities bolster and standardize the vocational education system in Sri Lanka. The objective is to ensure that young people have better and more secure future prospects in their own country and will be able to build up an existence there. In addition, GIZ promotes the exchange of trainees between various regions of the country through action days and continuing education opportunities, thus providing a significant contribution to maintaining peace on the island.
Through their activities in Sri Lankan classrooms, the Mainz students will be able to hone their skills in teaching a foreign language in an intercultural environment. "By working with Sri Lankan pupils, our students will have the chance to discover the multifaceted nature of the country and will also learn how to deal with the special challenges of recent history," emphasized Anke Lensch, who is coordinating the project. The students from Mainz University will supplement their expertise as English teachers and they will be able to bring unique impressions back with them to Germany. Sri Lanka is an island country that has much to offer and possesses a rich and varied cultural heritage. Next spring, up to eleven new students of English will be departing for Sri Lanka from Mainz.