What bliss it would be for the human race if a second language could be simply "taught" like any of the other subjects in a curriculum! If that were the case the average Sri Lankan student who gets through the O/L exam would be equally proficient in English as in the other subjects he or she gets through. However, a student who obtains a good grade for English with a level of fluency matching the grade on the certificate is more the exception than the rule. This is often the case even when the student has obtained an ‘A’ for English at the G.C.E O/L, which is a reflection of treating English as another subject the methods of teaching and evaluation of which are done in the same way as with other subjects.

Obviously, the nature and scope of subjects taught in schools and universities are constantly being influenced by the trends in society. It can be argued that English, taught as a second language in our country, is one of the few subjects that have had a close relationship with the employment sector at any given time. For example, today the term "English" is considered rather outdated and replaced with "communications skills in English" especially in institutions of higher studies. This is a sign of the overwhelming demand for those who can speak and write fluently in English especially in the private sector and generally in all spheres of employment and social activity- industry, commerce, education or politics. This gravitation towards the communicative aspect of English can be traced to the flourishing of industry and private sector in the country and outside. The increasing number of labels indicating the approaches and methods of teaching English- TESL, TEFL, TPR,CLL,CLT, TPR to name a few, is proof of the sustained efforts of the researchers in the field and the teachers to make teaching of English a more result-oriented exercise.

Hundred teachers of English may use hundred different text books at their discretion or may not use any at all, but will hopefully realize their goal of making their students fluent in using English, irrespective of the teaching materials or methods adopted. In other words, in teaching a second language there is no essential ‘content’ which the learner must know consciously at the end of the programme, the learning outcome being the acquisition of the four skills - speaking, writing, reading and listening. For all practical purposes, it matters little whether a learner has conscious knowledge of this or that grammar rule or the meaning of this or that word in his mother tongue. However, if we were to treat English merely as another subject in the routine curriculum whose objective is to give the students the "knowledge" to answer some questions, we might as well set a paper even in the students’ mother tongue with questions like "how many parts of speech …?," "what is the past participle of …? or even, "give the equivalent of … in your mother tongue." If giv

ing "content" is the purpose, students may even answer the question paper in their mother tongue and score full marks without being able to speak or write in English. But such a test will hardly be valid in terms of assessing the student’s skills of communication in the target language. Therefore it is important to understand that programmes in English should be designed to enable the students to acquire a working knowledge of the language. Consequently, the tests should target "skills" rather than "knowledge" and incorporate both speech and writing components whenever possible if the marks are to sufficiently reflect their proficiency.

As we know, learning a subject involves the use of our mental faculties in diverse ways depending on the nature of the subject. Mathematics, history, biology, archaeology, physics, political science, Logic or economics will demand a combination of analytical thinking, memorizing, deduction, rationalizing, organizing, comparing & contrasting etc. but in different degrees. Most of these faculties generally develop as the child grows. Because of this reason, it would be absurd to attempt to teach a primary level student the subjects prescribed, for example, for A/Level or Degree level student. Therefore it is no wonder that those who tend to put English in the same basket along with mathematics, biology or history feel thoroughly embarrassed when they find that adult students don’t perform in English as much as they do in other subjects- hence the blame for teachers of English. But as a matter of fact, the general theory of the upward curve in learning skills in relation to age is hardly applicable to a second language and none of those learning faculties like analytical thinking, memorizing and deduction will ever help the adult learner of a second language – hence the sense of doom and gloom.

When it comes to speech, fortunately or unfortunately, it is the toddler who is the cleverest in "learning" or rather acquiring the skill in any second language. This is at variance with the general rules of learning, because there is no other "subject" which happens to be easier for the child learner than the adult learner. There lies the rub. What really happens is that as children grow up, their "language circuits" become more and more hardwired to the network of the first language with the invariable result of their being resistant to the setting up of a new system of codes of a second language. Although an adult learner can learn "about" a second language with more efficiency than a child, he will never beat the former in the game of acquiring competence in speech. Therefore those who are vexed with the undergraduates for their poor English may well be in for long spells of disappointment till they realize that those cognitive faculties that usually come to the rescue of the undergraduate to excel in their academic subjects are more or less useless when they happen to acquire speech skills.

It is a fact that, unlike in the good old days where a professional could mind his own little business, in a highly commercialized social context many professionals in such fields as engineering, accountancy etc. are not able to remain smugly confined to their specialized fields. Gone are the days when the engineering was synonymous with measuring and calculation; today engineers have to fit into multiple roles that call for a variety of soft skills, especially communications skills in English. Unfortunately, the task is not so easy as some may expect because the business of teaching a second language within systems geared to teaching other subjects gives rise to issues that are beyond the control of teachers of English.