“Forget about accent and be sure to be understood”- Dr. Donna Vaughan

Dr. Donna Vaughan is an Australian lady who has volunteered to improve English language teaching in rural Sri Lanka in a scientific way

Dr. Donna Vaughan is on an inspirational Journey and she is here to elevate Sri Lanka’s English Education
English is a language that keeps evolving by the day with words liberally borrowed and coined

English speakers pride themselves on the universal language they speak. They have every reason for that because of the spread of the language making it the communication link across numerous linguistic communities.  English is no longer the exclusive preserve of the core-English speaking countries- Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom (UK) and New Zealand – because more  than half of the world’s one billion English speaking people live outside them.

In Sri Lanka, there is a craze among parents to train their children to speak English. Children, unlike in the past, are also naturally familiar with some form of the language; thanks to the advancement of communication technology.  English is a language that keeps evolving by the day with words liberally borrowed and coined.

Still, in Sri Lanka, much remains to be done for the improvement of English language teaching scientifically, particularly in the primary section. Dr. Donna Vaughan, an Australian lady, has volunteered her efforts to improve English language teaching in rural Sri Lanka in a scientific way.  She has reason to select Sri Lanka for her charitable mission. Sharing her thoughts in an interview with Daily Mirror, she said it was a mission inspired by her late Sri Lankan husband Dr. Mahesan Kandaiya.
“My husband grew up and was educated in Kandy. He studied Engineering at Peradeniya University and then worked for IBM Sri Lanka and IBM Australia. He started our organization in 2004. It was his belief that English and computer literacy were the keys to a better future for Sri Lankan children. That remains our focus and mission at present as we continue his work. Our team consists of Sri Lankans, Australians and Sri Lankan Australians all working together towards the same goal,” she said.
Asked for comments on the standard of English language teaching at schools in Sri Lanka, she said “a much more robust foundation” is needed in the science of reading in the primary English instruction programme which she is targeting.

“The standard of English language teaching depends on the training that teachers receive, the instruction programme they are given to teach (curriculum, syllabus, resources), and their own talents as teachers. Much has been written about all three elements in Sri Lanka, but the gap we are targeting is the primary English instruction programme which needs a much more robust foundation in the science of reading. Teachers who are introduced to and trained in our reading programme for English, based on the science of reading, find that they get much better results in the classroom with higher satisfaction for teachers and students,” she said.
“The science of reading tells us what happens in our brain when we read and how we must train the brain to read,” she said.
“Writing was invented and this is why the brain needs to be trained. Neuroscientists have found that when we read we convert writing to sound and then when we recognise the word we go to our mental dictionary for meaning. This means that, when we teach reading, we first teach students to be aware of the sounds of the language (44 in English), then we teach the mapping of sounds to letters – phonics – and then show them how to read on their own using phonics to decode new words. Decoding skills and knowledge are needed for word recognition. “But to be a good reader students also need good language comprehension skills and knowledge. These are developed explicitly through a reading programme that exposes them to a wide range of reading material including different text structures (narrative, informational, etc.) language and vocabulary complexity, concepts and ideas, etc.
“In our Lotus Program Step 1 involves introducing sound awareness (phonemic awareness) in Years 1 and 2 while teaching ABOE. Step 2 involves an 8 week explicitly taught systematic phonics programme at the end of Year 2. Step 3 involves a structured reading programme taught from Grade 3 to 7 using levelled readers which we have developed ourselves with a Sri Lankan theme (www.lotuslibrary.kotobee.com ),” she said.
It is trending among young Sri Lankan parents to provide English medium education to their children right from kindergarten. That is to get English language competence, but at the cost of mother –tongue competence. Dr. Vaughan has an advice for them: “I think this is a sign of parents’ aspirations for their children, but these aspirations can be met without compromising or eroding mother-tongue competence and its cultural importance. Improved English language learning and teaching in schools, will address this,” she said.
Her voluntary work in Sri Lanka is not cosy, though. She explained it in the metamorphosis of a maintaining what is getting taller when climbing.  

Precisely, she said, “To be honest it feels like climbing a mountain that keeps getting taller! But, then we meet with teachers in remote, rural schools and see the creativity, commitment, and resilience they have and we know that we can help each other climb that mountain, step by step. Never give up,” she said.
 Access is another aspect most Sri Lankans are worried about. The inability to speak English in the British accent is seen as a weakness, and some people hesitate to express themselves in English fearing that it would be embarrassing without the British way of pronouncing.  Dr. Vaughan’s advice to them was, “Forget about accent and be sure to be understood”.
“One in our team is a speech pathologist and her advice is that the only important thing is to be understood. Everyone has an accent. We just need to listen to each other,” she said.
For her, it is endlessly fascinating to see the development of ‘Englishes’ across the world. No one owns English.