Read newspapers, watch sports shows to learn English

In our country most of the people have adequate knowledge of English in spite of the poor educational standards. What they lack is the skill in spoken English.

To overcome this I wish to suggest the following methods. Firstly, Reading. As a rule everyone should read English newspapers. Sadly this is lacking in most of us. For example, I recently joined a company, where on the first day I was surprised to see a pile of English newspapers supplied free by the management. But it remained unopened. The papers were in mint condition to be sold as scrap! What a waste of money?

Everyone will have his/her favourite section in any newspaper. It maybe sports, politics or entertainment. By reading we can definitely develop our language skills.

Secondly, sports programmes on TV can also help.

I wish to make some observations relating to the sports medicine unit of Sri Lanka.

Sports medicine involves assessment of sportsmen and women prior to competitive sports and treating illnesses or injuries they may suffer as a result of sports activity.

But how injuries to national and school athletes are assessed and dealt with by the so-called ‘sports medicine specialists’ needs scrutiny.

Are these sports medicine doctors qualified to be on a panel managing injuries to athletes? A properly qualified sports physi- On local channels, pre- and post-match discussions are held in Sinhala. If these discussions are held in English, it will help improve the English knowledge of our sports fans.

In my case I have been an avid reader of newspapers and watch sports telecast. In the early sixties when there was no TV in Sri Lanka, there was a popular sports programme called Saturday Special, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the BBC. As a sports fan I used to tune into the radio and sit through the entire four hours. This was useful in cultivating my knowledge in English.

The recently concluded IPL was a good example where the panelists discussed the matches and held interviews in English. Such programmes are easily understandable and useful to viewers.

David Williams