Humanities
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Item Cognitive Barriers in Learning English as a Second Language at Tertiary Level: A Survey of English as a Second Language Class at the University of Jaffna(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Santhirasegaram, S.This paper aims to probe the principal difficulties and barriers of the second language learners in the ESL classroom at tertiary level. This study mainly focuses on the barriers of learning English as a second language at the University of Jaffna and to provide some effective teaching approaches to improve English knowledge of undergraduates. The researcher has conducted this survey to explore the cognitive barriers in the skill of writing in English. This study has been carried out in relation to the second year students in the Faculty of Arts, University of Jaffna. The objective of this study is to examine the cognitive barriers in the ESL classroom. The researcher tries to investigate what are the causes for the difficulties and the link between the barriers and the language learners‟ family factors, cultural factors and psychological traits. This study also provides valuable suggestions to improve the learners‟ language acquisition level and the development of writing skill, how to motivate them via effective teaching approaches and strategies and help them to overcome their learning barriers. The data has been analysed through qualitative and quantitative research methods. This study is based on writing materials that were collected from the undergraduates to gather information and discussions regarding this study. This study helps to diagnose the learners‟ cognitive barriers in writing, to bring an effective learning outcome and to improve the learners‟ cognitive level in the ESL classroom.Item The Impact of Studying English Literature in Improving English as a Second Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Karunarathna, J.A.M.B.The four language skills are of varying degrees of importance to the second language learner. Listening and reading are considered as the receptive skills of language and speaking and writing are considered as the productive skills of language. Reading provides learners with a wide range of individual lexical or syntactic items. The students become familiar with many features of the written language such as syntax, discourse functions, by reading. The research aims at analysing the impact of English literature towards improving writing skills of English in the Sri Lankan context. The sample consists of 22 students who are learning English as a subject in the G.C.E. Advanced Level class, Co/Muslim Ladies College. The students have been learning English literature for a duration of 16 months. The instruments of data collection are questionnaires, interviews and analysis of texts written by the students in the 02nd week of study and in the 14th month. Specifically, in analysing the texts written by the students, the analysis was limited to subject-verb-object agreement, tenses, spellings and punctuation. An analysis of data was done descriptively and statistically, since both types of data, i.e. qualitative and quantitative data were collected. In the analysis of the texts 48% of improvement of accurate subject-verb-object agreement, 68% of improvement in the tenses, 52% of improvement of accurate spellings and 62% of accurate use of punctuation were observed. Thus, through the findings of the research, it could be discerned that learning English literature has a positive impact on improving writing skills of English as a second language.Item Teaching language through literary texts(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Hettiarachchi, H.V.A.In Sri Lanka, the proficiency in the first language as well as a second language, specifically English language has become a necessity to achieve higher in the current job market. Though a proficiency in a language should be determined by the mastery of both productive and receptive skills, the society tend to evaluate an individual’s language skills mainly through their writing skill. Writing skills involve the accurate use of grammar, punctuation and spelling and therefore the improvement of the students’ writing skills has become a necessity in catering to the needs of the job market. Questioning the conventional language teaching methods, a class room action research was carried out with the participation of ten university students of lower intermediate level from the Department of Marketing Management of University of Kelaniya to investigate the necessity for the improvement of writing skills using modern approaches to language teaching. The objective of the action research was to assess the effectiveness of adopting the unconventional language-basedapproach rather than the use of conventional content-based-approach in teaching second language (ESL) learners. Unlike the content approach, the language-based-approach incorporates literature and language skills. Thus, the researcher was able to guide students on the specific literature piece based on their proficiency level, lexical and discourse knowledge (Lazar, 1993). The classroom action research was conducted in two circles. Each cycle included four stages, planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. The research data were collected by using observation, interview, documents, and photographs and tests.The data were analyzed during and after data collection. The results after the initial data collection showed the need for the improvement of basic grammatical skills such as the use of articles and prepositions and by the evaluation of the data collected at the end of the research, the researcher was able to conclude the effectiveness of the language approach in teaching language to ESL students.