Abstract:
This research intends to study the impact of social background on students‘
English language speaking skills in Higher Educational Institutions. The study is
based on three institutions, namely Advanced Technological institute Dehiwala.
Galle and Kandy which is established under Sri Lanka institute of Advanced
Technological Education. The main objective of the study was to examine the
impact of social background on students‘ English Language speaking skills. It
has two specific objectives, to find out reasons for different social backgrounds,
and to examine whether the social background factors are unique to create
language proficiency in the higher educational institutions. The performance of
English in schools, parents‘ educational qualification, parents‘ financial status
and parents‘ profession, are found out as different social background factors from
the previous literature for the research study. The research population consist of
300 students, and they were selected from three institutes, representing five
Higher National Diploma courses (SLQF-6 level). The research is set in the
positive paradigm, which lends itself to both quantitative and qualitative
approaches. The SPSS version 16 is used to analyze the data instruments. The
data analysis is followed by questionnaires, interviews and oral assessments of
students in addition to the points of panel of lecturers in English. The study
applies three analysis as frequency analysis, descriptive analysis and correlation
analysis in order to address the research questions. The overall results show that
the impact of social background on students‘ English-speaking skills is
insignificant, but there is a positive correlation between selected social
background factors. The findings highlight the reasons for the impact as the
v
majority of students have come from middle class families whose parents would
not capable enough to make an impact on students‘ language competency. It is
also proved that the social background factors are not unique to Higher
Educational institutions, basically Sri Lanka Institution of Advanced
Technological Education to create language proficiency in the higher educational
context as students‘ psychological factors can make a profound impact on
English language proficiency. The findings are registered to undertake further
investigation.
