Using Short-Films to Enhance the Writing Skills of Sri Lankan ESL Learners by Writing Essays

Abstract

Many non-native English as a second language (ESL) teachers have to go through numerous issues to improve their students' language abilities in developing writing skills. As an innovation, integrating short film in the language classroom is a solution to enhance students' writing competency. The usage of short films on improving writing skills is still not widely used in the Sri Lankan education system, and there are not many studies conducted on enhancing writing skills through short-films in Sri Lanka, which can be mentioned as the research gap. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using short films in developing writing skills and motivating ESL learners to participate in essay writing. The researcher will explore how writing skills, vocabulary, and narrative expressions can be enhanced by watching English short films. The study will further examine whether English films for ESL learning can create opportunities to learn a language with regard to real life scenarios. The population of this study will be ten grade 12 school students in Sri Lanka, and a mixed-method approach will be used to gather data. Data will be collected by conducting teaching sessions, displaying short films, essay writing, and a post-questionnaire. The data will be analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics with graphs and charts. The cognitive theory in writing is supported as the theoretical framework to explore the effectiveness of short films in improving writing skills in a cognitive critical manner. Thus, this study will investigate the manner in which the innovative method of watching short films helps to improve the ESL learners' cognitive critical thinking skills involved in writing essays.