Every year, a considerable number of Sri Lankan students migrate overseas to further their studies. In comparison to previous years, the total number of students emigrating has increased significantly. Especially, in such countries, many migrant students are able to find new opportunities for their career development other than furthering their education. This qualitative research aims to examine the language alienation of Sri Lankan students studying overseas and how it has hindered the achievement of their academic outcomes. Ten migrant students studying in Canada and Australia for more than six months were selected as participants in the study. Semi-structured interview was administered to gather data and Thematic Analysis (TA) was used to arrange, analyze and interpret the data. The findings of the study revealed that 90% of the participants experienced language alienation upon arrival in these countries. They could not complete many of their daily tasks, such as making friends, understanding lectures, and participating in classroom events, due to the language barrier. Participants reported that the inadequate opportunity for enhancing their English communication skills in ESL classrooms in Sri Lanka is the key reason for this situation. As they claim, Sri Lankan primary and secondary education should give equal significance to all the English skills in the English curriculum rather than prioritizing writing and reading in examinations. This claim points to the need of practising speaking and listening in ESL classrooms without focusing only on examination-oriented teaching.
Error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors learners make. It consists of a comparison between the errors made in the Target Language (TL) and that TL itself. For learners themselves, errors are 'indispensable,' since the making of errors can be regarded as a device the learner uses in order to learn. Researchers are interested in errors because they are believed to contain valuable information on the strategies that learners use to acquire a language. Hence, an error analysis is the best tool for describing and explaining errors made by speakers of other languages in order to know the sources of these errors and the reasons behind their continued occurrence year after year with different groups of learners.This study focuses on errors in English essay writing of Sinhala speaking undergraduates in order to identify whether the L1 transfer is the major cause for errors in English writing of Sinhala undergraduates. If this were to be true, then it could be concluded that the reason behind all those errors is Negative L1 transfer/ Mother Tongue interference. This paper further attempts to identify and describe Sinhala speaking undergraduates' errors in English essay writing and thereby make efforts to minimize the problems encountered in their English writing. Target Population were the selected Sinhala speaking undergraduates who are offering English as a Second language for their BA (General) Degree at the Universities of Kelaniya, Peradeniya and the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.For the selection of a corpus of language, following the guidelines offered by (Ellis, 1995) samples of written assignments were collected from 60 students who are in the first and the second academic years of their degree programmes. These students were provided with the topics 'An Unforgettable Day in My Life' or 'My University Life' and asked to write on them in 200 to 250 words. They were given sufficient time to write (Ellis, 1997). They started with an outline, then a first draft and a final draft.This highly objective and outcome-oriented investigation reflects negative L1 transfer/interference is not the major cause for errors in the English writings of Sinhala speaking undergraduates. This would enable the academic researchers, language teachers, linguists to build up a further discussion on errors of Sinhala speakers' English writing.
The aim of the current study is to examine the validity and reliability of online examinations through undergraduates’ and lecturers’ perceptions and identify the ways in which online examinations can be more focused and effective. To this end, a questionnaire including both qualitative and quantitative inquiries were administered among forty-five undergraduates and fifteen lecturers of three state universities in Sri Lanka. Thematic Analysis and SPSS software were used to analyze qualitative and quantitative data respectively. Findings of the study indicate that 80% of the undergraduates and lecturers preferred traditional examinations to online assessments given its flexibility, validity, and fairness. Majority of the lecturers encountered issues during online examinations, thus they reported the need of improving the methods and strategies of online assessments in a way they measure undergraduates’ performance accurately. Moreover, undergraduates’ social, economic, technological, and psychological issues also hindered the effectiveness of online examination to a considerable extent. The results of online examinations cannot be regarded as valid and reliable because they were unable to evaluate undergraduates’ learning outcomes as accurately as onsite examinations. The study has implications for the undergraduates, test administrators, lecturers, and the university management.
A broader awareness of ESL teachers' conceptions for engaging in PD is vital for them to gain productive outcomes from prevail-ing Professional Development (PD) opportunities. The qualitative case study reported here investigated the implications of PD initiatives to heighten ESL teachers' quality in their professional practice. The study used semi-structured interviews to gather data from ten in-service ESL teachers of a government university in Sri Lanka and, Thematic Analysis for recognizing, arranging and interpreting data. The results demonstrated four key implications of PD that empowered teachers to enhance the quality in their practice: (a) refinement of teachers' character and behaviour (b) sustaining teachers' currency of knowledge in terms of qualifications, content and overall knowledge and experience, thereby growing into quality practitioners with certificates and credentials, (c) enriching teachers' quality of delivery via improved skills and expertise, and (d) maintaining teachers' profes-sional standards. These outcomes could be achieved through both independent and sponsored PD activities regulated by dem-ocratic and managerialist principles respectively. The study has valuable implications for PD providers and policy makers, and points to the need of considering them in designing, delivering and framing PD activities in ESL in order to achieve optimum learner outcomes via meaningful PD initiatives.
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