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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sri Lankan English'
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Wannisinghe, Mudiyanselage Jayantha. "Emerging femininities in selected Sri Lankan English fiction." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2019. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/676.
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THESIS submitted by Wannisinghe Mudiyanselage Jayantha to Hong Kong Baptist University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and entitled "Emerging Femininities in Selected Sri Lankan English Fiction" May 2019. The study documents the rise of emerging Sri Lankan feminine subjectivities as portrayed in post-independence novels in English by Punyakante Wijenaike, Nihal de Silva, and Chandani Lokuge. It attempts to interpret the rise of socially constructed traits of new womanhood and shifting gender norms responding to significant transformations in post-independence Sri Lanka economy and society during which the nation has rapidly shifted from a traditional rural economy to an industrialized since the 1978 free market reforms embraced with policies of globalization and neoliberalism. The selected novels are historicized by means of specific data indicating that any compensations traditionally afforded to Sri Lankan women through the collusion of colonialism with patriarchy are being challenged by the current globalization of opportunity and risk, even as Sri Lankan women continue to engage in the far older struggles for respect in traditional contexts and spaces (Wijenaike), take up arms in service in the name of nation-building projects (De Silva), or search for greater life opportunities by means of out- migration and eventual return (Lokuge). Challenges to conventional colonial-patriarchal ideology, with attention to specific objects symbolizing alternative (or even "deviant") femininity long preceding modernity, are the central focus of Punyakante Wijenaike's Giraya and Amulet. The use of a Marxist-feminist approach, localized in the setting of the walauwe, allows for the examination of potentials and limits for women's subjectivities as they emerged in the earliest 1970s-era post-independence novels. Nihal de Silva's The Road from Elephant Pass explores the fictionalized portrayal of women soldiers, conscripted to the LTTE in the early 1980s, and the effects of a revolutionary posture upon traditional gender roles. The tension in de Silva's novel between the political liberation project as national/romantic allegory uniting Sinhala and Tamil causes as ultimately endorsing patriarchal claims of Anderson's "imagined communities" thesis in the dramatic context of women's participation in the civil war. Using a "Fourth World" sovereignty frame, the final chapter of the project analyzes the potential rewards and risks of diasporic experience, for women protagonists in Chandani Lokuge's If the Moon Smiled and Turtle Nest. Collectively, the analyses indicate how Sri Lankan novels in English have documented the struggles, potentials, and continuing vulnerabilities around the emergence of new feminine subjectivities for post-independence Sri Lankan women.
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Jayawickrama, Sharanya. "Cross-cultural perspectives in contemporary Sri Lankan fiction in English." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.615180.
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Herat, Sandra Manel Florence. "The expression of syntax in Sri Lankan English : speech and writing." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.399929.
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McGarry, Theresa, and Martha Michieka. "Responsibility in Letters to the Editor in Sri Lankan and Kenyan Englishes." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/5468.
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Umashankar, Singanayagam. "Washback effects of speaking assessment of teaching English in Sri Lankan schools." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/622531.
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Washback is a concept commonly used in applied linguistics to refer to the influence of testing on teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the washback effect of a new system of English language speaking assessment in Sri Lanka. The new assessment was introduced with the intention of promoting the teaching and learning of English speaking skills in schools as part of a Presidential educational initiative called the English as a Life Skill Programme. The study examined the washback effect of the introduction of speaking assessments at both National and school levels from the perspectives of participants at three levels of the education system: the decision making level, intervening level (teacher trainers and in-service advisors), and implementing level (teachers and students). For this purpose, a mixed methods research approach was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants at the decision making level and intervening level to examine whether there were any important gaps in translating policy intentions to the implementing level participants (teachers and students). A questionnaire survey was conducted with teachers and students to investigate their perceptions of the assessment change and its effects on teaching and learning speaking in the classroom. Classroom observations were conducted to gain insights into actual classroom practices in relation to teaching and learning speaking, along with follow-up interviews to seek teachers’ accounts of their classroom practices. The study found that the assessment change did influence teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching and learning speaking in the classroom, as well as teachers’ instructional practices. Therefore, some of the policymakers’ intended aims were achieved. However, the intensity and direction of washback were shown to be influenced by several mediating factors such as teachers’ training and contextual factors such as the availability of classroom resources. The findings of this study suggest that assessment reforms can be used to promote change both in what is taught in the classroom and how it is taught, but to different degrees. The study indicated that washback does occur in this context, but it operates in a complex manner associated with many other variables besides the assessment itself. The findings of this study have implications for the improvement of future assessment policies in Sri Lanka, highlighting the importance of timely implementation of reforms and of monitoring them. The findings suggest that it is especially important to listen to key stakeholders’ (teachers’ and students’) voices in the initial planning and feasibility study phases of reform.
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Saikia, Dipli. "Voices from an island : a reading of four Sri Lankan novelists in English." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.288218.
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Perry, Tasneem. "Inherently hybrid : contestations and renegotiations of prescribed identities in contemporary Sri Lankan English writing." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2012. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/inherently-hybrid-contestations-and-renegotiations-of-prescribed-identities-in-contemporary-sri-lankan-english-writing(93f80c5c-a672-41be-9632-42254e49d5da).html.
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This thesis “Inherently Hybrid: Contestations and Renegotiations of Prescribed Identities in Contemporary Sri Lankan English Writing” examines work by Nihal de Silva, David Blacker and Vivimarie VanderPoorten to analyse their negotiation of identity, belonging and citizenship within contemporary Sri Lankan English Writing. This negotiation of identity is then placed in relation to the Eelam Wars as well as hybridity and cosmopolitanism, which have become a part of Sri Lankan identity because of the nation’s postcolonial past. Genre and form are employed as ways into exploring the tensions within Sri Lankan English writing, especially because they prescribe on the texts selected a specific way of approaching and presenting the ethnic conflict that is a widespread theme in much of contemporary Sri Lankan writing. The first chapter looks at De Silva’s adventure romance The Road From Elephant Pass. It examines how the novel engenders a renegotiation of identities through the effects of the ethnic conflict upon the attitudes, behaviours and ideologies of the island’s populations, symbolically represented through the narrator, who is a Sinhalese Buddhist officer in the Sri Lankan Army and his eventual lover, who is a rebel fighting for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. I analyse the arguments presented in the text around identity, belonging and patriotism and focus on the representations of ethnic and racial identity that ultimately expose the constructedness of these various positions, revealing the unacknowledged but real hybridity of the Sri Lankan peoples. I look at markers of cultural capital and tease out how class identities rely on cosmopolitanism, characterised by a knowledge of English, and how that further reveals the performativity of identity. The second chapter examines Blacker’s political thriller A Cause Untrue. Here I explore how the use of detail and description provides an appearance of imparting a complete and realistic perspective on the war. I demonstrate how the novel, through the calculated use of what I will characterise as a ‘reality effect’, takes on the manifestation of being an authority on the war. Blacker’s use of recognisable historical events allows him to create an alternative narrative of history, one that has all the hallmarks of being a true retelling even as it is apparent that his text utilises the ‘reality effect’ to imagine Sri Lanka creatively. This demonstrates how the selection of the thriller genre provides Blacker with a specific way of representing the nation and its diasporas’ in relation to the Eelam Wars. The third chapter focuses on VanderPoorten’s collection of poetry nothing prepares you. Here I investigate how the concepts of hybridity and cosmopolitanism are located within the language used to construct her poetry. I explore how this hybridity and cosmopolitanism of language works together with the form and content of her poems to provide a disquieting of fixed notions of identity, citizenship and belonging. The conclusion to the study revisits the issues that my three chapters deal with, bringing together an overall account of hybridity, cosmopolitanism and identity. I look at the constructedness and performance of identity with the aim of providing a nuanced reading of the renegotiations of identity and citizenship that are taking place because of the ethnic conflict. By summing up the different manifestations of the various gendered, ethnic and class identities represented and presented in the texts that I explore, I illustrate the wider implications of the points of connection between identity and power on the one hand and nationalism, dogma and political rhetoric on the other. Identities within the Sri Lankan nation blur the distinctions between alien and citizen, between one who belongs and subscribes to set expectations, norms and practices and one who challenges these markers of identity.
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Liyanage, Indika Jananda Borala, and n/a. "An Exploration of Language Learning Strategies and Learner Variables of Sri Lankan Learners of English as a Second Language with Special Reference to Their Personality Types." Griffith University. School of Cognition, Language and Special Education, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040716.112300.
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This study explores the relationship between language learning strategies and learner variables of Sri Lankan learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) with special reference to their personality types to examine what implications these associations have for the teaching of ESL in the Sri Lankan sociocultural context. In order to investigate the above, a large and representative sample of the ESL population was chosen. The sample taken for analysis comprised 886 subjects from six secondary schools which operate under the Ministry of Education in the Sri Lankan government. These subjects belonged to three distinct subcultures as demarcated by their first language (L1), Religion and Ethnicity in Sri Lanka. Data were collected using two questionnaires - a language learning strategy inventory and a personality assessment questionnaire, between April 2002 and June 2002 in Sri Lanka. Two statistical tests were used to measure the associations between the learner variables and language learning strategies: Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings show differences in strategy use or rather the ways the three groups learn the target language indicating that these strategy choices are closely correlated to their personality type, gender and religion/ethnicity. The findings also indicate that these variables affect the strategy choices both as collective and individual forces and when working as collective forces there is a complex interplay between these variables. While this study clearly demonstrates the association between learner variables and language learning strategies, it acknowledges the possible dangers in discussing these associations in cross-cultural comparisons. It also suggests the need for more ethnographic research to further elucidate the findings obtained in the current study. Based on these findings in the current study, this thesis strongly argues that ELT pedagogy cannot be independent of the Sri Lankan sociocultural context. It is therefore strongly suggested that ELT pedagogies should: (1) develop within the socio -cultural contexts of the learners; (2) be orientated to the culture of speakers of a Sri Lankan variety of English; (3) incorporate teaching material based on rhetoric indigenous to their culture. The study also shows the complexities of ESL instruction in the Sri Lankan socio-cultural context where its history, different cultures, first languages, ethnicities and religions all make a significant contribution to the learning/teaching of the target language. The challenge for teaching ESL in Sri Lanka is even higher given that all languages come with their own cultural, historical and ethnic trappings.
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Medawattegedera, Vivimarie Vanderpoorten. ""Shots of Justice" English medium instruction in Sri Lankan secondary schools : from policy to practice." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.551506.
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Throughout modern history, language has been a contentious issue in Sri Lanka, implicated - sometimes explicitly and always implicitly - in the many violent uprisings and bloody ethnic conflict that has characterized the country for the past three decades. Official language policies, education policies as well as language-in-education policies have been instrumental in creating and exacerbating the conflicts which exist between and within the two major communities, and between the class divide during both colonial and postcolonial times. After independence, successive governments made attempts to address the issue of language and its divisive role in an attempt to rectify inequality and provide a more democratic social system, often with questionable success. The context of this study is the most recent of such attempts to address the issue of language and equality with regard to educational opportunity; the ''New Educational Reforms and New Initiatives in Education" which deal with the re-introduction of English medium instruction (EMI) in state owned schools at junior secondary level (Grade 6) in 2001, for selected subjects, including Science, Social Studies and Mathematics; a reform implemented despite the acute shortage of teachers proficient in English, as well as adequately trained to teach in the English medium. It uses ethnographic case study methodology to investigate classroom practice in these EMI science classes in four schools in the Western and North western Provinces. The theoretical assumptions underlying the study are participatory frameworks of Second Language Acquisition, (SLA) including neo- Vygotskyan sociocultural theories of SLA and language socialization. Data sources include classroom observation field notes, transcripts of audio-recorded lessons and in-depth interviews with teachers. Though viewed from a particular perspective of language learning, the data analysis focused on patterns emerging from the data, relating to how participants put into practice, EMI policy in the classroom. The results show considerable discrepancy between policy and practice, a variation of policy implementation across school types and that the use of mother tongue is a strategy to overcome challenges of EMI where proficiency is an issue for both student as well as teachers. Codeswitching (CS) and Mixed Code used in the classroom are also reflective of the widely used language outside the classroom. The study concludes that there is a need for acknowledgement of classroom realities, including cultural context and resources when implementing policy aims, extensive teacher training both initial and in-service, and argues for the acceptance of CS as a more pragmatic approach to encouraging the learning of both content and language.
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Wedikandage, Lanka Nilmini Priyadarshani. "A study of multicultural practices in Sri Lankan secondary schools and an English comparator school." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/345673.
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This study investigated stakeholders’ views of multicultural policies and practices in multicultural secondary schools in Sri Lanka and a comparator school in England, in order to elicit what new insights could be gained that could lead to educational improvements in Sri Lankan schools. Specifically, students and staff in five Sinhala-medium secondary schools in the Colombo region, all with reputations for good multicultural education practice, together with local community leaders and national policy makers, were interviewed. A series of questionnaires was designed to examine a wide range of stakeholder perspectives across these five schools, using as a conceptual framework Banks’s (1986, 1989 and 2004) international work on multicultural policy and practice in schools and teacher education. A similar interview schedule and questionnaire were used to elicit views and experiences of multicultural education in a comparator school in an urban area of the East of England. There were a number of reasons for this. The modern school system of Sri Lanka had its beginnings during the British colonial administration. Now that there is peace in Sri Lanka after a long period of civil war, the government is focusing on ways to develop the curriculum to integrate multicultural education into its peace education curriculum in order to foster intercultural understandings. England has a longer tradition in multicultural education and policies in its education system. Using Banks’s work (op. cit.) for analysis, there may therefore be lessons to be drawn from the Sri Lankan schools identified as having good multicultural practice and the English experience that are of use in Sri Lanka. Major findings from this research project include the need for careful consideration of ways to foster greater multilingual competence among both teachers and students if Sri Lanka is to reach its goal of greater intercultural understandings and communication between the various ethnic groups. It seems from this study that, in Sri Lanka, whilst there were some differences in the strength of perception of different ethnic groups of students, overall they felt comfortable and safe in school, which is a testament to government efforts to achieve harmony in schools and, thus, social cohesion in society. However, some groups of students are more advantaged than others in the same schools in their access to the acquisition of languages and, therefore, access to the curriculum and to further and higher education and future enhanced life chances. The teachers acknowledged that language was a major concern in multicultural classrooms, partly because some students could not communicate effectively in Sinhala medium, and partly because they themselves were not always fluent in both national languages. Further, despite central government policy that all secondary teachers in Sri Lanka should be trained to degree level and should be qualified in their profession, the highest qualification that nearly one half possessed was A-level General Certificate of Education. All teachers in both Sri Lankan, and the English comparator, schools expressed a wish for training in multicultural practices.
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Tilakaratna, Namala Lakshmi. "Reviving the Nation: The discursive construction of national identity in Sri Lankan English Language textbooks." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/15750.
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This study examines the way Sri Lankan national identity is construed in texts found in the local Grade 11 English Language textbooks that were produced during the ethnic civil war in Sri Lanka and which are still used in Sri Lanka today. The textbooks, created and published by the National Institute of Education, are used for teaching English as a Second Language to students across the public school system. The study uses a systemic functional linguistic (SFL) framework to explore how national identity is recontextualised in these texts for pedagogical purposes, examining the linguistic resources the texts draw on to discursively construct national identity. The thesis argues that within these texts, a homogenous Sinhala and Sinhala Buddhist identity is privileged and promoted as common to all Sri Lankans, while excluding the diverse ethnic, religious and cultural practices of minority ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. A selection of nine texts from the Grade 11 textbooks are analysed for text types and icons, to determine what kinds of texts are privileged in a pedagogic context and how these texts construe national identity. In order to identify the patterns of choices that create text types or ‘genres’ (Martin, 1992; Martin & Rose, 2008) and ‘icons’ (Martin, 2010, 2016; Tann 2010, 2014), the selected texts are analysed using the lexicogrammatical systems of transitivity and theme (Halliday & Matthiessen 2004) and the discourse semantic systems of Appraisal and periodicity (Martin & Rose 2007; Martin & White. 2005). Genre is used to explore the kinds of texts used in the service of national identity, while ‘iconography’ (Tann, 2010b; 2013) is used to explore how choices combine across lexicogrammatical and discourse semantic systems and are stabilised over the course of a text in construing communal identity. The analysis shows that while the focus of these texts appears to be on teaching students how to read and write valued text types in English, these texts are heavily dependent on shared understandings of socio-cultural, religious and cultural ethnic identity for making meaning. These socio-cultural meanings focus on projecting a homogenous national identity through the use of a number of ‘icons’ including valued people, things and activities that are representative primarily of Sinhala or Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. By examining national identity and its construction in the context of Sri Lanka, this thesis to contributes to the broader research area of nations, nationalism and national identity and uncovers how pedagogical texts contribute to the creation of a ‘national consciousness’ (Bernstein, 1996/2000). In addition, this thesis contributes to research that explores textbooks and their construction of identity in the field of English as a Second Language, and explorations of ‘the discursive construction of national identity’ (Hall, 1996) through the use of a socio-semiotic framework for the exploration of national identity. This study also contributes to the relatively new research on communal identity in SFL by examining its construal in pedagogical texts. In addition, it proposes an extension to the existing ‘iconography’ framework to account for the valued activities, or ‘rituals’, that affirm membership in a community. This study shows that in maintaining Sinhala Buddhist identity as the dominant identity, these textbooks shape the next generation of Sinhalese students to align with the ideologically motivated and symbolic disempowerment of minority ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.
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Rambukwella, Sassanka Harshana. "The search for nation exploring Sinhala nationalism and its others in Sri Lankan anglophone and Sinhala-language writing /." Thesis, Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2008. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B41508853.
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McGarry, Theresa, and Martha Michieka. "Let Us Plead With Our Government: Rights, Responsibilities, and the First-Person Plural in Letters to the Editor in Sri Lankan and Kenyan Englishes." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/5469.
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Abdul, Majeed Mohamed Navaz. "Lecturer-student interaction in English-medium science lectures : an investigation of perceptions and practice at a Sri Lankan university where English is a second language." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2012. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12995/.
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This study arises from two contextualised problems faced by the students at the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAS) of a small university in Sri Lanka. These problems are: students’ lecture comprehension difficulties and limited oral language proficiency in their second language (i.e. English). The ideas developed in this study are based on the argument that dialogic lecturer-student interaction, which enables students to take a more active role in discussions compared to the use of recitation scripts (questions-answers-evaluations) developed in non-dialogic interactions, is likely to be beneficial for students’ content and language development. Although there have been studies at primary level, there has so far been little research into dialogic interaction in tertiary-level L1 Science classes, and none yet carried out in the L2 context. Therefore, this study investigates the extent of dialogic interaction practised at FAS, in conjunction with a thorough consideration of the factors that influence interaction between lecturers and students. This study, involving 30 students and 4 lecturers, was undertaken as a pioneer study in this context in Asia by analysing L2 lectures given at FAS. Data were collected from lecturer and student questionnaires, lecturer interviews, student group interviews, observations of 24 lectures and audio recordings. Of the observed lectures, a total of 12 from Biotechnology, Animal Physiology, Physics and Statistics were transcribed verbatim and analysed using an analytical framework, which was especially designed to analyse the FAS lecture discourse. This framework was also used to locate these lectures on a scale from monologic to dialogic. The study revealed the complexity of the perception-practice dynamic, and the multi-faceted sub-set of factors which influenced students' and lecturers’ behaviour in class, and their perception of that behaviour. Students’ lecture comprehension problems and classroom interaction were influenced by their language proficiency, though the students considered the lecturers’ lecture delivery style to be more important than their own language proficiency. In this study it was revealed that a culturally embedded behaviour perpetuated by senior students, known as ragging (a kind of bullying), restricted the classroom interaction of the students. In terms of lecture delivery style, of all the observed lectures only two contained some interactional episodes in addition to monologic segments, while the others were found to be highly or mostly monologic. Students were also found not to be cooperating with lecturers in classroom interaction, despite stating a preference for learning through interaction. The students asked only very few questions in all the observed lectures, and answered in a limited number of lectures. The lecturers asked more knowledge testing questions than any other kind, while there were only a few concept development questions – the type which can help develop dialogic interaction. Overall, this investigation, which demonstrates the importance of combining studies of perception with detailed analysis of the discourse itself, indicates limited lecturer-student interaction as well as a clear lack of dialogic interaction in English-medium Science lectures at this particular university. In addition, it is argued that the innovative analytical framework designed to analyse the lectures delivered in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) context of the present study can be useful for other lectures which are commonly delivered as monologic in both L1 and L2 contexts. Finally, it also stresses the importance of investigating the influence of cultural and behavioural factors, such as ragging, on classroom learning.
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McGarry, Theresa. "English Translations of the Reading Passages in James W. Gair & W. S. Karunatilaka." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/6143.
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Excerpt: James W. Gair and W.S. Karunatilaka’s Literary Sinhala, published at Cornell University in 1974, remains the best textbook for non-native speakers who want to learn literary Sinhala, which is quite distinct from the colloquial language. Given that very few institutions outside Sri Lanka offer Sinhala instruction, many persons seeking a reading knowledge of the language use this textbook on their own. Literary Sinhala, however, was produced with the assumption that the user would have access to an instructor, and does not include English translations of the Sinhala reading passages. This publication, commissioned and published by the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies 40 years after the appearance of Literary Sinhala, provides these translations. The intention is to make the textbook more helpful, especially for those using it without an instructor.
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Wijetunge, Sumudu Nishamani. "The Stigma of "Not Pot English" in Sri Lanka: A Study of Production of /o/ and /O/ and Implications for Instructions." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2008. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/alesl_theses/1.
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The inability to differentiate the English vowels /o/ and / O/ has become a stigmatized marker of a lower prestige and widespread dialect of Sri Lankan English. This lower prestige (LP) dialect is often referred to with the derogative phrase “Not pot English”. This study aims to investigate the production of the vowel contrast by native Sinhala speakers of English. To this end, speech samples of three adult learners were analyzed. The findings of the study are discussed according to hypotheses of the Speech Learning Model, which suggests that the existent L1 specific phonetic categories hinder the formation of new L2 sound categories. Here, sounds that are similar, but not identical to L1 sounds are considered to be the most difficult to acquire. Also, the percentage of L1 use and the age of second language acquisition seem to have influenced the production of the vowels. Finally, in order to address this pronunciation issue, an instructional framework to teach pronunciation is proposed.
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Aloysius, Mahan. "Problems of English teaching in Sri Lanka : how they affect teaching efficacy." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/622477.
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Concerned to comprehend the teaching efficacy of English teachers in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, this thesis investigated contentions by principals, retired teachers and resource personnel that Sri Lankan teachers’ lack of teaching effectiveness (teaching behaviours that influence student learning) accounted for students’ low English attainment; and counter claims by English teachers that their teaching efficacy (beliefs in their abilities to affect student learning) was undermined by classroom and other-related problems. This mixed-method research comprised two stages. In a preliminary study, 298 students and twenty-four teachers from twelve secondary schools participated in a survey designed to understand challenges encountered in the teaching and learning of English. With a similar purpose, thirty-four English lessons involving 320 students and ten teachers were observed. Interviews concerning the aspects underpinning effective English teaching were conducted with five principals, three English resource personnel and three retired teachers. In the main study, sixty-two teachers from thirty-five secondary schools were surveyed and twenty interviewed to identify factors which affected the teaching efficacy of English teachers. Participating schools were categorized vis-à-vis their students’ performance: low-performing and high-performing. Findings support English teachers’ views concerning their teaching efficacy. Teacher perception revealed associations between the lack of teaching efficacy of English teachers in low and high-performing schools, and teacher background/parental duties/self-development, classroom problems and inadequate educational resources. No explicit evidence was found that students’ poor English attainment in low-performing schools was due to their teachers’ lack of teaching effectiveness. Observations showed that students were deprived of external resources which assisted students in high-performing schools to become proficient in English. New insights about Jaffna teachers’ efficacy indicate the need for a more context-specific English language curriculum in Sri Lanka, informed by teachers’ knowledge of their students’ English learning needs at a local level if teaching efficacy and English attainment are to be enhanced.
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Karunaratne, Iresha Madhavi 1973. "Learning English in urban Sri Lanka : social, psychological and pedagogical factors related to second language acquisition." Monash University, School of Political and Social Inquiry, 2003. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/5788.
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Baldsing, LindZay. "Making English the lynchpin for globalisation of education in Sri Lanka: quality versus equality." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2013. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/594.
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The owl of Minerva takes flight at dusk and we are in the blazing noontide. – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
The author is a Sri Lankan expatriate who completed his primary and secondary education in Sri Lanka. He was guided and directed by his father, a Senior Master at the Royal College of Colombo and later Controller of Examinations. The author brings his experience in Sri Lanka into the preparation of this portfolio. Material written in English for this topic was limited. Further, during the government of President Premadasa (1973–1986), all publications concerning education in Sri Lanka were suppressed. In addition, publications were scarce during the civil war (1983–2008). This portfolio was written to emphasise the importance of English for Sri Lankans and to accept it as the lynchpin for globalisation of education in Sri Lanka: it will see them participate in global knowledge, progress and achieve prosperity as a result. The portfolio explains that as a British colony, only a chosen few in Sri Lanka were privileged to be educated in English – who as a consequence of which found employment in government and the private sector. The rest who were educated in the local languages either sought low-skilled employment or were unemployed, creating a widening socio-economic gap amongst Sri Lankans. Towards the end of British rule in Sri Lanka, legislation was passed to provide free education for all Sri Lankans with a view to creating equal opportunities. This was followed by legislation replacing English with local languages as mediums of instruction in education. Shortly afterwards, English became a non-compulsory second language. In a span of almost fifty years, competency in English was lost in Sri Lankan society. A great majority of Sri Lankans could neither write nor speak English, except for a few who were educated in fee-levying private schools and overseas. Lack of competency in English made it impossible for Sri Lankans to participate in global knowledge. This in turn hindered their opportunity to participate in the progress of modern education, science and technology. In addition, those who lacked competency in English were prevented from obtaining better employment in banks and foreign commercial enterprises, and also from lucrative overseas customer call-centres. Sri Lankans realised in hindsight the costly mistake of abandoning English as a result of nationalistic fervour and shortsighted political expediency. After a lapse of almost fifty years, the current reintroduction of English into the education system has become a daunting task, particularly because of the lack of competent English teachers and the scarcity of funds. This was further exacerbated by over thirty years of civil war in Sri Lanka. There was a strong view held by politicians, educationists and Sri Lankans with strong nationalistic beliefs that English was a symbol of Anglo-American imperialism, which made them resist its reintroduction. Unfounded fears of imperialism and shortsighted political and nationalist policies have made Sri Lankans realise that English is not a symbol of Anglo-American imperialism but a multinational tool available to everyone who needs to participate in global knowledge. English is without doubt the lynchpin of globalisation in Sri Lanka.
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Wijetunge, W. A. Sumudu Nishamani. "The stigma of "not pot English" in Sri Lanka a study of production of /o/ and /O/ and implications for instructions /." unrestricted, 2008. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04212008-152752/.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2008.Title from file title page. John M. Murphy, committee chair; Lucy Pickering, Gayle L. Nelson, Sara C. Weigle, committee members. Electronic text (98 p. : col. ill.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 11, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-82).
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Wijesekera, Harsha Dulari. "Students' ethnolinguistic identities in multiethnic, bilingual education classrooms in Sri Lanka." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/119217/1/Harsha%20Dulari_Wijesekera_Thesis.pdf.
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This study investigated how multiethnic Bilingual Education (BE) classrooms (English and Mother-tongue: Sinhala or Tamil) in post-conflict Sri Lanka can shape students' ethnic identities towards an ethnically inclusive national identity. Using Bourdieu's theories of capital, habitus and field, the study identifies two key findings: the importance of the flexible use of all available languages in multiethnic classrooms to scaffold language and academic content learning; and the creation of inter-ethnic reciprocity. Findings also show the dual role of English as a tool of reconciliation, and a weapon of social stratification. The study presents positive practices to be applied, and negative practices to be avoided both at implementation and policy levels in similar contexts.
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Devendra, Dinali Enoka. "Teaching English literature for the G.C.E. 'O' level in Sri Lanka : a study of teacher professional knowledge." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.589749.
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This study investigates the knowledge base of teachers of English literature in the secondary school context of Sri Lanka. This is a discipline which has been subject to many changes in educational policy and has in fact mirrored the changing status of English in Sri Lanka. This research utilizes the concept of PCK (pedagogical content knowledge) developed by Shulman (1987) as the overall organizing theoretical framework to explore the professional knowledge base of the teachers of English literature. Many definitions have been put forward regarding the precise composition of PCK but this study focuses on the following concepts delineated by Magnusson, Borko and Krajcik (1999): orientation to the subject, knowledge of student difficulties, knowledge of the curriculum and knowledge of instructional strategies. The four participants in the study were primarily language teachers who had subsequently ventured into the field of teaching literature. They had been teaching literature for many years but were essentially teaching outside their area of expertise. A qualitative approach was adopted and data was gathered from interviews, classroom observations and concept maps. The data was analyzed based on categories arising from the theoretical framework. Case studies were developed that provided profiles of PCK of four teachers: Geetha, Nelum, Malini and Anita. The analysis of data revealed that the four participants held different orientations to the teaching of the subject but that they all essentially adopted a text centered approach which concentrated on anlaysing the literary elements of the texts chosen for study. Inadequacies could be seen in several components of PCK. All four participants were unable to diagnose subject specific difficulties that students faced and were also unable to implement subject specific instructional strategies. Many of these issues could be linked to the inadequacies of these teachers' subject matter knowledge as well as the limitations imposed by the context in which they were teaching. The study points to the need to develop and implement new avenues of professional development to enhance the Pedagogical Content Knowledge of teachers of English literature in the Sri Lankan context.
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Hayes, David Anthony. "An exploration of the lives and careers of teachers of English in state education systems in Sri Lanka and Thailand." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.433728.
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Ahmed, Irfan. "Investigating students' experiences of learning English as a second language at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/43289/.
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The recent emphasis on the importance of English language teaching and learning in public universities in Pakistan has resulted in the introduction of a new English as Second Language (ESL) programme including revised teaching approaches, content and assessment. However, to date, no rigorous and independent evaluation of this new programme has been undertaken particularly with respect to students' learning and experiences. This thesis seeks to address this gap by examining the effects of the new ESL programme on students' learning experiences, as well as teachers' perspectives and the broader institutional context. The study uses a qualitative case study approach basing its findings on the responses of purposively sampled students (n=17) and teachers (n=7) from the Institution of English Literature and Linguistics (IELL), University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan (UoSJP). Semistructured interviews, observations and document review were used as the main tools to collect a wide variety of data. The analysis of the data was informed by different theories including Symbolic Interactionism, Community of Practice, and Bourdieusian notions of habitus, field and capital. These theories offered an approach which bridges the structure and agency divide in understanding students' learning experiences. The study employed the concepts of institutional influences to examine the impact of UoSJP's policies and practices on the teaching and learning of the ESL programme. The concept of community, which is understood as the community of the ESL classroom, is used to examine the interactions of students-students and students-teachers. The notion of identity was used to examine the interaction of students' gender, rurality, ethnicity and previous learning experiences with different aspects of the ESL programme. In relation to institutional influences, the study found that UoSJP's institutional policies and practices are shaped by its position in the field of higher education, and in turn, these influences shape teaching and learning in the ESL programme. Specifically, UoSJP defines its capital as higher education for all, which in practice translates as admitting students who have been rejected by other universities and/or cannot afford private universities' high fees. In order to meet the language needs of disadvantaged students from non-elite English and vernacular medium schools, UoSJP offers the ESL programme. This initiative aims to improve students' English language skills in their first two years, and to fulfil requirements set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). However, the university's treatment of the ESL programme significantly impacts on teaching and learning in terms of its policies and practices, in relation to faculty hiring, teacher training, relationship between the administration and ESL teachers, number of students in ESL classrooms, assessment criteria, ESL quality assurance, and learning support resources like up-to-date libraries. In relation to the community of ESL classroom, the study found that participation plays an important part in defining students' roles and their relationship with teachers and peers in the classroom. Teachers' pedagogic strategies and large classes were found to be influential factors affecting students' participation in the classroom. It was found that teachers use different pedagogic strategies, which define them as facilitators or knowledge transmitters accordingly. The facilitators allow students' full participation in the classroom by listening to their opinions, respecting their arguments, appreciating their feedback, acknowledging their contributions to the class, and demonstrating empathy to their problems. When in class with these teachers, students feel encouraged, confident and motivated to participate in the classroom. By contrast, the knowledge transmitters prefer monologue lectures when teaching ESL, and strongly discourage students' participation. Students are usually not allowed to ask questions or express their concerns to these teachers. In their presence, students revealed that they lacked confidence, and felt discouraged and demotivated from participating in the classroom. Moreover, in the context of large classes only students sitting on the front-benches are given opportunities of participation, while those at the back of the classroom are considered to be educationally weak, inactive, therefore ignored in interactive activities. The treatment of these students by teachers and students at the front of the class alike limits their participation in the classroom. In relation to identities, the study found that students frequently foreground their gender identities, rural-ethnic identities and identities as medical or engineering students in interaction with different aspects of the ESL programme. Some aspects of ESL textbooks including units which depict stereotypical gender roles conflict with female students' gender identities; units which are based on exclusively Western, urban contexts conflict with students' rural-ethnic identities, and units that are based on graph-comprehension conflict with students' identities as medical students. While others aspects of ESL textbooks particularly those units that are constructed on experiences and activities which are exclusively associated with men in Pakistan such as driving complement female students' gender identities; and those units which are set in a village, and focus on the culture and life of villages complement students rural-ethnic identities. Moreover, it was found that female students struggled in maintaining their role as ESL learners in comparison with their gender roles as sister and daughter. This thesis provides new insights into students' learning experiences and ESL in higher education. It also contributes to and enhances the literature on higher education in Pakistan. Furthermore, it enables policy-makers to reflect upon their policies, as well as provides suggestions to the UoSJP and its teachers.
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Bughio, Faraz Ali. "Improving English language teaching in large classes at university level in Pakistan." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/45170/.
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This thesis describes a collaborative Action Research project that works to improve the quality of English language teaching (ELT) and learning in a public sector university in Pakistan. It demonstrates how teachers and students can take responsibility for engaging in active learning and teaching by developing their roles beyond traditional models of teaching and learning. The findings of the study are validated through critical thinking, the active critique of colleagues and students who participated in the study, reflection on critical aspects of data collection and by contextualising findings within existing literature. The thesis comprises eight chapters. Chapter one provides an introduction. It presents the overall organization of the thesis. This includes the aims of the study, rationale of the research, brief overview of methodology and the structure of the thesis. In chapter two, the literature review focuses on the defining factors of large class teaching and learning. Much of the research on large classes is written in the context of the West and has limited application to the problems of developing countries. Existing literature suggests a need for further work on large class teaching and learning in the developing world. In chapter three I present the Context of the Study. I provide an historical overview of language policies in Pakistan which have influenced the educational structure and the development of the country. The status and importance of the English language in Pakistan is highlighted. I outline the classification of various English language teaching institutes in Pakistan. The chapter concludes with an account of teaching and learning and the sociopolitical conditions that affect the educational process at University of Sindh, Jamshoro Pakistan (UoSJP), the site of the project. Chapter four discusses the methodology of the study. It is divided into two sections. In section one I outline the rationale behind the choice of Action Research as a methodological framework for an intervention strategy. In the second section, I discuss the research design, and various data collection tools used for the study. In chapter five, I discuss the first reconnaissance phase of data collection. This has several foci: the teaching methods currently used in large classes at UoSJP; the students and teachers perceptions of ELT and the socio-political conditions that affect teaching and learning. Overall this chapter exposes the complexities involved in teaching at UoSJP and provides the basis for developing an intervention strategy. Chapter six presents the intervention phase of the action research strategy aimed at introducing cooperative practices. It contains the narrative of how a new teaching strategy was planned and collaboratively conducted in two different classes. Chapter seven focuses on the findings of the research and the analysis of data. I also reflect on the key emerging themes of both phases of the project. Evaluation criteria in action research are also discussed along with the monitoring strategy. The final chapter looks at the future implications of the study and offers practical guidelines on the management of large classes. There is a concluding reflection on critical issues that might affect future research. The thesis promotes ‘learner-focused' teaching through critical reflection on professional practice. The study also suggests how students can be empowered to take control of their own learning, by giving them autonomy and, by creating a socially just and democratic atmosphere in class. It also shows how large classes, exceeding a hundred students, can be managed by changing teaching methods and by increasing students' participation through group learning and the deployment of group leaders.
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Iyer, Padmini. "Risk, rakhi and romance : learning about gender and sexuality in Delhi schools : young people's experiences in three co-educational, English-medium secondary schools in New Delhi, India." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2016. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/59533/.
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Based on multi-method research with Class 11 students (aged 15-17) and their teachers at three English-medium, co-educational secondary schools in Delhi over nine months in 2013-14, this thesis explores how young people's understandings and experiences relate to national and international understandings of gender, sexuality and education. The thesis examines the interplay between institutional practices and students' agency within schools (drawing on Connell's 2000 framework), while I use the concept of ‘sexual learning' in order to consider young people's experiences both within and beyond the classroom (Thomson & Scott 1991). Study findings indicate the influence of concerns about adolescent sexuality on school curricula and on disciplinary practices, which sought to maintain gender segregation in co-educational spaces. The thesis also reveals the ways in which narratives of girlhood and masculinities shaped young people's lives; particularly in the wake of the December 2012 gang rape case in Delhi, these gender narratives were both contradicted and reinforced by seemingly ubiquitous stories of sexual violence. Stories of sexual violence also formed a source of gendered, risk-based sexual learning, which reinforced risk-based narratives of sexuality within formal and informal sources of sexual learning accessed by young people. The thesis also reveals heterosocial dynamics within school peer cultures as an important source of sexual learning. Students proved adept at negotiating assumptions about ‘appropriate' interactions such as idealized rakhi (brother-sister) relationships, and formed less restrictive heterosocial friendships and romantic relationships. In particular, stories about peer romances emerged as an alternative source of sexual learning, which undermined dominant risk-based narratives of young people's sexuality and offered more positive understandings of pleasure and intimacy. A key methodological contribution is the use of a narrative analytical framework in which Plummer's (1995) sexual stories are considered in terms of Andrews' (2014) political narratives. Using this framework, the thesis examines the text and context of ‘small stories' told within research encounters, and the interrelations between these micro-narratives and macro-narratives of gender, sexuality and education in post-liberalization India. This framework facilitates the examination of interrelations between local experiences and national and international understandings in the thesis. A key substantive contribution of the study is to address a lack of research on how young people learn about gender and sexuality in Indian schools. As the study largely captures the experiences of urban, middle-class young people, the thesis also contributes to the existing body of literature on middle-class experiences in post-liberalization India (e.g. Gilbertson 2014; Sancho 2012; Donner & De Neve 2011; Lukose 2009), and specifically underlines the importance of education as a site for middle-class young people's negotiation of gendered and sexual politics.
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Kumarage, Erangee Kaushalya. "Re-membering the nation : the body as a site of contest in fiction and film on post-independence Sri Lankan political conflicts /." Diss., 2004. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3147321.
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Sivagurunathan, Ganeshapillai. "Tertiary E.S.L in Northern Sri Lanka - A (Socio) linquistic perspective." Thesis, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2009/3094.
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Gopalakrishnan, S. "South India-Sri Lanka Relations, 1762-1802 (With Special Reference to Political Relations Between the English East India Company and The Kandyan Kingdom of Sri Lanka)." Thesis, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/2009/1362.
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Kuganathan, Prashanth David. "Remaking Lives in Northern Sri Lanka: Migration, Schooling, and Language in Postwar Jaffna." Thesis, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-9tnr-0131.
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This dissertation contemplates the radical shifts and changes in language and education due to and during the Sri Lankan civil war (1983-2009), utilizing the detailed method of classroom ethnography in postwar Jaffna to comprehend macro-perspective problems about language and nationalism in postwar Sri Lanka. It attempts to answer some of the following questions: In a country trying to heal and recover from the trauma of war and violence based on ethnolinguistic difference, what does postwar education and schooling look like? In a region of the country that has a proud history and heritage of Tamil language and culture, yet a simultaneous colonial and postcolonial tradition of English language education and schooling, and now, a continued postwar Sinhalese military and police presence, how do people negotiate and navigate these three distinct linguistic spheres of practice? From the perspectives of research informants and interlocutors, what does life look like in contemporary postwar Jaffna?
I find that almost three decades of war and outmigration have resulted in an ongoing transformation concerning learning, language, and life in the Jaffna peninsula. The decline in English language education combined with the predominantly monolingual Tamil-speaking environment that Jaffna provides for school children solidifies their ethnoreligious identities while limiting opportunity. However, we see a transformation in local economies due to war and emigration and the influx of remittance income, which has created new patterns and habits in consumption and even a shift in priority and work ethic. Therefore, we see the emergence of a new generation in northern Sri Lanka navigating this postwar space, embracing cultural changes that have been brought about by these processes of war, migration, and increased interconnectedness in what is still the most conservative and traditional region of the country.