Browsing by Author "Kalinga, J"

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Student Engagement in Online ESL Classroom: A Tale of Teachers
(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences,SLIIT, 2021-09-25) Kalinga, J
Online education /e-learning has become an integral part during the Covid 19 pandemic. This study aims to explore the teachers’ perceptions on online learning and student engagement, strategies and tools used in online classes to obtain high level of student engagement and the barriers they face in achieving these goals. A case study research design with five ESL teachers as the sample is used in this study. One-on-one interviews are used as the research tool and based on the data three themes are identified. They are student engagement in an online learning environment, techniques used to gain student engagement and the barriers for gaining student engagement in an online environment. There are several major findings. The novelty of teaching in an online setting and lack of exposure to online interactive tools are prominent in the selected context. Despite this, all the participants have expressed fairly a positive attitude towards online teaching even though they have faced several difficulties in gaining maximum student engagement.
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Trajectory of Learning Academic Vocabulary: IT Undergraduates’ Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Performance at the Exam
(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, SLIIT, 2022-09-15) Kalinga, J
Learning vocabulary is an integral part in language acquisition and acquisition of academic vocabulary is crucial for the success in an academic context. Therefore, many studies have been conducted to formulate academic vocabulary lists and identify vocabulary learning strategies. This study seeks to explore the vocabulary learning strategies employed by IT undergraduates when studying academic vocabulary and to examine their performance on the academic vocabulary related questions at the formative exam. The sample of the study includes 276 first year IT undergraduates who follow the module English for Academic Purposes. A questionnaire is used as the research tool to obtain data from the sample and the result of the formative exam is used to examine the performance related to academic vocabulary. According to the data analysis, most of the students often use either monolingual or bilingual dictionary as a strategy to discover the meaning of a new word. This is more emphasized as they have mentioned that they prefer using dictionary apps as a strategy to learn vocabulary online. A significant number of students study the spelling, meaning and form of a word and ask for help from their friends as strategies for consolidating a new word they encounter. However, when comparing the marks obtained for the vocabulary related questions at the exam, it is noted that the students have obtained less marks to the question in which they had to replace the underlined word/phrases with a more academic alternative. Thus, students need to adapt more effective strategies to acquire mastery of academic vocabulary.