Browsing by Author "Rathnasena, U."

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Incorporating a Task-Based Approach to Motivate Speaking in the General English Classroom
(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences - SLIIT, 2021-03-26) Rathnasena, U.
The speaking competency of students learning General English at Tertiary Educational Institutes (TEIs) has become a primary concern of many academics and policy makers. In such a context, this paper investigates the implications of incorporating a task-based speaking component to the General English curriculum at tertiary level. The target students join TEIs after finishing their G.C.E. Advanced Level. The students in this study had attended schools in the Western province in Sri Lanka and the majority belongs to middle-income families. They were selected from an institute, which has university status, providing English courses for General Purposes. An identical speaking task was administered, first without scaffolding and later with scaffolding to observe students’ performance. It was observed that when a speaking activity is assigned, learners have the tendency to visualize it in L1 and convert it to L2. In a case where scaffolding items such as, note cards and strips are not allowed, learners memorize the lines or utterances and enact the given speaking task. Consequently, their discourse is impeded as they struggle for better vocabulary as well as sentences. Insights of the students’ needs and their feedback led the institute to allocate extra time weekly for speaking.
Embargo
Lessons Learnt: A Study of Student Feedback Regarding Online Proficiency Assessment
(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences - SLIIT, 2021-03-26) Rathnasena, U.; Kalinga, J.
Subsequent to the revolutionary advances in technology and its remarkable impact on universities, online summative assessment has become increasingly commonplace and popular in the academia. Consequently, online English language proficiency assessment has also gained momentum globally. This study was conducted at a Sri Lankan private university where online assessment is utilized as the standard summative test for several modules including EAP (English for Academic Purposes) module. The main objective was to explore undergraduates’ perceptions of the online EAP assessment and its effectiveness and feasibility in gauging competency of English among ESL (English as a Second Language) learners. A quantitative approach was chosen for this study where a questionnaire was used as the primary data collection tool. The sample was a convenience sample of 120 undergraduates who had taken the online test. The findings revealed the undergraduates’ displeasure regarding several aspects of online English assessment. They were critical of the reading component of the online test in addition to experiencing time management issues, technical limitations that marred their performance.
Open Access
A Task-Based Approach to Motivate Speaking in the ESL Classroom
(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences (FHS) of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) Malabe, 2020-12-01) Rathnasena, U.
The speaking competency of students learning General English at Tertiary Educational Institutes (TEIs) has become a primary concern of many academics and policy makers. In such a context, this paper investigates the implications of incorporating a task-based speaking component in the English as a Sec ond Language (ESL ) curriculum at tertiary level. The sample cohort comprises of post Advanced Level students studying General English at a private institute. An identical speaking task was administered, first without scaffolding and later with scaffolding to observe students’ performance. It was observed that when a speaking activity is assigned, learners have the tendency to visualize it in L1 and convert it to L2. In a case where scaffolding items such as, notecards and strips are not allowed, learners memo rize the lines or utterances and enact the given speaking task. Consequently, their discourse is impeded as they struggle for better vocabulary as well as sentences. Insights of the students’ need, and their feed back led the institute allocate extra time weekly for speaking. It is recommended that more task-based speaking activities are introduced to the institute’s ESL: Speaking Curriculum.