SLIIT International Conference on Advancements in Science and Humanities [SICASH]
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SLIIT International Conference on Advancements in Science and Humanities is organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), the annual research multi-conference of the faculty.
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Publication Open Access Exploring the Role of Parental Communication Patterns in Academic Stress: A Qualitative Study of Sri Lankan University Students(School of Psychology. Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, SLIIT, 2025-10-10) Kodagoda, P; Abeysinghe, NAcademic stress is a prevalent issue among university students, with parental communication playing a crucial role in shaping their stress experiences. While extensive research has examined academic stressors, there remains a gap in understanding how specific parental communication patterns influence students' ability to manage stress, particularly within the Sri Lankan context. This study explored how Sri Lankan university students perceived and experienced parental communication in relation to academic stress, focusing on the role of verbal encouragement, emotional understanding, and parental expectations in shaping students' stress experiences and coping mechanisms. A qualitative phenomenological approach was adopted, with six undergraduates (aged 19–25) purposively sampled. Data were collected throughsemi-structured interviews and analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. Findings revealed that supportive parental communication, characterized by emotional validation and encouragement, mitigated academic stress, whereas critical or dismissive communication exacerbated stress levels. Parental expectations emerged as a significant factor influencing students’ stress. The study highlights the crucial role of parental communication in academic stress among Sri Lankan undergraduates and underscores the need for parental awareness and interventions to foster healthier communication patterns. These findings provide valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and mental health professionals in developing support mechanisms to enhance students’ academic well-being.Publication Open Access The Use of the Literary Present Tense in Literary Analyses Written by Undergraduates of English Literature in Sri Lanka: An Error Analysis(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, SLIIT, 2023-11-01) Dissanayake, A.KIn literary analyses, the literary present tense is used to discuss certain events that take place in literary works. In other words, in literary analyses, writers sometimes use the present tense in reference to works of literature written in the past. Literature students for whom English is a second language can find it daunting to grasp the concept of using the simple present to discuss past events. Apart from this confusion, undergraduate students of English literature can face difficulty in distinguishing between the creative and academic writing styles, especially as they are exposed to both styles of writing and are expected to write academically about creative writing. Against this backdrop, this study analyzed errors related to the use of present tense that occurred in academic writing samples of 21 undergraduate students studying English literature at a Sri Lankan nonstate higher education institute. The causes of these errors too were determined. The error analysis was conducted according to the five steps suggested by S. Pit Corder (1967). A total of 32 present tense-related errors were identified. Of them, 12 were instances of when the literary present tense was not used where necessary. The remaining 20 errors were examples of students’ usage of the simple present tense instead of the simple past. These two types of errors indicate that the students lack knowledge and/ or practice in determining when (and when not) to use the literary present tense in their literary analyses. Furthermore, a reporting sentence which could be written in either the simple present or simple past tense was identified; such reporting sentences can be construed as increasing the difficulty that students would face in the selection of tenses. Therefore, it can be concluded that literature undergraduates should be introduced to the concept of the literary present tense, which is not a term that is frequently discussed in books written about the pedagogy of academic writing, according to the researcher’s knowledge.