Browsing by Author "Barborich, A.A."

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Language, Literature and “Learning”: Linking Culture and Religion
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Barborich, A.; Barborich, A.A.
There is a shortage of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka who can preach dhamma in English. The problem begins with their inability to communicate in English during the course of their day to day lives, leading to a lack of confidence in their ability to preach dhamma in English. Teaching dhamma to the community is the main duty of the Sangha, the Buddha’s disciples. Since the majority of the Sri Lankan Buddhist community are Sinhalese, the need for English in dhamma preaching seems distant. As a result, Sri Lanka is no longer producing monks who can disseminate dhamma in English. It is rare to find monks who are conversant in English as some of the great Buddhist monks like Walpola Rahula Thero or Narada Thero were. These monks helped to disseminate the teachings of the Buddha to the larger world. As a leading Buddhist country, Sri Lanka needs to equip the Sangha to take dhamma to the whole world. In order to develop the English language skills of Buddhist monks for dissemination of dhamma, a course was proposed at the request of monks at the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo. It has been envisaged that monks would develop their basic communicative skills first and then higher cognitive skills that are required to preach dhamma in English later in the course. The proposed curriculum is three-tiered, with specific objectives for each tier: 1) To develop the basic communication skills of Sangha to build confidence to speak in English 2) To develop skills to link the dhamma as a way of living to the jathaka stories 3) To improve higher order skills for preaching deep dhamma in English, with an overall aim of disseminating dhamma to other cultures in the world. The course has Jim Cummins (1979) BICS and CALPS theory as the overarching theory while within the framework two other theories operate: the Speech Act theory (Bach and Harnish, 1979) and Deconstruction theory (Derrida, 1967).
Testing the confidence level of international students of a university in the USA when speaking in English
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Barborich, A.A.
The research was carried out to see whether the international students studying in a western university lack confidence to speak in English in an environment where English is the most dominant language. This is a follow up/extended research of a study which has been carried out in Sri Lanka over 10 years that repeatedly shows that Sri Lankans lack confidence to speak in English due to the attitudinal problems of the society. The researcher was interested in exploring further on the issue of the need for ‘confidence’ to speak in English in settings other than Sri Lanka. A group of international students studying at the undergraduate level in a leading university in the USA showed that ‘confidence’ to speak in English is an issue for them as well. The sample was comprised of a majority of Chinese students along with Saudi Arabian, South Korean students and a minority from countries such as Russia, Nigeria, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Brazil. Their interactions in both formal (academic) and informal (outside academic) settings in the United States of America (USA) were determined by their use of English. In other words, lack of confidence in speaking in English seemed to limit their interactions with native speakers of English both in academic and non-academic settings. The study revealed that the students were not very comfortable with native speakers of English in their informal settings whereas with non-native speakers of English they were comfortable in similar settings. Also, the most useful skill in relation to English for them was listening in both formal and informal settings. The research shows that the confidence to speak in English is an issue for non-native speakers of English in native speaker-dominant environments just as it is for Sri Lankans within the Sri Lankan context.