ICLSL 2016
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/14246
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Item Second Language Anxiety among Undergraduates of Three Sri Lankan Universities(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Siriwardena, S.A considerable number of second language learners suffer from language anxiety when they enter the second language classroom. Most of them express their anxiety of the language in different forms, to the extent that students simply refuse to speak in English. The results of earlier research indicate that anxiety was often stated as one of the major causes of decreased motivation to learn, interference to learn and poor performance in the ESL classroom (Horwirz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; Gregerson, 2003; Karunakaran, Rana & Manwarul, 2013). This study was designed to explore the teachers‟ perception of what causes language anxiety in second language learners of three universities of Sri Lanka. Anxiety is considered a complex and multi-faceted psychological phenomenon by past researchers and they have suggested the use of different perspectives and approaches to investigate this phenomenon. This study therefore adopted interviews as a qualitative data gathering tool and 11 ESL teachers from the three universities were interviewed. The findings suggested that language anxiety can stem from learner‟s own sense of „self‟ and their cognitive and language-related difficulties. Social and cultural aspects that may lead to language anxiety were also brought to the attention by the findings. Through the findings the researcher was able to recommend a variety of strategies to teachers that would help alleviate speaking anxiety felt by second language learners.Item The Use of Music as an Effective Tool in English as a Second Language Classrooms to Teach Verb Forms(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Gamage, S.U.Today, most of the ESL learners in Sri Lanka consider English language learning as anxiety packed, insipid and an unconquerable obstacle. Moreover, Karunarathna (1993) has mentioned that the methods employed by the facilitator have not been successful at improving English proficiency of Sri Lankan school students. Especially, when teaching English verb forms, most of the facilitators have used the traditional chalk and talk method. If facilitators can integrate music into ELT (English Language Teaching), the ELT sessions can be converted into a stress free, learner friendly atmosphere. This study attempts to investigate whether music can be implemented in teaching English verb forms. The sample of this study consists of 80 students from the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce of University of Sri Jayewardenepura. A pretest was administered to test their prior knowledge in English verb forms. After that, the selected sample was randomly divided into two groups. The control group was taught English verb forms in a traditional classroom setting whereas the experimental group was exposed to a teaching session of English verb forms using English songs. Later on, a posttest on English verb forms was administered to assess the proficiency level obtained by the students after getting them exposed to two different types of treatments. The results of the posttest showcased that, the students of the control group outperformed the experimental group in terms of the proficiency level obtained at the posttest. In conclusion, it is clearly evident that the use of English songs in ESL classrooms has not been supportive in teaching English verb forms.