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 A Study on the Lack of Motivation in Learning Foreign Languages among Undergraduates(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Premarathna, U.A.D.The University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka provides the opportunity for the undergraduates to learn a number of foreign languages at the main subject level and at the certificate course level. Despite of such opportunities, a lack of motivation in learning foreign languages including English is apparent among the undergraduates. The purpose of this study is to identify the reasons for this lack of language learning motivation at the university level. Two surveys have been carried out for this purpose, the first being a survey with 50 randomly selected undergraduates from special first year, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Kelaniya. Data was collected through questionnaires. The highest percentage, which is 52% of the sample do not learn any foreign language. As identified by this research, the major reason is a language anxiety situation resulted by the unsatisfactory skills is English, due to which the students hesitate to learn a foreign language which is entirely new to them. The second survey has been conducted with 100 graduands who had learned languages at the University of Kelaniya. Their current job positions and the way their language skills have helped them in pursue of employment opportunities were identified here. The highest percentage, which is 29% are involved in jobs related to tourism industry in which the foreign language skills are highly required. 22% of the sample are involved in jobs related to academic fields including language teaching. According to the first survey, getting a job is the prime expectation of undergraduates. A total of 94% percentage of the graduands of the second survey have satisfactory language skills. Thus, it is recommended that university language courses are prepared with more focus on employment opportunities, so that the motivation towards learning foreign languages will increase.