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Item Code Switching and Code Mixing in an ESL Class: A Study of Undergraduates in a State University.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Samarakoon, S. M. S. S.Code switching and code mixing exist in bilingual societies where people use two or more languages to communicate. Being able to speak more than one language, bilinguals can code-switch and mix as means of effectively conveying meaning. Code switching and mixing frequently occur in English classrooms in faculties of Arts in Sri Lankan universities, where the teachers use Sinhala or L1 to teach English as a second language. The effectiveness of using and mixing L1 and L2 has been debated over the years. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate when and why teachers in this context use code mixing and code switching. Two classroom observations were carried out, two language instructors were interviewed and 30 ESL students in an intermediate level group were given a questionnaire to gather data for the study. The students' views on the use of L1 were assessed using a questionnaire that contained five-point Likert scale items. The results showed that the informant teachers generally tried to code-switch as little as possible but that they did code-switch in some of those situations where the students preferred either a combination of Sinhala and English or only Sinhala. During instances where the students cannot understand the lessons when instructions or explanations are given only in English, the informant teachers switch to L1, to create a less intimidating atmosphere which was one of the observations of the study. All 30 students strongly agreed with the fact that L1 should be used to understand grammar rules and lexical areas. The informant teachers agree to some extent with the idea that learners will understand more if they were to uses the L1 language of the learners to explain certain grammatical components. Both the informant teachers agree to some extent that learners will understand more, if she uses the L1 languages to explain the meanings of certain lexical item.Item A Study on the Attitudes and Issues of the Undergraduates Who have Completed the Compulsory English Course for Humanities Students.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Keerthiwansha, N.W.B.S.The compulsory English course is designed to improve the English language knowledge of the undergraduates to assist them to continue their respective courses at the university. However, even after the completion of the course, the majority of the undergraduates show difficulties in basic grammar, academic writing and speaking. Therefore, this particular research is designed to identify the attitudes of the undergraduates who have already completed the compulsory course to make suggestions for further improvements. Twenty-five third year undergraduates were chosen to give a questionnaire to record their attitudes regarding the course before the commencement and after the completion of the course, the remaining language issues they have and their personal opinion regarding the course. Through the data analysis it was found that the course do not have a text book. The majority of 87% have stated that the time duration of 2 hours per week for 15 weeks is not enough for the course. More importantly, when their attitude regarding the course before the commencement of the course is noteworthy because the majority of 83% had expected that the course would solve some of their English language issues and 17% had thought that the course would solve all their English language issues. On the contrary, none of the participants stated that all their issues were solved after completing the course while the majority of 74% have stated that some of their issues were solved and the remaining 16% has stated that none of their issues was solved after the course. In addition, writing skills were not improved and the time allocation for listening and speaking was quite low. Majority of 63% has specifically stated that the focus on improving speaking skills was inadequate, which was the most critical language skill for the undergraduates. Thus, designing a textbook to cover all the necessary grammar rules, extending the duration of the course, focusing more on presentation skills, speaking and academic writing can be suggested to improve the quality of the course and to meet the language needs of the undergraduates.Item From „Facebook‟ to „Bukiya‟: Language Change in Facebook among Undergraduates of the University of Vocational Technology.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Karunarathna, J. A. M. B.; Jayashan, M. N. L. C. L.; Wijayasen, W. A. S. R.; Papith, V.; Shakthibaala, S.; Dharmadasa, A.S.U.; Nizreen, Z.Language transmits cultural values, norms and beliefs. Media has always influenced the constant change of language. Especially with the rapid change of technology, from internet to smartphones, it has changed the way people communicate. It is said that human communication has become easier and quicker through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. As long as human communication has become quicker through social networking, language has also changed rapidly. It has contributed to English language by adding words and phrases such as „OMG‟, „LOL‟, unfriend, etc. among the users. The aim of the research is to investigate the changes occurred in the language being used in the social media among Sri Lankan users with particular focus on Facebook. Data is collected in snowball sampling technique from the undergraduates of University of Vocational Technology, through six voluntary research agents. They are active users of Facebook and collected data for four months. These voluntary research agents are undergraduates of University of Vocational Technology, Sri Lanka. In collecting data, morphological changes were focused in status updates and comments in Facebook, in Sinhala, Tamil and English among the undergraduates of University of Vocational Technology. Findings were thematically categorized and analyzed. Results shows interesting findings across languages, such as the variations of the same word in Sinhala „supiri‟, „patta‟, „pata pata‟ to „fatta‟ throughout the time, and a similar word for the same in status updates in Tamil „sattapadi‟. Further, according to findings, many morphological changes have occurred with blending and borrowing. However, comments made in English language show a comparative reduction to „likes‟ and emojis. Findings illustrate the necessity of further research in analysis of discourse across three languages in social media since the language change is rapid, complex and unprecedented.Item The Social impact of the ‘Selfie-Photography’ Trend Among the University Undergraduates(Drama & Theatre and Image Arts Unit, Department of Fine Arts, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Lal, T.I.S.S.“Selfie-photography” has become a popular trend in the current field of photography. “Selfie” is defined as a photograph that one takes of oneself, typically taken with a smartphone or webcam and shares via social media. The purpose of this study was to examine, whether the undergraduates of the University of Kelaniya display a preference toward the “selfie-photography” mode and whether the present social situation provides any contribution to it. This study involved randomly selected 20 undergraduates in the Faculty of Humanities. The data was collected through a questioner which covered basic information about how and why the undergraduates use “selfi-photography”. The results of the study demonstrate that there is a remarkable increase in the use of “selfie photography” mode among the university undergraduates. Also the results depict that, the art of selfi-photography is rapidly spreading among youth, with the effect of the development of modern technology. There is an overwhelming pressure in modern society which persuades every person to be a part of the technological world. The “selfie-photography” is an indicator of showing oneself as belonging to that particular technological world. Therefore, it can be concluded that, the university undergraduate’s ‘choice of “selfie-photography” as a modern way of taking photographs, is influenced by the current social trends.Item Use of prepositions among University students learning English as a Second language(Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Madhushani, H.N.G.; Athapaththu, A.M.H.K.; Athapaththu, S.P.; Navarathne, A.S.; Kumari, H.R.U.E.Prepositional usage is a difficult grammar area among the students who are learning English as a second language. Thus, it has been demonstrated that even undergraduates learning English as a second language face difficulties when using prepositions accurately. The present study is an attempt not only to identify the common errors made by the students in using prepositions, but also to recognize the more familiar prepositions used among the students. This has led to the assumption that both teaching and learning prepositions in English by the teachers and learners who study English as a second language are inadequate. Forty undergraduates representing the four faculties, ten from each, were given a questionnaire to be answered. Accordingly, the faculty of Humanities, the faculty of Social Sciences, the faculty of Management and the faculty of Science in the University of Kelaniya answered the questionnaire consisting of fifteen questions including two open ended questions. The findings revealed that the students of the faculty of Science possess a thorough knowledge regarding the accurate use of prepositions while the knowledge of the students in the faculty of Social Sciences regarding the use of prepositions was very low. Furthermore, prepositions that had been used more accurately were: ‘into’, ‘among’ and ‘from’, while the prepositions that had been misused frequently were: ‘on’, ‘between’ and ‘of’. Thereby, our research study became a success, signaling green lights for maiden future studies.Item Attitudes and motivation of undergraduates towards learning English as a Second Language(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Pushpananda, W.M.Motivation, the driving force of many human actions, plays a crucial role in the language learning process of a person. Motivation is one factor which steers an individual towards fluency in a language. There can be different motivational types which influence a person to learn and use a language which is other than his or her mother tongue. The attitudes of a person direct him or her to have a certain behavior. As in any other aspect of human life, language learning is also greatly affected by a person’s attitudes towards the language and the community which uses that particular language. Therefore both the attitudes and the motivation of a person play an important role in the language learning process of a person, especially in the case of learning a foreign or a second language. Considering the specific context in which language learning is taking place a particular type of environment (i.e. the language learning environment) is created which greatly influence the attitudes and motivation of language learners. This study focuses on attitudes and motivation towards learning the English language among undergraduates of a Sri Lankan university. The aim of the study was to find out the level of motivation of these undergraduates towards learning the English language, the type of motivation which prevails among them and their attitudes towards learning English in general and within the university in particular. These undergraduates are from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Ruhuna. A randomly selected sample of 110 students participated in this study which used a mixed methods approach to gather data. A questionnaire and an interview were administered in order to gather data from the participants. Both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this study. The results revealed that the undergraduates who participated in the study were motivated to learn the English language to a substantial level. Determining the motivation type of these students was a complex procedure as they display different interests and necessities. It was evident that the students are both integratively and instrumentally motivated to learn the English language. The undergraduate participants of the study had positive attitudes towards learning English in general. However, they held negative attitudes towards learning English within the university.Item A study of instrumental, integrative and personal motivation levels of Telecommunication Engineering students learning English as a Second Language(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Embogama, S.Motivation is a crucial variable that constitutes to the development of a second language (L2). Hence, it is a prerequisite for the successful acquisition of a target language under almost all circumstances. The need to acquire an L2 in the context of an academic environment by virtue of the fact that it is the medium of instruction leaves students with no option but to develop proficiency in the target language. This study evaluated a group of telecommunication Engineering students’ motivation and attitudes towards learning the English language using the three motivational constructs proposed by Gardner: instrumental, integrative and personal in order to identify which category of motivation is the most crucial one for this particular set of undergraduates. The sample population consisted of a group of seventy-five first-year undergraduates at the Sri Lanka Technological Campus (SLTC). The primary source of data collection was done through the adaptation of Gardner’s motivation questionnaire named the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) and the findings revealed that the main reason why these learners wanted to acquire the English language was instrumental since they had to use the target language for academic purposes. The highest scoring was obtained for the assertion that learning the English language is a means of ensuring that they are in a position to use it to become successful in the study programme being followed. Therefore, the findings of the study stressed the importance of engaging in teaching activities that would target this particular need of the particular sample student population whose requirements for learning it are mostly for academic purposes rather than for cultural acculturation with that of the community of target language speakers. The research concludes by divulging certain pedagogical factors that could be used in similar academic environments as means of identifying, developing and sustaining high levels of motivation among adult L2 learners.Item The Role of Psycholinguistics Knowledge in Improving Proficiency in L2(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Ravindran, S.During the last two decades listening comprehension has received considerable attention, in the fields of applied linguistics, psycholinguistics and second language pedagogy. Listening is a complex cognitive process, in which the listener constructs the meaning using both the linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge. This study attempts to find out how psycholinguistic knowledge facilitates in improving proficiency in L2 listening skills. It is hypothesized that the psycholinguistic elements which are involved in listening skills could be introduced to both the teachers and learners to obtain mastery in the skills. A convenient sample of forty five, first year students from the Faculty of Arts were randomly selected as sample fro the study. The data collection was done by questionnaire survey and teachers’ observation. A qualitative analysis was carried out to gather information and to analyze data. Through the analysis it was found that the role of Psycholinguistic knowledge in improving proficiency in L2 listening skills is indispensable to obtain proficiency in listening skills. This study recommends that the learners need to familiarize the psycholinguistic elements which are indispensable for the improvement in the listening skill proficiency. Finally the undergraduates of the university with less proficiency in listening skills could be facilitated and enabled to improve their proficiency in listening skills.Item Intention of Pursuing English as a Second Language by Undergraduates(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Jayasundara, J.M.P.V.K.English opens new avenues in almost all the aspects especially in communication and technology in the modern globalized world. When it comes to Sri Lankan context, English language is commonly known as Kaduwa; the sword which kills those who are not competent in it. Hence, pursuing ESL has become a widely spreading passion in contemporary Sri Lanka as no one likes to be discriminated by others caused by lack of proficiency in English. Thus, most of the students tend to follow English courses in public and private institutions. Consequently, current study intends to investigate the intention of pursuing English as a Second Language (ESL) by tertiary level students. In order to achieve the objective, primary data were collected utilizing a questionnaire survey from 96 undergraduates of Uva Wellassa University using stratified sampling technique. The results ascertained through the analysis revealed that majority of almost all the faculties has the prime intention of obtaining a nice job with attractive salaries and good working conditions through pursuing ESL recording 85%. Further, gaining the ability to read English books and magazines with ease and gaining the ability to communicate freely in English with people from different countries have been reported parallel with the percentage 72 by each as second highest intentions of respondents who follow ESL. However, thirdly most of the respondents (71%) intend to pursue ESL as they want to get a job in which they can use English. Moreover, more than half of the respondents (60%) have the intention of achieving good marks and improve their evaluation in the academic transcript. Conversely, the fewest number of respondents (19%) wants to work either for an international organization (e.g. the EU) or for a global company (e.g., Nokia) by pursuing ESL. Thus, the results are crucial in designing ESL curricular for tertiary level students in order to better facilitate learners and furthermore teachers are benefitted with selecting ESL materials and activities. In conclusion, the prospective researchers will be enlightened to conduct further research pursuing this line of the study.