Research Symposium-2011
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Browsing Research Symposium-2011 by Subject "Communication Skills"
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Item Customer Orientation and Firm Performance with Reference to Licensed Commercial Banks in Galle District: Proposals for Improvements(Uva Wellassa University of Srilanka, 2011) Sandaruwan, S.D.S.P.; Rohan, D.N.N.Note: See the PDF Version Most markets are moving towards a more market and customer oriented approach as customers have become more knowledgeable and required more variety and better quality of the products. Accordingly, customer orientation is the set of beliefs that puts the customer's interest first, while not excluding those of all other stakeholders such as owners, managers, employees in order develop a long term profitable enterprise (Deshpande et at., 1993). Tailor (2007), illustrates that marketing is not about providing products and services, it is essentially about providing changing benefits to the changing needs and demands of customers. The financial system in Sri Lanka is one of the rapidly booming sectors in the economy. It is comprised with different aspects and different financial institutions. Banking industry is playing a vital role in the Sri Lankan financial system and the foremost division within the banking industry is Licensed Commercial Banks (LCBs) (Central Bank, Sri Lanka, 2009). LCBs is the single most important category of the financial institutions in the banking sector in terms of asset base and the magnitude of services provided. However, in case of facing the huge competition within the industry, the companies have been introducing new systems and innovative approaches to attract customers. In case of providing the services to the customers, the service should be offered in such a way that it is fast, efficient and friendly. The company should be able to identify the customer needs and wants clearly and fulfill them satisfactorily at the right time. Companies should be able to build up healthy relationships with their customers by being customer oriented and this has become an essential matter of conducting the business today. Accordingly, in the modern business environment, customer is considered as the king and therefore customer orientation in business practices has been a dominant strategy in the business field. This has been identified as a major tool in the modern context of business so as to beat the competition. With such a background, the major objective of this study was to examine the relationship between customer orientation and firm performance in LCBs Sector. In addition, the second objective was to demonstrate the strategies that can be used by LCBs sector to improve the firm performances through customer orientation.Item Developing Literacy in Undergraduates of Level One English Proficiency- Application of ‘Reading to Learn’ Methodology(Uva Wellassa University of Srilanka, 2011) Hussain, Z.D.Note: See the PDF Version The problem of this research concerns a set of students, existent at any Sri Lankan university at any given point in time. They are the students of very weak English proficiency, or of Level I proficiency, according to the English leveling system followed by the universities. This research makes this particular group its focus in view of future English Medium Instruction (EMI) developments that may arise in the Sri Lankan university system. The problem of this study is the underdeveloped English literacy (reading and writing) evident in Level 1 students. The term 'English Literacy' here refers to the ability to read and write in the English Language. When a student opts for English Medium education that undergraduate will be required to complete a considerable amount of reading and writing tasks in order to achieve academic success. Thus the aim of this study is to examine one methodology to address the above mentioned problem with the objective of helping level 1 students develop reading- writing skills in English for academic success. It is common knowledge that university education requires a high degree of reading and writing. As Chen and Donin (1997) pointed out 'Reading constitutes a major part of schooling, especially at the university level. ' and they add that 'By reading the texts, students are expected to either develop or to review concepts on their own.' The development of concepts and the reviewing to a considerable extent is presented through the written work of the students. In his description on the standard of literacy in higher education Rose says a student at this level should be able to 'read complex academic texts with a high level of understanding' and 'use academic conventions and objective academic language to demonstrate their mastery of a topic or inform and influence their reader.' Thus if students are unable to meet the reading and writing demands of higher education, they will be at a clear disadvantage in meeting the demands of English medium tertiary education. In fact the primary goal of the methodology which this research followed is 'to provide access to tertiary study...' (Rose et al., 2003). The past research that is the Systematic Functional Linguistics based 'Reading to Learn' methodology, on which this study is modeled was implemented mostly with students having a literacy disadvantage which hindered their being successful in their respective educational programs. All these studies claim to have successfully achieved or considerably neared their goals of enabling such students to read and write texts which would have been considered impossible tasks from the stand point of the students' level of language proficiency. The English literacy disadvantage in the Sri Lankan undergraduates who belong to the lowest rung in English proficiency and the encouraging results produced by the past studies on the implementation of the 'Reading to Learn' methodology based on Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to develop English literacy in its subjects prompted me to research on the effects of this methodology on the students studying in my level 1 English language class in the University of Colombo.Item A Study on Attributes of Undergraduates and Lecturers Towards Objective Fulfillment of Course Units Offered by Department of English Language Teaching, Sabaragamuwa University(Uva Wellassa University of Srilanka, 2011) Jayasundara, J.M.P.V.K.; Abewickrama, R.Note: See the PDF Version English has incorporated in Sri Lankan education domain in the colonial era and currently, English as a Second Language (ESL) plays a major role not only in education but in all the aspects of the society. Moreover, a working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as engineering, medicine and information Technology; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level. It is one of six official languages of the United Nations. English has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modem era, Since English it is more widely spoken. Although it is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language. Being a highly influenced language and having tremendous power as a symbol of states, English plays an important role in the university system in Sri Lanka. If students are not equipped with English language competency in university level, they have to undergo number of difficulties (CRNC, 1968). Being one of the scholarly institutions, which is highly responsible in producing graduates who are capable of bridging the language gap in Sri Lankan context, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (SUSL) has inherited the only all English Language Teaching Department (ELTD) in Sri Lankan university system in the year 2005 at the place of English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU). As a department functions under the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages, it serves in two ways: firstly by offering English as a Second language for all the students in their first two academic years and secondly by offering English as a core subject under major or minor streams in Bachelor of Arts special (languages) degree programme. The prime objective of establishing ELTD is to create future English teachers with perfect English knowledge to the society filling the gap already existing in the field. However, none of the researches have been conducted to explore the fulfillment of the objectives of course unites offered by ELTD. Therefore, researcher decided to conduct a survey in order to identify the current situation of ELTD at SUSL. The research problem was formulated as whether ELTD has reached its objectives regarding the Core English Language (CEL) and English Studies (ENG). The study was conducted with the prime objective of exploring the fulfillment of the objectives of course units CEL and ENG offered by ELTD discovering the attitudes of undergraduates and lectures at SUSL.