A Study on Attributes of Undergraduates and Lecturers Towards Objective Fulfillment of Course Units Offered by Department of English Language Teaching, Sabaragamuwa University
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Date
2011
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Uva Wellassa University of Srilanka
Abstract
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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.
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Keywords
Communication Skills, English Language