Karuna Sivaji | University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka (original) (raw)
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This study presents the findings of a small-scale classroom research, carried out at the Universi... more This study presents the findings of a small-scale classroom research, carried out at the University of Jaffna, to investigate the effect of direct and indirect error correction feedback on undergraduate writing. Although effective writing skills play a significant role in the academic success of undergraduates, they face challenges in developing their writing skills. Due to their grammatical inaccuracies, many undergraduates' writing is difficult to understand. Therefore this study was designed to investigate the effect of two types of feedback techniques to improve the writing skill of these undergraduates. There has been a longstanding controversy in ESL literature on the effectiveness of error correction feedback. Hence, this study attempted to find out the effect direct and indirect error correction feedback had on undergraduates' writing. Therefore, twenty four thirdyear undergraduates in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Jaffna, who were specializing in the soci...
This paper reports on a study that investigates the views of teachers of English in the Northern ... more This paper reports on a study that investigates the views of teachers of English in the Northern Province on the unique phonological features of Jaffna English, a variety of Sri Lankan English (SLE) that has its own unique syntactic, morphological as well as phonological features . The main research area of this paper is World Englishes in the context of English language teaching (ELT), focusing on variation within SLE phonology. This paper will first discuss the current issues in ELT in Sri Lanka that underscore the study. It will then discuss the relevance of existing studies of SLE pronunciation in an ELT context. Next, it will describe the methodology of the present study. Following the presentation of its findings and discussion, the paper will conclude with a consideration of the study's significance, its limitations, and suggest directions for further research. While this study is limited to the segmental features of pronunciation, this paper uses the terms "pronunciation" and "phonology" interchangeably to mean the way in which sounds are produced in a language.
![Research paper thumbnail of Towards an inclusive Sri Lankan English for ELT in Sri Lanka: identifying and validating phonological features of L1 Tamil speakers - Karuna Sivaji and Dinali Fernando [PowerPoint Presentation]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/30404705/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Pronunciation is perhaps the linguistic feature most open to judgment. As a surface structure phe... more Pronunciation is perhaps the linguistic feature most open to judgment. As a surface structure phenomenon that is most noticeable, one's accent easily evokes people's biases. For the same reason, pronunciation has been the most prescriptively taught aspect of language instruction. Pedagogies for accent reduction have bordered on the pathological." (Canagarajah 2005: 365) Background and Literature review • Main areas of research: World Englishes and ELT, and the pedagogical implications of WEs • Descriptions of Standard Sri Lankan English phonology and the need to update these descriptions, in view of the fact that the majority of SLE speakers are L2 speakers whose L1 is Sinhala or Tamil. (Fernando 2008, Liyanage 2010) • Current descriptions, particularly phonology, do not include features that are unique to L1 Tamil speakers (Sivapalan, Ramanan and Thiruvarangan 2010):
This study presents the findings of a small-scale classroom research, carried out at the Universi... more This study presents the findings of a small-scale classroom research, carried out at the University of Jaffna, to investigate the effect of direct and indirect error correction feedback on undergraduate writing. Although effective writing skills play a significant role in the academic success of undergraduates, they face challenges in developing their writing skills. Due to their grammatical inaccuracies, many undergraduates' writing is difficult to understand. Therefore this study was designed to investigate the effect of two types of feedback techniques to improve the writing skill of these undergraduates. There has been a longstanding controversy in ESL literature on the effectiveness of error correction feedback. Hence, this study attempted to find out the effect direct and indirect error correction feedback had on undergraduates' writing. Therefore, twenty four thirdyear undergraduates in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Jaffna, who were specializing in the soci...
This paper reports on a study that investigates the views of teachers of English in the Northern ... more This paper reports on a study that investigates the views of teachers of English in the Northern Province on the unique phonological features of Jaffna English, a variety of Sri Lankan English (SLE) that has its own unique syntactic, morphological as well as phonological features . The main research area of this paper is World Englishes in the context of English language teaching (ELT), focusing on variation within SLE phonology. This paper will first discuss the current issues in ELT in Sri Lanka that underscore the study. It will then discuss the relevance of existing studies of SLE pronunciation in an ELT context. Next, it will describe the methodology of the present study. Following the presentation of its findings and discussion, the paper will conclude with a consideration of the study's significance, its limitations, and suggest directions for further research. While this study is limited to the segmental features of pronunciation, this paper uses the terms "pronunciation" and "phonology" interchangeably to mean the way in which sounds are produced in a language.
Pronunciation is perhaps the linguistic feature most open to judgment. As a surface structure phe... more Pronunciation is perhaps the linguistic feature most open to judgment. As a surface structure phenomenon that is most noticeable, one's accent easily evokes people's biases. For the same reason, pronunciation has been the most prescriptively taught aspect of language instruction. Pedagogies for accent reduction have bordered on the pathological." (Canagarajah 2005: 365) Background and Literature review • Main areas of research: World Englishes and ELT, and the pedagogical implications of WEs • Descriptions of Standard Sri Lankan English phonology and the need to update these descriptions, in view of the fact that the majority of SLE speakers are L2 speakers whose L1 is Sinhala or Tamil. (Fernando 2008, Liyanage 2010) • Current descriptions, particularly phonology, do not include features that are unique to L1 Tamil speakers (Sivapalan, Ramanan and Thiruvarangan 2010):