English Language Performance and reaching profession - A Case study of the Conflict-affected Vavuniya District of sri Lanka

Abstract

The English Language Teaching, especially in the war-torn North of Sri Lanka where the English Language Teaching (ELT) profession on its decline in the context of the politico-military instability in the past in that region, has begun to recognize the need for expanding its knowledge base and for professionally-trained teachers, apart from the teaching methods and materials used. This study reports a survey study among the sampled twenty secondary teachers of English who were serving in the five major schools of the Vavuniya district of Sri Lanka in 2005. The results indicate that the challenges these teachers face especially in relation to student and teacher performance lapses were connected with the past and present jeopardized ESL educational systems in practice in the war-torn region. The findings also provide an understanding of their needs and attitudinal changes and entail implications on ESL teacher education programs in such a context and probe their attitudes to error treatment methodology by means of questionnaire and interview. In this study, the ESL teachers emerged as more tolerant of error, both in theory and in practice. Presumed differences in the teachers were less general than had been supposed, and that their ESL status was less significant than other factors like language ability, professional training of varying national and cultural identities. Being a more complex area, it needs in-depth investigations.