THE EFFECT OF PARENTS’ AFFLUENCE ON LEANER’S ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

This research studies the effect of parents’ affluence on a learner’s English-speaking skills, a case study based on three higher educational institutions. The prior literature has proved that the parents’ affluence significantly impacts learner’s language competence, and this research shows the situation with the learners of Advanced Technological Institutions (ATIs). The objective of the study was to examine the relationship between the parents’ affluence and the learner’s English Language speaking skills. The research population consists of 300 students from ATI Dehiwala, Galle and Kandy, representing five Higher National Diploma courses. A Likert scaled questionnaire and an oral test marks of the students were used to gather data. The data were analyzed using frequency and correlation analysis. The overall results show that the relationship between the parents’ affluence and the learner’s English Language speaking skills is insignificant, but there is a positive correlation between the two variables.