| dc.description.abstract | English language plays an important role in
education, obtaining employment and even gaining power
and special privileges in Sri Lanka. With the introduction
of Official Languages Act of 1956, prominence given to
English became a downfall. The shift towards the mother
tongue in school education lead to offering degrees in
Sinhala and Tamil medium in tertiary level education.
However, most of the BSc and MBBS degrees continued
to be conducted in the English medium.
This research examines the effect of English Language
proficiency of the undergraduates on their academic
performances.
The study was carried out in General Sir John Kothalawala
Defence University (KDU) based on a self-administered
questionnaire and a test paper. The sample was 50 civil
Engineering undergraduates at the faculty of Engineering
(FOE).
The study showed that the students who have done
their secondary education in English medium (20% of
the target group) performed well in the test paper and
believed that their medium of study during A/L was a
good platform to their degree programme. The remaining
(80%) have achieved low marks for the given test paper.
They preferred to have participated in an English intensive
course before they started academics even though they
have obtained good grades at Advanced Level General
English.
Thus, it was proven that language proficiency is a decisive
factor in academic performances especially during the
1st year. It was also found that as they progress through
semesters, they become competent and comfortable with
the language which lead to a positive impact in academic
performances. | en_US |
