The Influence of Learners‟ Interest on the Effectiveness of Compulsory English Course Special Focus on the Second Language Acquisition of University Undergraduates

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the undergraduates‟ interest in learningEnglish as a second language and it adopts both quantitative and qualitative approachesto identify factors which cause lack of interest among undergraduates to attend theCompulsory English Course conducted by the English Language Teaching Unit of theUniversity of Sri Jayewardenepura. Data were collected by means of questionnaires,focus group discussions and semi structured interviews. All together 120 students fromtwo courses including 100 students from Compulsory English Course and 20 studentsfrom English for Employment Course were selected as the sample for the survey toobtain quantitative and qualitative data.

The results indicate significant differences between these two courses revealinga number of affective factors such as learning environment, teaching methodology,learning materials, time table etc that decrease the interest of undergraduates inCompulsory English Course conducted by the English Language Teaching Unit of theuniversity. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations and implications weremade to upgrade the Compulsory English Course. At last, it is hoped that the results ofthis study could be of much benefit for revising the teaching methodology, materials,syllabus etc of the Compulsory English Course of the University of SriJayewardenepura.

Key words: Education, English language teaching, University undergraduate