The unforeseen side of language learning: an investigation into the young learners’ misconceptions in learning English as a second language in a university context

Abstract

Competence in English is considered as an essential requirement for the undergraduates to be successful while studying and even after their graduation. Nevertheless, considering Sri Lankan government universities and especially the Faculties of Arts, low competence in English of the undergraduates has become a severe and a long lasting issue. Thus, many of the attempts exercised by English Language Units to uplift the language proficiency of the students ended in vain. Since the issue seems to have different dimensions the present study aims to find out the misconceptions of the language learners in learning English as a Second Language and to suggest remedial actions to overcome such fallacies. As the discourse aspect of the study is regarded to be vital, a qualitative analysis was carried out by distributing 100 open-ended questionnaires for the second year students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Ruhuna. Besides 10 language Teachers of the English Language Teaching Unit were interviewed and classroom observations were also done. It was revealed that the students carried language related as well as socially constructed misconceptions which diminish their motivation and impression in learning English. Such myths have taken enough scope in their minds simply because the university has failed to establish a sound language learning environment inside the university. The absence of language empowering bodies, innovative teaching methods, English medium studies, and a number of new language courses appear to comfort the students to hang on their misconceptions until they pass out. Thus, prior to any change, it is suggested that the language related delusions of the students towards language learning need to eliminate from their mindsets and from their language learning environment.