Abstract:
Introduced in colonial period in Sri Lanka, English language is taught to students from Grade 3 to
Advanced Level at schools. Despite the heavy expenditure and efforts taken by the government, the
outcome of teaching English language has not been satisfactory as revealed in the public examinations. In
contrast, the teaching of English literature at GCE O/L and GCE A/L has become a success with a high
performance rate. Nevertheless, the number of students who offer this subject has been only a fraction of
those students who follow English language. Lack of motivation has been an influential factor in deciding
the successfulness of learning of English. It is generally perceived that those students who offer English
literature are highly motivated and proficient, compared to the other cohort. But there may be some other
reasons too, more importantly the availability of English teachers and their qualification and
commitments. This study identifies the reasons behind the success or failure of teaching English literature
and language at two selected schools in the Ampara district from both urban and rural areas. In the urban
school the reasons for success and the issues of student enrollment into literature courses were found,
while in the rural school the reasons for poor performance in language tests were found. The students on
the Literature course seem to be happy with the teaching and learning, especially, English medium
students show much interest towards English literature. On the other hand, others who did not enroll on
literature courses gave several reasons for not enrolling such as their fear of failing the subject, lack of
basic knowledge of literature, lack of interest and unawareness about the value of the subject. In the rural
school so many reasons were put forward for their difficulties in learning English. Mainly it was found
that students’ poor language proficiency from primary classes affected learning. The outcome of the study
would shed light into the policy decisions concerning English language teaching.
