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Relevance of ESP in the Present Educational Scenario

SAVITA

Assistant Professor in English

T.R.P.G.  Girls College, Sonipat

ABSTRACT

           English Language Teaching (ELT) can be broadly divided into English for General Purpose (EGP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP).  The teaching of English language at schools, colleges and Universities comes under English for General Purposes.  ESP is meant for Occupational Purpose (EOP), English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Science and technology (EST). In the rapidly changing present world when teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL), ESP practitioners face new opportunities and challenges.  For non-English speakers the ability to speak more than one language (English along with the Mother Tongue) become imperative to assess the language abilities of second language learners.  In the classroom, assessment can be seen as an ongoing process, in which the teacher uses various tools to measure the progress of the learners. Among those tools are portfolios, self-assessment, and, of course, tests. If assessment can be seen as a movie, since it is a continuous process, then a test is a still photographs; it gives a picture of the learner’s language at a particular point in time.  If used properly, these tools can help the teacher develop a full picture of the learner’s progress.  It is important to note that all type of testing and assessment are important in gathering information about student’s abilities.

KEY WORDS:

Rhetorical, pedagogically, methodology, disseminate, restricted, and sophisticated.

INTRODUCTION

            Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters (1987: 53) have pointed out the differences between English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for General Purposes (EGP) in their book, English for Specific Purposes: A Learning Centred Approach.

            On the face of it, ESP differs from EGP in the sense that the vocabulary, structures and the subject matter relate to a particular field or discipline in the former.  For example, a lawyer writing a brief, or a diplomat preparing a policy paper needs his jargon, ESP courses make use of vocabulary and tasks related to the specific field that one belongs to.  So a course in ESP is designed to meet the specific professional or academic needs of the learner, creating a balance between educational theory and practical considerations. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, however, has instruction that builds on EGP and is designed to prepare the students for the English used in specific disciplines, vocations or professions to accomplish some specific purposes.   ESP makes use of the methodology and activities of the discipline it serves, and is centered on the language appropriate to these activities. As Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters rightly put it. “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning “(1987:19).

            In this connection, it is interesting to note Tony Dudley-Evans (1987: 1-9) explanation that ESP may not always focus on the language of one specific discipline or occupation, such as English for Law or English for Physics.  University instruction that introduces students to common features of academic discourse in Sciences or Humanities, is frequently called English for Academic Purposes. (EAP) is also ESP.

DEFINITION OF ESP

            Peter Strevens (1988-1-13) definition makes a distinction between four absolute and two variables characteristics.

  1. Absolute Characteristic

ESP consists of English language teaching which is:

  • Designed to meet specified needs of the learner:
  • Related in content (i.e. in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupation and activities.
  • Centered on the language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis , discourse semantics, etc and analysis of this discourse;
  • In contrast with General English.
  1. Variable Characteristics:

ESP may be, but is not necessarily.

  • Restricted as to the language skills to be learned )e.g. reading only);
  • Not taught according to any pre-ordained methodology.

THE MEANING OF THE WORD “SPECIFIC “  IN ESP.

THE MEANING OF THE WORD “SPECIFIC’ IN ESP

            The word “specific” in ESP refers to “specific in language” and “specific in aim”.   A simple clarification that can be made here is “specific in language” and “specific in aim” are viewed as similar concepts although they are two entirely different notions. George Perren (1974) noted that confusion arises over these two notions. Ronald Mackay, and Alan Mountford (1978: 4) have stated that the only practical way in which we can understand the notion of specific language is as a restricted repertoire of words and expressions selected from the whole language because that restricted repertoire covers every requirement within a well defined context, task or vocation. On the other hand “specific in aim” refers to the purpose for which the learners learn a language, not the nature of the language they learn.  Consequently, the focus of the word “specific” is ESP is on the purpose for which the learners learn and not on the specific jargon or registers they learn.  As such, all instances of language learning might be considered ESP.

ORIGIN OF ESP

            Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters (1987: 6-8) succinctly identified three key reasons that are common , to the emergence of all ESP; the demands of a Brave New World,  a revolution in linguistics and the focus on the learner.  They noted that two key historical periods breathed life into ESP.  First, the end of the Second World War brought with it an age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific, technical and economic activity on an international scale.  For various reasons, most notably the economic power and technological advancement of the United States in the Post-War World Scenario, English has become an important language for global affairs.   Secondly, the oil crisis of the early 1970s resulted in Western money and knowledge flowing into the oil-rich countries.  The medium of this knowledge has been English.  The general effect of all this development is to exert pressure on the language teaching profession to deliver the required goods.

TYPE OF ESP

            David Carver (1983:  131-137) identified three types of ESP, English as a Restricted Language (ERL). English for Academic and Occupational Purpose (EAOP), and English with Specific Topics (EST).  The language used by air traffic controllers or waiters are example of English as a restricted language.

            Ronal Mackay and Alan Mountford clearly illustrate the difference between the restricted language and the language with this statement (1978:   4-5).

The language of international air-traffic control could be regarded as ‘special’ in the sense  that the repertoire required by the controller is strictly limited and can be accurately determined situationally, as might be the linguistic needs of a Dining-room waiter or air-hostess.  However, such restricted repertoires are not language just as tourist phrase book is not grammar.  Knowing a restricted ‘language’ would not allow the speaker to communicate effectively in a novel situation, or in contexts outside the vocational environment (1978: 4-5).

            The second type of ESP is English for Academic and Occupational Purposes. David Carver 1983: 131-137) indicates that this English should be at the heart of ESP although he refrains from developing it any further. Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters (1987: 16-18) on the other hand have developed a “Tree of ELT” in which the subdivisions of ESP are clearly illustrated.  ESP is broken down into three branches.  English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE), and English for Social Studies (ESS).  Each of these subject areas is further divided into two branches.  English for Academic Purpose (EAP) and English for Occupational Purpose (EOP). An Example of EOP for the EST branch is “English for Technicians” whereas an example of EAP for the EST branch is “English for Engineering Studies.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF ESP COURSES

            The characteristics of ESP courses identified by David G. Carter (1981: 167) and discussed here.  He states that there are three features common to ESP courses.

(a)        Authentic Materials;

(b)        Purpose-Related Orientation; and

(c)        Self-Direction.

These features of ESP courses are indeed useful in attempting to formulate one’s own understanding of ESP. If one revisits Tony Dudley-Evams (1998: 8-29) ) claim that ESP should be offered at an intermediate or advanced level, the use of Authentic Learning Materials is entirely feasible.  The use of authentic content materials, modified or unmodified inform, is indeed a feature of ESP, particularly in self-directed study and research task. For Language Preparation, For Employment in Science and Technology, a large component of the student evaluation is based on an independent study of assignment in which the learners are required to investigate and present an area of interest. The students are encouraged to conduct research using a variety of different resources, including the Internet.

FORMULATION OF APPROACHES TO ESP

            The approaches in ESP are formulated on the basis of five conceptions in ESP, John Malcolm Swakes (1990) uses the term “enduring conceptions” to refer to the following:

  1. Authenticity
  2. Research –Base
  3. Text
  4. Need
  5. Learning Methodology

            The main consideration in ESP according to Bernard Coffey (1984) is that of authenticity. It includes authentic texts and authentic tasks. Swales, in explaining what is meant by the research-base of ESP , reviews the ESP literature and observes a trends towards papers that they rely on some kind of data-based (textual or otherwise). In addition, Peter Strevens () 1980: 105-121) alludes to the importance of the “specific language” of ESP in Functional English’s’.  That is, only those items of vocabulary, pattern of grammar, and functions of language which are required by the learner’s purposes are included in ESP. Peter Strevens also alludes to the importance of learner in discussions of ESP.  Finally, ESP draws on the methodology or learning theories which are appropriate to the learning teaching situation.   In other words, Specific Purpose Language Teaching (SPLT) is not in itself a methodology.  According to Peter Strevens (1988: 39-44) this characteristic of  ESP makes the materials both more relevant and  more interesting to the student due to the varied and ingenious exploitation of opportunities provided by ESP Settings.  These five conceptions have dual and potentially origins in both the real world (the “target situation” of the ESP pedagogy. It is therefore crucial to discuss each of them in an attempt to survey the development and directions of ESP as it has evolved. Such a survey will identify five major approaches to ESP, each of which has focused on one of the major conceptions and thus contributed to the growth of ESP itself.  However, it is also evident that as each approach to ESP has evolved:  its particular enduring conception has also evolved, bring ESP practitioners towards their current thinking in each of the five areas.

The five major approaches to ESP are:

  1. Skills-Based Approach
  2. Register Analysis Approach
  3. Discourse Analysis Approach.
  4. Learning – Centered Approach
  5. Communicative Approach

            Sill-Based Approach to ESP has enlarged the conception of authority in two principal ways.  First, authenticity of text is both broadened to include texts other than written texts and narrowed to differentiate between different types of texts generated by each skill.

            The second conception is that of the Register Analysis Approach. It has developed out of the need for a research based for ESP, Michael A.K. Halliday, Amos McIntosh and Peter Strevens (1964: 266) are the first scholars who have pointed out the importance of, and the need for, a research base for ESP, set out in one of the earliest discussion of ESP.

            The reaction against Register Analysis is the early 1970s concentrated on the concept of text rather than thus the lexical and grammatical properties of register.  The approach is clearly set out by two of its principal advocates. Allen and Widdowson as follows:

            One might usefully distinguish two kinds of ability which an English course of ESP level should aim at developing.  The first is the ability to recognize how sentences are used in the performance of acts of communication, or the ability to understand the rhetorical functioning of language in use.  The second is the ability to recognize and manipulate the formal devices which are used to combine sentences to create continuous passage of prose.  One might say that the first has to do with rhetorical coherence of discourse, the second with the grammatical cohesion of text (1974.

The attention to strategy analysis give rise to new generation of ESP materials which is founded as much on conceptions of learning as one conceptions of language or conceptions of need. As Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters (1987: 14) have rightly put it.

            Our concern in ESP was no longer with language use although this would help to define the course of objectives.  The concern was rather with language learning. We cannot simply assume that describing and exemplifying what people do with language would enable someone to learn it…… A truly valid approach to ESP would be based on an understanding of the processes of language learning (1987: 14).

            Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters called this approach the Learning-Centered Approach and stressed the importance of a lively, interesting and relevant learning teach style in ESP materials.  The first ESP materials to adopt a conscious model of learning were probably those of the Malaysian UMEPP Project in the late 1970s.  The approach has received its widest publicity in the papers and materials of Hutchinson and Waters, and more recently, Mary Waters and Alan Waters (1992: 264-273)

            The recent approach that emerges from the concept of authenticity in the development of ESP is that of Communicative Approach. The first generation of ESP materials that appeared in the mid-1960s took skills as their principal means of selection, arguing that ESP teaching materials.  The definition of skill is somewhat broad, establishing little more than the ranking of the four usual language skills of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking (LSRW). Almost all materials course of collection of specialist texts with accompanying comprehension and language exercises. As R.A. Close (1972) rightly argues that the conception of authenticity is central to the approach taken to develop language skills.

In the rapidly changing present world when teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of most prominent areas of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL), ESP practitioners face new opportunities and new challenges. For non-English speakers the ability to speak more than one language (English along with the Mother tongue) become imperative to assess the language abilities of second language learners. In the classroom, assessment can be seen as an ongoing process, in which the teacher uses various tools to measure the progress of the learners.  Among those tools are portfolios, self-assessment, and, of course tests. If assessment can be seen as a movie, since it is a continuous process, then a test is a still photographs; it gives a picture of learner’s language at a particular point in time.  If used properly, these tools can help the teacher develop a full picture of the learner’s progress.  It is important to note that all types of testing and assessment are important in gathering information about student’s abilities.

 THE NEED FOR RESEARCH ESP TESTING

            The rapid expansion in ESP teaching is not accompanied by a similar increase in EST testing.  Perhaps, the earliest attempts at testing ESP date back to the time when the ELTS were launched.  At that time, in 1980, there had been little or no research into the validity of giving academic English proficiency tests based on different subject areas.  John Charles Alderson (1981) in a discussion on ESP testing questioned many of the principles behind this approach.  He agreed that since different University Departments placed different demands on their students, there are some good arguments for including ESP tests in an ESP test battery.  He felt that a comparison between performance on academically specific tests and the communicative needs of the relevant area might provide useful diagnostic information.  He also accepted that ESP tests would have really high face validity for both content-area students and University Lecturers.  However, he questioned whether it was possible to produce a test which would be equally suitable for students in all branches of a discipline.  For example, he wondered whether it would be possible to have a test for Engineers and whether they would have the same level of appropriacy for all Engineers, regardless of their specialization.  This highlights one of the main difficulties with English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) testing.

Another difficulty with ESP tests is delineated in Alderson’s question “How specific is specific?” (1981). Since at that time it is usually impossible to give each student a test which is tailor-made for  unique set of circumstances,  any ESP test has to be a compromise; and, in case of EAP , where many disciplines would be considered less than one broad subject area.  These areas would cover so wide a field that some students would not fit into any of the groupings.  John Charles Alderson (1981: 133) cited the example of a student in urban studies who would not know whether to choose a test in science or in social studies.

Over the past two decades, there have been several studies on the testing approval to be employed to test English proficiency.  Three articles by John Charles Alderson and Alexander Hugh Urquhart (1983) aroused considerable interest and led to several follow-up studies.  These articles described three studies carried out with students attending English classes in Britain in preparation for British Universities.

In each. John Charles Alderson and Alexander Hugh Urquhart (1982: 192-204) compared students scores on reading texts related to their own field of study with those on texts in other subject areas.  The student’s scores on the modules were found to be somewhat contradictory.  On one hand, for example, science and Engineering students taking the technology module of IELTS were found to be facing better than the Business and Economics students as well as the Humanities students, who took the same test.  On the other hand, the Business and Economics Students fared no better than the Science and Engineering group on the Social Studies module. Alderson and Urquhart conclude that background knowledge has some effect on test scores, but that is not always consistent, and that their future studies should take into account linguistic proficiency and other factors as well.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES.

T          he present study is an attempt at answering a few question that pertain to the student’s performance on LSRW skills in ESP (English Language for Specific Purpose) contexts.  The objective of the investigation can be expressed in the following research question:

  1. What are the student’s needs to learn Technical English keeping inn view the global context.
  2. Is there a correlation existing between the learner’s need and the syllabus which is being used to teach Technical English?
  3. What is the significance of the existing syllabus and is there is there a need for significant change?
  4. What is the role of ESP course designer and materials producer in this context?

All these questions can be answered in terms of the following hypotheses.

H1        Majority of the students will have stronger needs for learning Technical English given to the global context.

H2        There has been a negative correlation between the syllabus and the learner’s needs.

H3        The change required in the existing syllabus are hence utmost significance.

H4        The role of the curriculum developer in an age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific and technical knowledge is crucial to language – learning.

            Education at present has recognized the need for making use of the latest technology for better results. This could be seen for making use of the latest technology for better results.  This could be seen in the introduction of the language labs in the Engineering Colleges to impart various language and allied skills to the prospective profession also.  Still, it is the textbook which is supposed to carry on the aims and objectives of the syllabi.  Hence a critical appraisal of the textbooks used in different Universities becomes imperative.

THE ROLE OF TEXTBOOK IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

            English language instruction has many important components but the essential constituents in many English classrooms and programmers are the textbooks and instruction materials that are often used by language instructors.

            As Tom Hutchinson and Ennice Torrers suggest;

            The textbook is an almost universal element of (English Language) teaching.  Millions of copies are sold every year, and numerous aids projects have been set up to produce them in various countries.  No teaching-learning situation, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant textbook (1994: 315)

IMPORTANCE OF TEXT ANALYSIS

            Although handling the text in the classroom is time-consuming, text responses complement the data, providing more varied and detailed information about what respondents think, feel, and do.  Text analysis for Surveys is that it gives the ability to analyses respondent’s attitude and opinions.  As a result, one gains a clearer understanding of what the pupils likes or doesn’t like and why. When one understands what people think and feel in their own words, one can draw more reliable conclusions about their future behavior and use that predictive insight to meet needs more successfully.

            Text analysis is an interactive process enabling the teacher to know the major themes grasped by respondents, and also know how many respondents could mention at least one theme, whereby an insight into respondent’s belief, attitudes, or behaviors can be obtained.  When one works with the survey responses, one is likely to re-extract concepts and re-categorize responses using different category definitions or coding schemes, different terms or synonym definitions or different grouping of responses.  One may repeat this process several times before one is satisfied with the results

PURPOSE OF A TEXTBOOK

            A textbook is defined as a book used as a standard work for the students of a particular subject.  It is usually written specifically for a particular purpose, as a manual of instruction in any branch of study, especially as a work organized by scholars who usually have taught courses on the subject/s dealt with in a particular textbook.

TOOL USED FOR TEXT ANALYSIS OF SCHOOL SCIENCES.

            Researcher usually use two types of investigation processes. First is quantitative research, which employs numerical indicators to ascertain the relative size of a particular communication phenomenon. The second type of investigation process is qualitative research, which employs symbols and words to indicate the presence or absence of phenomena or top categorize them into different types.  Quantitative and qualitative observations provide researchers with different ways of operationalizing and measuring theoretical constructs and practical concepts.  While quantitative methods can provide a high level of measurement precision and statistical power, qualitative methods can supply a greater depth of information about the nature of communication processes in a particular research setting.

FEATURE OF QUANTITATIVE METHOD

            As Gareth Margon and Linda Simircich (1994: 315) state, the functional or positivist paradigm that guides the quantitative mode of inquiry is based on the assumption that social reality has an objective ontological structure and that individuals are responding agents to this objective environment.  As Catherine Cassell and Gillian Symon (1988: 237) have rightly put it in their article, the assumption behind the positivist paradigm is that there is an objective truth existing in the world that can be measured and explained scientifically.  The main concern of the quantitative paradigm are that measurement is reliable, valid and generalizable in its clear prediction of cause and effect.  In this connection, Mary John Smith (1998) in his book Contemporary Communication Research Method mentions quantitative research involves counting and measuring of events and performing the statistical analysis of a body of numerical data.

            The strengths of the quantitative method can be enumerates as follows:

  • According to Chava Frankfort-Nachmais and David Nachimias, the main strength of the quantitative method is stating the research problem is very specific and set terms;
  • Clear and precise specification of both the independent and the dependent variables under investigation;
  • Can follow firmly the original set of research goals, arrive at more objective conclusions,  test hypothesis and determine the issues of causality:
  • In the words of Howard Llord Balsley, achieving high levels of reliability of gathered data through controlled observations, laboratory experiments,  mass surveys,  or other form of research manipulations are possible in this method;
  • Eliminating or minimizing subjectivity of judgment is another important strength, as mentioned by Daniel Kealey and David Protheroe;
  • Allow for longitudinal measures of subsequent performance of research subjects.

WEAKNESSES OF QUANTITATIVE METHOD

            The weaknesses of the quantitative method are also noteworthy:

  • Fails to provide the researcher with in depth information on the context of the situation where the studied phenomenon occurs;
  • Lack of much control the environment where the respondents provide the answers to the questions in the survey;
  • Outcomes are limited to only those outlined in the original research proposal due to closed type questions and the structured format;
  • Does not encourage the evolving and continuous investigation of a research phenomenon.

The present research, however, has employed both the methods; hence it has benefitted from the strength both these methods and tried to overcome for limitations.

FEATURES OF QUALITATIVE METHOD

            As Gareth Morgan (1980 491-500) states, qualitative research shares the theoretical assumption of the interpretative paradigm, which is based on the notion that social reality is created and sustained through the subjective experience of people involved in communication.  In this connection David Fryer throws more light on qualitative research.  They are concerned in their research with attempting to accurately describe, decode and interpret the meaning of phenomena occurring in their normal social contexts.  Further he extends his statement to say that the researchers operating within the frame work of the interpretative paradigm are focused in investigating the complexity, authenticity, contextualization, shared subjectively of the researcher and the researched, and minimization of assumption (1991: 3-6)

STRENGTH OF QUALITATIVEW METHOD

The strengths of the qualitative method are as follows:

  • Obtain a more realistic feel of the world that cannot be experienced in the numerical data and statistical analysis used in quantitative research;
  • Possess flexible ways to perform data collection, subsequent analysis and interpretation of collected information.
  • Robert Bogdan and Steven J Taylor provide a holistic view of the phenomena under investigation in their book Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods (1975);
  • Able to interact with the research subjects in their own language and on their own terms as stated by Jerome Kirk and Mare Miller;
  • Has descriptive capability based on primary and unstructured data.

WEAKNESSES OF QUALITATIVE METHOD

  • Departs from the original objectives of the research in response to the changing nature of the context, as stated by Catherine Cassal and Gillian symon;
  • Arrives at different conclusions based on the same information depending on the personal characteristics of the researcher;
  • Not up to the work in investing causality between different  research phenomena;
  • Has difficulty in explaining the difference in the quality and quantity of information obtained from different respondents and arrives at different , non consistent conclusions;
  • Requires a high level of experience from the researcher to obtain the targeted information from the respondents;
  • Lacks consistency and reliability because the researcher can employ different probing techniques and the respondent can choose to answer only a few queries and ignore others.

QUANTITAIVE VERSUS QUALITATIVE TEXT ANALYSIS

                        As William Paul Vogt (1993: 1993 183-184) has opined there are two ways in which the social scientists distinguish quantitative from qualitative analyses.  On the one hand, qualitative analyses can be differentiated from quantitative analyses according to the level of measurement of the variables being analyzed.  Gilbert Shapiro and John Mark off (1977)argue, for example ,  that indiscriminate use of this quantitative – qualitative distinction has often resulted in the label,  qualitative content analysis ,  being not only aptly applied to rigorous analyses of categorical data but also inappropriately applied to haphazard   ( and thus unscientific) analyses of such data.  On the other hand, social scientist also distinguish their methods of quantitative or qualitative.  In this connection, it is interesting to note Berg’s explanation on quantitative methods, which is more deductive, statistical, and confirmatory, qualitative methods are more inductive, non statistical and exploratory.  It i9s only according to this latter distinction that quantitative text analysis has been applied to this study (1995: 2-4)

CONCLUSION

            The present study has employed both quantitative and qualitative methods, endeavoring to use the strengths of each method.  While the quantitative method helped the research to involve a good number of subjects and the various aspects of English Teaching in the Universities selected for study, the qualitative method has allowed the researcher to make an in-depth analysis of the responses of the subjects.  I has also been observed that the targets group turned out to be a suitable subject for qualitative analysis as they hail from professional colleges. They displayed a keen perception on the strengths and weaknesses of their system and provided the researcher a sharp analysis of various aspects of the teaching of English in their colleges.

            Keeping in view, the strengths and weaknesses of the quantitative and qualitative methods, a questionnaire was prepared, and the opinion of the students was obtained. The questionnaire contains questions related to their parental background, the Board of Examination through which they had taken their school leaving certificates, etc.  Students were asked to express their views on textbooks prescribed for study in terms of content, form, presentation and other aspects such as grammar and the four skills important they need.

Therefore, any thesis does not stop at the point of being mere critique of the status quo; in addition to critiquing the existing scenario of teaching Technical English at Professional level, the thesis also makes a modest attempt at suggesting measures in the last chapter to better the status quo.  The suggested measures are based not on the theoretical speculation but on practical experience and the prolonged experiments and evaluation conducted for the technical students at Acharya Nagarjuna University College of Engineering and Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru  Technological University (Kakinada), Koneru Lakshmaiah University and Vignan University, Guntur.

References:

  1. Carson , J.E 1994. Reading –Writing connections: Towards a Description for Second Language Learners in ‘Second Language Writing’. Edited by Barbara Kroll.cup.pp. 88-107.
  2. Stotsky .S.1983. Research on Reading –Writing Relationships: A synthesis and suggested directions. In ‘Language Arts’, 60, 627-642.
  3. Anthony, Laurence, 1997. ESP. What does it mean? Retrieved from http://interserver.miyazaki-med ac.JP/-cue/PC/anthony.htm on April 6, 2000.
  4. ‘The sociolinguistic context of English language teaching in India’ in Shirin, Kudchedkar (Ed.) reading in English language teaching in India, Chennai: Orient Longman, PP. 37-66.
  5. Foreigners and Foreign languages in India: A sociolinguistic history. New Delhi : Foundation Books (Cambridge University, press, )
  6. Daniel, S.P.2012, An Indian Experiment of English for specific Purposes (ESP), English language teaching in India: the shifting Paradigm. New Delhi Tata MC-Grow Hills, PP. 119-125.
  7. Dudley Evans, T. and Jo St. John M.1998. Developments in English for specific purposes. Cup.
  8. Kavaliaus kiene, G. Role of Self-correction in learning ESP ‘English for Specific purposes world’, Web-based Journal, Issue 2(5), Volume 2, 2003, 8 Pages.

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Profitability Determinants of Islamic Banking in Sri Lanka

Hiruni Nirmali, HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corporation,Colombo, Sri Lanka

&

Dr. R. P. C. R. Rajapakse[1]

Senior Lecturer, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka. 

Abstract

Amana Investments was established in 1997 as the first Islamic bank in Sri Lanka. Islamic Finance is Sharia compliant finance because and is based on the teachings in the Holy Quran and sacred scripture of the religion of Islam. The aim of this research is to provide an overview on the Islamic Finance Industry of Sri Lanka by identifying the factors that affect the profitability of the industry. The profitability of Islamic banks is measured by three dimensions, i.e. return on assets, and return on equity, earnings per share. Internal explanatory variables include bank size, gearing ratio, asset management, deposit ratio, non-performing loans ratio, asset composition, capital adequacy ratio and operating efficiency, whereas external explanatory variables include gross domestic product (GDP) and consumer price index (CPI). Since Islamic Banking is a relatively new industry within Sri Lanka, there is a high potential to make profits by considering the components of the ratios used as independent variables in the study. Although some components indicated to be profitable, the risk associated with those variables and the other factors such as liquidity and profitability also have to be considered. Results were similar to the other researches done for other countries

Key words: Islamic banking, Shairia, Murabaha, Mudarabah, Ijara,

JEL:G21,G23,N25

 

  1. Introduction

1.1 Islamic Banking in Sri Lanka

The history of Islamic banking sector in Sri Lanka extends back to 1997 where Amana Investments was established. The amendment of the Banking Act No. 30 of 1988 in 2005 to permit licensed commercial banks and licensed specialized banks to offer selected Islamic finance instruments was a major step towards encouraging Islamic banking in the country and today there are state banks and commercial banks practicing Islamic Banking. There are many other institutions including Islamic Micro Financiers offering Murabaha, Mudarabah, Ijara, Wakal, Musharaka, Diminishing Musharaka, Takaful etc. In order to pursue industrial development in the Islamic Banking sector, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has given permission to open up a fully fledged Islamic Bank and also a fully fledged Islamic Fund.

Islamic Finance is regarded as Sharia compliant finance because it is developed based on the teachings in the Holy Quran and sacred scripture of the religion of Islam. Amana Bank is the first Sharia compliant bank in Sri Lanka under the local regulations and the only bank that operates with the requirements of the Sharia law. On the 29th July 2011, it has witnessed the official launch as a Central Bank Licensed Islamic Bank.. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, AB Bank of Bangladesh and Islamic Development Bank of Saudi Arabia are three of the strategic stakeholders of Amana Bank PLC. Most of the other banks have established windows for the conduct of Islamic Banking which have created a healthy competition between the players.

 Murabaha and Mudarabah and Two Tier Mudarabah are most popular financial products offered. Researchers have found that the most common financial product in the Islamic Finance Industry in Sri Lanka is Mudarabah.  Musharakah is another product that is same as Mudarabah but only difference is that partnership finance would be used. In this, the bank and the customer would be jointly invest in funds and management capabilities in a particular project. Diminishing Musharakah is another product where the bank and the customer would own assets or capital under joint ownership with the mutual understanding that the customer will purchase the units of the asset at periodic intervals and at the end becomes the owner of the product. This is commonly used for the purchase of property, plant and equipment. Ijara is also a product that is coming under Islamic Finance which is basically about Sharia compliant leasing. This is very common in Sri Lanka.

  1. Literature Review

To measure a firm’s financial performance in terms of how effectively and efficiently the assets of the firm are utilized to generate revenues for the business, profitability measures play an important role. These assess the financial health of an organization and allow comparisons among companies as well as different sectors (Slaper and Hall, 2011). The main motive of an organization is to earn a profit for the betterment of the firm, which allows a firm to expand its activities and operations.

Profitability can be defined as the final measure of economic success achieved by a company in relation to the capital invested in it. Also this is considered as the excess amount over costs of a business. Profit and Profitability are two different measures, where profit is an absolute figure, while profitability is usually expressed as a ratio, explaining the rate of profit using a base measurement, for example, assets, investments or equity. Increase in profitability tends to achieve business success and hence the financial managers should focus on improving the profitability of the firm. (Uremadu and Enyi, 2012) Profitability ratios can be categorized as profitability on sales, and profitability on investment.

Considering the measures or the ratios employed to assess the profitability of a firm, the theoretical base and researches have suggested using Gross Operating Income Margin and Net Operating Income Margin as profitability measures on sales and Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) as profitability measures on investment. However, there are also certain other measures used as proxies for firm profitability.

According to the study of profitability determinants of Islamic Banks in Pakistan by Ijaz et al. (2015) for the period of 2006 to 2013, Bank size, gearing ratio, operational efficiency, asset management, and capital adequacy ratios were used as independent variables along with ROA and ROE as dependent variables.

In the research of Kosmidou and Zopounidis (2008), ROA was used as the dependent variable in measuring the performance of Greek Banks for the period 1990-2002. The independent variables used are the cost to income ratio, the proportion of equity to total assets, the proportion of loans to customers and short term financing, the proportion of ratio of loan loss reserves to gross loans, the bank’s total assets accounting value (bank size), the annual change in GDP, inflation rate, growth of the money supply, stock market capitalization, and the proportion of ratio total assets of the deposit money banks divided by the GDP. The results showed that there is a positive relationship between the bank’s profitability and bank size and the annual change in GDP and a negative relationship was found with inflation rate.

The study on Thailand Banking sector by Sufian and Habibullah (2009) aimed at analyzing the impact of internal and external factors on the profitability of the bank measures in terms of ROA and ROE considering the period from 1999-2005. The results showed that bank size, economic growth, and capitalization have positively impacted on the profitability while a negative impact was brought by the non-interest income, per capita GDP, credit risk and overhead costs.

Singh and Chaudhary (2009) have conducted a study for the period of 2001-2007 concerning the profitability determinants of Indian Banks. The results revealed that investments, per capita income, index of industrial production, wholesale price index, foreign exchange reserves, and exports were having a positive impact on profitability of banks in public, private and foreign sectors.

According to the study of ten commercial banks listed on Istanbul stock exchange conducted for the period of 2002-2010, a positive influence was found between the bank profitability and factors such as asset size and non-interest income on banks’ profitability and a negative relationship was found between the banks’ credit portfolio size and loans under follow-up. (Anber and Alper, 2011). The real interest rate as a macroeconomic variable was found to have a positive relationship too.

Flamini et al. (2009) have studied 389 banks of 41 Sub-Saharan African nations with considering different variables and concluded that a banks’ ROA is linked to the bank size. And also the macroeconomic variables such as regulations, market power, and systematic Risk are having an impact on the profitability. Further banks’ size, deposit ratios, and interest picking up ratios were found to be affecting the profitability of banks according to the study of 40 banks by Burki and Niazi (2010) for the period of 1991-2000.

A comparison of accounting profitability measures with economic factors was carried out by Olson and Zoubi (2011) for the period of 2000-2008 focusing on the Middle East and North African (MENA) regions and ROA and ROE were used as the accounting profitability measures. Bank size was found to reflect a positive relationship with the accounting profitability. Same accounting profitability measures were used by Ostadi and Monsef (2014) in their study of Iranian banks and have concluded that the bank size and bank concentration had more impact on the level of profitability among the bank deposits, bank size, bank capital, liquidity concerns, and keeping money prerequisites that were used as independent variables.

According to Nirmali& Rajapakse( 2016),there is a clear gap of research on Islamic Banking profitability for Sri Lanka. The relative newness of the industry and the lack of information availability would have caused this gap of knowledge which would be aimed to be bridged with the aid of this study. Islamic Finance Industry is a relatively new area to Sri Lanka. There is relatively less number of researches done.

3.    Significance of the study

The aim of this research is to provide an overview on the Islamic Finance Industry of Sri Lanka with the objective of identifying the factors that affect the profitability of the industry through an assessment of the quantitative factors. Promotion of Islamic Finance in a non Muslim country like Sri Lanka would be of great importance because of its ability to contribute to economic development. This is because of the ability of the emerging Islamic Finance Industry to contribute to the Sovereign Sukuk Market where foreign financing could be used as an alternative to the issue of Sovereign Bonds. The transition of Islamic finance into the mainstream global finance has created an opportunity for Sri Lanka to pursue funds for economic development. The findings are expected bring insights to the Finance Industry as a whole and also to the foreign investors to identify Sri Lanka as one of the potential success hubs for Islamic Finance.

4.    Research Problem and Questions

This study tries to assess factors that affect the profitability of Islamic banking industry in Sri Lanka measured in terms of Return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and earnings per share (EPS) with considering internal and external factors such as Bank’s size, gearing ratio, non-performing loans (NPL) ratio, operational efficiency, asset composition, asset management, capital adequacy ratio, deposit ratio, gross domestic product (GDP), and consumer price index (CPI). The question addressed here is whether the above mentioned factors have an association with the profitability of Islamic banking industry in Sri Lanka.

5.    Research Objectives

The main objective of this study is to test the profitability of Islamic banking industry in Sri Lanka.

The research question had been decomposed into objectives systematically as follows.

  • To examine the relationship between Return on assets (ROA) and Bank’s size, gearing ratio, non-performing loans (NPL) ratio, operational efficiency, asset composition, asset management, capital adequacy ratio, deposit ratio, gross domestic product (GDP), and consumer price index (CPI).
  • To examine the relationship between return on equity (ROE) and the Bank’s size, gearing ratio, non-performing loans (NPL) ratio, operational efficiency, asset composition, asset management, capital adequacy ratio, deposit ratio, gross domestic product (GDP), and consumer price index (CPI).
  • To examine the relationship between the earnings per share (EPS) and Bank’s size, gearing ratio, non-performing loans (NPL) ratio, operational efficiency, asset composition, asset management, capital adequacy ratio, deposit ratio, gross domestic product (GDP), and consumer price index (CPI).

  1. Methodology
    • Data

The profitability of Islamic banks is measured by three dimensions, i.e. return on assets, and return on equity, earnings per share. Internal explanatory variables include bank size, gearing ratio, asset management, deposit ratio, non-performing loans ratio, asset composition, capital adequacy ratio and operating efficiency, whereas external explanatory variables include gross domestic product (GDP) and consumer price index (CPI).This study is aimed at the analysis of profitability factors regarding Islamic Banking with considering Amana Takaful Bank PLC which is considered to be the only fully Sharia complying bank in Sri Lanka. It is a listed entity in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and thus the required secondary data on internal variables are collected from the quarterly financial statements obtained from the Colombo Stock Exchange website. A total of 8 internal variables and 2 external variables are used for the research study on annual basis. The data on internal variables are collected from the World Bank website and the publications of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Since the bank was established in 2009, data were collected from the year 2011 until 2015 with covering twenty quarters.

Bank Specific Independent Variables

 

  • Bank Size: The total asset base of the bank is used to measure the size of the bank. The relationship between the profitability of an entity and its size measured in terms of total assets is regarded to be positive in most of the literature.

  • Gearing Ratio: The ratio of total liabilities to total equity of the bank is termed as the Gearing Ratio. High gearing will be a positive factor for profitability given that the distress conditions are not reached.

  • Asset Management: Asset management refers to the management of investments on behalf of the clients of the bank. It is represented by operating efficiency divided by total assets. It is obvious that if the investments are managed properly, it will positively impact on the profitability of the bank.

  • Deposit Ratio: Deposit ratio is given as the ratio of total deposits to total assets. This is another indicator of liquidity of the bank. Higher amount of deposits would ensure that the bank has more funds which may lead to more investments and loans and hence increase the profitability.

  • Non-Performing Loans: A non-performing loan is a loan that has been classified by the bank as default or close to default as per the criteria set in. It is measured as a ratio to the total value of the loans. High ratio means low profitability of the bank.

  • Asset Composition: Asset composition another measure of the liquidity of the assets that has been linked to loans. The impact of loans on the level of profitability is intended to be measured by incorporating this ratio into the model. It is explained by total liabilities (loans) divided by total assets.

  • Capital Adequacy Ratio: The relationship between total capital to risk weighted assets is measured by capital adequacy ratio. The ability of the bank to absorb risks generated to shareholders is measured by this ratio. Higher the ability to absorb the risks results in higher profitability.

  • Operating Efficiency: Higher the operating efficiency of the bank would result in higher profitability. It would be an indication of how efficiently the bank uses its assets by incurring costs in order to serve the customers and earn profits. It is calculated as operating expenses divided by total assets.

 

Macroeconomic Independent Variables

 

Gross Domestic Product: The annual GDP is taken for the study which means the total economic production within the boundaries of the country. Since the significance of the services within the total GDP is rising, it could be expected that the banking industry too contributing more to the total GDP. In a narrow sense, higher the GDP, higher would be the personnel income that would result in more deposits and demand for loans and hence result in bank’s profitability. In a broader sense, the factors like tax and others would have to be considered in order to arrive at a conclusion.

Consumer Price Index: Consumer Price Index refers to the Colombo Consumer Price Index in Sri Lanka where it could be measured as the weighted average of prices of a basket of goods and services for a definite time period.

Definitions and Notations of variables

ROA = Return on Assets Annual net income

Average total assets
ROE = Return on Equity Annual net income

Average total equity
EPS =Earnings per share Net income

Weighted Average No. of shares
SIZE = Size of the bank in terms of total assets Log of total assets
GR = Gearing Ratio Total liabilities

Total equity
NPL = Non Performing Loans Ratio Non-performing loans

Total loans
AC = Asset Composition Total liabilities

Total assets
AM = Asset Management Operating income

Total assets
OE = Operating Efficiency Operating expenses

Total assets
DR = Deposit Ratio Total Deposits

Total Assets
CA = Capital Adequacy Ratio Tier I + Tier II capital

Risk weighted assets
GDP = Gross Domestic Product Annual GPD
CPI = Consumer Price Index Annual CPI

3.2 Methodology

The Data collected will be studied for their nature and behavior using the descriptive statistics. The methodology aims at identifying the determinants of profitability of Islamic Banking, the independent variables involved in the study would be compared against the dependent variables as three separate models.  The Pearson’s correlation coefficient is calculated for the relevant variables for this purpose. The nature of relationship between each and every component would be tested in the study with the profitability would be identified and then the study would conclude the determinants of profitability of Islamic Banking in particular.

The methodology designed for identifying the determinants of profitability of Islamic Banking would lead to the achievement of the objectives of the proposed study. Further, the analysis of collected data would involve using statistical packages and also an incorporation of qualitative factors for increasing the effectiveness of interpretations.

  1. Analysis

4.1 Descriptive Statistics

The analysis of the descriptive statistics relevant to the variables considered in the study is being presented below. Descriptive statistics can be used as a measure to describe and discuss the general characteristics, providing an overview of a sample. Mean and Median values will be used as measures of Central-tendency and the standard deviation would be used to measure the dispersion of the sample. The volatility of the data would be measured through the standard deviation measure. A low standard deviation implies that the data lies close to the mean value.

When considering the ROA, taking 5 annual observations, the mean ROA had been -0.006 with a maximum of 0.010000 and a minimum of -0.020000. This shows the variation caused in ROA since the bank was incorporated. Most of the profitability indicators are having minus mean values. It means that the bank had been improving over the years since inception with indicating a growth.

The maximum and minimum values of the firm size had not been deviated very much over the five year period although there had been some level of improvement. The maximum and minimum values of Non Performing loans too are not deviated very much from the mean value and it is a very low amount compared to the other peers in the industry. The mean gearing ratio is also high with a high standard deviation of 1.601252 which means that the bank highly depends on debts compared to equity. Since the bank is in the growth stage of its life cycle with facing high level of business risk where it is earning slight profits and cash flows with competition from new entrants though it finds increasing sales growth rate, high level of financial risk seems to be too risky.

When considering the macroeconomic variables, the natural logarithm of GDP is having a maximum value of 29.97387 and a mean value close to it. The standard deviation is quite high indicating high volatility. In contrast, the natural logarithm of CPI has low volatility indicating a standard deviation of 0.076118.

  ROA ROE EPS SIZE GR NPL AM OE CA DR AC LNGDP LNCPI
 Mean -0.006000 -0.015017 -0.065091  10.39568  5.025209  0.011740  0.044703  0.045447  0.160905  0.797729  0.825180  29.76858  5.133377
 Median  0.000000 -0.015913 -0.064180  10.36918  4.443260  0.011040  0.045285  0.045132  0.207036  0.795727  0.816287  29.79138  5.159917
 Maximum  0.010000  0.047592  0.161711  10.68018  7.366668  0.017715  0.075005  0.059196  0.254639  0.837431  0.880478  29.97387  5.201347
 Minimum -0.020000 -0.077960 -0.326985  10.16306  3.622225  0.006948  0.012238  0.028557  0.003882  0.768579  0.783654  29.50946  5.020366
 Std. Dev.  0.013416  0.054177  0.213158  0.216308  1.601252  0.003943  0.022274  0.013778  0.099908  0.026443  0.042077  0.189028  0.076118
 Skewness -0.111111  0.005578 -0.090969  0.234001  0.584242  0.459309 -0.161060 -0.081535 -0.796098  0.505026  0.302381 -0.298234 -0.616533
 Kurtosis  1.398148  1.396876  1.411732  1.546486  1.777495  2.336682  2.480731  1.396477  2.196801  2.107932  1.480303  1.680124  1.857460
 Jarque-Bera  0.544857  0.535444  0.532437  0.485777  0.595807  0.267469  0.077792  0.541225  0.662545  0.378332  0.557337  0.437051  0.588719
 Probability  0.761528  0.765120  0.766272  0.784359  0.742373  0.874822  0.961851  0.762912  0.718010  0.827649  0.756791  0.803703  0.745009
 Sum -0.030000 -0.075086 -0.325453  51.97838  25.12605  0.058700  0.223516  0.227233  0.804527  3.988647  4.125900  148.8429  25.66688
 Sum Sq. Dev.  0.000720  0.011741  0.181746  0.187156  10.25604  6.22E-05  0.001985  0.000759  0.039926  0.002797  0.007082  0.142926  0.023176
 Observations  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5

4.3 Correlation Analysis

The purpose of the Pearson’s correlation analysis is to understand the relationship between the profitability determinants used in the study as independent variables and the profitability measures that are incorporated into the model as dependent variables.

Correlations
  ROA ROE EPS SIZE GR NPL AC AM OE DR CA GDP CPI
ROA Pearson Correlation 1 .960** .942* .383 .605 -.570 .669 .816 .309 .532 -.633 .436 .409
Sig. (2-tailed)   .010 .017 .524 .280 .316 .217 .092 .612 .356 .252 .463 .494
N 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
ROE Pearson Correlation .960** 1 .996** .284 .606 -.759 .662 .662 .089 .488 -.542 .292 .219
Sig. (2-tailed) .010   .000 .644 .278 .137 .224 .224 .887 .404 .346 .633 .724
N 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
EPS Pearson Correlation .942* .996** 1 .323 .657 -.807 .708 .599 .005 .521 -.573 .317 .228
Sig. (2-tailed) .017 .000   .596 .229 .099 .181 .286 .994 .367 .313 .603 .712
N 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

 

The overall results of the correlation analysis show that the relationship between the independent variables and the profitability measures show the same results. The profitability indicators of the bank ROA, ROE and EPS are positively correlated with the size measured in terms of the assets of the bank in the particular years. This shows that the increase in the asset base of the bank contributes to the profitability of the bank.

The Gearing Ratio is positively correlated with the ROA. Since the significance level is greater than 0.025, the results could be confirmed to be significant. It could be concluded that the increase in debt component with compared to the equity in the capital structure results in more performance results or profits. But the gearing ratio is very high with compared to the industry norms and given that the bank operates in a relatively new industry within Sri Lanka and it is in the growth stage, the level of business risk is very high. Therefore the financial risk has to be low whereas the bank has a high level of gearing which is risky.

The NPLs have a negative correlation with the ROA, ROE and EPS. That is, the increase in the level of NPLs result in reducing the profitability measured in terms of ROE, ROE and EPS. Loans are one of the most contributing sources of the total interest income of the bank. The amount of NPLs in Amana Bank is very low compared to the industry norms which is a positive aspect.

When considering the Asset Composition (AC), it is positively correlated to the profitability of Islamic Banking in terms of ROA, ROE and EPS. Loans bring in interest income to the bank and hence the increase in loans in the asset portfolio of the bank would result in more interest income and thus more profits. Asset Management (AM) is also positively correlated to the profitability of Islamic Banking. Therefore it is clear that the management of investments on behalf of the clients of the bank would result in investor confidence, high returns, increased customer foot fall and thereby increase profitability.

When considering the Operating Efficiency (OE), it shows positive correlation to the profitability. The variable is highly correlated to the ROA and then to the ROE and EPS respectively. This shows the incurring of expenses for the day to day functioning of the bank with the purpose of serving the customers in the best possible manner would result in more profitability. This would be derived from the increased level of customer satisfaction due to the facilities and service enjoyed by the customers.

The deposit ratio is a key aspect in determining the profitability of Islamic Banking as savings are the primary income earning product of the bank. Deposits act as a source of making investments with which the bank would earn returns. Therefore when the amount of deposits increase within the total assets of the bank, there will be more investments and hence profitability ensured.

The capital adequacy is negatively correlated with the profitability measured in terms of ROA, ROE and EPS. It shows the ability of the bank to absorb risks generated to shareholders. Risk weighted assets had been increasing at a faster phase when compared to the total capital. Therefore the capital adequacy ratio reduced over the latter part of the period concerned. Profitability ratios had also shown mixed results. Therefore without taking the whole picture, as far as the individual data points are concerned, there could be seen a clear negative relationship between the capital adequacy ratio and the profitability measures as indicated below. The highest impact is generated upon the EPS. When the capital adequacy ratio changes to a specific direction, the EPS moves the opposite direction at a faster rate.

GDP also has a positive relationship to the bank’s profitability. It could be inferred that when the total national income rises as shown by the GDP, there will be more purchasing power and thus more ability to save. Therefore the banks would get more funds from customers or making investments and as well, there would be more investment opportunities in the economy.

When considering the CPI, the increase in CPI brings in positive correlation with the ROA, ROE and EPS. Inflation is caused by an increased movement of the CPI. In an Inflationary situation, the returns on investments too increase. Hence it could be concluded that the bank earns more returns in nominal terms.

  1. Conclusion

This study has aimed at the analysis of determinants of profitability with regard to Islamic Banking in Sri Lanka. The Amana Bank was chosen for the study which is considered to be the only fully Sharia complying bank in the country. The profitability measures considered in the study were separated as bank specific and macroeconomic variables. The macroeconomic variables are the nominal GDP and the Consumer Price Index whereas the bank specific factors are the Gearing Ratio, Asset Management, Asset Composition, Deposit Ratio, Non Performing Loans Ratio, Operating Efficiency, Capital Adequacy Ratio, and Size of the bank. Annual data on the components of the ratios were collected since the bank’s inception: hence for the period between 2011-2015.

The results were the same as for all of the profitability measures with regard to the determinants considered as independent variables in the study. Out of the bank specific factors, the Gearing Ratio, Asset Management, Asset Composition, Operating Efficiency, Deposit Ratio and Size of the bank shows positive relationship with the level of profitability of Islamic Banking whereas the Non Performing Loans Ratio, Capital Adequacy Ratio shows negative relationship to the profitability of the bank. According to theory, the Capital Adequacy shows the ability of the bank to absorb the risks and hence the findings seem to be contradictory to the theory. But the theory was justified when the individual data were analyzed. Both of the macroeconomic variables considered in the study; GDP and CPI shows positive relationship with the level of bank profitability.

The research provides insights to the entire banking industry on the components of bank profitability. Since Islamic Banking is a relatively new industry within Sri Lanka, there is a high potential to make profits by considering the components of the ratios used as independent variables in the study. Although some components indicated to be profitable, the risk associated with those variables and the other factors such as liquidity, profitability also have to be considered.

Results were conforming to the other researches done in other countries whereas with regard to Sri Lanka, Islamic Finance Industry is relatively a new area. The inadequacy of data due to the fact that Islamic Banking was established very recently made a limitation to the study. And also this research focuses only on Amana Takaful Bank PLC which is considered to be the leader in Islamic Finance Industry by being the only organization wholly based purely on the Islamic Finance concept. But when considering the island wide performance, there are many financial institutions which are into both commercial banking and also Islamic banking. There are also village societies among the Muslim community where the same principles of Islamic Finance are being applied. These societies or organizations are most of the time reluctant to disclose information and thus considering the availability of information, the listed bank has been selected for this research.

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[1] Corresponding Author

Group Discussion: A Strategy for Enhancing Soft Skills

Mr. K. Karkuvel Raja M.A.

Research Scholar, The American College, Madurai 625 002

Background of the study

            Business organizations are made up of personnel who play a vital role in attaining profit and progress.  Soft skills are mandatory for an employee to work in an organization.  Teamwork, group activity, team compatibility becomes essential in the modern business world.  Personnel have to make sure that he/she has developed the required soft skills to work in an organization.  Communication is a part and parcel of business environment.  Miscommunication of the data leads to misunderstanding between the personnel in a team.  Group discussion is an activity that tests the team co-ordination, compatibility and coexistence to a great level.  So, interpersonal relationship has to be improved to maintain unity among the employees.  Thus, more emphasis is given to the group discussion which not only helps to develop communication skills but also to improve the soft shills of the personnel.

Hypothesis

            The researcher attempts to prove that group discussion can be considered as an effective strategy in improving soft skills of the personnel.  Enhancement of communication skills is achieved during the course of group discussion.

Research Questions

  1. Why should a learner learn Soft Skills?
  2. How soft skills can be acquired?
  3. If group discussion a strategy for acquiring soft skills?
  4. How can group discussion help to improve communication skills?
  5. How can Group discussion be implemented in a Classroom?
  6. What is the role of the teacher while conducting a group discussion?

Discussions

            Business is not only about profit and loss, it also involves with the management of human resources.  For a learner of Business Administration course, the need to have Soft skills is of high priority.  Soft skills develop the personality of an individual.  The attitude, behavior, personality plays a vital role in the organizational behavior.  Soft skills groom an individual’s personality by making them adjustable to the working environment.  Proper behavior, attitude can be achieved only through soft skills.

            For a learner of Business Administration, the need to learn soft skills is inevitable.  The learners should learn soft skills in order to make them flexible to different complex situations.  The leadership quality, coordination, time management and other quality can be only possessed by individuals who have acquired soft skills.  Business students who are trying to enter into the business world should consider soft skills as a mandatory factor.  Soft skills help to trim one’s personality and make it suitable for the working environment.  Thus soft skill has to be acquired by the learners so that, they can become successful in their business in future.

            Acquisition of Soft skills is fundamental for everyone in the modern scenario.  Soft skills cannot be learned, it can only be acquired.  Teaching soft skills to a learner is not enough, and then the true purpose of soft skills will be degraded.  Printed materials and notes cannot be enough to teach soft skills.  Practical experience and training helps the learner to acquire soft skills.  Leadership rights, coordination, cooperation, and tem work can be achieved only when learners are put into such a situation.  Practical knowledge paves the way for the acquisition of interpersonal relationships.  Situations are the perfect masters to teach soft skills.  Thus, acquisition of soft skills has to be obtained practically and not theoretically.

            Group discussion has become a part of the cooperate sector.  Group discussion is even considered as a stage in the selection process of an interview.  Even students of Business Administration are taught that the group discussion as a management game.  Group discussion is considered is an activity that gives opportunities for all the participants to quote their ideas.  Situational analysis and decision making plays a tricky role in the progression of a business.  Nowadays, Group discussion has been promoted from a management activity to a common activity that all are meant to perform.

            For an individual to sustain in a group; coordination, cooperation, team work, correlation, and trust are fundamental.  Group discussion provides the chance to improve coordination among the group.  Each and every individual can contribute to the discussion which encourages them.  The participation of all the individuals makes them believe that they are also important for the group.  By listening to other’s ideas and opinions mutual understanding between the learners can be enhanced.  Leadership ability can be tested with the help of these kinds of discussions.  Encouragement, motivation leads to a healthy discussion.  All these traits shape the personality of the personal.

            Group discussion provides opportunities for all the participants.  By giving their ideas in front of all other participants’ one can learn how to speak in a group.  Giving space for others to speak, team unity can be improved.  Through discussions the participants can know about one another, their coordination can reach the greater level.  Team work is the key element for every business.  Students who want to enter into business should possess interpersonal relationships in order to run a business.

            Language is essential for a communication.  Even though business communication is different from the ordinary communication, Language plays a vital role in it.  For a communication to happen proficiency over a language has to be improved.  In group discussion, communication makes the discussion worthwhile.  It is in the part of the participants to avoid miscommunication.  The information that is spoken in the discussion should be accurate.  All the ideas should be noted so that the individuals will feel that they are given importance in the discussion.  They are certain nuisances for how to conduct a group discussion.  All those should be taken into consideration in a discussion.

            Communication skill can be enhanced through group discussion.  For a business man, communication is mandatory.  Communication determines to the profit and loss of the business.  For a learner of business administration, Communication is much important as the management skills.  Students should have good language proficiency so that they can be fluent and flawless in their communication.  Proper practice and experience can help the students to improve their interpersonal relationship.  In a classroom the discussions should be provided for them to gain more soft skills.  By giving those situations which can acquire in the business and making them discuss their views knowledge about the problems in the business can be obtained.

            In business, art of communication is must.  One must know when to speak and how to speak.  Giving right information at the wrong time may also ruin the Business process.  Group discussion also teaches the art of communication.  Interactive skills can be improved by practicing group discussion.  The freedom to communicate and address the group encourages the students to speak.  Group discussion is not only a management tool for business students but also a strategic tool to improve interactive and soft skills of the students

            Soft skills are essential for all students.  It plays an important role in our life.  Grooming one’s personality is much important as gaining knowledge.  Classrooms are the place where ample opportunities are provided for the students to nurture their personalities.  Group discussion can be performed in a Classroom; this increases the involvement of the students and encourages them to participate in all other activities.  Making students to discuss an issue in a classroom helps them to understand about a group and its behavior.

            By putting forth an argument among students their knowledge on that specific topic can also be examined.  The knowledge they possess over that issue will help them to solve business problems in future.  Problem analysis and decision has to be done simultaneously.  In group discussion, students are provided with the chance of knowing more about a single issue and they can also get much solution which can solve that issue.  Students of all discipline should be given soft skills training so that they can cultivate good interpersonal skills.

            If group discussion is to be done in a classroom, teacher should take a key role.  The teacher should act as a guide in need.  The teacher should teach about the soft skills before conducting the discussion so that the students will know about the skills that they have to develop.  During the discussion, the teacher has to make sure that all the students participate in the discussion.  Repeated participation of a single student has to be avoided.  Teacher should act as a facilitator during the course of the discussion.  A model group discussion can help the learners to know the reason behind the group discussion.  After the discussion is over the teacher has to identify the skills that the individual is lacking and the skills that the individual is good at.  From the next time onwards, the teacher should stay out of the discussion; so that the students can perform freely without any intrusion.  By repeatedly making the students engage in such programs soft skills can be enhanced.

            Group discussion is seen to be a management activity but it has influence over one’s personality.  An individual can be judged by the way he performs in the group discussion.  Personality of an individual can be examined with his/ her performance in a discussion.  Attitude, time management, coordination and the leadership quality can be improved during the course of a group discussion.  By making students practice and involve themselves in such task based activities like group discussion; the involvement of the students and their interest will also be encouraged.  Time management plays an important role in our life.  Group discussion is a strategy to avoid unwanted communication.  Thus, in total group discussion can be considered as a strategy to cultivate soft skills.  So it is necessary for all the students to practically participate in a group discussion.  By doing so, not only interpersonal relationships but also all the other soft skills of an individual can be developed.

Reference

O’Connor, M. C., & Michaels, S. (1996). Shifting participant frameworks: Orchestrating thinking practices in group discussion. Discourse, learning, and schooling, 63-103.

Gigerenzer, G., & Selten, R. (2002). Bounded rationality: The adaptive toolbox. MIT press.

Bass, B. M. (1949). An analysis of the leaderless group discussion. Journal of Applied Psychology, 33(6), 527.

Stasser, G., & Titus, W. (1985). Pooling of unshared information in group decision making: Biased information sampling during discussion. Journal of personality and social psychology, 48(6), 1467.

Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59(2), 177.

Challenges in English Language Teaching

. LINUS HERTA

M.Phil, Research Scholar,

Research Department of English,

The American College, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract

            Language is dynamic and is arbitrary.  To teach literature is an easy task while teaching language to a learner is a real hard task.  For humans, language is not innate and human language has discrete, distinguishable sounds so they depend on various sources to acquire a language.  The only way of acquiring a language is through learning.  Learning is facilitated by different factors.  A learner acquires the target language from his surroundings, media, from the people he interacts but top of all classroom learning plays a pivotal role in learning a language.  Classroom learning is a mutual process in which both the teacher and the student involve, enhance and enlighten each other.  This leads to few challenges for both the teacher and the student in the learning process.  A teacher has to keep it simple and make the students get the essence of his ideas.  A teacher should know the calibre of the students and teach accordingly.  On the other hand a student has to respond correctly and should try to apply the concepts. ELT classroom learning, challenges both the teacher and the learner.  My paper throws light on the challenges faced by both of them.  The more the challenges are the more the innovations can be made which makes learning not a tedious and a monotonous task.  Challenges in English language teaching will open portals for novel methods of learning.

Keywords: classroom learning, challenges, teacher and student relation.

 Introduction

Language is a medium of communication.  Without knowing the structure and the proper usage of a language one cannot effectively communicate.  So language plays a significant role in day to day life.  Acquiring one’s mother tongue does not involve much labour but learning a second language gives the learner a hard and a challenging try.  Learning or acquiring a language is the ability to read it, speak it, write it and understand it when it is spoken.  In the present era learning a language is facilitated by variety of tangible factors like media, e- learning, and with the aid of advanced technology.  Recently there mushroomed few language classes which assure the audience of acquiring a language within thirty days.  With all these progressive methods taking their plight, classroom teaching had taken its stance from the very beginning of our educational and learning methods.  The teachers and the students support and enable each other.  To quote Bacon,” Language most shows a man: speak, that i may see.”  This quote of Bacon expounds the essential role played by language.  To teach a learner who has been newly introduced to the source language allows high end risks and challenges to the facilitator and the learner.  The challenges faced in ELT classrooms pave way for creative and innovative methods to make the learners understand and comprehend what they learn but all the while these methods had not effectively been an ultimate solution to the challenges but had been used as replacing tools which would establish a better way of learning.  Challenges have been a part and parcel of the teaching and learning process.  Both the student and the teacher face challenges in their own way. In reference to literature the challenges are comparatively less because literature reflects reality and it is the art of living.  On the other hand in the context of teaching a language the teacher has to be objective and has to start from the very basics and a student while learning a language creates a second identity.  Language is the launch pad for literature. One has to gain proficiency in language to plunge into literature.  There has been a pre-constructed notion that literature classes are lively and make the learner easily relate to the concepts and ideas discussed by drawing examples from real life incidents but language classes are way too boring because it mainly focuses on grammar, structure and the four skills.  Being put into this confined notion, language teaching take tough grounds to explicitly express itself to the learner.  Therefore English language teaching involves much challenge for both the teachers and the students.

Objective of the study

The main objective of the study is to expound the challenges faced by both the facilitator and the learner in an English language teaching classroom.

Hypotheses

The following are the hypotheses of this explanatory study

(1) Teachers fail to motivate the students individually and their main objective is to finish the portion

 (2) Teachers focus only on the classroom goals not beyond it.

 (3) Learner’s morbid fear to learn English and their lack of interest.

 (4) Learners ego towards the target language.

Research Questions

The following are the questions addressed in the research paper

 (1) Why do the English language teachers fail to give the students their desired knowledge? (2) Why do innovative methods in teaching English language one way or the other fail?

 (3) Why do learners find it difficult to converse in English even though they are exposed to all skills?

Review of Literature

Rivers (1983) discussed the importance of discovering the student’s needs and motivating them towards the goal. Arora (2012) elucidated on the learner centred approaches.

  Discussion

Firstly, let us throw light on the challenges faced by the teacher in an ELT classroom.  In a bird’s eye view Teachers are looked upon as the disseminators of knowledge and the ones who enlighten the students in all aspects of their life.  The role of teacher is to teach.  Their profession to teach make it look very easy from outside but a teacher faces many challenges in and outside the classroom.  To narrow down, let us discuss the challenges faced by a teacher in an ELT classroom.  The language teacher in all cases need not necessarily be a native speaker of the language so the first challenge a teacher faces is to gain a thorough command over the subject because students mostly imitate their teachers.  Secondly the teacher should make the students understand the structure of the target language because students are familiar and are thorough with the structures of the source language.  A language teacher has to make it clear to the students about the differences first yet this is not an easy task because the students are soaked for years together in speaking, reading, writing and listening in their mother tongue.  Next the teacher should be the bright light that shines upon the students to drive out their ignorance and fear.  Students face morbid fears in learning a new language and in case of English it is very intense.  Most of the students do not develop a love for English for they find it difficult to learn.  The students face an ego in learning a language.  The teacher should nourish the students by positive comments and outlook towards learning it.  To motivate the students is definitely a hard task for the teacher. Motivation is an abstract factor which will effectively aid the learning skills of the students if it is done in the right way.  Motivating a class as a whole will not help effectively but a teacher should find time to motivate the students individually.  A teacher’s main challenge is in knowing the students culture, background, linguistic capability and their emotional state.  The main challenge faced by a teacher in ELT classroom is in knowing the calibre of each student and designing the syllabus and the teaching methods accordingly.  A single student’s progression does not project the whole performance of the class.  So it is hard for the teacher to implement a lesson plan which will enable the students of mixed abilities.  It is difficult for the teacher to get in pace with every students learning speed because as for the class it is an amalgam of both potential students and slow learners.  The teacher should make it to the point that he should not bore the high calibre students by repeating the drills and thereby making the class tedious and should not rush up so that the slow learners will find it difficult to catch up.  As language is primarily speech it is a challenge for the teacher to make the students pronounce and spell the right word.  Since language is ambiguous the teacher should make the students understand the different meanings of the same word.  Example: Bank, mobile.  As for writing the teacher’s challenge is to make the students understand the different audience for whom they write.  Teachers should make the students not to mess the existing inherent structure of their mother tongue with the target language’s structure.  Since speaking in English is practised only in English class the teacher has to constantly motivate the students to speak in English in every other class.  The teacher should not only teach the students but also give them ample opportunities to use the language. Creating such opportunities demand creativeness and tireless effort from the side of the teacher.  Since language is taught to students from different discipline a teacher should be able to draw references from their main stream study to expound the concepts in an easy way.  There is always a stark line between the language teachers and the subject teachers but they should cross their lines to make the learning process easy in classroom.  A language teacher has to be creative and should think out of the box often.  Language teaching has to be a balanced mixture of activities and classroom teaching.  As for the language games it is not always convenient.  Certain games are impractical to apply in a classroom ambiance so for this kind of inconvenience a teacher should find alternative methods to engage the students.  Language teachers should not be like that of the clichéd subject teachers who demand the passiveness of the students in class.  The teacher should make the students involve in classroom activities.  A language teacher should cater to the needs and wants of the learner.  So a teacher should adopt learner centred approaches.  English language teacher to the optimum should avoid using the source language in the class but it is really a difficult task because it is hard for the students to understand certain abstract ideas and concepts and in the side of the teacher he would beat about the bush rather than keeping it simple.

The teachers are not the only people who face challenges in an ELT classroom.  The students do find it difficult.  In an ELT classroom the student faces the challenge of learning something alien to him.  The student is at ease while speaking his mother tongue because he hears it often, listens to it and is used to it but learning a language which is totally new to him subjects him to fear and quite a times makes the student feel inferior.  With all these things weighing him down, a student cannot proceed learning a language which will be an ultimate failure.  The learners are afraid to commit mistakes because they are shy.  This is universal but a learner should be ready to refine himself in the process of learning thereby by to confront all the challenges without any fear.  The learner is much used to his mother tongue, the structures of it and how they work it gives them a hard time to imbibe the new structures of a language which often leaves them confusticated.  The students use translation to understand English but this will not help them in a long run because if they are asked to speak in English it takes a whole lot of time for them to think in their mother tongue and translate it and then to speak.  So the students must not encourage themselves to think in their mother tongue but to think in English which will improve their learning skills.  To think in English by students can be rightly defined by John Keats’s quote, “To think is full of sorrow” but a student should practice it.  The slow learners in the class should not be discouraged or feel bad for making mistakes in learning process because “Learning is not being successful but becoming successful”.  A student should always focus on the goal rather than washed out by the temporary failures.  A student should try to understand his errors and should not feel hesitant to clear his doubts.  Many students concern of learning English is to crack their final exam but they have to downplay the final exams and should focus on the rewards of learning English can fetch them.

Summation

English language teaching in the midst all its challenges has find a way to widen its arena by the innovations made in this field.  A language teacher should play the role of a facilitator rather than considering them as the authoritative power and the students should develop a desire rather fears to learn English.  The challenges in ELT classrooms pull the student and the teacher out of their own zones and put them in a space to confront it thereby shaping them for betterment.

References

Rivers, M. W. (1983). Communicating naturally in a second language theory and practice in language teaching. Cambridge: Press syndicate of the University of Cambridge.

Arora, Navita. (2012). English language teaching approaches and methodologies. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited.

Abercrombie, David. (1963). Problems and principles in language study. Hong Kong: Peninsula Press Ltd.

 

Enriching Relevant Vocabulary in Business English through Magazines

Faustina

M.Phil Scholar, Research Department of English

The American College,Madurai

Abstract

In the modern scenario, communication determines the success or growth of the business. Different terms and words are used in Business English. The people who are in business field must have relevant vocabulary to make an effective communication. Business magazines serves as a medium to learn vocabulary related to business. There are magazines like the business world and the economist which are exclusively for the business people. Entrepreneurs can gather knowledge of vocabulary by reading business contents and share market statistics in magazines. This paper throws light on enhancing vocabulary with the help of business magazines.

Background of the Study

Communication determines the success or the growth of the business.  Different types of words are used in business English.  The people in business field must have effective communication.  Magazines serves as a medium to learn vocabulary related to business.  There are some magazines like business world, economic times which are exclusively for business purpose.  Words in a sentence constitute its vocabulary.  Students can enrich their vocabulary through reading, listening, speaking and writing.  Vocabulary enrichment is very much needed in business environment.  Both producer and consumer need vocabulary to develop their business. Without communication business deal can end up in failure.  Students must have good vocabulary to have bright future in business field. Magazines play a major role in business field. Magazines are very much useful for students to enrich their vocabulary in business English. Students are encouraged to read magazines for developing their vocabulary.  Reading is must to students for enriching relevant vocabulary in business English.  Students can improve their vocabulary in business English by reading magazines which are also useful for them to improve their knowledge and ability.  In future, if students have business contract with foreigners, there is a necessity for them to have good communication with god vocabulary and that can also paves way for the success of their business.  Students can read business related article in magazines to improve their vocabulary.

Objective of the study

            The main objective of the study is to enrich vocabulary of MBA students in business English through magazines

Hypotheses

The following are the hypotheses of the study

  1. Magazines help MBA students to have effective communication
  2. Students can enrich their vocabulary by reading
  3. Business related article helps the students to move forward in their business
  4. Magazines promote business English

Review of Literature

            Without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed (Wilkins).  Words one like bottles and contain ideas just as bottles contain medicines (H. Dipple).  Passive vocabulary is the new method based on the principle of recognition or receptive vocabulary (Dr. West).  Reading makes a full man (Bacon).  Modern English usage and a god dictionary of synonyms which analyses the differences, should prove of great assistance (Mr. Fowler).

Research questions

  1. What is mean by the term vocabulary?
  2. Why do students should enrich vocabulary in business English?
  3. How do magazines play a major role?
  4. How can MBA students develop their vocabulary skills?
  5. Do magazines really help the students?
  6. What is the creative method that teacher can explore to teach business vocabulary?

Discussion

            Vocabulary is a fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language. There are different types of vocabulary like active, passive, good vocabulary etc.  Without vocabulary nothing is possible.  Communication is very much needed for a successful business growth.  Vocabulary grows throughout our life.  Students expand their vocabularies by playing word games, print media help in enriching relevant vocabulary in business English e.g. magazines.  Students should enrich vocabulary in business English.  Without vocabulary there is no possibility for foreign trade.   Agreement between Indians and foreigners cannot be made. Communication is must for the growth of English.  A student can also be judged by others based on his/her vocabulary.

As per my study, MBA students have done many case study regarding business.  Many students are not aware of business magazines.  Students must enrich their vocabulary reading magazines like business world, the economist etc.  Vocabulary can be enriched by students in many ways like listening to news, reading newspapers, listening to some speech, etc but magazine also paves way for their vocabulary enrichment.  Learning vocabulary is the first step for trading in foreign companies.

The acquisition of new vocabulary is an ongoing process.  Learning new words in day to life encourages the students and increase their knowledge and ability.  Magazines and that too Business magazines play a vital role in enriching students’ vocabulary.  A student must have serious knowledge towards business.  BUSINESS INDIA is a magazine which is famous in our state.  It leads not only with business news but also deals with games, movies special, sports; cooking etc.   Nowadays students are much interested in sports and politics.  Magazines have separate allocation for Sports.

 I made a small study with an MBA student.  She says that she was very much interested in sports and she reads only sports news first both in magazine and newspaper.  Also she said that she came across many new vocabularies regarding business and she got interested in that. Students are encouraged though business magazines.  They can easily enrich their vocabulary in business and also they enrich their knowledge.  In the magazine called THE ECONOMIST is also the best business magazine which also deals with several issues with new varieties. Magazines make the students to develop their vocabulary skills.  Students can easily enrich relevant vocabulary by reading not only business articles but also other related news which includes several new vocabularies.

An MBA student will be useful if they read their related article in the magazine.  The same person as said before, she said that she got much addicted to the magazine because when she read the magazine she came across the article related to their MBA program.  She said that the article was very much useful to her.   From that article, she came across many vocabularies relate to business.  By reading magazines, by learning new vocabularies, students’ vocabulary can be enriched and they will be ready for the business scenario.  Magazines help the students to develop their communicative skill and also enhance their vocabulary skill.

            Teachers can use some creative method to teach business vocabulary.  Students can learn vocabularies in an interesting way.  The teacher can make the students to form a group.  5students carries a group. Several tasks can be given to students in a group.  An article can be given to a group and so five articles can be given to five groups and teacher can ask the students to read and to find new vocabularies which they don’t even come across before.  Students will be encouraged by the teachers by doing this way.   A case study can also be given to the students to each group.  By doing this students can be able to think of the idea and if they find new vocabulary they tend to think and refer dictionary and so they can improve their knowledge and thinking ability.

            Teachers can make the students by making them to engage in group activities. Each student can involve individually in a group activity.  They can easily think of new words and shows their individuality in their own way.  Teachers can also make their students to show their ability and knowledge.  Teacher can also encourage the students by have some group games and also they can give some compliments to the students and so the students can feel free and learn new vocabularies.  Teachers can make the students to communicate effectively by teaching them relevant vocabulary in business English.

Summation

In the present scenario, Vocabulary plays a major role in business world.  Student who wants to become a good Entrepreneur must have good vocabulary skills so that students can make them ready for global business scenario and they can get success in their business field. Magazines can be much useful for enriching vocabulary n business English.

Reference

Arora, N. (2012). English Language Teaching Approaches and Methodologies. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited.

Rivers, M. W. (1983). Communicating naturally in a Second Language Theory and Practice in language teaching. Cambridge: Press syndicate of the University of Cambridge.

Dash, B. N. (2004). Teaching of English. New Delhi: Dominant Publishers And Distributors.

Use of One Act Plays for Developing Soft Skills

Hari Narayanan MA

M.Phil Scholar, Research Department of English

The American College, Madurai


Abstract

This paper is an attempt to show how One Act Plays can be used for developing Soft Skills.  Soft skills are important for those who aspire to become part of business world.  In Indian Universities, certain undergraduate courses like B.com, BBA, etc., are the most sought often courses of study.  There is a dire need to develop and cone the conversational and soft of the students who chose management courses aspiring to become successful entrepreneurs.  This paper seeks to present how one act plays can be used to hone/shape the soft skills of the students.  One act plays are more appealing to the contemporary youths than full length plays for convenience’s sake.  One act plays present life like situations through the conversation of the character involved.  By imbibing characters reaction in the Plays students unconsciously develop soft skills to become successful entrepreneurs in business world.  By teaching soft skills through one act plays the students can better their interpersonal relationship in business too.

Introduction

            Soft skills are life skills. Soft skills are important for those who aspire to become part of the business world.  In Indian Universities and colleges, certain Undergraduate courses like B.com, BBA, etc., are the most sought often courses of study.  There is a dire need to develop and hone the conversational and soft skills of the students who choose management courses aspiring to become to become successful entrepreneurs.  Soft skills include communication skills, courtesy, flexibility, positive attitude, interpersonal skills, etc.,  Of these said skills, developing interpersonal skills that include other professionalism, team work, work ethic, time management skills, coping with pressure, self confidence, critical thinking and problem solving is of foremost importance for aspiring entrepreneurs.  This paper seeks to present how one act plays can be used as a strategy to teach soft skills, especially for developing their interpersonal skills needed for future entrepreneurs.

Objective of the Study

            The aim of the study is to use staging of the play as a pedagogic technique to teach B.com/BBA students to develop their interpersonal skills for successful entrepreneurship.

Hypotheses

  1. Stage of play involves multi-tasking that requires interpersonal relationship and cooperation.
  2. Play will develop the participants’ soft skills in an implicit and interesting manner.

Research Questions

  1. Can interpersonal skills be developed in a controlled environment like classroom?
  2. If, yes whether pedagogic skills are available to teach them?
  3. How will staging of play be useful as a pedagogic technique to teach soft skills?

Discussion

            Soft skills are needed to interact with the external world of conglomerate customer for a successful businessman.  One has to interact and communicate in order to gain acceptance in the modern world of intensive competition.  Soft skills help to build social relationships.  These skills, mainly the interpersonal skills form the core of anyone involved in management and business.  They develop positive self esteem which helps in defining a businessman’s role in the society.  If an individual involved in management cannot communicate or work as a team, then he/she will feel alienated and withdrawn.  Interpersonal skills form an indispensable part of the life of an entrepreneur.

            Customary classrooms do not provide ample scope or space for the students.  In a teacher-centred classroom, the students become passive listeners.  Passivity blunts the students’ ability to develop the necessary interactive soft skills, i.e., interpersonal skills need for learner-centred activities become essential to develop the much needed skills.  Teacher-centred classroom make the students conscious of their shortcoming and does not provide the atmosphere for mastering the interpersonal skills naturally.

            One act plays can be used effectively to enable the students since enacting the plays can develop their communicative skills unconsciously.  A trained memory is the great asset a student can develop to be successful in life.  When the students are involved not only in parroting the conversations in the plays but also in stage managements, their socially acceptable traits like self awareness, self-regulation, empathy and self-motivation develop unconsciously.

            A successful entrepreneurs needs to be good at planning, organizing, staffing, heading, controlling and motivating the co-workers or his team mates.  Rehearsing and staging one-act plays provides the right opportunity and platform to develop these opportunity and platform to develop these skills since these skills involve all the skills that come under soft skills or interpersonal skills.

            There are many problems faced by working personnel like lack of communicative ability, failure to communicate ideas while involving in team work and management, organizing, leading and other management skills.  Training the students in managing and staging one act plays offers enough scope for the students even within the classrooms to acquire these managerial skills effectively.

            Staging a one-act play involves the back stage or preparatory activities like selection of the play, casting and rehearsal.  The production of the play involves stage management, costume selection; make up, lights arrangement, promotion, seating of audience, and above all stage performance.  All these activities can be turned into a learner-centered activity once the students are divided into groups to take care of each activity.  Then the groups’ responsibility and roles can be reshuffled to provide enough scope for all the students to learn all the skills.

            Learning the language skills through literature is the main purpose of using one-act plays as a pedagogic tool.  Students can memorize the conversations in the play and play their roles.  This will enhance their communication skills.  Hearing other characters’ conversations will develop their listening and cooperative skills.  The students learn the need to empathize with the other characters and learn the importance of listening which is an essential component of interactive skills.  Rehearsing the play enables the students to become fluent and spontaneous in conversation, and this will boost their morale, confidence and positive attitude.  These are the basic skills needed for aspiring entrepreneurs, while playing different roles, some characters are vigorous speakers, some active listeners and some flexible passive participants relying on their body language to express their emotions.

            To stretch the experience of the learners a little further, it is not a mere assumption that acquiring language skills (communicative skills) are no small task. Wordplay precedes character.  One can win or lose a situation by the proper use or misuse of words.  Words can be ironic, deceptive, artful, innovative, ambiguous, equivocal, suggestive, crafty or plain (straightforward).  Words are used for thought transference.  The learners by playing out situations as presented in the one-act plays can learn the nuances of vocabulary.  This will further boost their confidence when they meet people in real-life situations.  Learning the proper usage of words will enhance their wit, intelligence, inventiveness and understanding since words can ne figurative, funny, literal, gainful or painful.

            Thus teaching soft skills or interpersonal skills by involving the students in one-act plays makes learning a learner-centered one.  Further entrepreneurs acquire the work ethic, team work and management skills by allowing them to choose the roles according to their ability.  Enacting one-act plays keeps the students engaged and active.  The teacher can help in choosing the right one-act plays for the future entrepreneurs.  Involving the students in one-act plays also provides maximum speaking practice while enacting real life contexts.

Summation

            Staging of plays involves interpersonal relationship irrespective of the roles the participants play.  The interesting nature of the activity increases the participatory involvements of the students by thus increasing learners’ interest by better results.

The out of the text learning experience give greater weight age to learning, which is students-centric, then teaching which is teacher centric.  One-act plays are more appealing to the modern youth since it is less time consuming.  By imbibing characters’ reaction in the plays, the students unconsciously develop soft skills to become successful entrepreneurs in the business world.  By learning soft skills through out one-act plays, the students can better their interpersonal relationship in business too.

Reference

Bhatnagar, N., Bhatnagar, M. (2012). New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley. Pvt ltd.

Weimer, M. (2002). Learner Centred Teaching. San Francisco. Wiley Co

Publications.

Luoma, S. (2004). Assessing Speaking. United Kingdom: Cambridge University

Press.

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The Study on Influence of Psychological and Socio Cultural Factor on the Share Market Operations. Reference to atticaloa District, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka.

A.Andrew

Stock market is an important part of the economy of a country. The stock market plays a pivotal role in the growth of the industry and commerce of the country that eventually affects the economy of the country to a great extent. That is the reason why, the government, industry and even the central banks of the country keep a close watch on the happenings of the stock market. The stock market is important from both the industry’s point of view as well as the investor’s point of view.

This study focuses the influence of psychological and socio cultural factors to implement on stock market in Batticaloa District in the Eastern part of Sri Lanka. This study was conducted with two research objectives: to find out the degree of psychological characteristics of potential investors regarding the stock exchange and to evaluate the level of support of socio culture environment to implement in share market.Self motivation, perception and attitude is the dimension of identifying the psychological characteristics. Social culture factors are including language skill, brokers support and culture support to mature the socio culture supportive.The study was conducted among the potential investors reside in the various part of the Batticaloa District. The data were collected from the 100 sample of people. The proportionate stratified random sampling method was used to select the sampling units and the structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were analyzed using Univariate Analysis and Bivariate analysis techniques. The unit of analysis was individual person.

Finding of the study revealed that respondents (potential investors) were moderate level supportive to implement the stock exchange as indicated by the degree (measured as mean value) of their psychological characteristics (Self motivation 3.5), perception (3.4), and attitude (3.4). Socio cultural environment (3.17) was moderate level influence. In overall this study was find out moderate level supportive to implement the stock exchange in Batticaloa.

Keywords: Investment, Psychology, Stock Exchange, Investor, and Socio Culture Environment

 

 

  1. INTRODUCTION

An island nation situated at the Southern tip of India, Sri Lanka is often referred to as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. With the end of a bitter three decade long civil conflict, the country is taking advantage of new found peace and stability and growing economic prosperity to make its mark as a global logistics center.

Increased political stability is laying the way for strong growth on investment as the Government formulates long term robust development plans to drive economy wide sustainable growth.

Our nation is developing nation and agricultural one for hundred years due to our capability of resources, gain knowledge and technology requirements even we greater than some nations. If we want to become leading one we should change our habits of investment.

Eastern province is a one of the nine provinces in Sri Lanka. The Batticaloa is a one of the district in Eastern Province. Our society based on knowledge income and saving has an essential role and making the most valuable effects by using financial system at an economic entity level.

The fundamental factors such as economy, industry and company analysis play a key role in investment decision process. In earlier there are few ways to invest their money for more money such as purchasing land and gold, invest in education and business ,life insurance, bank deposit share market etc.. But now there are twenty sectors for investment in stock exchange. Each and every sector is important to develop the nation.

The word Investment refers to the deployment of surplus funds either in the financial assets or in the physical assets with the expectation of getting an optimum return in future. R.Jayaraman, Dr.G.Vasanthi, M.S.Ramaratnam, (JBM&SSR Volume 3 ,2014).

These are under the stock exchange there are twenty sector to invest the money which is functioning under the capital market. First we understand the capital market. The Financial Market, which is the market for credit and capital, can be divided into the Money Market and the Capital Market. The Money Market is the market for short-term interest- bearing assets with maturities of less than one year, such as Treasury bills, commercial paper, and certificates of deposits. The major task of the Money Market is to facilitate the liquidity management in the economy. The main issuers in the Money Market are the Government, banks and private companies, while the main investors are banks, insurance companies and pension and provident funds. The Capital Market is the market for trading in assets for maturities of greater than one year, such as Treasury bonds, private debt securities (bonds and debentures) and equities (shares). The main purpose of the Capital Market is to facilitate the raising of long-term funds. The main issuers in the Capital Market are the Government, banks and private companies, while the main investors are pension and provident funds and insurance companies.

 The Financial Market can be also be classified according to instruments, such as the debt market and the equity market. The debt market is also known as the Fixed Income Securities Market and its segments are the Government Securities Market (Treasury bills and bonds) and the Private Debt Securities Market (commercial paper, private bonds and debentures). Another distinction can also be drawn between primary and secondary markets. The Primary Market is the market for new issues of shares and debt securities, while the Secondary Market is the market in which existing securities are traded. (http://www.cse.lk/static/introduction

Investment, first of all we will learn here that what Investment is? Is Investment just a money or capital? Is Investment just a part of your salary or Income? We will answer all these questions in a single line that Investment is that part of your money whose nominal value increases along with the inflation or time to increase its real value. We will learn some benefits of investing which you must know before investing in stock market.

The part of money which you park in some avenues like Bank Deposits, Real Estate, Jewellery or Stock Market to get some return on that capital in future is also known as Investing or Investment.

There are many Instruments of Stock Market called Securities like Shares, Bonds, Debentures etc. and this stock market have its own benefits in his own way for every person who invest in stock market. We will discuss here the advantages and the benefits of investing in Stock Market which you must know before Investing in stock market.

Easy Liquidity: It is the very first benefits of investing, In stock market shares and securities are traded in very high volume which make it a volatile market so there is very easy liquidity in stock market, like if you want to turn your investment in stock market into cash then you can do that very easily. Flexibility: Investing in stock market is very flexible like the market has ups and downs in prices at every trade session, price of stock market moves with the rapidity and flexibility of this market.

Regulatory Framework: Stock Market works under some regulatory framework to protect and safeguard all its investors. For example: In Sri Lanka the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) works as a Regulatory Framework Body to safeguard all investors. Maximum Returns: According to the long term perspective it is found that Investing in Stock Market gives maximum returns. For example:

Business Taste: Well, According to me it is the best benefits of investing in stock market you can ever have, here from Business Taste I mean that when a person trades or invest in stock market everything is here works like a business a modern style business. Sole Proprietorship: If you invest in stock market then you are starting your own business where your investment is your capital, like the more your trade is in profit the more your business grows and you are the only person to run this business that is why investing in stock market is your sole proprietorship business.

While in the midst of important transformation to an industrialized economy, its traditional stronghold in the service industry is growing with simultaneous speed. The change in the mindset of the investor’s leads to change in the trend of investment ways. The investor’s sentiment may either be optimistic or pessimistic. The people sentiment and socio culture sentiment are complimentary to each other. Any change in social change lead to a substantial change in the investor’s behavior similarly any change in the investors’ sentiment leads to a substantial change for social culture environment.

At presently telecommunication, bank and industry and food & beverage sectors are very popular one in the capital market and several advantages on investing shares even in the Batticaloa district still there is so many traditional ways are following by the people on investment. Here share investment way is infancy investment way. It should be encourage due to globalization and survive in future change.

Therefore, I have intended to study the influence of social and psychological factors on implement in share Market in Batticaloa District.

  1. PROBLEM STATEMENT

The Sri Lankan share market continues to shine as one of the best performing ones. According to Bloomberg news service in 2009.CSE is one of the most modern stock exchange in South Asia a fully automated trading platform and market capitalization of over US$ 23 billion, it has been one of the best performing stock market in the world, with average daily turnover US$ 18 million. http://kenangasl.com/why-sri-lanka/colombo-stock-exchange-cse/

Batticaloa is one of the districts in Sri Lanka, Still now Stock Exchange did not located in Eastern Province. There are huge amount of lands, higher education institutes, big amount of population who are knowledgeable and so many financial institutions.

If the stock exchange will be establish in Batticaloa district, that gives great investment opportunity to public and it will lead to economic development.

Therefore this present study aims to find out the influence of psychological and socio culture environment to establish the stock market in Batticaloa district.

  1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
  2. What is the degree of psychological characteristic of potential investors in stock exchange?
  3. To what extent the socio culture environment is favorable to implement in the stock exchange?

4.OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

  1. To find out the degree of psychological characteristic to implement in Stock Exchange.
  2. To evaluate the level of favorable of Socio Culture environment to implement in stock exchange.
  3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research is possible to study level influence of psychological and Socio culture factors to implement the share market, based on gender, education, ethnic group, designation, monthly income level, and investors’ behavior of particular people who are living in Batticalo district.

Therefore the researchers have scope of this study to the Batticaloa district and also selected 100 people which use in proportionate stratified random sample size in Divisional Secretariat Divisions in Batticaloa district to carry out this research study.

 

 

  1. LITERATURE REVIEW

Psychological Characteristic

Investors are normally assumed to make their financial decisions rationally according to classical economic theories but some novice investors make unsuitable investment decisions based on irrational exuberance (Ricciardi, 2008).

The investor sentiment is primarily based on investor’s psychology. Individual expectation, Individual optimism, individual ability and individual confidence are the four major psychological components of investor sentiments. On other words the investors sentiments are run by individual expectation, individual optimism, individual ability and individual confidence (R.Jayaraman,Dr.G.Vasanthi.M.S.Ramaratnam, JBM&SSR 2014)

Psychological factors operating within individual partly determine people’s general behavior and thus influence their behavior as consumer. Primary psychological influence their behavior as consumer are perception, motives, learning, attitudes and personality and self concept. Even though these psychological factors operate internally, they are also very much affected by social factors outside the individual. (Pride M Ferrell .O. C, 2006)

Emotional development of children and is part of developmental psychology, the study of changes in behavior that occur through the life span. Cognitive psychology deals with how the human mind receives and interprets impressions and ideas. Social psychological looks at how the actions of others influence the behavior of an individual.

(http:/www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp/articlekey)

The persons buying choices are also influenced by four major psychological factors motivation, perception, learning, and beliefs and attitudes. (Philip Kottel, 2005)

Consumer attitudes are composite of a consumer’s beliefs about feelings ,about behavioral intentions towards some “object “ – within the context of marketing , usually a brand, product category, or retail store. These components are viewed together since they are highly interdependent and together represent forces that influence how the consumers will react to the object.

 Consumer attitude are considered by many marketers to be accurate predictors of consumer behavior, making the study of attitude formation and change an important topic. Attitudes are learned tendencies to perceive and act in a consistent way toward a given objective or idea, such as a product, services, brand, company, store or spoke person. This definition emphasizes the impact on attitude of several of other concepts.

The attitude is a person’s enduring favorable or unfavorable evaluation, emotional feeling, and action tendencies toward some object or idea. People have attitudes towards almost everything: religion, politics, clothing, music and foods. Attitudes put people into a frame of mind: liking and disliking an objects, moving towards or away from it (Phillip Kottler

Socio Culture Environment

According to Kottler views culture factors exert the broadest and deepest influences on consumer behavior. Culture, subculture and social class, reference group, family and social roles and particularly important in buying behavior.

  1. METHODOLOGIES

Sample of the Study

 

The total population for the study was in Batticaloa district people. There are 100 people were  selected who are resident of Divisional Secretariat division in Batticaloa District (100%) as sample by using stratified random sampling method.

Data Collection Method

In considering objectives it was a cross – sectional one in the time horizon because data were collected in a one single time from the respondents but the unit of analysis was the people of the selected area in the Batticaloa district.

The questionnaire is a structure technique for data collection. The primary data were collected through questionnaires and interviews from the respondents. The questionnaire developed based on three parts, namely research information, personal information and investor’s behavior. In this research questionnaire is closed ended. In general closed questions are considered as more efficient and reliable than open ended questions. In the research one of the ordinal measures called “Likert’s five points rating scale” is used to require respondents to order their answers.

  1. Methods of Data Analysis

Data Presentation and Analysis

The data were analyzed by using univariate analysis and bivariate analysis techniques. In this case, the unit of analysis was individual person of selected area in Batticaloa district.

Method of Data Evaluation

Each variable is given a scale from 1-5 to show the extent of agreement, based on responses, univariate measures were calculated for each of variables. The mean value is lying in the range of 1-5. The range is explore the particular result of this study the range between 1 and 0.25 is express the low level influence for this study. The range between 2.5 and 3.5 is assumed moderate level influence on this study. The range above 3.5 to 5 is considered high level influence on this study. This decision rule is used to measure the level of influence. It shown in the table.

  1. Implication and conclusion

Psychological characteristic of people on Share Market operations in Batticaloa district.

Psychological Characteristic variable with three dimension including self motivation, perception and attitude are evaluated the influence of Psychological Characteristic of people on the share market operations in Batticaloa. We test through univariate analysis and bivariate analysis techniques. This outcome express the mean value is 3.4733 and standard deviation is 0.4524. It is shown in the table 3

If we want to invest in share market we should wish on the activities. That desire depends on our mind likewise involvement on share market operations also leads by our mind. The society should be support to run the business.

The first objective is obtained through the psychological characteristic variable. It is moderate level supportive on this study.

Extent of Social Cultural Environment Supportive to Invest on Share Market Operations.

Socio Culture variable with three dimensions are knowledge on share market, stock brokers support and cultural support. Those dimensions help to identify the influence of socio culture environment. We test through univariate analysis and bivariate analysis techniques. This outcome express the mean value is 3.1733 and standard deviation is 0.23915.

The second objective is obtained through the socio culture factors. It is moderate level supportive on this study.

Overall Result

 

Eventually when we observe the influence factors for an establishment of the stock exchange in Batticaloa district. Table 4   clearly discloses that influence factors are moderate level to establish the stock exchange in Batticaloa district.

  1. CONCLUTION AND RECOMMENTATION

To examine two variable of research we have used six dimensions. All research variables have been measured due to the nature of measurement and research objectives have been investigated with using of mean and standard deviation that summarized in Tables.

It is commonly believed that the investment decision of the investors is driven by the sentiment of investors. Investor’s psychological characteristic and socio culture trends were carefully indentified with the help of existing review of literature. The study has revealed that image factor has appeared as the most influence factor in determining investors decision making. Similarly individual optimism has become the key factor in influencing the sentiment of the investors.

In Batticaloa district there are many educational institutes those are higher education as university, college of education, teacher’s training college, international school and vocational training center even it is distant from share investment, there are low level of awareness and lack of stock brokers firm and information center on this type of investment. In any type of education should change the people and their society. These institutions can be change through subject of finance and investment. We can revolve the people’s investment pattern through provide psychological training as skill, attitude and knowledge development. This step change social culture environment due to most of them are more believe on educated people so if we change the educational society’s investment pattern other type of society also change into share market. Those are possible; the stock exchange will be established in Batticaloa district because visible services are more invited by the people. Based on this type of investment way some are known well some are unknown therefore, we assume this is a childhood investment way  in Batticaoloa, We state without building we cannot run the business perfectly based on our research.

Finally this study convey people are mostly involved all type of investment even experientially traditional investment is well known by the people than share investment because inadequate resources and deepest knowledge on this field. Psychological and socio cultural motivational factors are motivated the people to invest in share market so implementation is necessary one in Batticaloa district.

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