The Study Of Teaching And Learning Chinese Language In The University Of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

As per the recorded history, China and Sri Lanka had Buddhist religious relations since ancient times.With time those relationship gave path to develop diplomatic, economic and cultural exchange between two countries.This phenomena may have influenced to disseminate the Chinese language education in Sri Lanka during the same era. Modern China’s rapid economic growth has inspired the global community to study Chinese language worldwide. Amoung Sri Lankan there is a great desire to learn foreign languages.Chinese language has become the most enthusiastic foreign language. Studying Chinese language as a discipline dates back to 1971 and it has thrived recently due to support and cooperation between two nations.In the onset Chinese language was offered as a certificate course in the University of Kelaniya and it was upgraded as a three year degree program in 1994 and a four year special degree program in 2012. Confucius Institute was established in University of Kelaniya in year 2007 which fulfills a prominent and a decisive role in introducing and teaching Chinese language in Sri Lanka.In 2010 Chinese language was brought into middle and high school curriculums in Sri Lanka; there is a significant number of students who select Chinese language as one of their subjects at the Advanced Level examinations prior to their university entrance. Research should be carried out to identify success and barriers to improve teaching and learning Chinese language insri Lanka. There has been no study undertaken by scholars of both countries up to date to determine the success and progress of learning Chinese as a foreign language in Sri Lanka. This research focuses on evaluating many aspects of teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language in the University of Kelaniya, the pioneering university in Sri Lanka to introduce Chinese language, which introduces Chinese language for beginners.The objective of this research is to over view the history, development and present academic acitivities, curriculum, teaching resources, teaching methods and other aspects in the University of Kelaniya including identifying short comings, adequacy of available resources are adequate to develop an undergraduate to the level of Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese language.The research was conducted with questionnaires to students and lecturers, interviews, classroom observations and analysis of the primary data of documents from Department of Modern Languages.The thesis consists of four main components. The first chapter mainly statutes the significance of the selected topic, literature review, methodology of data collection and previous researches done by local and foreign scholars. Chapter two presents; the university education system, history and development of teaching and learning Chinese language, curriculum, focuses on the teaching stages, students’ learning attitudes, lecturers condition, teaching methodology, teaching materials and facilities of the degree program offered by the Department of Modern Languages, University of Kelaniya.Chapter three analyses the factors affecting the development of teaching and learning Chinese language in the University of Kelaniya, based on the current situation. Specific measures to address issues in students learning and teaching, curriculums that should be upgraded in Sri Lankan Universities, enhancing of lecturers’ strengths, compiling of localized text books to construct and consolidate the discipline is pointed out in the chapter four of the thesis. Further, it suggests feasible solutions to establish teaching Chinese language in high schools and upgrade advanced Chinese education in Universities.