Tamil Students Research Articles

The Psychometric Assessment of GRIT using Rasch Measurement Model for Vernacular Students Setting

In facing a competitive global landscape and an uncertain future, fostering a national character rooted in grit emerges as a critical necessity. Grit stands out as a multifaceted trait encompassing perseverance of effort and consistency of interest over an extended period. The innovative and groundbreaking research that contributes new insights to the field by improving the validity and reliability on quality of items in assessing grit for vernacular setting among Tamil students who rarely explored. Hence, this study will focus on the setting of vernacular students consist of Tamil National Type Primary School (SJKT) in Negeri Sembilan. The study aimed to test whether grit measurement items have good psychometric properties in the context of SJKT students based on Rasch analysis. Two grit constructs have been applied in this study such as perseverance and interest. The survey with quantitative approach was applied. Cluster sampling technique was used to select a total of 93 SJKT students studying in Year 6 from two districts in Negeri Sembilan. The total of 11 from 12 items met the requirements of Rasch’s statistical modelling using WINSTEPS 3.68.2 software. This psychometrics properties also reports on the strength of items through graphical analysis such as Wright Map. Person reliability shows the reading of 0.78 and item reliability shows of 0.84. Meanwhile, person separation is at 1.88 and item separation at 2.32 proved that items and persons can be categorized by the difficulty and ability. Cronbach Alpha shows the reading of 0.89 for internal consistency evidence. An implication of this is the possibility to generate more difficult items for SJKT students to measure grit and expand the impact of grit measurement that only focus on psychology part, but also the psychometric field. It is recommended that future studies can be conducted to examine the suitability of items using few other new settings such as Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK), Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) and private primary schools in Negeri Sembilan with larger samples. Future study for these items could be used as a self and peers -assessment for the self-improvement purpose in grit.

From Ananthi to Anna: Teacher Colonization of Student Names Among Tamil Canadians

Teachers and classrooms in Ontario consistently communicate to Tamil students that their names are too long, too foreign, too difficult to pronounce, and a hassle for teachers to learn. Teachers colonize Tamil students’ names with the goal of making them as “white” and English as possible by systematically renaming, mispronouncing, and/or shortening Tamil names. I call this process the “colonization of names.” This paper explores the impact of the colonization of names amongst Tamil Canadians through critical race theory. I conducted six semi-structured interviews with Tamil Canadian adults who went to public school in southern Ontario and had childhood experiences with the colonization of their name. This study indicated that participants experienced grave consequences due to the colonization of their names, including anxiety and embarrassment, a lack of sense of belonging, a feeling of cultural displacement, and being forced to occupy dual identities by having two names (one used at school, and one used at home). Some participants maintained their colonized name, while others made efforts to reclaim their Tamil name. Regardless of how students choose to navigate this forced renaming, the Ontario education system, which is embedded in colonial and white supremacist structures, needs to be problematized and held accountable for the colonization of Tamil names, and for constructing the false narrative that non-English names need to be changed.

CIṞṞITAḺ EṈUM MĀṞṞU ŪṬAKA VAṬIVAM UṞPATTIYAI MAIYAMĀKAK KOṆṬA PŌKKU ŌR ĀYVU [ISSUES FACED BY SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN TAKING TAMIL AS AN EXAMINATION SUBJECT: A RESEARCH

Ancient Indian influences in Malaysia dates to BC 110, when certain parts of pre-colonial Malaysia like Kadaram (Kedah) and the Malacca Sultanate (Melaka) were still part of the Greater India kingdoms. The archaeological excavations at Bujang Valley, located near present day Merbok in Kedah, have revealed a wealth of relics and ruins, including Hindu icons, stone caskets, and tablets that may date back to more than 2,535 years ago. This is a proof that Tamil is rooted in Malaysia since very long time ago. Malaysian Indians are merely proud about the history but most of them are less bothered about issues revolving around Tamil Education. This is 21st century, but until now Tamil students from vernacular schools is facing various issues when he/she is showing interest to take Tamil as one of the major examination subjects in secondary school. There are many underlying issues for this problem and this research paper is intended to find out type of issues these kids are facing in secondary school and possible solutions.

The Impact of KaniMani Storytelling Mobile Application (KM-SMA) on Tamil Students’ Speaking Skills and Motivation in Learning Tamil

The research aims to delve into the KaniMani Storytelling Mobile Application (KM-SMA)’s impact on Tamil students’ speaking skills and motivation to learn Tamil through the use of mobile applications. Thirty-six Tamil students aged between 7 and 8 years old were chosen based on their performance on a Classroom Assessment (CA) and randomly assigned to one of two groups (one experimental and one control) of 18 participants each. All the students were from three national primary schools, in the Pasir Gudang district, Johor, Malaysia. Two instruments were employed to examine the speaking skills of the participants before and after the experiment: speaking tests as pre-post tests and a motivation questionnaire. In addition, paired t-test was employed to examine the data. We found that following treatment, KM-SMA participants performed better than the control group regarding motivation and speaking skills. The results showed the importance of language instruction through mobile applications; it is a crucial element and we advised that it be considered in the Tamil language curriculum.

The Contribution of Education to Tamil Separatism and to the Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka

Author(s): Pieris, Grace | Abstract: Although there are many factors that have contributed to ethnic separatism and the 30-year ethnic war in Sri Lanka, this paper explores just one factor: education. Prior to the war, the discrimination against the Tamils through education was done explicitly through outright anti-Tamil rhetoric, programs, and policies. However, modern discrimination against the Tamil community through education is implicit because it is embedded and legitimized in the culture. Prior to the war, the education system continued to teach students in their native tongue despite the Swabhasha movement for a Sinhala-only language policy. This resulted in poor educational and employment opportunities for Tamil students because the Tamil language was devalued in the education system. Practices in education, the 1972 admission policies, and the 1974 quota system explicitly discriminated against the admission of Tamils into higher education. Now, the discrimination against Tamils is normalized within the culture by pro-Sinhala practices and policies. Popular textbooks express a Sinhala-centric view, and second language education policies are ineffective. Although such racism was explicit prior to the war, it is more naturalized within the culture today.

Challenges Faced by Tamil Students in Secondary School due to Multi Lingual Teaching Options

Education being very essential for human intellectual development. It starts from our childhood to end. When referring to school education, it’s covering pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education. All this need to be continuous process for a person. The medium of education or language plays a very important role to understand and pursue our goal. If medium of teaching varies from stage to stage then it will be an obstacle to understand clearly and analyze matter of discussion effectively. Educational system in Malaysia have multi lingual options for students to pursue their primary, secondary and tertiary education. This is very much seen during primary education where the Malay, English, Tamil and Chinese languages being mode of education. Anyhow, secondary school options are limited to only two languages such as Malay and English. This will be a barrier to continue studies in flying colors especially for those learnt in mother tongue language such Tamil and Chinese. This will be a new challenge for students for understand the terminology in Malay or English especially for science related subjects. As a result, this will affect their overall performance in studies. Key Words: Tamil Students, Malaysian Education, Multi Lingual Options,MotherTounge ஆயவுச சுருககம: மனிதனின அறிவுசார வளரசசிககுக கலவி மிகவும முககியமானதாகும. பிறபபு முதல இறுதி வரைத தொடஙகும இபபயணம பாலர பளளி. தொடககப பளளி, மேலநிலைப பளளி, உயர கலவி என தொடரசசியாக விரியும. கலவியில நலல புரிதலும வளரசசியும அடைவதறகுப பயிறறு மொழி மிகவும முககியமாகும. பயிறறு மொழியானது இடையிடையே மாறுபடுமானல அது நலல புரிதலுககும, கறறதை பகுததாயவதறகும, கலவியைத தெளிவுர உளவஙகுவதறகும ஒரு தடையாக அமைநதுவிடும. மலேசிய கலவித திடடமானது மாணவரகள பல மொழிகளில தஙகள கலவியைத தொடர வழிவகுததுளளது. தொடககக கலவிககான பயிறறு மொழியாக மலேசியாவில மலாய, ஆஙகிலம, தமிழ, சனம எனப பல மொழிகள உளளன, மாணவரகள ஏதாவது ஒரு மொழியில பயிலலாம. ஆனால இடைநிலைப பளளி எனறு வருமபொழுது மொழித தேரவானது, மலாய, ஆஙகிலம, சனம எனக குறுகிவிடுகினறது. தாயமொழியாகிய தமிழில தொடககக கலவி கறற மாணவரகளுககு இமமாறறம குறிபபாக அறிவியல தொடரபுடய பாடஙகளைப பயிலவதில பெரும சவாலாக மாறி அவரகளின கலவி அடைவுககுப பாதிபபை ஏறபடுததிவிடுகிறது. குறிபபுச சொறகள: தமிழ மாணவரகள, மலேசியக கலவி, பனமொழித தேரவு, தாய மொழி

Online Interactive Activities to Learn Ramayana Epic by Primary Tamil Students

<p>The Ramayana epic has many moral values that can be used as guidance in our daily life especially for the development of a person towards a better direction. Besides this, there are many other lessons that can be learned from within each Ramayana epic stories, for example, the values and norms, customs, mannerism lessons and the various characteristics of people and so on. But today’s digital or Net Generation teenagers do not find reading Ramayana as fun or interesting because of its text form. The technology is more advanced and Ramayana epics look very ancient in the eyes of this Digital Natives. This study used the idea of gamification, a game play mechanics to create meaningful learning experiences and make the learning more interesting and fun. Gamification also looks at games and learning from a different angle on how to make learning more meaningful, engaging, interactive, fun and interesting. In view of this, this research aims to seek if the use of online interactive activities could encourage and motivate teenagers to read Ramayana epics. Forty Primary Tamil students participated in this study voluntarily. The data were collected through a questionnaire. Based on the pre-questionnaire data regarding respondents’ prior knowledge on Ramayana, it was found that respondents had minimal knowledge about it. 37% said they would like to read the epic through comic books and 63% claimed that they would prefer computer. This study has some implications for computer assisted language learning. </p>

Democracy and entitlements in Sri Lanka: The 1970s crisis over university admission

Affirmative action policies came into effect in Sri Lanka in the 1970s with the left-of-centre United Front government headed by Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Her government introduced changes in the criteria for university admission, initially designed to benefit the majority Sinhalese students. These policies were later transformed into a regional quota system cutting across ethnic and religious identities. The schemes were condemned for straying away from principles of merit and fairness, failing to guarantee social mobility through education and limiting the number of Tamil students in the science and medical faculties. The perceived unequal distribution of educational entitlements was a central issue in the Southern leftist insurrection and the Tamil insurrection in the North and East in the 1970s. While issues of unemployment led the Sinhala rural educated youth to rebel in 1971, the early Tamil militancy was energized by the issue of standardization in the university admission of students. Affirmative action policies can be usefully read as linked to an understanding of democracy that originates in the late colonial period founded on the premise that the democratic state has a responsibility to correct imbalances that exist in society between communities and classes and to distribute entitlements in the fairest manner. The politics of university admissions can also be traced back to the practice of Ceylonization of the public service that began in the 1930s and to the commitment to welfarism that was borne out of the Fabian inclinations of the men who drafted the Donoughmore Constitution of 1931.

Assessing the Long-Term Impact of 'Peace Camps' on Youth Attitudes and Behaviors: The Case of Ethno-political Conflict in Sri Lanka

Across various international and intra-national conflict arenas in the world, institutions dedicated to promoting and reconciliation have emerged. In particular, a number of Non-Governmental Organizations have begun to sponsor peace workshops that invite children and young adults from the warring communities to participate in peace geared towards creating greater trust and empathy between the two sides of the conflict. Our study was designed to answer the question: do these camps have any effect in the long run? Specifically, we evaluated one particular peace program organized in Sri Lanka that brings together Sinhalese and Tamil students of high-school age for a 4-day workshop. The results of our study indicate that those who had participated in the camp showed greater empathy (than did non-participants) for members of the ethnicity - even one year after they had attended the camp. There was no effect of participation on attitudes related to trust or social distance. Furthermore, consistent with the attitudinal data, when given an opportunity to anonymously donate money (with which they were endowed) to help poor children of the other ethnicity, participants donated a higher percentage than those who had not participated in the camp. The results and some implications are discussed.

Challenges in English Literacy for African-American and Lankan Tamil Learners: Towards a Pedagogical Paradigm for Bidialectal and Bilingual Minority Students

The paper compares two separate classroom ethnographies in higher educational institutions one, on African-American students learning Academic writing and another on Lankan Tamil students learning English for General Purposes. Explicating the similarities of challenges and responses in English academic literacy for these students, the paper attempts to overcome the separation of the concerns of bilingual and bidialectal minority students in English language teaching. Although both groups of students are initially highly motivated, they experience conflicts for their identity, values, and group membership in internalising an alien discourse. They therefore adopt a formalistic learning approach of mastering the abstract structural rules and ignoring the communicative uses of the language in order to oppose its ideological thrusts. Through this ambivalent strategy, they attempt to attain the English proficiency needed for social mobility while retaining their cultural and ideological integrity. The paper proposes thatwhile minority students should be encouraged to analyse the limitations of their own attitudes and values, the pedagogy should also sustain an interrogation of the ideologies represented by English discourses. Such students should reposition themselves in relation to English and use it according to their own discursive backgrounds in order to empower themselves while pluralising English/academic discourses.

American textbooks and Tamil students: Discerning ideological tensions in the ESL classroom

Abstract This paper illustrates how teacher‐conducted classroom research can interrogate ideological tensions in the ESL classroom. Using a post‐structuralist perspective on language and discourse, the paper interprets the verbal and visual signs constituting the American textbook and the graffiti scribbled by students in the margins. The pedagogical assumption of learning as a value‐free utilitarian activity, combined with content that is loaded with urban, technocratic, middle‐class values, pose a cultural threat to the Tamil students. Their glosses indicate their preoccupation with a mixture of alternative discourses: Tamil‐Saivite culture, political nationalism, romance and sex, and popular ‘film’ culture. The glosses suggest various subtle modes of resistance to the discourses of the textbook. The paper finally explores ways of incorporating the positive elements of students’ culture and styles of learning into a more meaningful and relevant curriculum.

Critical Ethnography of a Sri Lankan Classroom: Ambiguities in Student Opposition to Reproduction through ESOL

The article argues that the way in which domination is experienced and oppositional tendencies are formed in classroom life have to be observed closely rather than conceived abstractly. This ethnographic study of 22 tertiary-level Tamil students following a mandatory English for general purposes (EGP) course reveals that whereas the lived culture displays opposition to the alienating discourses inscribed in a U.S. textbook, the students affirm in their more conscious statements before and after the course their strong motivation to study ESOL. Interpreting this contradiction as reflecting the conflict students face between cultural integrity, on the one hand, and socioeconomic mobility, on the other, the study explains how students' desire for learning only grammar in a product-oriented manner enables them to be somewhat detached from cultural alienation while being sufficiently examination oriented to pass the course and fulfill a socio-economic necessity. However, this two-pronged strategy is an ideologically limiting oppositional behavior that contains elements of accommodation as well as resistance and unwittingly leads students to participate in their own domination.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH AND TAMIL AUXILIARY VERB SYSTEMS AND PREDICTION OF LEARNING PROBLEMS FOR TAMIL STUDENTS OF ENGLISH

Article A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH AND TAMIL AUXILIARY VERB SYSTEMS AND PREDICTION OF LEARNING PROBLEMS FOR TAMIL STUDENTS OF ENGLISH was published on January 1, 1970 in the journal International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (volume 8, issue 1).