Relationship on Sanskrit and English language proficiencies: a study conducted among selected BAMS undergraduates of Gampaha Wickramarachchi Ayurveda Institute

Abstract

Sanskrit language is an explosive source of knowledge of fundamentals of Ayurveda, while English language offers distinctive benefits to the present day Ayurveda scholar. Both Sanskrit and English languages are incorporated into the current BAMS course of Gampaha Wickramarachchi Ayurveda Institute. In the first phase of the study programme, students are required to master basic grammar rules of both these languages. The primary purpose of this study was to compare the performances of Sanskrit and English languages on grammar-based language proficiency tests. The study examined the relationship of Sanskrit language proficiency and English language proficiency with 83 first year students following BAMS (2014/2015) course at this Institute. Students were tested on objective grammar items at the end of 15 weeks of instruction. The hypothesis was that there was a relationship between the performances of Sanskrit and those of English language. A two-tailed Pearson Correlation was performed. The comparison of two sets of test data showed that Sanskrit language proficiency scores were strongly correlated to English language test data (co-efficient of correlation, r = .590). The mean values of Sanskrit and English languages were 65.87 and 66.96 respectively. The significant p value (0.000) confirms the relationship between the two sets of test scores. This finding supports the claim that students who perform well in grammar based instruction in one language are able to acquire grammatical elements of the other language easily. However, further research can be carried out using a wider sample in order to arrive at firm generalizations.