ICLSL 2016

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The Syllabic Construction of the Language Game/ Secret Language in Pnar
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Bareh, C.
The earlier literature has referred to the term language games with different names, such as ludling, secret languages, disguised speech, play-language, argot etc. So, these different names roughly refer to the same concept in different writings. At times, secret language is a cover term for some of these terms. Some writings specifically differentiate one term from the other. This paper argues that the concepts of language games and secret language are pragmatically different. The difference is in the function rather than the form; it is a language game when two competent speakers engage in conversation using different (twisting) codes, and it is a secret language when it is used to conceal the speech form from children or outsiders or for that matter from any of the in-groups who do not share/ learn the code system. So in this regard, the correctness of the term (language game or secret language) does not lie in the text that is spoken but in the contexts of the speech. This paper attempts to explain how syllables in Pnar1 are switched to encode the speech in such a way that a closed alone follows it. Just like any natural language or any other game, language game is also no exception to the rule; it is rule-governed and abides in any respect with regular rules. Manipulation of words, phrase or sentences always needs to be done in systematic phonological, morphological or syntactic rules.
An Examination on the Semantic Adversation of the Sinhalese Language
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Sameera, M.A.G.J.
As a living language, the Sinhalese language has come to its present status after going through a numerous number of changes to all its components. Any given word of a language has a meaning of its own, which cannot be easily changed. However, it is not entirely impossible to change the given meanings of the words of a living language since it is infinitely modifiable and extendable according to the changing needs of its speakers. Any change that happens to the meaning of a word is known as semantic change. Semantic adversation which can be defined as acquiring a meaning entirely opposite to the existing one is one of the processes that can be seen under this. This study is an attempt to examine the semantic adversation in the Sinhalese language. Data has been collected through a comparison between classical Sinhalese and contemporary Sinhalese. The older meanings given to words were identified from their usage in selected classical Sinhalese literary work and it was evident that though many words used then are still being used, many of them are affected by semantic change in a number of ways. Since the range of this study is limited to semantic adversation, other processes of semantic change such as semantic expansion were not examined. Accordingly, a considerable amount of words in relation to which semantic adversation has happened is identified. However, exact reasons that can be pointed out as responsible for the semantic adversation or distinguishable processes of semantic adversation are not identified, which leads to the judgment that semantic adversation in the Sinhalese language is purely an accident of history.
The Process of Translating and Editing of Pāli Texts in Sri Lanka from 19th Century to the Present
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Rajapaksha, D.M.
It is to be emphasised here that the pivotal objective of compilation, translation and edition of Pāli texts was not only to enhance Theravāda tradition in its pristine purity in Sri Lanka but also to ensure its perpetual establishment making it immensely accessible to people in the world. The scrutiny of the history of Theravāda tradition in Sri Lanka exposes that the commentaries, sub-commentaries, annotations, glossaries and other related literature compiled on the Tripitaka - Sutta, Vinaya and Abhidhamma were immensely conducive to produce eminent lay and ordained scholars. After the documentation of the Tripitakain the 1st century in Sri Lanka, the recital of the Dhamma for its preservation continued and its oral tradition (Bhānakas) as Theravāda contributed to the establishment of the monastic education system spreading it throughout Sri Lanka. Thus, it is evident from the above factors that Theravāda tradition executed the process of translation and edition of Pāli texts from the inception. In the past century, there exited a prominent development in the above process due to the contribution of printing press during the colonial period. Hence, research paper will discuss the process of translating and editing of Pāli texts that contributed to enhancement of Theravāda tradition from 19th century to the present.
A Linguistic Study on Abbreviations in the Japanese Language
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Jayathilake, H.M.D.T.K.
This paper is a linguistic analysis and a study of abbreviations in the Japanese language and the manner in which such abbreviations are effected. Abbreviations of Japanese terms that are used frequently, are a recent development for the convenience of daily use of the language. However, new abbreviations being included frequently pose a problem for the students learning Japanese as a foreign language since they are unaware of the reasons and the basis behind them. This paper is the outcome of a detailed analysis carried out to ascertain the types of terms that are abbreviated in order to identify the basis for abbreviation. This research was carried out by gathering details of abbreviations used in books and periodicals, comparing the original unabbreviated terms with the abbreviations and identifying the basis and manner in which the abbreviations have been done. The study basically revealed that original Japanese words as well as loan words had been condensed and appropriately abbreviated. In examining the data, it was observed that several methods had been applied in effecting abbreviations, as described in the paper. The analysis and the comparison also focused on identifying the methodology used in abbreviations and would undoubtedly be of immense value to students as well as teachers in gaining an insight of the basic concept of abbreviation of Japanese terms and the underlying principles.
Language Policies and Social Cohesion in Multilingual States: Some Personal Observations
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Lewis, R.L.
This paper is meant simply to be an opening point for a continuation of an ongoing discussion of multilingualism within states and regions vis-à-vis: Civil and criminal law, law enforcement, domestic educational policy, civil and human rights, political franchise, cultural and national identity, commerce and economic development, etcetera. Although I have lived in the Sri Lanka for over 11 years, Sri Lanka is not the subject of this paper but rather serves as a lens through which I can see more clearly the potential ramifications and importance of these issues internationally. I would like to look briefly at the extremes – at one end, state language policies that have led to civil war and at the other end states that have dealt creatively, fairly and productively (albeit not perfectly) with the management of the issues and challenges which are an intrinsic part of dealing with multilingual populations. Virtually every country in the world, to one extent or another, deals with the challenges brought on by multilingualism. I would not presume to attempt to offer prescriptions for the problems which are an intrinsic part of multilingual issues; rather, I hope that the questions I pose will help to stimulate a continuation of a vigorous exchange of ideas between informed and open people who care.
Using Sinhalese in Teaching German as a Foreign Language for the Undergraduates of the University of Kelaniya
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Lansakara, L.H.M.D.S.
The study focuses on the controversy, revolving around the teachers‟ use of the mother tongue (MT) in foreign language (FL) teaching. Specifically, this report concentrates on the examination of German teachers‟ and learners‟ attitudes and methods of employing Sinhalese in teaching German language. Theoretical studies highlight that the MT should be fused by teachers in FL classrooms in resulting a productivity in acquiring a second language or a foreign language. The current study was conducted among the German language teachers and thirty randomly selected students who follow German language as a main subject, representing the three specific course levels of BA degree program conducted by the University of Kelaniya. The research tools were two particular questionnaires designed specifically for the purpose of the study, aiming the German teachers and the students selected. Additionally, the efficiency and the productivity of using Sinhalese in teaching German in the classrooms were examined through keen observations of the students‟ level of understanding and progress in acquiring the language as required. Hence, it becomes a qualitative data analysis. The findings reveal that the teachers‟ as well as the students‟ overall attitude towards the use of Sinhalese in German language classrooms is positive, however with limits; the teachers report that they use Sinhalese for teaching as well as for the classroom management while the students convey that the explanations in Sinhalese support them in understanding the German grammar and language facts better. This understanding will be followed by a comparison between the two particular languages (MT and FL) as well. The findings of this study will be useful in enhancing the quality of the acquisition of foreign languages with a base of using mother tongue and it will open up to approach the theories of applied linguistics in second language acquisition.
The Grammatical Aspects of Grade 10 Tamil Language and Literature old and New Syllabuses: A Comparative Analysis
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Srikantharajah, S.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language which includes the study of sounds, words and grammatical aspects. The rules of a language are learnt as one acquires a language. These rules include Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics which are the branches of a language. Knowing a language encompasses this entire system. The grammatical aspects [morphology and syntax] are the major areas in language learning and teaching. The structure and the meaning of a language can be studied through grammatical aspects. On the other hand understanding the meaning of a word without knowing the semantics and pragmatics is meaningless. The linguists expect to encompass the concepts of modern linguistics with the concepts of traditional grammar in language teaching. After every eight years generally the school syllabi gets updated. In 2015 the ministry of education introduced a new syllabus for grade 6 and 10 students. Based on that a comparative research study was conducted to examine the grammatical aspects found in grade 10 old (2007) and new (2015) syllabi with a linguistics perspective. Consequently, it was found out that, some new linguistic aspects have been included in the new syllabus: Allophones, technical terms, types of adjectives and concord. Further, it was found out that some linguistic aspects which could have been included in the syllabus have not been added. With my paper I suggest the linguistics aspects which could have been included in order to uplift the academic level of the syllabus. Further, the grammatical changes existing in between the two syllabi will be compared through this paper.
Errors Related to the Patterns of Prepositions of Place among the Second Language Learners in English
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Abeyratne, D.M.U.P.
A main issue observed with the undergraduates‟ writing and every day speech is the prepositional errors. The notion of correctness as far as prepositional use is concerned depending on linguistic competence and performance of the learner or speaker. Analysis of these errors especially in second language learning and teaching situations is more or less a learning device. Therefore it is important to carry out an error analysis in which the errors made in the area of prepositions of place will be identified and systematically will be analysed to identify the type of error. The major objective of this research is to determine the patterns of errors in prepositions of place among Tamil learners of English. To identify the pattern that is mostly used and to show the least used pattern are some of the minor objectives of this research. All the identified errors have been classified into three main categories as Wrong Substitution, Preposition Omission, and Unnecessary Insertion. The results of the study explored Wrong Substitution as the main category where the students tend to make most of the errors. The research hopes to support the following hypotheses: most of the students generally do not flunk to acquire the proper use of prepositions of place and some students make errors in prepositions of place when they arrange the diagnostic test. To achieve the objectives a diagnostic test will be conducted by the researcher among undergraduates of the Faculty of Islamic Studies and Arabic Language of South Eastern University of Sri Lanka (SEUSL). The faculty consists of Sri Lankan Hindus, Christians and Muslims who learn English as their Second Language (L2) and who only speak Tamil language.
The Problems Encountered in Religious Translation and How to Overcome Them
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Jayasinghe, D.G.T.A.
The present study deals with the problems encountered in religious translation, which is one of the most complex areas of translation studies. In this area the translator faces some serious difficulties such as understanding the meanings of the religion related terms, gathering sufficient information to describe them, translating them in a way that the reader could grasp what is conveyed, translating ga:tha and shlo:ka (religious stanzas), adopting the exact language writing style according to the religion and grasping the essence of the particular religion before translating the text. In finding solutions to the above problems, qualitative analysis is done using comparative methodology. Accordingly, the solutions such as consulting a reliable source/person to gather information about the terms appear in the religious text, referring books on the particular religion and getting a good understanding, studying the writing style of the other books that present the essence or preaching of the relevant religion before starting the translation. Thus the translator could use the above given solutions for an effective religious translation without causing mistranslations.
A Linguistic Study on the Japanese Translation of “Viragaya”
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Dayarathne, P.N.N.D.
This research discusses the possible cultural influences on translation with special reference to the cultural words found in Professor Tadash Noguchi‟s Japanese translation of the Sinhalese novel “Viragaya” by Martin Wickramasinghe. The aim of this research is to find out how the culture influences translation and how the problems created by cultural words in translation can be solved using the appropriate strategies which suite both surface and contextual meaning of the particular cultural word. The cultural data related to the cultural words from the original text and its translation was categorised according to several sub topics such as religious terms, units of measuring, foods and beverages, clothing items, proper nouns etc. The categorised data was analysed based on the translation strategies used by the translator. The data analysis proved that the cultural words which appear in SL text have been greatly influenced by the Theravada Buddhism where the translator sometimes have found it difficult to translate the concepts to the TL as most of the TL readers are from Mahayana background. Moreover, the translator had to face problems in translating beliefs, traditions and customs appearing in the SL text as they are totally different from that of the target culture. To overcome the aroused problems regarding the cultural words translation, the translator has used three main strategies as; borrowing the words from SL, use of cultural equivalent and creation. This research points out that a literary translator should have sufficient knowledge in both source language and target language along with their respective cultures, aiming a more successful translation which paves the path to the TL readers to touch an untouched culture smoothly.
Problems in Translating Sinhala ‘weniya’ into English
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Rajapakshe, R.M.W.
One language may differ from another phonologically, morphologically, syntactically and semantically. There are, however, differences as well as similarities between two languages. The degree of those differences and similarities between two languages depends on target languages. A number of differences and similarities can be seen between Sinhala and English. The purpose of this study is to analyse the difficulties of translating the Sinhala word “weniya” into English. When it refers to a position of a student in a class the word palaweniya, dewaniya, thuweniya are used to mean first, second, and third respectively. There are no problems in translating such words. The adjective forms of those words, namely palaweni, dewani and thunweni can be translated into English without any difficulty. However, a problem arises when translating a Sinhala sentence like “J.R. Jayawardena mahattaya lankawe kii weni janadhipathiwaraya da?” Ten scholars including university lecturers, professors and highly qualified professional translators gave different answers to this question. The problem here is that there is no parallel grammatical structure for this sentence in the English language. This study attempts to find the most suitable solution to the above problem. Data was gathered from six university professors, two university lecturers and two professional translators.
Use of Language for Public Relations: A Case of Sinhala Dialects
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Jinadasa, M.P.K.
Language is utilised for building relationships among peers. Public Relation is a process of making strong understanding and image building among stakeholders of an institution. Despite the fact that variety of tools and techniques are used to make effective forms of public relation campaigns, language has been used for a credible and live form of interactive verbal communication in the public relation contents and tools. Creative writing and innovative presentation is an intrinsic feature at the phase of critical thinking in the practice of public relation. This study explores the effective forms of the use of Sinhala dialectic languages in creative writing and creative programming in the public relation campaigning. A qualitative, textual analysis is used for the study. For this, dialects of Medadumbara, Udadumbara, Mahiyanganaya, Galgamuwa, Nikaweratiya, Trincomalee and Hambanthota have been used. Participatory observation at their social interlocutors and live interviewing were key tools of data gathering. Accordingly, this study yields the following conclusions; Sinhala regional dialects remains rich in the use of communication for making a thorough rapport among peers. Regional nonverbal behaviours to verbal communication have given much credible ecology in their dialogues and discourses. Familiar associations, neighborhood and kith and kinship are some of the social aspects that enhance the amicable use of words in reciprocal understanding among relevant stakeholders. Use of sound balance, different form of language expressions, regional cultural gestures and postures, kinetics, proximity in social communication are some of the identified characters behind the productive use of langue for making effective public relation in the community relation in village level interrelations. Rural areas of living are yet not polluted by the use of urbanised use of language. Community oriented use of language and regional cultural oriented use of dialect are being transformed by the association of mainstream use of language in the common popular platform of interpersonal communication.
The Lack of the Sinhalese Language Literacy among the Students: A Case Study of a School in Kolonnawa Educational Division
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wickramasinghe, P.D.D.D.
Sri Lanka has a commendable record for one of the highest literacy rates in the South East Asia. This achievement can be largely attributed to the free education system of the country which came into operation since 1945. The many decades since then the country‟s education system has evolved under various socio-political nuances. Kolonnawa is an area known for its complex social background. This isolated study which concentrates upon a cohort of 22 students assigned to a special Sinhalese language literacy class in a school located in Sedawaththa tries to unearth the reason as to what has made the particular student population lagging behind the required Sinhalese language literacy for their age. The study found out that the sheer lack of parent‟s concern for their children‟s education has mainly led for this predicament. In addition, the poverty, the disintegrated family setups, lack of effective educational policies on the part of relevant authorities corresponding to the above social setting have been the contributory factors for this issue. The methodology adopted for the study was face to face interviews with the relevant students and the teachers. It is not a high profile technical report but it is a simple case study which tries to highlight the current problems relating to the Sinhalese language literacy among the students in the concerned area.
Teaching English as a Second Language in Sri Lanka: Facing a Paradox
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Perera, A.
English is the most popular foreign language in Sri Lanka. This language played a key role in the process of social stratification which took place after the collapse of the feudal and the colonial systems. After teaching English for so many years in schools, why do students hesitate to follow and indirectly reject this subject at school level? There is a continuing matter of debate on whether first language (L1) contributes to or precludes the learning of a second language (L2). Internationally numerous studies have been conducted on this topic, but no clear consensus exists on whether L1 should be banned or its inclusion in classrooms should be allowed. However, few studies have identified the reasons for which students need such an inclusion. So this opinion survey was done to find out the root causes of this particular problem in Sri Lanka. This study primarily investigates the opinions of the persons who can make an influence on this issue. So, two university professors, one provincial director of English Education, two zonal directors of English Education, three instructors of English Education in three educational divisions and two instructors of English Education, attached to zonal English Support Centers were interviewed. This survey was confined to find data regarding the use of Sinhala as the mother tongue (MT) in teaching English as a second language. The findings may be useful to language education policy-makers in designing more formal and concrete guidelines to help teachers who teach English as a second language. While some interviewees agree the use of L1 judiciously in classrooms, all the interviewees agree, to make an impact on policy makers in this regard to design policies as well as a methodical approach to teach English as a second language in comparison with mother tongue (MT).
Language Acquisition Patterns: A Case Study of a Child Acquiring Sinhalese as the First Language
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Weerawardhana, V.
Child language acquisition is an innate strategy which reveals the psychological base of human language. Innate hypothesis is the pre-knowledge of the language. Human beings are born with this ability of internalising the first language with the help of language Acquisition Device (LAD). Children acquire structural regularities of their mother language (L1) from their environment. This happens in the critical period of the language development which is identified as the period from first six months to three years. This research is a case study focusing on the nature and the patterns of acquiring the Sinhalese language as L1. The child was in its critical period of language acquisition and data was collected using electronic and manual transcription. Structural linguistic analysis and theoretical concepts of Transformational Grammar on language acquisition such as competence and performance, generalisation, simplification, deep structure and surface structure are employed as the methodology. Accordingly, the gradual development of L1 acquisition from 6 months to 24 months are discussed. Babbling, sound acquisition and patterns of one word utterances, two word and three word utterances are among the findings. A comparison with the previous studies reveal that the patterns of above utterances, generalisation and simplification are commonly visible in the acquisition period. Also, the child often proves that competence is greater than performance. The results of the study further highlighted some semantic, syntactic and morphological overgeneralisations. Thus, this study and its findings are of significant importance to psycholinguists, language therapists and to researchers interested in studying child language acquisition process.
Subjects in Colloquial Sinhala
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Kariyakarawana, S.
In most languages, including in literary Sinhala, subject of a sentence appear in Nominative case. In colloquial Sinhala however subjects can appear in several different cases in both intransitive (I) and transitive sentences (T) as Gair (1998), Kariyakarawana (1992) and many others have observed: 1 a. (I) miniha duwanawa man-NOM run-PRES PAST „The man runs‟ (T) siri ada apata ballek (wa) dunna Siri-NOM today us-DAT dog-INDEF-ACC give „Siri gave us a dog today‟ b. (I) minihata divenava man-DAT run-INVOL-PRES „The man runs (involuntarily)‟ (T) mata den aliyawa peenawa Me-DAT now elephant-ACC see. PRES „I see the elephant now‟ c. (I) miniha-va ganagata wetevi man-ACC river-DAT fall-OPT „The man might fall into the river‟ d. (I) ehee policiyen innawa there police-INSTR be-(animate) „There are police there‟ (T) aanduwen eekata aadara denawa Government-INSTR that-DAT support-PL give-PRES „The government give support for that‟ As seen above, notice nominative, dative and instrumental subjects occur with intransitive as well as transitive predicates. One other noticeable characteristic of Colloquial Sinhala is that equational sentences do occur without a copular (be) verb at all as in (2): (2) (a) Gunapala mahatteya honda guruwarayek Gunapala –mr-NOM good teacher-INDEF Mr Gunapala is a good teacher‟ There have been many attempts to bring these sentences under a unified analysis of syntax which explains their syntactic and semantic properties in a universal framework of phrase structure but it seem to pose serious problems to Case marking, INFL projection and Thera role assignment within a generative framework. This paper takes another look at the data under the Bio Minimalist framework that Chomsky (1995) proposes to minimise the syntactic machinery by subsuming syntactic properties under semantic and phonological cues which in essence determines the syntactic structure of the position of subjects in these clauses. In particular, we will argue that the Minimalist approach to such complex syntactico-semantic issues can reduce the burden of functional machinery and explain the learnability of non-nominative subjects in colloquial Sinhala.
A Method to Sort Official Correspondence through Natural Language Processing
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Weerasooriya, T.; Perera, N.
Natural language Processing (NLP) is a new branch of study in Computational Linguistics and the field has undergone rapid development over the past few decades. Keyword extraction is a popular application of NLP. The present study makes use of Stanford Core NLP, an NLP tool that enables Parts-of-Speech (POS) tagging in order to extract the keywords from official correspondence. POS tagging identifies all the parts of speech in a sentence and categorises them into the relevant grammatical categories. Capitalising on the grammatical uniformity of formal written English, the system is able to identify all the noun phrases and verb phrases of a sentence. Hence, the subject and the predicate of the sentence are isolated. Document sorting with regard to official correspondence is done through the system by analysing the „object‟ line of an official letter or the „subject‟ line of an e-mail, and listing the noun phrases and verb phrases. The document is then sorted to the relevant department. In order to prevent slips in the system, the remaining words of the „object‟ / „subject‟ lines are filtered through a keyword corpus. This increases the accuracy of the keyword extraction process. The present system proved to be more efficient that selecting keywords through a filter, as the POS tagging sorts and presents keywords in an order where the respondents are able to grasp the main idea of the sentence. The subsidiary list of words extracted through the key word corpus adds to the accuracy of the system. The present study is only limited to official correspondence in English. It could be modified to be adapted to other languages.
Cognitive Barriers in Learning English as a Second Language at Tertiary Level: A Survey of English as a Second Language Class at the University of Jaffna
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Santhirasegaram, S.
This paper aims to probe the principal difficulties and barriers of the second language learners in the ESL classroom at tertiary level. This study mainly focuses on the barriers of learning English as a second language at the University of Jaffna and to provide some effective teaching approaches to improve English knowledge of undergraduates. The researcher has conducted this survey to explore the cognitive barriers in the skill of writing in English. This study has been carried out in relation to the second year students in the Faculty of Arts, University of Jaffna. The objective of this study is to examine the cognitive barriers in the ESL classroom. The researcher tries to investigate what are the causes for the difficulties and the link between the barriers and the language learners‟ family factors, cultural factors and psychological traits. This study also provides valuable suggestions to improve the learners‟ language acquisition level and the development of writing skill, how to motivate them via effective teaching approaches and strategies and help them to overcome their learning barriers. The data has been analysed through qualitative and quantitative research methods. This study is based on writing materials that were collected from the undergraduates to gather information and discussions regarding this study. This study helps to diagnose the learners‟ cognitive barriers in writing, to bring an effective learning outcome and to improve the learners‟ cognitive level in the ESL classroom.
A Comparative Analysis on Word Formation Processes in English and Sinhala
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Dhammadassana Thero, Kosgama
Word formation is a process which makes a new word by changing exiting one or adding something to exiting word. It makes a new word. Forming new words is a most influential process to develop a language and to continue it as a live language. There are number of word formation process according to morphology and those processes can be seen in both Sinhala and English languages. Affixation, compounding, conversion, borrowing, blending and clipping are some of them. This study is an effort to find the similarities and dissimilarities of word formation processes between English and Sinhala languages. Thus, the present research aims to study the word formation processes mainly in terms of the two languages in order to discuss the similarities and dissimilarities between them. The oldest available grammar book in Sinhala, “Sidath Sagara” helps to find out the grammatical concept of the forming word in Sinhala and a number of books have been written in English which reveal the word formation processes of it. As the methodology both English and Sinhala books are used and after going through those books the concepts of the forming words can be analysed. those word formation processes can be compared and the research is based on a literature study, which takes a quantitative plane.
A Postmethod Pedagogy; Reality or Fallacy in Enhancing Teacher Growth: Special Focus on Higher Education in Sri Lanka
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Herath, H.M.U.K.
Postmethod pedagogy, emerged as an alternative to the concept of method and method based pedagogy which consists of so many limitations, basically focuses on the professional growth of the teachers in ESL teaching and learning context. Stern‟s three dimensional framework and Kumaravadivelu‟s Macro-strategic framework drawn from “theoretical, empirical and experiential knowledge” (Kumaravadivelu, 2006, p. 185) are the main concepts included in the postmethod pedagogy. It prioritises teachers‟ potentials by accentuating their experiences as teachers, parents/caretakers and students (Prabhu, 1990), which are underestimated in the implementation of existing methods. The knowledge of the existing methods and, the experiences and the frameworks the teachers have acquired and built can be exploited to construct their own methods and thus, they can act as evaluators, observers, critical thinkers, theorisers and practitioners. Postmethod pedagogy is crucial for teacher growth since it involves teachers constructing “classroom-oriented” theories of practice (Kumaravadivelu, 1994, p. 29) This, in turn, makes them valuable sources for prospective teachers and their colleagues leading to professional growth (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). The present critical paper is therefore written in an attempt to see whether postmethod pedagogy is fully capable of building the professional growth of the teachers in the ESL contexts of higher education in Sri Lanka. The author concludes that postmethod pedagogy when applied effectively allows to enhance the teacher growth which is one of the ultimate objectives of the pedagogy.