English
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Item Words from the ‘margins’: Exploring Sri Lankan English borrowings in the classroom(Kalyani: Journal of the University of Kelaniya, 2015) Fernando, DinaliThe use of Sri Lankan English (SLE) vocabulary among Sri Lankans themselves has been the focus of some debate. While some studies have found that teachers of English tend to reject SLE vocabulary, particularly borrowings, in the classroom, other researchers observe that such avoidance is more prevalent among the so-called non- standard users of SLE. However, studies that focus on specific types of vocabulary, or on specific genres of writing, are rare in SLE studies. In particular, despite the current interest in the pedagogical implications of World Englishes, there are few studies that investigate SLE used in texts produced in the classroom. This study thus aims to investigate the use of SLE borrowings in written texts by learners of English who can be considered users of non-standard SLE. The study takes the theoretical position that the appropriate use of SLE vocabulary is part of the sociocultural competence, a significant learner competence, of the learner. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, this exploratory study attempts to analyse the nature and the extent of SLE borrowings found in 27 informal written samples on a culture specific topic by a group that tends to be marginalized in SLE studies, the adult language learner of English. The findings of the study revealed an unexpected extent of usages and identified two strategies of uses, explication and exemplification, indicating that the so-called non-standard users display a sociocultural competence that has significant implications for classroom practiceItem Sri Lankan English or not? Lexical Choices and Negotiations in Postcolonial Women’s Writing in Sri Lanka(Colombo: Women’s Education and Research Centre (WERC), 2011) Fernando, DinaliPostcolonial studies as well as sociolinguists have long asserted the significance of language in postcolonial societies and the unquestionable power that language has in constructing reality. Both disciplines explore the complex and dynamic relationship between the English of the colonisers and the emerging World Englishes, and the process of adaptation and appropriation (Ashcroft et al. 1989, 1995, 2002) of the language which no longer belongs solely to what postcolonial studies refer to as the “Imperial centre” (Ashcroft et al. 1989, Boehmer 1995), or what World Englishes terms the “Inner Circle” or the “norm-providers” (Kachru 1982). Both disciplines have also acknowledged that the languages of postcolonial societies, whether it is their own indigenous languages or their adaptation of the coloniser’s language, offer postcolonial writers a much richer and more appropriate linguistic resource to express their own unique realities than the language of the imperial centre. (New 1978, Ashcroft et al 1995 and 2002, Boehmer 1995). Similarly, in World Englishes studies Kachru (1992) sees the positive and enriching effect of postcolonial adaptation of language which defines a new identity to the postcolonial writer:Item “Kuppi”, “koku” and “kaakko”: an exploration of the linguistic and ideological significance of contemporary campus slang(University of Sri Jayawardenepura, 2016) Fernando, DinaliUniversities and university students have long been a fertile source of slang, which can be defined as an informal variety of language comprising words and expressions used by a particular social group. Research in campus slang has a long history (see for example Mcphee 1927, Kannerstein 1967, Olesen and Whittaker 1968, Kutner and Brogan 1974, Hancock 1990, Murray 1991, Hummon 1994, Thorne 2005, Preece 2009, Adamo 2013). Many of these studies present word lists and linguistic analyses of these unique lexical items that reflect the academic, social, and personal experiences of student life. Studies of campus slang conducted in American and British universities also indicate several similarities as well as significant differences in the spread and functions of campus slang in Sri Lanka. This, along with the fact that the slang of Sri Lankan university students has not been the focus of much research, provided the rationale for the current study. Examples of slang were obtained from multiple participants at a university in the western province to develop an initial wordlist. A linguistic analysis of each term was then conducted by identifying their morphological features and semantic categories. Reflexive texts written by selected student participants were also obtained to analyse their experiences of encountering, learning and using campus slang. The analysis of this overall data was located in the theoretical framework of linguistic ideology, or the linguistic behaviours that not only characterise a particular social group but also language practices that aim to legitimise dominant political powers. The study concludes that there are significant ideological implications in the usage, function and spread of the slang of the sociopolitically complex discourse community of Sri Lankan university students.Item Sri Lankan English in the classroom(University of Limerick, 2019) Fernando, DinaliSri Lankan English (SLE) was adopted as the model for teaching and learning English by a state programme of teacher training and ELT development in the country, the English as a Life Skill (ELS) project, in 2009. With the slogan 'speak English our way', the programme aimed to develop a team of skilled teacher trainers selected from among the non-elite speakers of English, and to train teachers to teach the much-neglected speaking skills to all school children in Sri Lanka (Kahandawaarachchi 2009). In this project, Standard SLE was identified as the linguistically and ideologically most appropriate model for the classroom, a decision that was lauded and criticised in almost equal measure in the country. Despite its acceptance as a valid variety of English in Sri Lanka by researchers (Mendis & Rambukwella, 2010) and its promotion by many local academics as the most appropriate pedagogical model for English education in Sri Lankan schools (Gunesekera, Parakrama, & Ratwatte, 2001), teachers of English are generally uncertain about the ‘correctness’ of SLE in the classroom. A decade after the launch of the programme, little is known about its outcome in the local schools. In particular, no study has attempted to find out if the views of teachers and trainers with regard to SLE since the programme was launched, reflecting what David Hayes (2005) calls the silence of non- native English educators’ voices in ELT research. This paper thus explores the views and experiences of three trainers from the ELS project on SLE as a pedagogical model for the Sri Lankan classroom through semi-structured interviews. The accounts of the participants reveal their training experiences, their own development as teacher trainers and as speakers of SLE, as well as their views on adopting SLE as a model for teaching. The participants’ views suggest possibilities as well as challenges faced when a local variety is promoted as a pedagogical norm within the current context of English education in a multilingual country like Sri Lanka. The paper concludes with some implications of promoting a World English as a pedagogical model.Item Towards an inclusive standard Sri Lankan English for ELT in Sri Lanka: Identifying and validating phonological features of Sri Lankan English of Tamil speakers(Sri Lanka English Language Teachers' Association, 2014) Fernando, Dinali; Sivaji, KarunaThis paper reports on a study that investigates the views of teachers of English in the Northern Province on the unique phonological features of Jaffna English, a variety of Sri Lankan English (SLE) that has its own unique syntactic, morphological as well as phonological features (Selvadurai 1983, Saravanapava Iyer 2001, Sivapalan, Ramanan and Thiruvarangan 2010). The main research area of this paper is World Englishes in the context of English language teaching (ELT), focusing on variation within SLE phonology.Item Medical research, innovation and practice: the ethics of sex and gender(College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka, 2019) Wickramasinghe, M.No Abstract availableItem Imagining the Future of English Studies in Sri Lanka(Postcolonial Text, 2008) Wickremasinghe, MaithreeThe submission is a speech made at the launch of Arbiters of a National Imaginary: Essays on Sri Lanka - a Festschrift for Professor Ashley Halpé edited by Chelva Kanaganayakam. The speech begins with a tribute to Professor Ashley Halpé, followed by a methodological perspective when examining the festschrift. While it does not technically review the articles in the book, it however discusses their significance for contemporary disciplinary practices of English Studies in Sri Lanka. The objective of the speech, therefore, is to argue for a paradigm shift in English Studies when engaging with the specificities of the Sri Lankan context, which would necessarily involve a consideration of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary directions of English, as well as the political and ethical needs of the local situation.Item Making meaning of meaning-making: a case study of feminist research methodology in Sri Lanka(Institute of Education, University of London, 2007) Wickremasinghe, MaithreeWhile women-related (WR) research has proliferated in Sri Lanka since 1975, research focusing on such literature and on research methodology is limited. My research concentrates on the theoretical frameworks, ontological and epistemological standpoints, methods, politics and ethics that constitute WR research methodology in Sri Lanka. In effect, it considers the ways in which researchers extract I construct meanings to fulfil feminist objectives in research. Consequently, the work covers the epistemological gap in methodology within local Women's Studies; and enriches international research by highlighting the Sri Lankan situation through being generalisable to wider theoretical objectives. Women-relatedness of research is posited as a paradigmatic shift in knowledge-making within which research activism takes place. The umbrella concept and materiality of WR research methodology is case studied through constituent case studies of method, ontology, epistemology, theory, and politics I ethics. This involves conceptualising I engaging with the particularities of Sri Lankan ontological politics; an epistemology of gender that originates from a sense of being I doing; the method of literature reviewing as an epistemic project; theory on methodology as epistemology and feminisms as a form of ethical politics. Maithree Wickramasinghe- Making Meaning of Meaning-Making 2 Sri Lankan women's studies and discourse compose a somewhat abstract ontology for my research purpose, while WR research methodology is captured I constructed in research through the examination of research texts and interviews. My own methodology is founded on the principle of knowledge as a process of both discovery and construction. Analysis of research is from multiple theoretical locations and methodological intersects of positivism and postrnodernism; as well as feminist standpoints, postcolonialism, and reflexivity. The ultimate aim of the study is not only conceptual unity, but also, conceptual contestation.Item An epistemology of gender - An aspect of being as a way of knowing(Elsevier Ltd, 2006) Wickremasinghe, MaithreeIn this article, I examine the concept of gender as applied in Sri Lankan Women's/Gender Studies, and discuss the methodological assumptions behind the usages of the concept. It is based on theoretical understandings of contemporary currents in non/post-positivist methodologies, feminist theory and epistemologies, as well as postmodernism and postcolonialism. I argue for the conceptualisation of gender as ontology in local feminist research/writing by referring to the multiple conceptual constructions of gender as aspects of ‘being’-spanning gendered identities to societal systems. I then focus on gender as epistemology with regard to the ways in which Sri Lankan feminists use gender as political aspirations, theoretical constructs, analytical categories and methodologies. I argue that politicized experiences of gender are at the crux of conceptualising realities in formal knowledge. And conversely, that the gender realities conceptualized in knowledge also mediate in the actual enactments of realities; that gender epistemology (or a way of knowing) is also ontology (or a sense of being). This can be summed up with the convoluted statement that gender ontology as epistemology is gender epistemology as ontology.Item Feminist research methodology: Making meanings of meaning-making(Routledge, 2010) Wickremasinghe, MaithreeMentioning the word ‘methodology’ in conversation often elicits passive disinterest at the least, and vocal disdain at the most. For those practising development, the term can conjure up images of flow charts, log frames and data sets, while for those in academia, dry lectures on regression analysis may come to mind. Despite the consideration given to the subject of methodology in various fields, however, very little has been written linking feminist methodologies to development practice (one exception being Volume 15, Issue 2 of this journal, to which the author of this review contributed), and there is an even greater gap in such literature published from the perspective of feminist researchers working in the global South, although there is likely much work published locally that has escaped the attention of Northern audiences. Sri Lankan academic and self-described feminist researcher, Maithree Wickramasinghe, sets out to address these gaps in her book, Feminist Methodology: Making Meanings of Meaning-making, published by Routledge as the second book in its Research on Gender in Asia series.