ICLSL 2015
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Item Error Analysis on Japanese - Sinhala Translations(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Rathnayake, D.Language translation is one of the most in-demand job opportunities for foreign language learning students in Sri Lanka. Japanese language among the other foreign languages has been taught from the school level to the undergraduate level for many years. Recently, a fast increase is seen in the number of Japanese tourists and investment companies due to various reasons in the country. In this context, Japanese-Sinhala, Sinhala-Japanese translation is considered one of the in-demand job opportunities which can easily be fulfilled by those Japanese learning students. Nevertheless, at present students of Japanese are not competent enough to engage in successful Japanese-Sinhala translations and there are many errors in their translations. Those errors can be seen mostly as a result of transfer from L1, intra-lingual, or over-generalization of L2 system or intra- lingual error. There are approaches of assessing learners translation ability (using, integrative testing and communicative testing) (Buck, 2001) both for the linguistic forms and comprehension. Many learners can easily find the meaning of the words and phrases from the dictionaries and recognize the linguistic form, but they cannot have a correct comprehension of the text. Therefore It is vitally important to give careful attention to this area, and need to build up skills of students in Japanese-Sinhala translation. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze what errors students make in their translations when they translate passages from Japanese into Sinhala by reviewing their translated sentences. The writing will be evaluated basically and the sentences with errors will be recorded to identify the types and frequency of errors. The main focus will be on the errors of ; use of words and expressions, use of suitable word order, use of suitable grammar, use of preposition, articles, use of tense and voice.Item The Vedda Language: A Linguistic Study with Special Reference to Dambana, Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Weerasekara, R.A.D.P.The intent of this research is to examine the current situation of Vedda language from a linguistic point of view based on their overall socio-cultural background. The culture and the language of the Veddas are gradually vanishing and today the original Vedda language does not exist. The most popular accepted theory is that the Vedda language is only a regional dialect of the Sinhala language or a Creole. The research problem of this research is to identify whether the Vedda language is a dialect of Sinhala or Creole or distinct language. When we analyze the Vedda language, the language contact phenomenon play a major role from their history to at present. The present day Vedda language which exist in Sinhala language speaking areas is close to the colloquial Sinhala due to long years of linguistics assimilation. The findings of this research show due to language contact phenomenon, the present day Vedda has borrowed not only lexical stocks but also sounds, grammar, and meaning from dominant languages, significantly from colloquial Sinhalese. These linguistic results of language contact induce us to assume that it has become an extreme language mixture and the language situation is severely endangered. The Vedda settlement areas in Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts almost all Veddas speak Tamil language and at these places the Vedda language has become an extinct language. However the existing linguistic features of Vedda prove that the original Vedda language is a simple hunting language. The research is based on Qualitative Empirical Research Methodology and Participant Observation Method and Case Study were adopted to collect the data. The research is based on the first-hand data elicited from the current Vedda settlement areas, particularly Dambana.Item Variation in French Interlanguage in Sri Lanka: a Sociolinguistic Study of the Use of Subject Pronouns nous and on to Express 1st Person Plural(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Gunawardena, C.The behavior of non-native speakers in relation to sociolinguistic variables has been the focus of many studies (Trevise & Noyau, 1984; Dewaele & Regan, 2002; Regan, 1995, 1996, 1997; Dewaele, 2004; Sax 2001), but the previous studies on interlanguage have focused on corpora derived mainly from immersion students who speak European languages. There have been, to date, virtually no variationist studies on the use of French sociolinguistic variables by Sinhala- Speaking advanced learners. The present study examined the sociolinguistic variable: the use of on and nous to express 1st person plural in a corpus of advanced French interlanguage produced by 15 learners. Fifteen Sinhala- speaking advanced learners were recruited from the University of Kelaniya. The researcher recorded the participants’ conversations in an informal setting. Informal speech was collected in one-to-one conversation between the researcher and informants. It is well know that informal speech style can best be obtained in spontaneous speech (Coveney 1996), therefore the researcher asked questions related to the informants’ immediate environment. Informants were recorded using a simple voice recorder and each recording lasted about thirty minutes. Since it is time-consuming, the researcher transcribed only the occurrences of variables which he intended to analyze. The fundamental research question of this project was: to what extent does variation in the speech of L2 users of French in Sri Lanka reflect the patterns of variation found among L1 users of French? Comparing the native and non-native speakers’ behavior in relation to sociolinguistic variable provided important findings useful for teachers, students and curriculum designers. The researcher found that the use of on is very low among Sri Lankan learners of French whereas those who have spent time in a Francophone country had a higher usage of on.Item Using Research to Promote Literacy and Reading in Libraries: (Public Libraries in Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka)(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Herath, D.M.S.K.Literacy is ability to read and write or knowledge that relates to a specified subject or subject area. UNESCO has Convinced that “literacy is crucial to the acquisition, by every single child, youth and adult, of Essential life skills,” UNESCO was designated 2003 to 2012 as the decade of literacy. They directly recognize that everyone needs to develop the ability to access, assess, and use information in a variety of ways. Librarians recognize their huge growing role in literacy, reading research can help them gather facts and suggest good Solutions. Using Research to Promote Literacy and Reading in Libraries extends the first brochure by Focusing on the importance of wisely consuming, conducting and applying research Conducted by librarians and their partners in order to promote literacy and reading. People believe that libraries are uniquely situated to promote literacy and reading. It is a part of their mission. And it is a mission of all types of libraries, from school and public to special, Research, university and national. The main objective of this Research is to identify the Reading Promotion Activities that we can use to promote literacy and Reading in Sri Lankan Libraries. The problem of this research is lack of Using Research to Promote Literacy and Reading in Libraries. The selection of the sample involved in the selection of 10 public Libraries in Kurunegala district and the selection of Readers and Librarians in those Libraries. Due to time and other constraints it was necessary to limit the sample for 10 public Libraries in one district. In order to give a fair chance to all. Using simple random sampling method 05 Readers were selected to administer the questionnaire I. The second questionnaire was administered among the Librarians of public libraries. Studies on the Promote Literacy and Reading in Libraries is one of the key research areas in the field of Library and information Science. The analysis of data revealed the following major finding, Public Libraries have been playing a vital role in the promotion of Reading promotion In Sri Lanka. Librarians require Good Practice about Reading and Literacy promotion activities.Item The Use of Technology in Sustaining Positive Attitude in English as a Second Language Learning(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Ravindran, S.The second language teaching and learning are conducted purely through traditional face to face modes even at this age of the advancement in technology at the tertiary level in Sri Lanka. The barriers and challenges in providing full fledged technology based Second language learning programs are still prevalent in the universities which have to be developed in order to sustain positive attitude in English as second language (ESL) learning. This study was conducted as an attempt to explore whether the use of technology will enable the learners in sustaining positive attitude in ESL learning. This is a qualitative and quantitative study based on questionnaires issued to the participants and observation from the staff. A convenient sample of first year students from the Faculty of Management and Commerce Studies students were selected and utilized as the basis for conducting the research. The researcher used tables and charts to analyze quantitative data, while qualitative analysis was based on observations of the teachers. The results showed that there is a positive correlation between the use of technology and in sustaining positive attitude in ESL. This study recommends that the use of new technology has a positive impact in sustaining positive attitude in ESL. Lastly the undergraduates of the university with less interest in learning the L2 could be motivated and enabled to sustain positive attitude in learning the L2.Item Topic-marking in Sinhala(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Ananda, M.G.L.The topic-comment articulation is a left peripheral syntactic operation that serves a discourse function in natural language. The English construction referred to as topicalization involves the articulation in topic and comment as in (1). (1) Your moneyi, you should give ti to Nimal (not to Ajith) As shown in (1), topic is a pre-posed constituent marked off separately by the ‘comma intonation’ and conveys old information. Some languages overtly realize topic with morphological encoding (Gungbe, Zulu, (Aboh: 2010) Japanese (Kuno:1973)), while in others it is phonologically null. In Sinhala, topic is overtly realized in the particle nang (2). (2) Nimal nang vibhage pass-una Nimal TOP exam pass-was ‘As for Nimal, he passed the exam’ This paper seeks to investigate the properties of the Sinhala Topic marker “nang” and suggest a structural position for it in the clause. The theoretical stand adopted in the paper is both the Minimalist Framework (Chomsky: 1995-) and the Cartographic framework (Rizzi, 1997). With respect to data, I relied on the native speaker grammatical judgments. The main conclusions in the paper are that topic occupies a distinct head position in the complementizer (C ) domain as proposed by Rizzi (1997) for Italian. The absence of –e marking on the verb indicates that there is no Agree relation or feature transfer from C to a topic head, and, that the topic head does not modulate the properties of C. Nevertheless, contrastive topics indicate that a matching XP needs to be in the scope of TOP. This further indicates that TOP should constitute an independent probe. Further, the Sinhala contrastive topic marked utterance conveys a sense of incompleteness as suggested by Tomioka (2010), for Japanese and it also marks conditionality in Sinhala in addition to topic.Item A Study on the Relationship between Literary Translation and Socio-linguistics: With Special Reference to ‘giraya’ and its Translation /girəjə/(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Bamunusinghe, K.Linguistics is the scientific study of language which includes several other branches which are important for individuals who are interested in language studies. Among these branches applied linguistics is of a great importance since it applies the theories and teachings of linguistics to the practical world. Translation is one of the most important parts of applied linguistics and it is always interrelated with the practical world. On the other hand socio- linguistics is another important branch of linguistics which studies the functioning of a language in a society. Literary translation is simply defined as the translation of literary pieces of work such as fiction and non-fiction which are associated with literature and it is quite a proven fact that the literary translator has not only to tackle the language but also the cultures of both SL and TL. In that sense it is apparent that the literary translator deals not only with the language but also with the society and culture of both the SL and TL. Similarly, socio- linguistics studies the functioning of a language in a society. When paying close attention to literary translation and socio- linguistics it is noticeable that both these phenomena are related with the society and culture. This study will utilize the novel Giraya written by Punyakante Wijenaike and its translation by Cyril C.Perera in extracting the necessary instances and examples in assessing the socio-linguistic phenomena and the other related phenomena which indicate a close relationship with the society. On the other hand the book, A Textbook of Translation by Peter Newmark will be used in identifying the non-sociolinguistic phenomena that correlates with the society. In that sense this will be a theoretical study which is mostly based on the literature of the related fields namely translation and socio-linguistics.Item A Study on the Errors Made by Tamil Speaking Students in Using Second Language(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Sivapalan, V.Generally, errors are significant in the second language teaching and learning process. Investigating and analyzing the errors in the second language learning will be useful for not only the students but also teachers, curriculum designers, text book writers and researchers. Therefore, it is a significant study in the second language field. This paper examines the errors made by the non-native Tamil speaking undergraduate students of the University of Kelaniya in using Tamil as a Second Language. Specifically, this paper focuses on the errors in the Writing, Speaking and Translating of Tamil Language. The main objective of this study is to analyze students’ errors in using words, sentences and meaning in Tamil. There are so many factors that make the errors unknowingly in the second language learning process. The specific objective of this study is to identify sources of errors, as it is considered to be problematic for the non - native Tamil speaking students. This difficulty can be attributed to the differences between the first language and the second language (Sinhala and Tamil respectively). The data were collected by selecting 30 students randomly from the faculty of Humanities of the University of Kelaniya as a sample and the same number of scripts was collected and analyzed. Questionnaire, teaching experience and observation were used as the instruments for this purpose. The findings suggest that the Sinhala speaking Tamil Language learners have difficulty in the use of Tamil Language due to mother tongue influence.Item Social Harmony among Multi-Lingual Students Population in Sri Lankan Universities- A Research Special Reference to Eastern University Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Sachithanantham, P.Universities consist of multi religious, multi-cultural and multi lingual student population, where it is expected to have social harmony among those undergraduates. However there have been recorded incidences and evidence to prove ethnic friction and linguistic Barriers in sustaining harmonious atmosphere in university education. Therefore, it is understood that the existing administrative mechanism has not improved social harmony among undergraduates of multicultural and multi linguistic background. Eastern university is teaching social harmony in English to have a common medium of instruction. Most of the Undergraduates who entered the Eastern University come from rural area and poor family background and they learnt in their mother language at the schools. Though majority of the university programmes are taught in English, schools have their curriculum in Sinhala and Tamil. Therefore students enrolled in to the university where their programme is in English will have trouble both in understanding the subjects as well as in communicating with other. These students face some problems such as transferring ideas, communication and interaction, mutual trust. Highlighting one community culture might be perceived as threat to others. Even after teaching social harmony at the university there are notable incidents challenges to normalcy between different students communities. The research intends; a) to learn how teaching social harmony contributes to make stability in the cohesive relationship among the students in the university; b) to learn what are the programmes practised in the universities; C) to learn what are the programme undertaken in other universities; and d) to identify the challenges to sustain the harmony between different students communities.Undergraduate population of EUSL are of Sinhala and Tamil in terms of language, where majority of the programme are conducted in English except, for faculty of Arts and Culture. Social harmony programme no exception. However informal communication is primarily done in their mother languages which might lead to misunderstanding and therefore will widen the gap between different undergraduate communities. Therefore more emphasis should be laid on social harmony programmes that will bring multi ethnic students together. Cultural activities should be encouraged in addition to teaching social harmony in class.Item Sinhala-French Language and Culture Contact: A case Study on Sinhalese Children of Sri Lankan Origin in France(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Rodrigo, J.S.This study examines the language and culture contact among Sinhalese children of Sri Lankan origin residing in France. Its main objective is to draw a sociolinguistic portrait of these children through their language practices and their linguistic representations. Taking the shape of an empirical and qualitative research, the study focuses on two 7-years- olds and the main method of data collection used was thematic drawing followed by an interview upon the drawing. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with family members in order to support the data collected from children. The results uncover a form of “Sinhala-French-English” trilingual speech which illustrates the multilingual skills of our young interviewees. In addition, the study brings to light their social, cognitive and linguistic representations vis-à-vis their bilingual and bicultural context, revealing a sense of imbalance in the face of alterity. The current research encourages other longitudinal or expanded studies to better understand these lesser-known immigrants in France.