Junior Research Symposia
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Item Colonial Period Language Planning in Sri Lanka(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Perera, A.In linguistically heterogeneous societies, language planning constitutes core institutional practice for maintaining social cohesion as well as unique cultural identities. This study intends to examine the Colonial Period Language Planning in Sri Lanka. The data were collected through official documents, books, journals and thesis such as Colbrooke Cameron Papers, Language Planning by Robert. B. Kaplan etc. The first Europeans to visit Sri Lanka in modem times were the Portuguese who arrived in 1505 and the Dutch who captured Ceylon in 1656. Then the British presence in Sri Lanka began in 1796. The arrival of Europeans was a novel influence on our languages. During those periods Portuguese, Dutch and English were introduced as their official languages and Greek, Latin and Hebrew were included as the languages under the education planning. The colonisation brought European style of education to Sri Lanka, especially to prepare students for positions in the colonial administrations. All official domains were conducted in their official languages. Accordingly, those language policies were introduced to our educational system and to Sinhalese and Tamil languages. As a result, only few people could obtain a proper education and most of the people remained uneducated. Therefore, those language policies caused several social issues. Moreover, Mr. J. R. Jayawardhana introduced a new language planning proposal to change the colonial language planning in 1944. However, that proposal could not be implemented properly. This was a reason for the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka that took place after the independence.Item Language Planning in Senegal: A Study Based on the Position of 'Wolof' as a National Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Kekulawalal, S.; Samankumari, P.G.Language planning refers to deliberate and systematic attempts taken to solve the language problems of the speech community. Government authority gives a prior contribution when planning a language through legislation, court decisions, executive action or other means to determine the use of language in public contexts. Senegal is a multi-ethnic country where there are around twenty communities speaking twenty five languages and gives a prior contribution from the Senegal government to a better language planning. In Senegal, 'Wolof is the main national language used by Senegalese and plays a major role in the language planning. However, still, it could not have reach to the state of official language. This paper examines the language planning in Senegal while mainly focusing to the national language problem of'Wolof. The language planning in Senegal is that, French is the official language. The language of 'formal' schooling, the media, commerce and the government, although only 10% of the Senegalese population speaks French, and it is spoken primarily in the larger cities (e.g. Dakar). One of the most striking problem in Senegal is that it does not have a proper national language policy, have 28 different languages co-exist, 6 of which are named as national languages spoken by 86% of the citizen. When considering current language situation in Senegal, the attitudes of the Senegalese people towards the Wolof language, the Wolof culture and the duality between the Wolof language and the other local languages is high. Therefore attention towards the local languages (mainly Wolot) can be seen everywhere in the country. Data for this research are collected by using Google website articles and written books. What learned from the study is that, with a great sociolinguistics and demographic domination there is a huge attention towards Wolof language as a national language.Item Language policy in Singapore(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Kamali, R.D.; Hettihewa, A.S.; Senarathna, I.R.Language is not merely a tool for human communication where it also plays an important role in the development of social identity. Therefore it is important to have a wellplanned language policy in a country and it is becoming more and more essential in an increasingly multilingual society. As a multinational country Singapore has a diverse population and it includes Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians, Caucasians and Asians of different origins. As a result of that Singapore has become a multilingual nation. However, the Singapore government recognises four official langauges: English, Malay, Chinese, Tamil. Their decison to adopt English, Mandarian, Malay and Tamil as their official languages came early in their nationhood. And also Bilingualism is a fundamental aspect of their education system while English is the medium of instruction in schools, students are required to learn their mother tongues aswell. This has ensured that they are able to engage fellow singaporeans of different races, access the global economy and at the same time remain connected to their cultural roots. This study attempts to describe how the language is being planned by the Singapore government and the present condition of their language policy. Data for the research are collected by using official documents of Singapore Government, newspaper articles and from recordings of informal conversations with a group of native speakers. These informal conversations are used to identify the bilingual habits of Singapore citizens. What we learned from the study is that in Singapore all four official languages were accorded parity of recognition, a clear message that all Singaporeans are equal partners in a single nation, regardless of race or language.