International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPRC)
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Item Syntactic Difficulties Encountered by Sinhala Native Speakers in Learning German as a Foreign Language(In: Proceedings of the International Postgraduate Research Conference 2017 (IPRC – 2017), Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Danansooriya, D.M.H.M.When the attention is focused on learning German as a Foreign Language as a beginner in the first year at University of Kelaniya it has been observed that the learners who do not have any knowledge in German before the university entrance find it difficult to comprehend the syntactic patterns in German language. Particularly due to the influence of the mother tongue Sinhala, in which the syntactic pattern is different, the students find it confusing at the initial stage of learning the language. Furthermore, when constructing sentences, the students have the tendency to translate word by word following the syntactic rules of their first language. The word order in declarative sentences the verb should be in the second position in German. Second position does not mean the second word. It means the second element in a sentence. However, the majority of the students merely count words when they make sentences and thus construct grammatically incorrect structures. As the data collecting methods researcher analysed the answers written by the students in their written work including continuous assessments, class tests and end of course examinations. Furthermore, face to face interviews with the lecturers in German, questionnaire reviews, student performance analysis and classroom observation were also done in order to gather data. This study focuses on common areas of syntactic difficulty for a larger number of students at beginner level. In conclusion, the study helped to find out the common errors done by the students in learning syntactic patterns and develop teaching strategies that can minimize the number of difficulties encountered by the first year students in learning the syntactic patterns. Research sample of this study limited to 50 students at beginner level, University of Kelaniya, interviews with five teachers at other institutions revealed that the difficulties encountered in grasping the syntactic patterns are common among the learners. Thus, it is envisaged through this study that the learners as well as teachers of German as a Foreign Language in Sri Lanka will have an insight into areas of difficulty in syntax faced by students of German that need more attention when designing lessons at beginner level.Item A Method to Familiarize Students with The Grammatical Gender of Hindi Inanimate Nounds by Drawing On Parallels with The Grammatical Structure of Gender in The German Language(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Lansakara, R.N.Hindi poses a challenge to beginners when it comes to the grammatical gender of non-living things (inanimate nouns) as, unlike English, Hindi has grammatical gender for them as well. Moreover, there are no articles before nouns which can provide students a hint of the gender of the object, unlike in some languages i.e. der (for masculine groups), die (for feminine groups), das (for neuter groups) in German language. The identification of the grammatical gender of nouns for non-living things must be learned by heart as they are needed for noun declension in the Hindi language. Most learners of Hindi are confused by this complex grammatical situation. In Hindi, the genitive case is usually created by using the following inflectional affixes: का /ka:/ (for the singular form of masculine nouns), के /ke:/ (for the plural form of masculine nouns), की /ki:/ (for plural and singular forms of feminine nouns) before nouns. As noted earlier, in the German language, nouns usually make their gender known by means of articles and adjectives in front of nouns. Thus, when teachers give a new word to a student for the very first time, s/he could use a pattern similar to the German. The article would familiarize the grammatical gender of inanimate Hindi nouns for Hindi learners, if the inflectional affixes mentioned above (का /ka:/, के /ke:/, की /ki:/), which indicate genitive cases, are used before inanimate nouns. For example: का नमक /ka: nəmək/ (salt), की हवा /ki: həwa:/(wind). As a matter of fact, it has been identified that the interest of beginners towards the Hindi language has begun to decrease gradually because the grammatical gender of non-living things (inanimate nouns), is quiet difficult to understand. Therefore, this study draws attention to how both students and teachers can address the problems associated with learning and teaching the grammatical gender of nonliving things (inanimate nouns) in the Hindi Language.