Browsing by Author "Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K."

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The acquisition of the English volitive and involitive alternations by Sri Lankan second language learners
(2016) Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K.
Research on second language acquisition has expanded enormously since its inception. The application of newer findings from the studies ofSLA to educational concerns has both informed and sustained long standing debates about the role of the learner's consciousness in the SLA process, and about the nature of the learner's input needs and requirements. This piece of research was focused on identifying volitive and involitive alternations used by Sri Lankan second language learners in English. In other words, study was aimed to see how Sri Lankan second language learners express their intentional and unintentional actions in English and their difficulty level in expressing volitive and invoiltive actions. Languages use a variety of strategies to encode the presence or absence of volition cross-linguistically. Most frequently, an intentional meaning is ascribed to volitive verbs and an unintentional meaning to involitive verbs. Sinhala verbs fall into two stem classes, the volitive and involitive. Subjects ofvolitives are almost invariably nominative and subjects ofinvolitives occur in nominative, accusative, dative, or the postpositional case "atilJ". Verbs of volition in English are not expressly marked and verbs of involition do not appear in English language as in Sinhala. Some languages handle this with affIXes, while others have complex structural consequences of volitional and involition encoding. Thus, Sri Lankan second language learners faces difficulties in expressing involitive actions in English. Alternations were found and questionnaires, interviews and test papers were used as tools. Four subject related professionals were interviewed. There were 252 students in the sample and they were given the test paper with difficulty level in proficiency judgments scale and the questionnaire. Participants were given 46 sentences to express in English and around 11000 sentences provided by participants were analyzed by the researcher. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in analyzing data. At the end of analysis, there were only a few number of alternations provided by participants and it was proven that hypothesis made by the researcher is correct. Hence, this research would provide an insight in to recognizing and overcoming morpho-syntactic and morpho-semantic problems in enabling one to master second language.
A case study of how Sinhala influences first year undergraduates learning English
(Research Symposium 2009 - Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2009) Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K.
Throughout history it is obvious that many scholars have discussed theories about first language acquisition and second language learning. Specially learning a second language means not only gaining knowledge but also the development of skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. So the input as well as the output is very important in this process. But what I personally experienced was that the second language learning process may be difficult due to the interference of one’s first language. Thus the aim of this paper is to examine the influence of Sinhala language on learning English as a second language and the problems encountered by the first year undergraduates during this process. Acquiring competence in English has become a great need of Sri Lankan University students. The majority of these students have a sound knowledge of Sinhala as it is their first language. Sometimes this causes certain contradictions in identifying the syntactic and semantic differences between Sinhala and English Languages. Thus many students have a tendency to follow Sinhala word order in written and spoken English. As a result, students face various problems in learning English. In this paper, such problems are identified by examining 40 randomly chosen first year students who are undergoing their degree program in the English medium from the Faculty of Applied Sciences and the Faculty of Business Studies and Finance, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka. Further, this study is based on assignments, tests and relevant activities given to the students.
Challenges in Technical Translations
(University of Kelaniya, 2012) Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K.
As human beings are social animals, people have the instinct to communicate with others, to share their feelings and thoughts and as a result translations have become popular among people in order to make communication more effective. Translations can be simply explained as translating a text from a source language to a target language. Translations can be categorized into various varieties such as literary, legal, scientific, technical and religious/sacred translations. This paper will discuss existing issues such as lack of a clear theoretical home for technical translations which remains problematic for researchers, translators and students alike. A number of key challenges for technical translations still remain and it will be found beyond the traditional confines of translation studies. Technical translation is a type of specialized translation involving the translation of circulars, reports, official documents, manuals, user guiders, advertisements etc. Many translators find it a challenging task to translate specialized features such as technical words, terms, jargon, phrases which are unique to its own subject area. Thus technical translations cover the translation of many kinds of specialized texts and require a high level of subject knowledge and mastery of the relevant terminology and writing conventions. Data has been gathered through personal experience, practice, secondary sources, observations and interviews. This research would provide an insight into recognizing and overcoming problems in technical translations enabling one to produce a successful outcome.
Challenges in translating humor
(University of Kelaniya, 2011) Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K.
Throughout history, language has been playing a prominent role in the progress of human civilization and social development. There are nearly 6000 to 7000 languages in the world which differ from each other in their structure. Thus translations have become popular among people in order to make communication more effective. Translations can be simply explained as translating a text from the source languages to the target language. Translations can be categorized into various categories such as literary, legal, scientific, technical and religious translations. This research focuses its attention on the challenges in translating humor in literary translations. Translating a text consisting of humor is a challenging task. To transfer a joke from one language to another calls on the ability to “think outside the box”. Humor is a sense which is naturally generated in the mind of the reader. It is a natural outcome which no one can artificially force. A writer creates humor using words, symbols, characters, puns and concepts unique to his own culture and language. But it is a challenging task to translate the same set of emotions and meaning into another language and make them appear in the same way in the target language in a translation. Thus opportunities to translate comic or humorous verse or prose constitute an unusually provocative challenge. The researcher has analyzed many problems encountered by literary translators in translating humor from the source language to the target language. Data has been gathered through personal experience, practice, secondary sources, observations and interviews. Mastering the source language and the target language is not sufficient for translators to overcome these problems. Translators need to have common sense about the culture, society and the language in order to translate humor. Hence this research would provide an insight into recognizing and overcoming problems in translating humor enabling one to produce a successful outcome.
Errors in the Use of English Articles
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K.
This study aims at providing a comprehensive account of the types of errors produced by Sri Lankan ESL students in their use of English articles. Within the field of second language research (SLR), a large number of studies have focused on error analysis. One of the most difficult challenges faced by second language learners of English is mastering the system of English articles. The simple morphology of English articles is easy to explain but frustratingly difficult for students to master. It has been observed by researchers that English article system which includes the indefinite article a(n) the definite article the zero (or null) article are among the most difficult structural elements for ESL/EFL learners to master although they are the most frequently used structural elements in the English language. The main objective of the study was to identify the types of errors in the use of articles and to identify whether there is a significant impact from the learners first language in committing these errors. Data were collected from randomly written samples of 50 first year undergraduates from the faculty of Arts. Students were given one hour to write on one of five different descriptive topics related to their life and culture. The researcher classified errors according to the Surface Structure Taxonomy of errors (SST), namely, substitution, omission, and addition, recording the frequency of each error type and the percentage of the total. Furthermore, students‟ errors were classified according to their possible sources into interlingual and intralingual, showing the frequency of errors according to their source. Analysis of errors in students‟ written samples revealed that while students made a considerable number of errors in their use of articles according to SST, omission and addition of errors were the most frequent, while substitutions were the least frequent.
Extensive Reading in Developing Solutions to Improve the English Language Competence
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K.
While English is considered a key factor of one’s success as a member of the globalized society most undergraduates in the Faculty of Arts do not possess a significant command of English. Most students do not have an environment conducive to use English for oral and written communication. As these undergraduates are bound to depend on their own energies, it is necessary to investigate new methods and implement them in order to motivate them in their pursuit of English. Extensive reading is considered as an effective strategy to keep the learners engaged in their pursuit of English. Therefor this research focuses its attention on promoting extensive reading as a strategy to improve the literacy level in English of the students in the Faculty of Arts. The main objective of this study was to develop a methodology which promotes extensive reading. That methodology will focus on introducing a new culture of reading in English external to their classroom requirements. This research was focused on the students of the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo. Necessary data was gathered based on the Faculty of Arts. A survey was done in order to find out learners reading habits and attitudes towards the concept extensive reading. New solutions were developed to implement a new reading culture among the students. The outcome of the entire process was considered as a case study as all the activities are focused on the Faculty of Arts. Questionnaires, interviews and test papers were used as tools. There were 30 students in the sample and they were given a pre-test before practicing extensive reading activities. After completing extensive reading activities they were given a post test. Out of 30 students 27 students had improved their proficiency level in English in certain aspects. Research findings helped to develop a mechanism to increase proficiency level of students in English. Extensive reading activities that allow students to respond on a personal level to their books encourage students to read and allow them to enjoy what they have read. Such activities can interfere with students enjoying reading in English and help them to improve their English language competence.
Translators depending on legal glossaries: a lexicographical study
(Research Symposium 2010 - Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2010) Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K.
Rapid development of the world as a global village has eliminated cultural and language barriers in between countries around the world. Especially communication is one of the basic needs of human beings and translations make it easier. Translations can be simply explained as translating a text from source language to target language. Translations differ according to its variety. For instance literary translations differ from legal translations. Literary translations, religious translations, technical translations, legal translations and scientific translations are major translation varieties and this paper focuses its attention on legal translations and whether legal translators can depend on legal glossaries. A legal translation consists many legal terms and meaning of these lexis should be direct, specific and clear. Thus legal translators use legal glossaries to find out the accurate legal term which belongs to target language. This reduces the difference between translations. But some legal glossaries in Sri Lanka have not been updated. Thus, Sinhala legal terms in legal glossaries and legal terms in present usage differ. This is a critical problem encountered by legal translators. Researcher has analyzed the legal glossary published by the Department of Educational Publications and findings showed that glossary consists many out dated Sinhala legal terms which are not used in the present day court. Researcher hopes to extent this research in order to analyze other legal glossaries and intend to use different strategies to find solutions to this issue.