ICLSL 2016

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The Logical Relationship between the Writing Errors and the Acquisition Order of the English Grammatical Morphemes
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Jeyaseelan, S.; Wijeratne, W.M.
The study of the acquisition of the grammatical morphemes seems to be a key concern of this study in terms of the order of acquisition. Acquisition order is very much inter-related with the process of second language learning and acquisition. The grammatical morpheme like third person singular –„s‟ is acquired later than the other morphemes such as the plural-„s‟ and the past tense –„ed‟. The research problem is however, the teachers deal with the learners making errors in such morphemes repetitively. The objective is to investigate the logical relationship between the acquisition order and the errors. The first year students of the Faculty of Business Studies of Vavuniya Campus were selected as the sample. The convenient sampling method was used. The data were collected by conducting tests based on the nine grammatical morphemes. The findings reveal that the use of some morphemes the copula-„be‟, the auxiliary-„be‟, the possessive –„s‟, and the irregular past are used less than the plural –„s‟, the past tense –„ed‟, and the progressive –„ing‟. The reasons for less or no errors in the use of the morphemes can be attributed to the non-attempt nature and a strategy of the respondents to avoid using any forms difficult to be used correctly. There is a logical relationship between the findings of the ranking order of the morphemes based on the results of the closed test and the findings of their use in the creative writing assignment. The morphemes of the lower ranks in the closed-test are used less or not used at all in the creative writing.
Use of Official Languages among Public Officers: A Case Study of Dehiwala Divisional Secretariat in Sri Lanka
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Perera, M.A.D.D.
This research is concerned with the use of official languages among public officers with special reference to the Dehiwala Divisional Secretariat (DS) in Sri Lanka. Roughly Sri Lanka is concerned as a multilingual, multiethnic country where there was a war between Sinhalese and Tamils nearly for three decades to divide its territory. One of the root causes for this war was the language issue. Thus, since independence, successive governments have been implementing many language policies in order to ensure the language rights of its citizens. However, still the public sector is being criticised at large for having limitations in delivering their services to the public in the language that they prefer. Although there are laws stipulated and facilities given, it seems that government expectations are not yet achieved. The dearth of bilingual officers in public institutions is the major obstacle to overwhelm this issue continually. Thirty five public officers who have passed the second language proficiency examination serving four selected public institutions in Dehiwala DS were interviewed in order to examine the factors that create hindrances in using official languages among public officers. Further, the use of second language among public officers is expected to be analysed using one of the second language acquisition theories: Krashen‟s five hypotheses on second language acquisition. In order to understand better the factors that create hindrances to use official languages it has been analysed under two sub topics such as strengths and weaknesses in the institutional arrangements/systems of teaching other official languages to the public officers and limitations in the present institutional incentives to learn the other official language.