ICLSL 2016
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/14246
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Item Reading Disabilities (Dyslexia) and Difficulties as a Learning Problem: A Psycholinguistic Study(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijesekara, J.S.'Reading' is a creative ability and it is a complex cognitive process relating to brain-cells with the functions of visual system or tactile. Knowledge on symbols in a language and semantic interpretation of those symbols are important in reading process. The first stage of reading is understanding sequences of symbols and the second stage is the semantic interpretation of them. Those two categories on reading are noticed by different symptoms, but they look normal and intelligent. Though some literature on reading problems in English language are available, no successful research has come out on reading texts in Sinhala language. Being a symbolic system, Sinhala symbols are different from English symbols as it has a phonetic symbolic system. Therefore, the research problem focuses on identification of linguistic problems on reading difficulties and dyslexia and finding the methods that can be applied to solve those problems. Therefore, (a) identifying those two categories of children and finding out what reading problems that they face and (b) introducing alternative methods for reading for the children who are severely disabled in reading are the objectives of this research. The hypothesis of this research, if the memory of phonemic symbols can be improved, it will be easy to avoid these conditions or if it is difficult, an alternative method could be identified to improve their education. twenty school children from each category from grade 6 to 10 will be selected by a test and some specific teaching methods will be applied to improve their reading ability. At the same time the questionnaires will be given to the teachers and the parents to gather knowledge and the background details of those children. This research is limited only to the children who read Sinhala. This research will be important for the students to upgrade their education and for the therapists and educationists to employ these results for their purposes.Item Difficulties Encountered by the Japanese Language Learners in Using English Loanwords(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Udeshika, O.P.D.Loanwords are defined as the words where both form and meaning are borrowed or assimilated with some adaptation to the Phonological system of the new language. English loanwords have become a considerable part of the contemporary Japanese vocabulary. Loanwords are one of the most difficult pedagogical elements in Japanese language Education. It appears that the most overarching and fundamental source of difficulties is the narrow range of intuitive acceptability when English words are converted into their katakanare presentations. (Jun Xu-2013). Intuition of the learners who are learning Japanese as a foreign Language may differ from the native Japanese speakers. It is clear that the difficulty of acquiring loanwords by the Japanese learners as a Foreign Language is often not fully recognised by the teachers. The students make errors in identifying and writing English loanwords. In Conversation students use original English words. The conversations become unsuccessful, due to the inability of understanding Japanese conversations. This study is an attempt to identify how English loan words have become difficult to be studied when they are acquired by the Japanese learners in Sri Lanka. First English loanwords of Japanese were analysed and were categorised in order to identify the errors. The necessary data were collected using 100 students who were reading Japanese Language at the University of Kelaniya. They were asked to translate English loanwords into Japanese and Japanese words into English loanwords. The analysed results of this study revealed that the most of the students had faced many difficulties in translating those words. In conclusion it was obvious the fact that the main reason behind the issue was that most of the students were not familiar with that English word though English Language is considered as the Second Language in Sri Lanka.Item The Difficulties Encountered in Literary Translation and the Possible Solutions(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Jayasinghe, D.G.T.A.This study focuses the attention on the difficulties encountered in literary translation and the ways of overcoming them in producing an effective translation. Accordingly, the difficulties that a translator may encounter are as follows: translating cultural words, similes, metaphors, taboos, idioms, phrases and proverbs, using dialogues according to characters and context, protecting the meaning, rhythm and format in poetry translation, conveying the idea using limited number of words in poetry translation, translating feelings and underlying meanings in drama and poetry translations. Data analysis is done with a qualitative approach using comparative methodology. Thus, the following solutions could be used in overcoming the difficulties such as: translating culture while making the reader understand the meanings of the cultural words, not harming the source culture and avoiding culture shocks when translating taboos, using foot notes where necessary, using equivalents if there are any, if not use a word, idiom, phrase, proverb that give the same meaning, using dialogues, descriptions, writing style according to the context, characters etc, using the theory of omission and addition where necessary. Thus the translator could overcome the difficulties by using aforesaid solutions in dealing with a literary translation.Item Difficulties Faced by Sri Lankan Students in the United States of America due to the Regional Dialectal Differences of American English(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Hordagoda, R.Every year, a considerable amount of Sri Lankan students go to the USA to pursue their undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Most of them are familiar with the British English, as a result of which they face difficulties in communicating with American people since American English differs from the British English mainly in Phonology and Lexicon. The difficulties increase due to the regional dialectal differences of American English. This study focuses on the nature of those difficulties. It is known that about fifteen regional dialects are found in the United States of America. The differences among regional dialects in phonology, grammar and lexicon will be analysed in this study. Data was collected through conversation with native speakers in different states. The study will highlight the difficulties faced by Sri Lankan students as a result of those Regional Dialectal Differences and further, the study will pave the way to avoid those difficulties.Item The Problems Encountered in Using Communicative Language Teaching in Teaching German as a Foreign Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Cooray, B.M.S.This paper focuses on the difficulties encountered by the teachers in using communicative teaching method in teaching German as a foreign language. The communicative language teaching which emerged in the 1970s and 1980s after the mechanical practice of audio-lingual method consists of interactive communication sessions where the learner is eligible to engage in authentic meaningful communication. The objective of this research is to examine what difficulties are encountered by the teachers in using communicative language teaching method in teaching German as a foreign language at the university of Kelaniya and what steps should be taken to overcome these difficulties in order to use communicative teaching method more effectively. This research is based upon the data collected by a questionnaire distributed among the German teachers, followed by semi structured interviews and classroom observations to analyse their experiences in dealing with the difficulties in using communicative teaching method. According to the findings of the research it was evident that the lack of class room environment suitable for a communicative language teaching, the traditional frontal teaching method which makes the students difficult to adopt to the communicative learning method, and the number of students exceeding the capacity for a communicative classroom were the main difficulties encountered by teachers in using communicative method. It was suggested to divide the students in to small groups to use games and to implement more authentic classroom activities, give students positive encouragement, limit error correction during speaking and to improve the classroom facilities which is suitable for a communicative classroom to get more effective use of communicative teaching.