ICLSL 2016
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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 A Study on the Use of English and Sanskrit Borrowings in Contemporary Sinhalese(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Pawithrani, C.English and Sanskrit occupy significant places among the languages that have influenced the Sinhalese language. English and Sanskrit words have entered the lexicon of the Sinhalese language as both borrowings and derivative words. This study is concerned on the use of English and Sanskrit borrowings in contemporary Sinhalese. Data was collected by observing the use of English and Sanskrit borrowings in both spoken and written sources representing contemporary Sinhalese. The words directly borrowed from a different language without altering its form are known as borrowings. Borrowing Sanskrit words into Sinhalese has its history stretching at least up to Polonnaru era and most of those words are still being used in written Sinhalese. English can be considered the language with the biggest impact on contemporary Sinhalese. However, as opposed to those of Sanskrit, English borrowings are mostly used in spoken Sinhalese. The usage suggests that Sanskrit borrowings are preferred in written Sinhalese whereas English borrowings are preferred in spoken Sinhalese. As far as the Sinhalese language of the early eras is concerned, Sanskrit borrowings were used as an attempt to show one‟s erudition. Though this appears valid to a certain extent in contemporary Sinhalese, the major reason behind the use of Sanskrit borrowings in contemporary written Sinhalese appears to be spontaneity. The use of English borrowings in speech is also a matter of showing one‟s erudition and social status. In addition, as the case of Sanskrit borrowings, spontaneity can also be pointed out as a major reason for the use of English borrowings in spoken Sinhalese.Item Preferences on Learning English as a Second Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Jayasundara, J.M.P.V.K.English occupies the place of a Second Language (ESL) in primary, secondary and tertiary levels playing an inevitable role in the Sri Lankan education arena. Moreover, the necessity of English as a medium of instruction is realised by the government and steps have been taken to elevate the competency in English among students in Island‟s education system. However, much attention has not been paid to the favorite learning methods and styles of ESL learners even though methods and styles create enormous impact in acquiring language competency. Hence, the present study intends to explore ESL learners‟ preferences on learning English. Therefore, the research problems were formulated as the ways in which ESL learners wish to pursue English, their favorite methods of learning, learning styles and strategies preferred by the learners. In order to acquire the research objectives, a sample of 50 respondents from Uva Wellassa University was selected using stratified sampling technique. Further, a designed questionnaire was utilised to collect primary data while implementing graphs and charts for graphical depiction of the result. According to the results, most of the respondents (43%) are with the view that they need to improve their speaking skill further and secondly, one fifth of the respondents require enhancing their writing skill. When considering the ESL learners‟ favorite method of learning English, the method of conducting presentations has acquired the highest number of preferences by the undergraduates. However, lectures and videos both are placed at second with equal percentages. Moreover, more than fifty percent of the respondents wish to apply visual learning style while nearly one third of the respondents prefer to use a combination of visual, auditory and kinesthetic styles in order to pursue English. Thus, the results are beneficial for the teachers, the syllabus designers and the researchers to uplift the ESL learners‟ proficiency levels while highlighting the importance of recognising the learners‟ preferences in ESL teaching process.Item Information Structure of Thai and English Representation of Ideas in Newspaper Articles(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Fukham, K.An individual lexical item serves many functions in texts and one possible function either within a sentence or a longer text is to create links within a sentence or a text. Creation of links between ideas in a sentence makes possible the formation of certain structures in longer texts. Such links of lexical items or lexical groups are considered interlocking parts within one sentence which exhibit information. As important as they might be, certain lexical groups are tools for writers to represent their thoughts in such a systematic way that readers can understand the flow of the information. Information structure, in fact, is a mental representation of ideas and thoughts of a writer in organising information into certain kinds of structures. It is possible to assert that meaning may probably be similar between two languages but each language may have different structures of information representing the same thing. No matter how two different information structures are identical or different, they could be traced back to the same original idea. The main purpose of this study, therefore, is to highlight similarities and differences of information structures between Thai and English in exhibiting identical representation of thoughts which may juxtapose different aspects presenting information. Theme-Rheme construction, given rise to the attention of how writers develop their topic focus in a text starting from Theme of one sentence to Theme in another sentence, is adopted as a framework of this study to examine how information is presented in Thai and English newspaper articles. Four newspaper articles, one Thai newspaper article and its English translation and one English newspaper and its Thai translation, were used to investigate how information is developed in longer texts. The results yield that certain information structures are different with their translated counterpart but some exhibit the same pattern of development.