Symposia & Conferences
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Item Challenges and Benefits of Bilingual Acquisition in Early Childhood(Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Kurukuladhithya, D.H.One would ultimately feel the need to learn another language in addition to one’s mother tongue. A survey conducted by ilanguages.org reveals that 60% of the world population speaks more than one language. However, for a child being exposed to a few different languages in their early childhood could be challenging. The research will compare and consider two children in their early childhood with two different levels of language speaking proficiencies, through a comprehensive interview conducted with their parents about their behavior. Out of the children in consideration for the research, one child of age four is confused among English, Sinhalese and French that he has no verbal method of communication with his parents or his friends. The other child, of age three and a half years, whose parents are Muslims living in Sri Lanka, is fluent in all English, Sinhalese and Tamil. The study would also focus upon examining the challenges and benefits the two children face in learning and in failing to learn more than one language in their early childhood. It was concluded through research findings that the child with a high language proficiency was exposed to Tamil and Sinhalese through English, the language the child took initiative in being proficient, as opposed to the other child with language confusion who was exposed to all three languages at once.Item Code Switching Problems in Bilingual Society of Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Ramesh, S.In Sri Lanka, national language issue seems very influential in both cultural and political sphere; it was the major bone of argument between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. The use of English words within the society has increased amazingly. One of the reasons may be due to the extensive use of the mixed code in daily conversations by Sri Lankan bilinguals like Sinhalese and Tamils. This study explores the impact of code switching in the case of bilinguals and multilinguals who select different varieties of two or more languages to meet the requirements of different situations. The switchers use English words and expressions even when equivalents exist in Sinhala or Tamil vice versa. They feel that these English expressions come so naturally to them that their equivalents in Sinhala or Tamil might sound formal and unnatural. Nowadays most communication in a bilingual or multilingual society crosses national, linguistic and cultural boundaries and requires confidence and competence to be effective. The data presented in this paper have been collected through observation, questionnaires and analyzed descriptively. The study also includes catch phrases and slogans used in the electronic media to substantiate data gathered from an analysis.The study provides insight into the mixing strategies used by urban bilinguals. The analysis reveals that the mixed code is used dominantly in advertisements (print and electronic) where the medium of communication is Sinhala or Tamil. The methodological functions are identified (a) for translation, (b) for clarification, (c) for highlighting and (d) for efficiency. The social functions included code switching (a) for praise, (b) for encouragement, (c) for disapproval. Findings shall be discussed formally in a conference presentation. Consequently, there is a need for a valid and reliable form of code switching when problems are analyzed.