Symposia & Conferences
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Item A Study on Common Morphosyntactic Errors in English Made by Sri Lankan Second Language Learners.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Egodage, W.Syntax is the rules with which words are combined to create sentences. Morphology is the study of morphemes which are the smallest significant units of grammar. The Second language learners of Sri Lanka face major difficulties in these vital areas of English language due to confusions with grammatical errors caused by being unaware of morphosyntactic rules. The main objectives of the research are to identify the common morphosyntactic errors, to trace out the causes of the aforesaid errors in English language among second language learners of Si Lanka and to provide suggestions for reducing such errors in English language among secondary school students. The research is designed to carry out both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. A questionnaire survey was given to thirty randomly selected Government school students of the Advanced Level grade to identify the morphosyntactic errors they make in English. Results of the study revealed that concord in auxiliaries; SVO pattern, articles, prepositions and tenses are the major types of syntactic errors, whereas affixation and compound related errors, conversion related errors are the major types of morphological errors. The survey concludes that syntactic and morphological errors have been caused by confusing and ineffective teaching methods of English for second language learners. These areas should be given their rightful place in language learning. The findings of this study demonstrate the utility of employing systematic and the most effective strategies for teaching syntactic and morphological structures of English language. Thus, it is important to state that the writers of English textbooks for second language learners should include teaching methods that could be easily understood by students in the writing of English textbooks.Item Structure of Interrogative Sentences of Sri Lankan Sign language and Colloquial Sinhala language: A Comparative Study.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Assajithissa Thero, Kurupita.This paper is based on the Syntax of Sri Lankan (SL) sign language and colloquial Sinhala language. SL sign language is used by SL deaf people. According to linguistic studies, it is accepted and investigated that Sign language is also a natural language. As a natural language, its structure can be studied on a linguistic base. This research is mainly concentrated on one of those structural aspects of SL sing language where interrogative sentences are studied. SL sign language is not linguistically studied well. If linguistic studies are conducted towards SL sign language, it would be more fruitful to enhance linguistic knowledge of SL sign language. The aim of this study is to conduct a syntactic research of SL sign language in comparison to Colloquial Sinhala language. This research will also analyse how the secularities of Interrogative Sentences of SL sign language are related to colloquial Sinhala language. Data were collected by interviewing hearing impaired people who could read Sinhala. In addition, they were given several sentences to interpret in Sign Language. More than three people were interviewed for one sentence. Sign language work books were used as primary resources. Finally, sentences are investigated with comparison to colloquial Sinhala language. As a result of this research, it can be identified and established that every types of interrogative sentences of SL sign language shows a similar order even though there are a number of types and structures of interrogative sentences of colloquial Sinhala language. In conclusion, it can be stated that the structure of interrogative sentences of SL sign language is not complicated.Item Diversity in the Varieties of Global English Used in the Current Ethnic Setting of Sri Lanka, from an Ecological Perspective(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Abeysena, H.This paper explores the unique nature of super diversity in the varieties of English spoken in the current ethnic setting of Sri Lanka. Since, historically Sri Lanka has been colonized thrice respectively by the Portuguese, Dutch and British, the impact bestowed by the British colonization from 1796 until the fall of the Kandyan kingdom in 1815 is noteworthy. With a lot of socio economic and socio political and linguistic changes occurred in the course of time for many centuries, paving the way for English to merge with several local languages such as Sinhala and Tamil along with productively being used by diverse ethnicities as in Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers, standard and sub standard varieties of English have been emerged. Thus, the researcher has analyzed disciplinary aspects that she has encountered in this study such as Sri Lankan English in the public domain, Sri Lankan English in English Language Teaching and Sri Lankan English literature at a local exposure with the sample of about 60 undergraduates in a national university in the country for a period of about six months. With such a historical background of English which has been existing in the country for more than 21 years maintaining a peculiar position as a lingua franca, according to Prof. Manique Gunesekara (2010), ‘In Sri Lanka today, most people are quite happy to speak English, and are not interested in which variety they speak. This attitude is spurred by the immense power of English in today’s postcolonial Sri Lanka. “The importance of advocating a standard for the language” in terms of Sri Lankan English has been reiterated by many academics especially in a challenging ELT class room setting in a context, where “many Englishes” idea have been accommodated (Wasala,2010) Sri Lankan English and Standard Sri Lankan English also shown further sub standards of the language such as Malay English, Sinhala English and Tamil English and also the type varied in terms of the user’s home town with their own distinguished characteristics as morphology and syntax with their unique practices. However, this variation does not block a local’s understanding of the communication taking place. According to 45 students of the total, while the controversy has been prevailing for decades now whether to believe in such an existence of sub varieties and accommodating them or not in their day to day academic and professional work, the researcher found out that it is proven to be a very creative and productive process throughout, but the need for validation is a compulsion of the day, since the student population has faced a considerable difficulty in following the ‘best practice’.