Papers by Dushyanthi Mendis
Invited panel presentation, 2024
The legacies of colonial policy that affect learning English as a Second Language in Sri Lanka at... more The legacies of colonial policy that affect learning English as a Second Language in Sri Lanka at present Prof. Dushyanthi Mendis (University of Colombo) English as a research language and its impact on local epistemologies English as a research language and its effect on local epistemologies My fellow panellists have spoken about the effect that English has had on the education sector in Sri Lanka and how colonial language policies have directly or indirectly shaped decisions to do with the medium of instruction in our schools. My presentation is about a slightly different aspect, which is the position that English holds as the primary language of research , all around the world, and what impact this has on local epistemologies and knowledge production.
Conference Paper, 2024
Much of the study of World Englishes (WEs) focuses on varieties of English used in the Global Sou... more Much of the study of World Englishes (WEs) focuses on varieties of English used in the Global South. However, this scholarship is often created and shaped in the Global North. In the process, epistemic exclusion of Global South scholarship sometimes takes place (Piller, Zhang and Li, 2022), resulting in epistemic injustice-i.e., other ways of knowing, doing, and being (Mahboob, 2023). Adopting a reflexive, narrative approach, we draw on our own experiences as WEs researchers living and working in Sri Lanka in order to reevaluate recent research on Sri Lankan Englishes (SLEs) conducted by scholars from the Global North. We find that some of this scholarship adopts highly objectivist and 'scientific' approaches, producing problematic generalisations and oversimplifications. An overreliance on data abstracted and removed from the local context, a reluctance to engage with the complexities of local multilingual settings, the diversity of users and usages, results in a limited understanding of the multidialectal nature of SLEs and the conflicted understanding of the label "SLE" among local speakers. We also observe a marginalization, even a silencing, of the voices of local researchers and their findings in these studies, and a lack of responsible and ethical treatment of local informants. Our findings have significance for research in other 'Outer Circle' and peripheral varieties of English which are similarly subjected to scholarly imperialism by researchers from the Global North. We conclude by calling for a more decolonized approach to the production and dissemination of knowledge through more equitable research collaborations which adhere to ethical considerations in all stages of the research process and knowledge production. We also call on peripheral scholars to take ownership of the processes and production of their knowledge as a means of reducing the epistemic injustice of North-South disparities in scholarship.
DHLab Working Paper Series, 2023
This is a working paper based on a presentation made at a conference titled "Humanities and socia... more This is a working paper based on a presentation made at a conference titled "Humanities and social sciences education in Sri Lankan universities: Past, present and future". Please feel free to leave your feedback and/or comments, either on the content of the paper, or based on your own experience/s in research publishing.
University of Colombo Review
English for Specific Purposes, 2020
A paucity of authentic language data has made the teaching of certain spoken genres which occur i... more A paucity of authentic language data has made the teaching of certain spoken genres which occur in formal professional settings a challenging task in the Sri Lankan L2 classroom. The Welcome Address (WA), an integral part of the agenda of many Sri Lankan professional events, is one such hitherto unexplored genre. The aim of this study was to identify lexico-grammatical and rhetorical features of the WA that could be used for developing effective pedagogical materials for a Business English course with a module on Special Occasion speeches. For this purpose, a specialized corpus of 20 WAs was compiled, and lexical patterns were identified using AntConc and Compleat Lexical Tutor. Swales' (1990) move structure analysis was applied to identify typical rhetorical functions of the genre. The results reveal that the WA has three obligatory moves and one optional move. Keywords, n-grams and frequency lists all reveal language patterns central to genre specific language acquisition. The results of the analysis enable the design of pedagogical materials focusing on move structure, communicative purposes, and sentence level grammar and lexis. The paper concludes with sample lesson materials for teaching the construction of an effective WA in a professional context in Sri Lanka.
University of Colombo Review, 2021
Although language is a crucial concern at all levels of education in plurilingual communities, th... more Although language is a crucial concern at all levels of education in plurilingual communities, the processes of language planning and policy in institutions of higher education in Sri Lanka have received less attention than at the secondary school level. The objective of this article is to address this gap by examining an intervention by a global actor in English language teaching at the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, from the perspectives of goals, outcomes, and underlying ideologies. While it is not always possible to resist top-down policy directives from external actors who wield both financial and institutional power, this article argues that negotiation and navigation are possible, provided that the local actors are prepared to claim agency and power at micro levels of planning and implementation
Language policy can be defined as a law, rules or precepts designed to bring about language chang... more Language policy can be defined as a law, rules or precepts designed to bring about language change, encoded in mechanisms of language planning undertaken by governments, schools or other institutional bodies (Smitherman 2000). In countries with a history of ethnic conflict in which language rights or language use has been a contributing factor, language policies can serve to divide or unite a nation. Sri Lanka is no exception, having been subjected to a succession of short-sighted, self-serving language policy decisions over the last 50 years. The country's current (pre-war) Constitution outlines Sri Lanka's language policy in Chapter IV, affording Sinhala and Tamil the status of both Official and National Languages, while English is termed the link language. In addition to this, the post-war Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission's (LLRC) Report contains recommendations on the directions and goals of future language policies and also perhaps for the first time an ...
A mastery of idioms is often equated with native speaker fluency (Fernando, 1996; Schmitt, 2000; ... more A mastery of idioms is often equated with native speaker fluency (Fernando, 1996; Schmitt, 2000; Wray, 2000), but it is difficult for language teachers and material writers to make principled decisions about which idioms should be taught, given the vast inventory of idioms in a native speaker's repertoire. This article addresses the advantages and limitations of a corpus-based approach to researching and teaching idioms in a specific genre by drawing on a specialized corpus of 1.7 million words of academic discourse, the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English. We argue that evidence from such a corpus can be quite informative for language teachers when the primary target language domain matches that of the corpus. In terms of pedagogical applications, we demonstrate the use of corpus data to construct teaching materials aimed not only at helping students learn unfamiliar idioms but also at raising their awareness of the speech contexts idioms occur in and the discourse functions they perform.
TESOL Quarterly, 2003
A mastery of idioms is often equated with native speaker fluency (Fernando, 1996; Schmitt, 2000; ... more A mastery of idioms is often equated with native speaker fluency (Fernando, 1996; Schmitt, 2000; Wray, 2000), but it is difficult for language teachers and material writers to make principled decisions about which idioms should be taught, given the vast inventory of idioms in a native speaker's repertoire. This article addresses the advantages and limitations of a corpus-based approach to researching and teaching idioms in a specific genre by drawing on a specialized corpus of 1.7 million words of academic discourse, the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English. We argue that evidence from such a corpus can be quite informative for language teachers when the primary target language domain matches that of the corpus. In terms of pedagogical applications, we demonstrate the use of corpus data to construct teaching materials aimed not only at helping students learn unfamiliar idioms but also at raising their awareness of the speech contexts idioms occur in and the discourse functions they perform.
Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, 2010
Continuities/Departures: Essays on Postcolonial women’s writing in English. , 2011
The term "metaphor" has been closely associated with poetry ever since Arisrotle referred to it i... more The term "metaphor" has been closely associated with poetry ever since Arisrotle referred to it in his Poetics, saying, "the greatest thing by far is to have command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius." The publication of the book Metaphors we liue by 09BO), by the cognitive linguist George Lakoff and the phiiosopher Mark Johnson, offered a different perspective on the concept of metaphor, and revolutionized and changed the way metaphor was perceived almost overnight, by focusing on and explaining the cognitive aspects of metaphor, specifically, the processes underlyi.rg the creation of metaphor by the human mind. Lakoff and Johnson's theory of metaphor, almost diametrically opposite to that of Aristotle, has shown itself to be far more capable of explaining and anaiyzing not only the linguistic articulation or realization of metaphor, but also thought processes and schema that contribute to its creation.
The Companion to Language Assessment, 2013
Configurations, 1999
ABSTRACT Configurations 8.3 (2000) 429-562 Associate Bibliographer Susan Allender-Hagedorn Virgin... more ABSTRACT Configurations 8.3 (2000) 429-562 Associate Bibliographer Susan Allender-Hagedorn Virginia Tech Bibliography Committee Linda S. Bergmann University of Missouri/ Rolla Anne Collins University of Texas/Austin Linda Dalrymple Henderson University of Texas/Austin Jea-Young Eun University of Michigan Patricia Marino University of California/ Irvine John M. Swales University of Michigan Dirk Vanderbeke Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald Editorial Assistant Sheryl Kamps This bibliography lists publications that appeared in 1998, but also includes earlier titles that were overlooked in previous years' compilations. The general organization remains the same as in preceding issues. The initial section, "Collections," identifies anthologies containing independent essays by a single author or by different authors. The specific essays in these volumes are listed individually under the appropriate category elsewhere in the bibliography and are cross-referenced to the parent work. Succeeding sections of the bibliography are arranged by general subjects, starting with disciplinary theory and followed by rhetoric of science, passing on through the various sciences, and ending with sections on technology and on computers and digital technology. Each section, apart from "Collections," begins with a cross-listing of entries that overlap categories. A table of contents for the bibliography's divisions appears at the start of the complete entries. At the end of the bibliography is an index to the scholars whose works are cited in the entries. The "Index to Subjects" that follows has two parts: first, a list of the names of people discussed in the cited entries; and second, references to selected topics. The coverage of publications in Germany has been broadened through the assistance of a new contributor, Dirk Vanderbeke. On behalf of the Society for Literature and Science as well as for myself, I convey thanks to him and to all the contributors for their labor and cooperation. Karl E. Gwiasda
Phrasal verbs are characteristic of colloquial or informal language and tend to occur more in con... more Phrasal verbs are characteristic of colloquial or informal language and tend to occur more in conversational speech genres than in academic discourse. Using a single Latinate verb instead of a phrasal verb is recommended by some EAP practitioners in the West in order to achieve a more formal tone in academic writing. How universal is this prescriptive notion? Does it apply to varieties of English that have developed their 'own', semantically unique, phrasal verbs? The distribution of phrasal verbs in a corpus of Sri Lankan English writing is investigated and compared to a similar corpus of British English in order to answer this question.
Uploads
Papers by Dushyanthi Mendis