INTERNATIONAL POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH CONFERENCE (IPRC) - 2024
29th November,
2024, Sri Lanka
INTERNATIONAL POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH CONFERENCE (IPRC) - 2024
29th November,
2024, Sri Lanka
INTERNATIONAL POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH CONFERENCE (IPRC) - 2024
29th November,
2024, Sri Lanka
Introduction
At present,
there are about 18,800 pre-schools in Sri Lanka and it is a serious matter that
most of the pre-school teachers are not diploma holders. According to the Minister
of Education, only 6,000 out of 34,000 pre-school teachers in Sri Lanka are
diploma holders. First of all, these
teachers should have academic and professional qualifications for the
employment opportunities in overseas countries. In addition to that, they must
also have a sound English knowledge to teach in English medium. It is now
apparent that these pre-school teachers are required to meet three main
requirements; namely, academic and professional qualifications and competence
in the English language. Those who are incompetent in English can be employed
in Sri Lanka as preschool teachers whereas those who are competent in English
can get job opportunities in overseas countries. Both sources directly or
indirectly contribute to the national economy of the country. The objective of
the present study is to ascertain whether these teachers are academically and
professionally qualified with a sound English knowledge to be employed as
pre-school teachers in foreign countries, which brings foreign exchange to Sri
Lanka. The sample for the research was taken from the North Central Province
(NCP). Both primary and secondary data were used for the research. Qualitative
method was also applied to collect information. Results and findings of the
study imply that pre-school teachers of the NCP are much weaker in English
whereas to some extent, they are academically and professionally qualified
respectively it is ……. % and ……%, which is also below the required international
standard. It was also found that only ……% of the pre-school teachers are
competent in English. Hence, it is suggested that while they should be
academically and professionally promoted as pre-school teachers for the
national and international job market, they should also follow an instant and
effective English course for improving their English knowledge for teaching in
English medium in the overseas countries.
Keywords:
Pre-school Teachers, Overseas Job Market, Academic and Professional, English
Big Match-1983
The
poem is an objective perception of the ethnic conflict that erupted in Sri
Lanka in 1983. The poem opens with how media report about the outbreak of
ethnic violence in the country. The general civilian life gets disturbed and
the tourist arrivals to the country get cancelled. The ordinary public life
turns topsy-turvy. “Flash point in paradise” and “racial pot boils over” are
the headlines which the newspapers carry around the world. It seems that poet
is subtly sarcastic over the sensational wording of the situation reported by
the media. The way the poet relates the incident seems to have a touch of irony
and pun. An arrival of an expatriate boy in search of his lost roots, lost
lovers, lost talents as poet says is timely. Yet he seems to be gripped by
unexpected circumstances of violence and bloodshed. The title itself seems to
be a nuance that seemingly carries an idea of a popular event in Sri Lanka.
Probably the poet uses this in order to highlight the common mentality of the
people in Sri Lanka and how they treat the incident. The poet reminiscences
over how the ethnic violence first sparks off in the Isle. She traces it back
to “forty-eight and fifty-six”. But it seems her focal point is treacherous
politics played in nineteen fifty-eight by making Sinhala the state language.
The politicians riding on popular waves of electoral promises as depicted by
the poet have contributed in fuelling the ethnic sentiments of the masses. It
seems that they have comfortably ignored the opinions of the academia in the
country. Big match-1983 English Literature Grade 10 & 11 The poet makes
very dexterous maneuvering of words in coloring it with popular big match
cricket. This may be to heighten the fact that people enjoy sadism in hurting
others in the same spirit as they welcome big match cricket in Sri Lanka. As
the high spirited young boys take to streets with great enthusiasm which
sometimes even the adults overlook during the big match season, the ethnic
violence seems to be on rampage while the authorities pay a blind eye over what
is happening under their nose. She goes on to say that the violence has reached
the unprecedented proportions than the highest runs scored in a game of cricket
at the oval grounds. The fourth stanza spotlights one isolated incident where
an old man living “in a tall house with old books and pictures” is answering
the phone. The words of the old man are packed with razor sharp sarcasm and
insult over what is happening at the time. The caller seems to be someone who
domiciles away from the country. The old man seems to be gripped by the
eventful days filled with fear and trepidation. Though the days are filled with
horror and suspense the old man doesn’t seem to lose his sense of humor. He
says life is full of unexpected twists and turns which drive away the boredom
and monotony. He calls the mobs the “brave lads”. No sooner the curfew is
lifted they are back on the street as if they enjoy every bit of what they are
doing. This seems to be the order of the day and the old man says that he sends
away his loved ones to a neighbor’s home for safe. Big match-1983 English
Literature Grade 10 & 11 But he seems to be ready to fight back and protect
his valuable books which he thinks are more important than his own life. He
washes away his nervousness and anxiety in liquor which he says is more
excessively consumed than usual. He humbly thanks the caller in an unruffled
voice for his concern over the wellbeing of him and his family. The sixth
stanza starkly illustrates some inhuman and callous circumstances which had
become the commonplace during the period of ethnic violence in Sri Lanka. The
brutal killings of unarmed innocent civilians and the destruction of valuable
property seem to be the order of the day. The telephone conversation concluded
with heart pouring gratitude and he was surprised over the communication
network which was still uninterrupted. Because when the violence broke out most
of the telecommunication lines were damaged and the civil life literally came
to a standstill. Dead bodies lying on the road and the indifferent attitude of
law enforcing authorities culminated the shameful bloodbath in Sri Lanka. Big
match-1983 English Literature Grade 10 & 11 The last two lines of the
seventh stanza bring out the most horrendous and gruesome nature of the killing
spree which was unleashed on the ethnic minority in the country. It was
brazenly ironic to see a man being beaten to death under a Bo-tree while
pleading for his life. This leaves lot of questions than answers to the already
wounded Sri Lankan public psyche. The last stanza sums up the whole scenario
with a cutting reference to the pieties and politics which seem to have ravaged
the once calm and serene life style of Sri Lanka.
Source:
https://www.e-thaksalawa.moe.gov.lk/moodle/pluginfile.php/23109/mod_resource/content/2/sg10_elit_big_match_1983.pdf
පාසල් ප්රථම වාර පරීක්ෂණයෙන් (2024) ලකුණු 90ට වැඩියෙන් ලබා ගත් සිසුන් තම ලකුණු මෙහි සඳහන් කරන්න. දැනට ලැබී ඇති ලකුණු මෙසේය.පාසලේ නම, සිසුවාගේ නම සහ විෂය සඳහන් කරන්න.
1. අනුරාධපුර මධ්ය විද්යාලය 9 වසර නිසිනි ස්නේහා ඉංග්රීසි 96 (මාසික පරීක්ෂණය)
2. අනුරාධපුර මධ්ය විද්යාලය 9 වසර විහස් ඉංග්රීසි 97 (මාසික පරීක්ෂණය)
3. නිවත්තක චේතිය මහා විද්යාලය 6 වසර තෙනුජ ඉංගිසි 99
4 නිවත්තක චේතිය මහා විද්යාලය 6 වසර විසුල ඉංගිසි 99
5.නිවත්තක චේතිය මහා විද්යාලය 6 වසර යෙනුල් ඉංගිසි 93.
6. නිවත්තක චේතිය මහා විද්යාලය 8 වසර සෙනිත ඉංගිසි 91
7. වලිසිංහ හරිස්චන්ද්ර මහා විද්යාලය 9 වසර තිසුම් ඉංග්රීසි 91
The Nightingale and the Rose
‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ is a
fairy tale by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). It is about a student who is in love
with a girl, a Professor’s daughter. She has told him she will dance with him
if he brings her a red rose, but the student’s garden does not contain any
roses. The Nightingale listens to the lovelorn student lamenting his hopeless
love, and feels sorry for him. She knows how rare true love is, and she knows
it when she sees it. The prince is giving a ball the following night, but
although the student and the girl he loves will both be there, she will not
dance with him without a red rose.
A Lizard, a Butterfly, and a Daisy
all tell the Nightingale that it’s ridiculous that the young student is weeping
over a red rose, but the Nightingale sympathises with him. She flies to a
nearby grass-plot and asks the Rose-tree to give her a red rose, and in
exchange she will sing for it. But, the Rose-tree says it produces only white
roses, so cannot give her what she wants. It suggests going to the Rose-tree by
the sun-dial. The Nightingale proposes the same deal with this tree, but it
replies that it only produces yellow roses, so cannot help. However, it directs
her to the Rose-tree right under the student’s window. However, although this
Rose-tree does produce red roses, the winter has frozen its branches and it
cannot produce any.
The Nightingale asks if there is any
way she can get one red rose for the student. The tree replies that the only
way of producing a red rose is for the Nightingale to sing by moonlight while
allowing a thorn to pierce her heart, so her blood seeps through to the tree
and produces a red rose. The Nightingale agrees to this, because she believes
Love to be more valuable than Life, and a human heart more precious than hers. She
goes and tells the forlorn student what she is going to do, but he doesn’t
understand her, because he only understands things written down in books. The
Oak-tree, in which the Nightingale has built her nest, does understand her
words, however, and requests one last song from the Nightingale. She sings, but
the Student, taking out his notebook, is rather unimpressed, because the bird’s
song has no practical use.
That night, the Nightingale sings
with her heart against the thorn, until it eventually pierces her heart while
she sings of love. Her heart’s blood seeps into the tree and produces a red
rose, but by the time the flower is formed the Nightingale has died. The next
morning, the Student opens his window and sees the red rose on the tree, and
believes that it is there thanks to mere good luck. Plucking the rose, he goes
to the house where his sweetheart lives, and presents her with the red rose.
But, another suitor, the Chamberlain’s nephew, has sent her jewels, which are
more valuable than flowers, so she says she will dance with him instead at the
ball that night.
The Student denounces the girl for
her fickleness, and she calls him rude. He throws the red rose into the gutter,
where a cart rolls over it. As he walks home, he decides to reject Love in
favour of Logic and Philosophy, which have a more practical use.
Source: https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-nightingale-the-rose-summary.html
The Vendor of Sweets by R.K. Narayan
The novel
begins with Jagan talking
to his “cousin,” a man who claims kinship with Jagan despite a lack of true
clarity surrounding the matter. They live in the small Indian town of Malgudi.
The two discuss various philosophical and everyday matters as Jagan gets ready
to go home. They continue talking and part ways and Jagan eventually arrives
home. The chapter concludes with Jagan looking at a box of cash that he has
saved in a drawer as he feels content about his life and prospects.
After some
reflection, Jagan returns home and talks with his son Mali. Mali appears disturbed and Jagan cannot figure
out why. He talks to his cousin about the frustration and disillusionment that
Mali has been displaying. They talk about his father’s job and Mali appears
reviled by the notion of monotonous daily work. Mali tells him he has grown
tired of his schoolwork and wants to become a writer. He describes his plan to
enter a local novel-writing contest. His father agrees to support him in this
goal. It is revealed that Jagan's wife, Mali's mother, died from a brain tumor
and Jagan has done his best to care for Mali as much as possible.
Mali becomes
very distant from Jagan in this period and Jagan is too nervous about upsetting
him to request any updates about the progress of his work. Jagan talks to his
cousin, seeking information about Mali's writing and learns that Mali has said
that he must go to America in order to truly become a real writer. He also
learns that Mali has been taking money from him, as he knows where he keeps his
savings stashed. He is not upset by this information and agrees to support him
financially in his journey. Mali departs for America.
Mali writes
to Jagan frequently with updates about his time in America. Jagan gets excited
every time a letter comes in the mail, reading and rereading them more
frequently than he reads the Bhagavad Gita. Eventually, Mali returns to India.
He is constantly critical of the country, saying he believes it is backwards
and slow, hurting Jagan a great deal. He also brings Grace, a half-American/half-Korean woman whom he claims
is wife. He also says that he now eats beef, which goes directly against one of
the most important tenets of the Hindu faith. Jagan is shocked by all of this
change and struggles with this new information.
Mali tells
his father he has something of great urgency to discuss with him. Jagan agrees
to talk with him, but is so excited that he is home that he does not listen
closely. Later, after clarifying with his cousin, Jagan learns that Mali
intends to open a factory that manufactures story-writing machines. His son
says that he needs a loan from Jagan in order to get the business off the
ground. Jagan hedges his answers as Mali and Grace both pursue him relentlessly
about the matter. Eventually Jagan makes it apparent that he will not give Mali
the loan, but offers him his sweetmeat business, an offer that Mali harshly
rejects.
Later Jagan
meets a bearded man, who asks for his assistance making a sculpture of the
goddess Gayatri. Jagan travels to the quiet spot where he works. Jagan admires
the serenity of the artist's solitary life and makes him reconsider his life
and goals. He decides to become the artist patron and renounce most of his work
and material wealth. This decision shocks many of the people in the town, but
he remains steadfast in his decision, finding peace in this rejection of money
and worldly possessions.
Later, Jagan
learns that his son has separated from Grace and that he was never married to
her in the first place. This fact fills him with shame, as it means they have
been living together out of wedlock. He then reflects on his marriage for a
lengthy period of time, recalling his happy courtship of his wife and the
joyous day of Mali's birth.
The novel
ends with Jagan learning that his son has been arrested for public drunkenness.
Jagan talks to his cousin about this matter and shocks him with his response.
He tells him to take over his sweetmeat business and that Mali would do well to
spend some time in jail, as it might teach him some discipline. He also says,
out of affection for her, that should Grace ever want to return home to her
family, he will happily pay for it.
Source:
https://www.gradesaver.com/the-vendor-of-sweets/study-guide/summary
The poem criticizes Western influence and dependency on other nations under colonial rule. This poem describes a terrorist watching a bar where he has planted a bomb set to explode at 1:20 pm. Over the course of the minutes leading up to the explosion, the terrorist observes various people entering and leaving the bar.Well-known in her native Poland, Wisława Szymborska received international recognition when she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996.
She studied Polish literature and
society at university and worked as an editor and columnist. “The Terrorist,
He’s Watching” by Wislawa Szymborska is a poem that tells about the narrator
waiting anxiously for a planted bomb to explode in a bar, watching and
describing people as they enter and leave the bar. When a person leaves, the
narrator acts as though that person is going to miss a real treat; when a person
enters the bar, the tone of the narrator seems to increase, as though all of
those to experience the bomb are quite lucky indeed.
The speaker of the poem, at
first, seems to be that of an accomplice to the terrorist or someone who just
happens to be watching and understanding what is going on – perhaps the person
that has ordered the terrorist to leave the bomb. This can be seen in lines
1-7, when the narrator is describing the movements and actions of the
terrorist, noting how he is now safe from the blast of the bomb. It is more
likely that this first narrator is an accomplice, or someone on the inside of
the job, as, in the first line, they state the time that the bomb is supposed
to go off in the bar.
After the second stanza of the
poem, the narrator seems to be the terrorist himself, watching eagerly as
people go in and out of the bar, counting down the minutes until his bomb is
supposed to go off. This can be seen from the second stanza and until the end
of the poem, as the narrator now seems a little more aware of what is going on,
keeping the countdown by every minute and every second. The feelings of the
narrator are more pronounced – he becomes disappointed as people go on – “Was
she that dumb did she go in, or not?
And more pleased when they leave –
“The short one, he’s lucky, he’s getting on a scooter”. The role of narrator
seems to change as each person is able to get a better view of what is going on
inside of the bar. The accomplice took over first, as the terrorist was busy
setting the bomb, then, once the narrator was outside of the bar, he was able
to take over and see what was happening.
As
readers, we are able to know what he was thinking, what he was planning, and
the numerous things he was feeling as a set to put his plan in motion to kill.
Due to the use of the first person narrative, we were able to experience his
emotions almost first hand; it was though the narrator was telling us,
face-to-face, the ordeal he went through to assure the old man’s death. The use
of first person allows us to become closer to the narrator, close enough to
understand what he is doing. That is the
magic of the first person narrative – we are able to experience everything first-hand,
as though we were accompanying the protagonist.
Source: https://literaryglobe.poetry.blog/poems-2/conflict/the-terrorist-hes-watching/
The poem “Upside-Down” is a humorous poem by Alexander Kushner who has published 15 collections of poetry as well as two prose works. The central character of the poem is an eccentric person called “Upside-Down”. As the name suggests, he acts in a very absurd manner, making everything upside down.
The character Upside-Down is introduced as a jester or a
laughingstock in the town who does the exact opposite to what he is told. Why
would one do the exact opposite of what they are expected to do? All the people
talk about him, that means he is the center of attraction in the society. Can’t
this be the reason for his behavior or is he a rebellious
character?
He is
introduced as a person who cannot understand simple logics like how a boat
floating on water. Does this create humor? or should we
feel sympathy about this character? The jumbled rhyming pattern may question
this mind set of the people in the society.
The poet
introduces Upside-Down as the ‘dunder-head’ means the foolish person. He does
this because of the disorderly manner he writes and read. Can’t this be a
reason of a mental disorder? There are people who read in reverse order and
there are some people who write backward; that is because of a mental disorder
which has to be tackled carefully and cure it. By introducing this kind of
character, the poet may be trying to give the message to the reader to
understand the people around us not to laugh at their weaknesses.
Here, the
character is introduced as a funny person who wades across rivers or canals
when there is a bridge to cross. What would you do when you see someone doing
this? (You exactly know that this person is such a character) The incident, of
course creates humor, you should laugh! However, if we sit back and think about
phobias the people have in the world, you will sympathize this poor fellow. The
poet sounds ironically humorous, but he seems to be doing the same thing. The
poem may have the upside down meaning!
Upside
Down enters a restaurant and requests the opposite things which are not
available in a restaurant! (that is too wrapped in a box; humorous it is!) Why
someone do something like that? He may be actually absurd in behavior or he is
propagating new news about him to earn the attraction. Or else, he likes people
getting angry!
According
to the stanza, it is obvious that this person attracts to audience like a nail
to the magnet and he succeeds, because all the people who came to the circus
talk about him.
Upside-Down is introduced as a person who is uncertain about
himself. He is not sure the letter to be read or not, or he can or cannot.
After reading the poem up to now, the reader should start sympathizing about
this character who is over brimmed with social and mental disorders. The
disorderly rhyming pattern may suggest that fact.
Final two stanzas summarize the poem about the boy and social
expectations. People expect others to behave according to social norms. If not,
they are annoyed about the behaviors which are against the social order. If
someone constantly violates them, people laugh at them calling them lunatics.
Therefore, the poet may urge to impart the message of sympathizing about the
people who behave differently against social norms.
Source: https://www.litspring.com/2020/04/analysis-of-upside-down-by-alexander.html
