DOCUMENT RESUME ED 192 569 FL 011 690 AUTHOR MacDougall, Bonnie Graham: de Abrew, Kamini TITLE Sinhala: Basic Course. Module 1: Beginning Signsand Letters. IN Foreign Service (Dept. of State), Washington,D.C. Foreign Service Inst. PUB DATE 79 NOTE 119p.: For related documents, see FL 011 699-700. Photographs will not reproduce well. AVAILABLE FROM Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 (No. 044-000-01764-4, $4.25) LANGUAGE English: Singhalese ErfS PRICE MF01/PC05 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Alphabets: Learning Modules: Postsecondary Education: Reading Instruction: SecondLanguage Instruction: *Singhalese: *Writing Instruction: Written Language ABSTRACT This course on the language of Sri Lanka is intended to be taken under d S=LL'hala-speaking instructor. Thismodule introduces the Sinhala writing system. The emphasisof the module is on letter recognition. Directions for writing the symbols in the "basic" alphabet are provided so that studentswill have a culturally appropriate and phonetically accurate method of writingdown words. Manv photographs of Sinhala signs are included. Each of2B lessons covers a specific aspect of reading and writing characters. With the addition of four practice reading sections at the conclusionof the module, this first part of the coursecan be completed in about 15 hours. ( 8) **** * ***** *** * * **** ******** * **** Reproductions supplied by ERRS are the best thatcan be made from the original document. *****4**************************************** **** ** MODULE I BEGINNING SIGN. AND FT-I-RS -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATION A WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF I EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO. OUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED PROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN- ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED00NOT NECESSARILY REPRE- TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OE EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY INFORMATION CENTER(ERIC)." BY BONNIE GRAHAM MacDOLIQALL with KAMINI de ABREW U- FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE DEPARTMENT 0 I-F3TATE FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE BASIC COURSE SERIES Edited by MARIANNE LEIIR ADAMS 11 PREFACE Basic Sinhala is a beginning course presented inthree modules dealing with the writing system, conversation and grammar.The respective titles are: Module I - Beginning Signs and Letters Module II - General Conversation Module M - Sinhala Structures The course is intended for use with the help ofa Sinhala-speaking instructor. The student must start with Module I in order to gain thegrasp of Sinhala writing neees;ary to use the other two modules since the Sinhala material in those modulesis presented only in its natural written form. The conversation and grammar modulesare _intended to be used in conjunction with each ot1.1r, General Conversation containingsystematic cross-references to Sinhala Structures. The principal author of Basic Sinhalais Bonnie Graham MacDougall. Dr. MacDougall has had extensive experience in the language teachingfield at Cornell, at the Foreign Service Institute where she served asan intern in the School of Language Studies in 1966, and with the Peace Corps. She has had extendedvisits or residence in Sri Lanka in 1964-65, 1968, 1978 and 1979.Her work which eventually developed into Basic Sinhala started with a Peace Corps contract in 1967 fora set of Sinhala training materials which were first used in a training program for Peace CorpsVolunteers at Fresno State College. Parts of the preliminary version remained inuse in language classes in the U. S. Embassy in Colombo through the years since 1968. Althoughincomplete and antiquated, they came closer to meeting the needs of the Embassy staffthan any other textbooks available. In 1978, Dr. MacDougall expressed a willingness to refineand update the materials, and the Agency of International Development andthe Foreign Service Institute agreed to fund the project jointly.Further, the Sri Lanka mission of AID agreed topre- pare the camera copy and FSI agreed to publish it.Basic Sinhala in its present form is the product of this collaboration. Dr. MacDougall has provided a prefaceor introduction to each module giving appropriate credit to the individuals and organizations contributingto its development One item missing from these sections, however, is credit to theauthor herself for her pro- fessional competence, her leadership and her dedicationin bringing Basic Sinhala to its present state of usefulness. ames R nth, Dean School of Language Studies Foreign Service Institute LmjEJJELS211and Letters REWORD for the This is the first volumeof Basic Sinhala, a course beginning student which ispresented in three: modules. I Beginning Siq s and Letters II General Conversation III Sinhala Structures institutions, both in the UnitedStates and in Many individuals and of lessons to Sri Lanka, were instrumentalin bringing this series Most of the graphics and someof the photographs its present form. Lanka which appear in this volume weresupplied by the Ceylon (Sri courtesy of the Ceylon Tourist Board). The maps on p. 100 are Other photographs which appearhere were, as Government Railway. inde- rated, take- r v. Somapala of ICAand W. Sugathadusa, an pendent phc -apher. This module of BasicSinhala introduces theSinhala writing Inasmuch as the other twomodules of Basic Sinhala are system. be undertaken written in the Sinhalaalphabet, this module must first. Why do we present thebasic course in theSinhala writing which would be "easier"for system? Why not in a transcription to learn the beginning students to read? Is it really necessary it necessary for me?These writing system? In particular, is questions which arise whenSinhala students first are some of the unfamiliar alphabet as realize that they are aboutto learn an well as a new language. compelling reason overallfor presenting Perhaps the most is that this is the way a beginner's coursein Sinhala "script" written, down in Sri Lankafor centuries. It the language has been only culturally appro- is an ancient andunive'esal System and the Because it is usedeverywhere by everyone,knowing priate. one. the student. One script presents certainlearning advantages for is that a student whoknows the writing of the most obvious ones dictionary (Carter, Charles, system can usethe standard bilingual Thus, English-Sinhala. 2 vol. Gunasena1965). Sinhala-En Elth and available an important re- knowledge of thewriting system makes which is not availableto the source forbuilding language skills advan- only transcription. A second important student who knows is that it provides amethod tage of learningthe writing system only phonetically accuratebut of writing downwords which is not by any literatespeaker of Sinhala. Imagine, which can be checked to make a list for example, a ruraldevelopment worker who wants village varieties ofrice. This is one of of local names of which varies from regionto region many parts ofthe Sinhala lexicon not be completely oraccurately represented and which therefore may like Carter whichcontains in dictionaries, evenin the better ones iv { 1nn n# Sin and T:eters ailed botanical appendix. One way to obtain an accurate rig (and therefore a correct pronunciation) is to write he names in the writing system so that they can be verified farmers who use them- Another way is to have the farmers .Ives write down the names. In either case a knowledge of :iting system is an indispensible aid in gathering correct _nation. It may therefore be argued that the writing system important learning tool for all students, not solely for ) with literary objectives or pretensions. Those students who have reading and writing skills as basic jectives in language training, however, will have to emphasize -ertain knowledge of Sinhala which need not concern other students. There are certain features of spelling, grammar and vocabulary which distinguish all correct Sinhala writing from the varieties of the language which are spoken. Because of the broad differences between speaking and writing, it has been customary to teach spoken and literary Sinhala as separate courses. This course is an intro- duction to spoken Sinhala. The basic sections (I- XXV1II) of this module were originally designed to be completed in ten hours. In this revision additional practice reading sections have been added at the conclusion of the module so that the script course should take about fifteen hours. Of course, experienced language students who are anxious to progress to the central module may move more quickly, and students who are learning another writing system for the first time may go more slowly. In either case it is important to remember that the infor- mation presented in this module is intended primarily as a tool for the use of the other modules. Instructors should not begin intro- ducing structures and vocabulary until students have learned the writing system. The emphasis in this course is on letter recognition. Direc- tions for writing the symbols in the "basic" alphabet (see p. 3) are also provided so that the student will have a culturally appro- priate and phonetically accurate method of writing down words. The many pictures of Sinhala signs which appear in this book were taken primarily in Colombo and Kandy. It is hoped that they will interest and involve the beginner who lives in Sri Lanka in writing- of the landscape. It is perhaps necessary to point out that whereaL the signs in these urban areas are frequently bilingual or even trilingual, those it rural areas are often in