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This study, based partly on archival research, tackles a number of interrelated issues regarding the sociolinguistic dynamics of language politics in Sri Lanka from the colonial era to the present. In colonial Ceylon, such politics initially manifested as resistance against foreign elements, but later evolved into internal conflicts when majoritarian Sinhala-focused linguistic purism movements appropriated Sinhala as a national identity marker. The resulting civil war until 2009 indicated that misguided prospects of linguistic purism in the name of ethnic nationalism have been a costly mistake for this small state, threatening to tear the nation apart. Regarding more recent issues of language planning and policy reforms, which also concern the place of English, the focus turns specifically to the rapid digitalisation of communication and related impacts of global virtual language environments. These substantially reduce the significance of any specific language or local vernacular, while individual and group identity is strengthened through inclusive use of linguistic registers within multilingual digital spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Code-mixing and code-switching (CMCS) are prevalent phenomena observed in social media conversations and various other modes of communication. When developing applications such as sentiment analysers and hate-speech detectors that operate on this social media data, CMCS text poses challenges. Recent studies have demonstrated that prompt-based learning of pre-trained language models outperforms full fine-tuning across various tasks. Despite the growing interest in classifying CMCS text, the effectiveness of prompt-based learning for the task remains unexplored. This paper presents an extensive exploration of prompt-based learning for CMCS text classification and the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of the script on classifying CMCS text. Our study reveals that the performance in classifying CMCS text is significantly influenced by the inclusion of multiple scripts and the intensity of code-mixing. In response, we introduce a novel method, Dynamic+AdapterPrompt, which employs distinct models for each script, integrated with adapters. While DynamicPrompt captures the script-specific representation of the text, AdapterPrompt emphasizes capturing the task-oriented functionality. Our experiments on Sinhala-English, Kannada-English, and Hindi-English datasets for sentiment classification, hate-speech detection, and humour detection tasks show that our method outperforms strong fine-tuning baselines and basic prompting strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) is a widely used tool to assess functional capacity among patients, but there is no Sinhala version validated for patients in Sri Lanka. This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt and test the validity and reliability of the Sinhala version of DASI (DASI-S). Methods The translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the DASI questionnaire were conducted following the standard guidelines. It was pre-tested on ten pre-operative patients and further modified. The construct validity and reliability of DASI-S were evaluated by administering the modified final DASI-S, which comprised 12 items, along with the physical functioning sub-scale of the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36), consisting of 10 items to eighty-one patients who were awaiting non-cardiac surgeries at university surgical wards, National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL), and Colombo North Teaching Hospital (CNTH), Sri Lanka. Reliability was assessed through Cronbach alpha, while the validity was evaluated using factor analysis and Spearman’s correlation. The ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Results The mean age of the participants was 46.2 (± 16.6) years and the majority were females (54.3%). The mean height, weight, and body mass index of the sample were 160.5 (± 9.6) cm, 60.3 (± 11.9) kg, and 23.4 (± 4.5) kgm−2 respectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the internal consistency of DASI-S was 0.861. The concurrent validity of DASI-S was substantiated by positively correlating (p

Studying aspects of multilingualism, such as the dynamics of multilingual and linguistic variation, is a widely documented phenomenon. What remains relatively less explored in such studies, however, concerns how translanguaging (TL) influences writing across languages. This study considers essays written by three students at the primary level of education in Sri Lanka in their first language (L1/Tamil), second language (L2/English) and third language (L3/Sinhala). The purpose of the study is to comprehend how TL practices influence their writing and to report on the reflections of the students and their teachers on TL in writing. The study provides insights into how TL supports student writing across languages and the views of teachers and students on TL in writing. Additionally, implications for the education of multilingual students are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) is a widely used tool to assess functional capacity among patients, but there is no Sinhala version validated for patients in Sri Lanka. This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt and test the validity and reliability of the Sinhala version of DASI (DASI-S). Methods: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the DASI questionnaire were conducted following the standard guidelines. It was pre-tested on ten pre-operative patients and further modified. The construct validity and reliability of DASI-S were evaluated by administering the modified final DASI-S, which comprised 12 items, along with the physical functioning sub-scale of the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36), consisting of 10 items to eighty-one patients who were awaiting non-cardiac surgeries at university surgical wards, National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL), and Colombo North Teaching Hospital (CNTH), Sri Lanka. Reliability was assessed through Cronbach alpha, while the validity was evaluated using factor analysis and Spearman's correlation. The ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Results: The mean age of the participants was 46.2 (± 16.6) years and the majority were females (54.3%). The mean height, weight, and body mass index of the sample were 160.5 (± 9.6) cm, 60.3 (± 11.9) kg, and 23.4 (± 4.5) kgm−2 respectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the internal consistency of DASI-S was 0.861. The concurrent validity of DASI-S was substantiated by positively correlating (p < 0.01, rs = 0.466) with the physical sub-scale of SF-36. There was a significant difference (p < 0.01) in the total score of DASI-S between the two age groups. Conclusions: Sinhala version of the DASI appears to be a valid, reliable and easy-to-administer tool to assess functional capacity among patients who are awaiting non-cardiac surgeries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Literature revealed the lack of a comprehensive tool to assess organizational consequences of occupational stress (OCOS) among schoolteachers. Objectives: To develop and validate an instrument to measure the OCOS among secondary school teachers in Sinhala medium government schools (OCOST-Sinhala) Methods: Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to design and validate OCOST-Sinhala. Item generation was guided by a conceptual framework. Reducing the items was through an assessment of a panel of experts and by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). PCA was performed among 360 secondary teachers to assess the factor structure. Construct validity was assessed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and a multi-trait scaling analysis in a survey among 300 secondary teachers. Cronbach’ alpha and test re-test reliability were determined. Results: OCOST-Sinhala had 45 items in seven domains (self-efficacy, work engagement, motivation, job satisfaction, enthusiasm, workload & work performance). In PCA, 65.98% of the variance was explained. All the indices used to evaluate the fitness of the model, confirmed that the statistical fitness of the original seven factors model provide valid results. CFA and multi-trait scaling analysis confirmed the construct validity with reliability confirmed as good (Cronbach’s alpha 0.92; test re-test reliability >0.7). Conclusions & Recommendations: The developed OCOST-Sinhala was found to be a valid and reliable test to assess OCOS among secondary school teachers in Sri Lanka.

Background and Objectives: Tinnitus is a common and disabling condition that largely remains undertreated in Sri Lanka. Currently, standardized tools that assess and monitor the treatment of tinnitus or the distress it causes are unavailable in either of the two main vernacular languages prevalent in Sri Lanka. The Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) is used internationally to measure tinnitus-induced distress and to monitor treatment efficacy. In this study, we validated the Sinhala version of the THI (THI-Sin). Subjects and Methods: The THI was translated into Sinhala and back translated into English and finalized by independent translators. The THI-Sin questionnaire and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Visual Analog Scale of tinnitus annoyance (VAS) were administered to 122 adults who visited the otolaryngology clinic of Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka. Results: THI-Sin scores showed satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.902) and were significantly correlated with the GHQ-12 and VAS scores. Factor analysis of the THI-Sin confirmed a three-factorial structure, which did not correspond to the original THI subscales. Conclusions: We observed significant reliability and validity of the THI-Sin tool for evaluation of tinnitus-induced handicaps among the Sinhalese-speaking population of Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: Despite the availability of validated psychometrics tools to assess depression, there has not been any validated and reliable tool established to test perceived stress among Sri Lankans. The objective of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the Sinhalese Version of the Sheldon Cohen Perceived Stress Scale. Materials and methods: Standard and systematic procedures were adopted to translate the original English version of the Perceived Stress Scale-10 questionnaire into Sinhalese. Consecutive sampling was employed to recruit the Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) sample (n=321), and a convenient sampling was used to recruit the Age and Sex matched Healthy Controls (ASMHC) (n=101) and the Healthy Community Controls (HCC) groups (n=75). Cronbach alpha was used to assess internal consistency and reliability was determined using test-retest method utilizing Spearman's correlation coefficient. Sensitivity was evaluated by comparing the mean scores of the Sinhalese Perceived Stress Scale (S-PSS-10) and Sinhalese Patient Health Questionnaire (S-PHQ-9) scores. Post-hoc comparisons were done using Bonferroni's method. Mean scores were compared between the T2DM, ASMHC, and HCC groups using the independent t-test. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using the principal component and Varimax rotation while the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to assess the goodness-of-fit of the factor structure extracted from the EFA. Concurrent validity was assessed using the Pearson correlation between the S-PSS-10 and Patient Health Questionnaire measured by S-PHQ-9 (p<0.05). Results: Cronbach alpha values of the three groups T2DM, ASMHC and HCC were 0.85, 0.81, and 0.79, respectively. Results of the ANOVA test suggested that there was a significant difference in the mean scores between groups (p<0.00). EFA analysis revealed the existence of two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. The factor loadings for the items ranged from 0.71-0.83. The CFA analysis demonstrated a good model fit for the two-factor model S-PSS-10. The S-PSS-10 significantly correlated with S-PHQ-9, indicating an acceptable concurrent validity. Conclusion: Findings revealed that the S-PSS-10 questionnaire can be used to screen perceived stress among the majority of the Sri Lankan Sinhalese-speaking population specially with chronic illnesses. Further studies with higher sample sizes across different populations would enhance the validity and reliability of S-PSS-10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a parent-report screening tool used to measure parents' perceptions of children's functional intelligibility. This tool has been translated into over 60 languages and found to have a good reliability and validity. The purpose of the current study was to translate the ICS into Sinhala (the ICS-SIN), the main language spoken by the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka, and to validate it with both typically developing (TD) children and children with repaired cleft lip and/or palate (CLP). The translation process followed the forward-backward-forward method. A total of 88 parents of TD children and children with CLP aged 12–15 years old (TD n = 50, CLP n = 38) completed the ICS-SIN questionnaire. Parents of TD and CLP children reported their children's speech as most intelligible to parents and least intelligible to strangers. The ICS-SIN had high internal consistency for both groups (TD α = 0.87, p < 0.05, CLP α = 0.97, p < 0.05). The ICS-SIN total scores and item scores showed significant correlations, indicating a good construct validity. TD participant group's ICS-SIN average mean scores (M = 4.88, SD = 0.29) were significantly higher compared to the CLP ICS-SIN average mean scores (M = 4.64, SD = 0.67) and varied according to gender in both groups, suggesting good discriminant validity. The ICS-SIN has overall good psychometric properties. Therefore, this tool has the potential to be used as a valid parent-rating screening tool for clinical and research purposes in Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionDespite the availability of validated psychometrics tools to assess depression, there has not been any validated and reliable tool established to test perceived stress among Sri Lankans. The objective of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the Sinhalese Version of the Sheldon Cohen Perceived Stress Scale.Materials and methodsStandard and systematic procedures were adopted to translate the original English version of the Perceived Stress Scale-10 questionnaire into Sinhalese. Consecutive sampling was employed to recruit the Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) sample (n = 321), and a convenient sampling was used to recruit the Age and Sex matched Healthy Controls (ASMHC) (n = 101) and the Healthy Community Controls (HCC) groups (n = 75). Cronbach alpha was used to assess internal consistency and reliability was determined using test–retest method utilizing Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Sensitivity was evaluated by comparing the mean scores of the Sinhalese Perceived Stress Scale (S-PSS-10) and Sinhalese Patient Health Questionnaire (S-PHQ-9) scores. Post-hoc comparisons were done using Bonferroni’s method. Mean scores were compared between the T2DM, ASMHC, and HCC groups using the independent t-test. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using the principal component and Varimax rotation while the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to assess the goodness-of-fit of the factor structure extracted from the EFA. Concurrent validity was assessed using the Pearson correlation between the S-PSS-10 and Patient Health Questionnaire measured by S-PHQ-9 (p

Close relationships between the Sri Lankan Tamil community and the Tami communities in South India have resulted in the involvement of South Indian political parties in the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka. This involvement has continued even after the defeat to Tamil terrorists by the Sri Lankan military and is primarily concerned with influencing Indian foreign policy on the separatism issue in Sri Lanka. The main objectives of this study were to identify the factors which are motivating South Indian political parties to influence Indian foreign policy on separatism in Sri Lanka and to identify the strategies used by South Indian political parties to influence Indian Central Government foreign policy on separatism in Sri Lanka. Research method to achieve these two objectives was a qualitative method. This research method consisted of collecting non-numeric data from individuals with significant knowledge of South Indian political parties and analysing the collected data using quantitative content analysis. Findings from the study revealed that there are several factors motivating South Indian political parties to influence foreign policy on separatism in Sri Lanka. These factors are namely genuine concern for the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils, political self-interest, financial factors, social and humanitarian factors. Findings from the study also revealed that the main strategies adopted by South Indian political parties to influence Indian foreign policy on separatism are to threaten to withhold support to the ruling party in the Lok Shaba and prevent/disrupt the implementation of national projects in South Indian states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes stereotypes of Muslims that have recurred in Sinhala literature over the past seven centuries. This temporal span includes (1) a precolonial time when Muslims were a curiosity in Sinhala poetry as rich traders, wild men, and seductive women; (2) an early colonial time when the Portuguese and Dutch displaced more Muslims into the island interior, and Sinhala authors increasingly wrote of them as religious others akin to Tamils; and (3) a late colonial time when British policies forged religo-racial political categories in the decades leading up to the anti-Muslim pogroms of 1915. Each case is also connected to postcolonial instantiations or transformations of these typecasts. This history therefore eschews linear narratives of change to show the recurrent tendencies of social reasoning through stereotyping, past and present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political changes demanded by the countries with a colonial past in their independence processes are shaped in line with their historical realities. Demands for political change have intensified as the change of domination apparatuses and ideologies have been determinant in achieving political demands, and nationalism has an important place among them. Nationalism is a concept that has modern characteristics and carries functional elements with its ideological modernity in terms of its capacity to meet demands. Nationalism is one of the tools used especially to realize the demands for political power. Another tool is political violence, which is used to implement the practices preferred within the framework of the said ideology. In terms of their instrumental relations, nationalism and political violence are phenomena that form clusters of mutual interests and feed each other. Sri Lanka was one of the places where these phenomena were experienced together. The study aims to examine the nationalism used in the politicization tendencies of the Sinhala ethnicity and Tamil ethnicity trying to make room for itself on the island after independence, and the political violence that emerged after its instrumentalization, with an instrumentalist approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Anxiety disorders is one of the most prevalent psycho-pathological condition among children and adolescents. Screen for Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED)-Child version is a cross-culturally validated self administered questionnaire to detect children with anxiety disorders. Objectives: To assess the validity and reliability of SCARED-Child to identify anxiety among adolescents aged 13-15 years attending government schools (Sinhala medium) in the district of Colombo, Sri Lanka Methods: The SCARED-Child was culturally adapted, translated to Sinhala and its judgmental validity was ensured. The instrument was validated among 423 adolescents aged 13-15 years in Colombo District by assessing criterion validity using the diagnosis made by a consultant psychiatrist as the gold standard, developing clinically validated cut-off values using ROC curve. The internal consistency and test-retest assessment were used to assess the reliability. Results: The culturally adapted and translated SCARED-Child (Sinhala version) showed sensitivity of 85.7% (95% CI=74.61, 93.25) and specificity of 91.3% (95% CI=88.0, 94.07) at a cut-off of 36.5, with a high reliability of Cronbach's alpha (0.87) and test-retest correlation coefficient (0.74). Conclusions & Recommendations: This study revealed that SCARED-Child has a high validity and excellent reliability to identify a child with an anxiety disorder at community setting.

Code-mixing and code-switching are frequent features in online conversations. Classification of such text is challenging if one of the languages is low-resourced. Fine-tuning pre-trained multilingual language models is a promising avenue for code-mixed text classification. In this paper, we explore adapter-based fine-tuning of PMLMs for CMCS text classification. We introduce sequential and parallel stacking of adapters, continuous fine-tuning of adapters, and training adapters without freezing the original model as novel techniques with respect to single-task CMCS text classification. We also present a newly annotated dataset for the classification of Sinhala–English code-mixed and code-switched text data, where Sinhala is a low-resourced language. Our dataset of 10000 user comments has been manually annotated for five classification tasks: sentiment analysis, humor detection, hate speech detection, language identification, and aspect identification, thus making it the first publicly available Sinhala–English CMCS dataset with the largest number of task annotation types. In addition to this dataset, we also tested our proposed techniques on Kannada–English and Hindi–English datasets. These experiments confirm that our adapter-based PMLM fine-tuning techniques outperform or are on par with the basic fine-tuning of PMLM models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to translate and adapt the Parent Form of the MTA Version of the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham ADHD/ODD rating scale (SNAP-IV) into Sinhala and examine its psychometric properties. The MTA version of the SNAP-IV was translated into the Sinhala language by adhering to the WHO translation and adaptational process. The final Sinhala SNAP-IV (S-SNAP-IV) was administered to parents of 412 healthy children and adolescents (age: 6–18 years), and 272 children and adolescents with ADHD (age: 4–19 years). Internal consistency and factor structure of the S-SNAP-IV were determined in each sample. Conforming to that of the original English version, the S-SNAP-IV showed a three-factor structure (inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and oppositional defiant disorder) in each sample, except for three item deviations (10,11, and 13) in the healthy sample. The S-SNAP-IV showed excellent internal consistency in the total sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.97), healthy sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90), and the clinical sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94). The S-SNAP-IV also showed good discriminative validity: Only 1.5% of the healthy sample exceeded the cut-off scores in any domain, whereas all newly diagnosed, unmedicated children were S-SNAP-IV positive in at least one domain. The findings suggest that the three-factor model fits the S-SNAP-IV, and it clearly distinguishes children with ADHD from non-ADHD children. We conclude that the S-SNAP-IV possesses satisfactory psychometric properties–consistent with the MTA English version and its translations into other languages–making it a reliable and valid instrument for screening children with ADHD. • We translated the SNAP-IV ADHD/ODD rating scale into Sinhala language (S-SNAP-IV). • S-SNAP-IV was tested on large samples of healthy children and children with ADHD/ODD. • The 3-factor model (inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, ODD) fits the S-SNAP-IV. • S-SNAP-IV has an excellent internal consistency and a high discriminating validity. • S-SNAP-IV has satisfactory psychometric properties as a screening tool for ADHD/ODD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Despite the availability of validated psychometrics tools to assess depression, there has not been any validated and reliable tool established to test perceived stress among Sri Lankans. The objective of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the Sinhalese Version of the Sheldon Cohen Perceived Stress Scale., Materials and Methods: Standard and systematic procedures were adopted to translate the original English version of the Perceived Stress Scale-10 questionnaire into Sinhalese. Consecutive sampling was employed to recruit the Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) sample ( n  = 321), and a convenient sampling was used to recruit the Age and Sex matched Healthy Controls (ASMHC) ( n  = 101) and the Healthy Community Controls (HCC) groups ( n  = 75). Cronbach alpha was used to assess internal consistency and reliability was determined using test-retest method utilizing Spearman's correlation coefficient. Sensitivity was evaluated by comparing the mean scores of the Sinhalese Perceived Stress Scale (S-PSS-10) and Sinhalese Patient Health Questionnaire (S-PHQ-9) scores. Post-hoc comparisons were done using Bonferroni's method. Mean scores were compared between the T2DM, ASMHC, and HCC groups using the independent t -test. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using the principal component and Varimax rotation while the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to assess the goodness-of-fit of the factor structure extracted from the EFA. Concurrent validity was assessed using the Pearson correlation between the S-PSS-10 and Patient Health Questionnaire measured by S-PHQ-9 ( p  < 0.05)., Results: Cronbach alpha values of the three groups T2DM, ASMHC and HCC were 0.85, 0.81, and 0.79, respectively. Results of the ANOVA test suggested that there was a significant difference in the mean scores between groups ( p  < 0.00). EFA analysis revealed the existence of two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. The factor loadings for the items ranged from 0.71-0.83. The CFA analysis demonstrated a good model fit for the two-factor model S-PSS-10. The S-PSS-10 significantly correlated with S-PHQ-9, indicating an acceptable concurrent validity., Conclusion: Findings revealed that the S-PSS-10 questionnaire can be used to screen perceived stress among the majority of the Sri Lankan Sinhalese-speaking population specially with chronic illnesses. Further studies with higher sample sizes across different populations would enhance the validity and reliability of S-PSS-10., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Mendis, Palihaderu, Karunanayake, Satharasinghe, Premarathne, Dias, Rajapakse, Hapugalle, Karunaratne, Binendra, Kumara, Prabhashwara, Senarath, Yeap, Ho and Dissanayake.)