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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]

This paper seeks to problematize and render inadequate the 'truth' of Truth Commissions, which have proliferated globally. It does so by questioning the relationship of 'truth' to 'testimony' by offering a critical account of their relationship to 'trauma,' on the one hand and by questioning the location of 'testimony' in relation to 'resistance,' on the other hand. Moving away from this 'psycologistic register,' the paper rehearses a re-reading of Freud, which attempts to question the sharp distinction between mourning and melancholia, in his 1917 essay. Given this, a complex, psychoanalytic subject is constructed, whose psychic and social 'work of melancholia,' and 'acts of memory,' cannot be straightforwardly rendered in testimony or recollection, and is unavailable for nationalist appropriation. Empirical material is drawn from field work in Eastern Sri Lanka, on the after life multiple massacres that took place in the early 1990s, and is juxtaposed with Commissions of Inquiry into these events in the late 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This monograph examines the language planning situation in Sri Lanka with particular emphasis on the planning of Sinhala as an official language of the country. It explores the historical, social, ideological and political processes, changes in language policy decisions, as well as the complexities of the language policy and planning situation in the country. After a general account of the language profile of Sri Lanka, the sections that follow examine both status and corpus planning that have occurred in Sri Lanka since the country became independent in 1948. This monograph investigates the spread of Sinhala in education, literacy and the media and the role of English in the wider context. The final section describes some important recent developments in language planning in Sri Lanka and suggests some ideas for continuing research on language policy planning. This monograph demonstrates the linguistic, political and ethnic character of language planning in a South Asian post-colonial setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data and case study evidence gathered from fieldwork in eastern Sri Lanka during 1998–99, this paper fleshes out the particular situation of Sinhala female-heads. What conflict and non-conflict factors lead to female-headship? The evidence supports the contention that the patriarchal households may be adjusting to factors beyond the ethnic conflict. It is important to highlight the complex and dynamic relationships to understand the economic opportunities exploited by female-heads to maintain their economic security. However, there is also a social cost to this. Female-heads’ participation in the labour market is linked to the support they receive from kin and community structures. However, there is also a social cost to this, as they perceive suchreliance requires certain gendered standards of behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]