Dr. Ramola Rasool

Contact:

Department of English Language Teaching
University of Kelaniya
Sri Lanka

Tel:     +94-11 2 9037832(Office)         
E-mail: romola@kln.ac.lk (University)
             

Educational Qualification:

PhD in Arts (Sociolinguistics) University of Melbourne, Australia - 2014

M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) Teachers College,Columbia University, USA – 2002

B.A. (Hons in English) University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka – 1996

Teaching Experience:

§  Over 18 years teaching various English as a Second Language (ESL) courses to undergraduates of all faculties

§  Lecturer in the BA degree Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL)course
Also teach in MA in Linguistics, MBA, and Master’s in Business programmes conducted by the University of Kelaniya

§  Visiting Lecturer in the Staff Development programmes of the Faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science

§  Visiting Lecturer, Postgraduate Institute of English, Open University of SriLanka

Administrative Experience:

Head, ELTU (2006 – 2008)

Head (Acting), Department of English (March 2014 – December 2015)

Research and Publications:

“Issues of Power and Privilege in the Maintenance of Sri Lanka Malay: A

Sociolinguistic Analysis” - Book chapter in The Genesis of Sri Lanka Malay: A

Case of Extreme Language Contact, published by Brill (2013)

“Preserving the lesser known languages: The case of Sri Lanka” – Proceedingsof the International Seminar on ‘Linguistic Diversity in South and Southeast Asia’ – November 21-23, 2016, India International Centre, New Delhi(forthcoming)

Research Interests:

Sri Lanka Malay

Minority Languages of Sri Lanka

International & National Workshop/Conference Presentations:

• “Preserving the lesser known languages: The case of Sri Lanka” – Invitedspeaker at the International Seminar on ‘Linguistic Diversity in South andSoutheast Asia’ – New Delhi, India, November, 2016

• “Examining responses to perceived ‘endangerment’ of the Sri Lanka Malay language and (re)-negotiating Sri Lanka Malay identity in a postcolonial context” – Third Bremen Conference on Language and Literature in Colonialand Postcolonial Contexts – March 2016, Bremen, Germany.

Full presentation can be viewed at https://mlecture.uni-bremen.d/ml/index.php?option=com_mlplayer&template=ml2&mlid=3604

• “Same but different: The complexities of constructing a distinct “Malay Muslim” identity in Sri Lanka” – Seminar on “Muslims in the Sri Lankan Social Science Scholarship” organized by the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, December 2015

• “How standard is ‘standard’? (and who sets the standard anyway?”) - Plenary speaker at the National Conference on Language Assessment and 16th National RESC Conference 2014, National Institute of Education, Sri Lanka

• “How ‘endangered’ is ‘endangered’? Assessing the actual language vitality of the Sri Lanka Malay language” - International Conference on Austronesian Languages in Bali, Indonesia, 2012

• “Malays of the East and Malays of the West: more alike than different? Discussing the vitality of the Sri Lanka Malay language in two provinces” -International Symposium on Malay and Indonesian Linguistics, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2012

• “Economic factors that determine language maintenance/ shift: the case of Sri Lanka Malay” –International Symposium on Malaysian and Indonesian Languages, Malang, Indonesia, 2011

• “Studying contemporary usage of and attitudes to the Sri Lanka Malay language: a preliminary discussion” –Seminar on Sri Lanka Malay at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, 2010.

Awards and Achievements:

• Australian Leadership Award (ALA) from AusAID to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia (2009 – 2013).

• Australia Awards Ambassador – selected to promote Australian scholarship programmes in Sri Lanka (2017)

• Scholarship to attend CoLang 2014 – a two-week intensive course on language revitalisation at the University of Texas at Arlington in June 2014

• Fulbright Junior Award to pursue an MA at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA (2000 – 2002)

• American Field Service (AFS) Award to study in New Zealand for one year as a cultural exchange student (1988).

Positions held:

• Resource Person, World Bank funded Higher Education for the Twenty-firstCentury (HETC) project – May - July 2016

• Chair, conference organising committee - the  International Conference on the Humanities (ICH) 2015 and 2016, University of Kelaniya

• Member, Self-Evaluation Report drafting committee, Faculty of Humanities,University of Kelaniya, 2017

• Member, Academic Syndicate, Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological

• Education (SLIATE) from August 2012 to August 2017

• Member, Board of Study, Postgraduate Institute of English, Open University of Sri Lanka from November 2016 to October 2019

• Member of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka, Panel on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) from March 2017 to February 2018

• Member, Editorial Board of “Kalyani” – the journal of the University of Kelaniya – from April 2017 to April 2018

• Member of the Standing Committee on English of the University Grants Commission, Sri Lanka – 2007 to 200

• Member of the Board of Management of the Postgraduate Institute of English, Sri Lanka - 2007 to 2009

• Resource Person of the National Institute of Education (NIE) - 2007 to 2008

• Resource Person for the Department of Education - 2008 Resource Person forthe Department of Examinations - 2004 to 2008.

• Materials writer - the General English textbook, which was used by A/Lstudents in Sri Lanka

• Main local coordinator for the International Symposium on Malay and Indonesian Linguistics (ISMIL) held at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka,2012.

Supervision and examination of Postgraduate Theses

• Currently supervisor of one PhD thesis, three MPhil theses and two MA theses. In the past I have supervised approximately 20 PhD, MPhil and MA theses. These theses have examined various aspects of Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics and issues relating to teaching ESL in particular. I have supervised postgraduate students affiliated to the Faculties of Graduate Studies of theUniversities of Kelaniya, Colombo, Peradeniya, and the Open University of Sri Lanka.

• Examiner of several PhD, MPhil and MA theses.