AssessingSinhala

Sinhala or Sinhalese, an Indo‐European language, is spoken by about 13 million people in Sri Lanka. It is the mother tongue of the Sinhalese people, who are the largest ethnic group in the country. Sinhala, along with Tamil, is both a national and official language of the country, while English is a link language. Similar to many South Asian languages, Sinhala has distinctive diglossia; the literary and spoken languages differ in many aspects, the most important difference being vocabulary and the lack of inflected verb forms in spoken Sinhala. The written language, which uses more words of Sanskrit origin, is used in all forms of literary texts and in formal oral communication such as public speeches, television and radio news, etc., whereas the spoken language is more colloquial and used in everyday communication. The Ministry of Education (grades K‐13) directs the formulation and implementation of policies related to education in the country. The learning and assessment of Sinhala includes both language and literature. In K‐13, while summative assessment practices are used in the evaluation of learning, formative assessment practices are commonly used to give students feedback on learning. In recent years, classroom‐based assessment practices that are more informal have become widespread in the educational philosophy of the country, as evidenced in syllabi and teacher instruction manuals. In terms of employment, competency in both Sinhala and Tamil is required for government jobs. Competency can be shown by either passing Sinhala and Tamil at the GCE O‐ level exam or by passing the Department of Official Languages' special competence exam. While there is much progress in assessment practices there is still a great need for teacher education in assessment and evaluation of learning, especially of language, and for more in‐service training and workshops in creating tests for assessing language learning.