Samanthi JAYAWARDENA

Samanthi Jayawardena is a Senior Lecturer, attached to the Department of Modern Languages, University of Kelaniya. She holds MA in French and PhD in French from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research interests focus mainly on translation studies (literary translation, humour in translation, translation strategies). She has also conducted research on folklore/oral culture (proverb studies). 

She currently serves as the Director, Centre for International Affairs of the university. Thus, she takes the lead of the LocalLing team from the University of Kelaniya. Within the project, she will contribute to exploring language identity, language attitudes towards minority/micro heritage languages, language policy implementation and folklore/oral culture practices. Her experience in curriculum development at national level, and teaching of language and culture will be a valuable addition to the project.

Sarasi KANNANGARA

Dr. Sarasi Kannangara is a Senior Lecturer in German Studies at the Department of Modern Languages, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She holds a PhD in Germanistik from TU Darmstadt and a Master’s degree in German as a Foreign and Second Language from the University of Kassel.

Her research focuses on multilingualism and L3 learning, particularly the learning of German as a third language, with a specific emphasis on oral participation in L3 classrooms. She has published on dominant language constellations, the linguistic repertoires of multilingual learners, and the complex nature of L3 learning processes, including contributions to volumes published by Springer.

Her broader academic interests include language attitudes, linguistic diversity, and identity in multilingual societies. Within the LocalLing project, she contributes perspectives from Sri Lanka’s complex linguistic ecology, where multiple languages, dialects, and heritage varieties coexist, and explores heritage language dynamics, language attitudes, and multilingual practices in educational and community contexts.