Ross-Blakley Hall 101BA PO Box 871401
TEMPE, AZ 85287-1401
Mail code: 1401
Campus: Tempe
Long Bio
Agra Rajapakse is originally from Sri Lanka and has a PhD in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Arizona State University. She is a Faculty Associate attached to the Writing Programs at the Department of English, Arizona State University. She completed both her BA (English) and MA (English Studies) degrees at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her research interests are in sociolinguistics, World Englishes, the use of English as an International Language, language ideology, multilingualism and writing and rhetoric. She is primarily interested in studying the ways in which practices and ideologies related to the use of English are gradually changing in Sri Lanka and what sociolinguistic implications such changes would have for the profile of her country in the map of World Englishes.
Agra has over ten years of experience teaching English Language and Literature, English as a Second Language (ESL) and Business English at the secondary and tertiary level in Sri Lanka. At ASU, she teaches Writing Composition - ENG 101 and 102.
Publications
A Descriptive Analysis of the Language of the Burghers of Sri Lanka in “English for education, empowerment and equality”, eds. Dushyanthi Mendis, Dinali Fernando, 2008.
Rajapakse, A. (2023), The impact of linguistic racism and coloniality on Sri Lankan English studies: the case of Burgher English, International Multilingual Research Journal (IMRJ), 1-12.
Rajapakse, A. (2023), The impact of monolingual language policies on the multilingual language ecology of Sri Lanka, International Journal of Applied Linguistics (IJAL), 34 (2), 642-655.
Warriner, D.S., Griego, A. & Rajapakse, A. (2024). Multilingual literacies in the Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism, 2nd edition.
Research Activity
A descriptive analysis of the language of the Burghers at the 4th Annual Conference of the Sri Lanka English Teachers’ Association (SLELTA), 2006.
Dialects of Sri Lankan English: the impact of social change on language use at the International Research Conference (IConArts 2016) of the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo 2016.
An exploration of attitudes towards the use and users of English in Sri Lanka through a study of code-switching in Sinhalese teledramas at the 25th Annual Graduate Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, and TESOL Symposium at Arizona State University in February 2019.
The Scale of Phonetic Variation as a research tool for describing phonetic variation in Sri Lankan English (SLE) at the 24th International Association of World Englishes Conference at the University of Limerick, Ireland in June 2019.
Rajapakse, A. (2023), The impact of linguistic racism and coloniality on Sri Lankan English studies: the case of Burgher English, International Multilingual Research Journal (IMRJ), 1-12.
Rajapakse, A. (2023), The impact of monolingual language policies on the multilingual language ecology of Sri Lanka, International Journal of Applied Linguistics (IJAL), 34 (2), 642-655.
Warriner, D.S., Griego, A. & Rajapakse, A. (2024). Multilingual literacies in the Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism, 2nd edition.
