Language use in Tamil announcements at a railway station: A study focusing on Jaffna railway station

Abstract

This study focuses on the language usage patterns found in Tamil language announcements made at the Jaffna Railway Station. The study included various aspects of travel announcements, such as vocabulary, sentence structure, tone and pronunciation, to assess their effectiveness and areas for improvement. The main objectives of the study are to make recommendations to make Tamil language announcements more useful and easier to understand. By analysing the content of Tamil language announcements posted at railway stations, we can identify language usage patterns, grammatical errors and semantic inconsistencies or gaps in the communication. Identifying the language usage patterns found in the current Tamil language announcements at the Jaffna Railway Station. The main objectives of the study are to make recommendations for Tamil language announcements more useful and easier to understand. Qualitative data have been used for thematic analysis. Primary data for the study were collected through observation, interviews, case studies, and focus group discussions. There is no evidence to date of any studies conducted on how language use is structured in Tamil language announcements at railway stations. That’s why this research is conducted to fill the research gap, and it recommends that the Tamil language announcements at the Jaffna Railway Station be made more effective, easier to understand and more relevant.