This article focuses on undergraduate students' experiences and attitudes to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) during and after the first COVID-19 lockdown in Sri Lanka, which began in March 2020. The pandemic triggered a shift from traditional educational methods to online teaching and learning. For this transition to be successful, the opportunities and challenges of online learning during a pandemic should be studied. The article and its findings are based on a questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with eighteen undergraduates of a degree-awarding, non-state higher education institute (NSHEI). Overall, the majority of students displayed a favorable attitude to online education and a preference for blended learning in the future. Advantages were reduced travel time and cost, punctuality, the ability to attend lectures from comfortable surroundings, and the availability of recordings of the lecture. Disadvantages were inadequate internet facilities, devices, and training in the use of the internet and the Learning Management System (LMS). Disrupted concentration and motivation due to the absence of a good learning environment was also reported, as were the limitations of the mobile phone as the primary device for online learning, lack of face-to-face interaction and immediate feedback/ clarification, COVID fatigue, and exam related stress. Suggestions for overcoming these issues are provided at the end of the article.

Samuel Beckett's evocation of the self through the discussion of the intertwined themes of language, relativity/dependency, memory, time and change invites diverse perspectives from which the self could be read. Beckett, through the delineation of the self as constantly revising itself in relation to its memories and the larger social exterior, portrays the self as fragmented and impermanent. The delineation of the self in the plays Waiting for Godot (1956), Endgame (1958) and Krapp's Last Tape (1958) as disintegrated, dependent and lacking in certitude, resonates with the Buddhist's consideration of the self as a mental formulation.

One of the characteristic features of Sri Lankan English (SLE) is the use of verb-preposition combinations which do no not exist in British Standard English (BSE). Such verb formations, which could be classified as prepositional verbs, are used in abundance in SLE newspapers. This research focuses on the levels of acceptance displayed by Sri Lankan university lecturers of the English Language and Sri Lankan university students currently following English courses at the English Language Teaching Units (ELTUs) of their respective universities. The results obtained through an acceptability test firstly point to high levels of acceptance of these verb formations among university students and English lecturers of Sri Lankan universities. Secondly, the findings show that the acceptance levels displayed by the university students is higher than those displayed by English lecturers. Finally, the results reveal that, out of three SLE prepositional verbs, 'discuss about' is the verb that has received the highest level of acceptance where the university students are concerned. On the contrary, with regard to the English lecturers, 'comprise of' has received the highest level of acceptance. This paper highlights some implications that these acceptance levels displayed by Sri Lankan undergraduates and English lecturers have on the teaching of these verb formations in particular, and the pedagogy, in general, of English as a Second Language (ESL) in Sri Lanka.

Culture is a necessary ingredient in the definition of a nation. Cultural diplomacy is the use of cultural values and norms by nations in the processes of strengthening, revising, or redefining their national identities both within the country and externally. Works of literature are among the many tools of cultural diplomacy. As a source of soft power widely used by countries in their relationships with foreign nations, cultural diplomacy has been criticized from a postcolonial perspective for contributing to the homogenization of cultures and nations. This paper argues that, where Sri Lankan cultural diplomacy is concerned, certain literary representations of Sri Lanka as was seen through the colonizer's gaze could be used in order to construct national culture, strengthen national identity and portray a more holistic picture of Sri Lanka to the world.

Due to ships' crews and offshore personnel being multicultural and multilingual, more than one variety of English is used in communication in ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore and onboard domains. Among these speakers of many Englishes, English is being used as a lingua franca. The use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in this domain is characterized by features of the many varieties of English spoken by the interlocutors as well as characteristics of the native languages of the speakers engaged in ELF. Therefore, the incorporation of both World Englishes (WE) and ELF knowledge into the pedagogy of Maritime English (ME) is crucial. Prior to this inclusion, however, more domain-specific research should be conducted into the use of ELF in maritime contexts in order to understand the manner in which ELF interactions take place among seafarers.