Research on gender representation in English textbooks reveals that messages about gender roles and gender identity transmitted through texts affect the future behaviour of children as they formulate their own roles in society. There is a limited number of studies on visual analysis of gender in textbooks and a dearth of such research on teaching materials in Sri Lanka. This study analyses a TV programme produced to teach school children English in order to uncover the ideological assumptions related to gender and gender roles embedded in the programme.

, and investigates their performance on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), a test of English recognized internationally for studies in Medicine. These doctors were drawn from all faculties of Medicine established in Sri Lanka and also included a small group trained in foreign universities. The paper sets out details of performance at a Pre-Test, and their efforts on an actual version of the IELTS after an eight-month training course. Performance is examined in relation to gender as well as university of graduation. Initially the female candidates demonstrated a higher level of proficiency in certain skills. After training however, this initial advantage was obliterated and the male candidates seemed to be more successful than their female counterparts. University-wise, differing levels of proficiency were demonstrated in the required language skills. As the IELTS also requires general knowledge of world events and issues, this too was checked after the training period. The study indicates that knowledge of world geography and of world /local events exhibited by this group of doctors is inadequate. Although the study admittedly involves a small group of doctors, it raises concerns about proficiency levels posited for the field of Medicine in Sri Lanka.

Policies related to language have had far reaching consequences for social inequality in Sri Lanka as they have had in many other postcolonial nations. Consequently, language policy, specifically language in education policy has been frequently mobilized in efforts to address social inequality, with varying degrees of success. This paper focuses on a decade of implementation of such a policy that was conceptualized to address inequality-the bilingual education (BE) policy of 2002 initiated primarily in order to effect changes in language learning and thereby deal with issues of inequality based on differences in levels of language proficiency. Utilizing a methodology that includes document analysis, focus group interviews and semi structured interviews with important stakeholders in the bilingual education project this study attempts to report on the status of an initiative after more than ten years of its implementation, with regard to attitudes, issues and challenges. It was revealed that unresolved tensions to do with the demand and clamour for English due to its market value and the forces of globalization on one hand and the struggle to maintain a national and local identity on the other are reflected both in the circulars and in the structural and attitudinal factors related to implementation. The study revealed the emergence of a new 'elite' group among students, those who, because they study in the 'English medium' see themselves as superior and distance themselves from the mother tongue medium students, and the ineffectiveness of ministry circulars and campaigns to position English as a tool rather than a weapon

Teaching literature is a complex and challenging task, particularly because of the multiple interpretive possibilities of literary texts. It is even more so when teaching English poetry to learners for whom English is a second language. Further, Literature has been traditionally been a subject that needs the presence of a teacher to assist students in their quest to read for deeper understanding and interpretation of texts. This study investigated second-year undergraduates' perceptions on learning T.S. Eliot's epic poem The Waste Land -a notedly difficult text to access, owing to its length as well as the need for compulsory background reading on history, mythology, Eastern and Western philosophy and the Classics -via both an online intervention and an in-person Day School, using a qualitative research design and in-depth semi-structured interviews. The study found that the BA in English and English