ABSTRACT
The three languages employed as media of instruction (MOI) in trilingual Sri Lanka are mired in tensions between colonialist legacies, attempts to use language policies to consolidate resolution of recent internal armed conflict, and development agendas strongly influenced by international agencies and institutions. English as MOI continues to be the most divisive and pedagogically problematic as policy-makers persist with models of English language teaching and learning grounded in English medium instruction monolingual models of proficiency. This chapter maps out the origins of these conundrums of MOI in Sri Lankan education and posits that new conceptualisations of policy and pedagogy of languages of education might be needed in the country to serve the purposes of both policy-makers and users. It is proposed that the possibilities offered by English can perhaps be realised, not through bilingual or English MOI, but through high quality teaching of English as an additional language (EAL) to develop the proficiencies of all students. This would sustain the value and status of an education using local languages as MOI and equip many more young Sri Lankans with the linguistic resources to make choices about how they participate in development and interaction with global cultures and economies.
