This quantitative study investigated the determinants of students’ satisfaction with their online learning experience at Sri Lankan universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected from 1376 undergraduates enrolled in various courses in humanities and social sciences at three state-owned universities in the country. The results of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) revealed that the independent variables of the model, namely perceived learner motivation, perceived challenges of e-learning, and interaction significantly affected students’ satisfaction with their new online learning experience. Out of the three variables, learner motivation exerted the strongest effect on students’ satisfaction, implying the crucial role self-regulated learning—characterized by motivation—plays in online learning environments. The study has several implications for both creating and ensuring the long-term sustainability of productive and student-friendly online learning spaces in higher education.

Abstract-Drawing on in-depth qualitative data from fifty-four surveys and five interviews, this study investigated aspects of motivation and demotivation among Sri Lankan English language teachers. The participants included a convenience sample of English teachers currently employed in public schools. The results of the study revealed that students themselves, the act of teaching students, and the prestigious social position for English teachers in Sri Lanka are main motivators for teachers. The main demotivators for the participants included limited facilities for teaching and learning in schools, inefficiency of school administration and zonal education offices, difficulties in obtaining teacher transfers, the discrepancy between the English curriculum and students' English proficiency, and the poor relationship between colleagues. Overall results of the study indicate that teacher demotivation is a significant issue in Sri Lankan public schools which needs the immediate attention of the country's education policy designers and management.

English Medium Instruction (EMI) is a growing educational praxis in the world. Sri Lanka also practises EMI in primary, secondary and university education contexts. Nevertheless, EMI is not adequately researched: the existing scholarship alludes to the significance of its context-dependency (e.g., Snchez-Prez, Maria del Mar 2020). Moreover, there is a lacuna of scholarly knowledge of how EMI works in Sri Lankan educational contexts. Hence, this exploratory study examined lecturers’ practices of, and insights into, EMI within the context of Sri Lankan higher education. The data were drawn from in-depth qualitative interviews with ten lecturers who teach Social Sciences through EMI at three state universities in the country. Interviewees – encompassing males and females and belonging to varying age groups – have a range of EMI teaching experience and different professional and educational qualifications. Qualitative thematic analysis was utilised to uncover themes related to EMI in the data. Findings disclose a few issues and problems associated with EMI. They underscore the belief that EMI enhances L2 (Second Language) proficiency, thus creating a space for job opportunities for undergraduates, and higher education and professional development for both lecturers and students.  Nevertheless, EMI is problematic mainly due to (i) low L2 proficiency in both lecturers and students, (ii) lecturers’ inconsistent praxis in assessing and teaching students, (iii) the shortage of training programmes on EMI, and (iv) arbitrary administration issues including the recruitment of EMI lecturers. The paper provides insights into EMI implementation in English as L2 contexts and adds new vocabulary to EMI praxis and research.

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This paper presents results from two experiments on the L2 acquisition of wh-features and relevant constraints (Superiority and Subjacency) by L1 Sinhala–L2 English speakers. Our results from a Truth Value Judgment Task and a Grammaticality Judgment Task with 31 English native controls and 38 Sinhala/English bilinguals show that the advanced adult L2 speakers of English we tested have successfully acquired the uninterpretable wh-Q feature and relevant movement constraints in English, despite the lack of overt wh-movement in L1-Sinhala. These results raise questions for Representational Deficit Accounts of second language acquisition and offer evidence that (i) uninterpretable syntactic features are not necessarily subject to an early critical period and (ii) uninterpretable features not instantiated in learners’ L1 can be available for L2 syntactic computation. We take our results as evidence for full access by L2 learners to syntactic properties that are not instantiated in their L1, but that remain accessible due to a cognitive capacity for language (i.e., knowledge of Universal Grammar) independently of the L1.