Department of English Language Teaching, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya
English language teaching at the University of Peradeniya began as a response to the socio-cultural changes that took place as a result of the language policy introduced in 1956 which led to an increase in the admissions of those who had completed their Advanced Level examinations in the Sinhala or Tamil medium. Within the Universities, departments were required to carry out parallel courses in Sinhala, Tamil, and English. However, certain Faculties like Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Agriculture did not switch their medium of instruction from English. The science-based Faculties required that the students follow their lectures in the English medium while the Faculty of Arts wanted its students to learn to read and comprehend books in English. Therefore, there arose a requirement that those who entered campus with little or no knowledge in English gained sufficient proficiency in English to complete their education.
Professor Passe responded to this requirement by establishing a new sub-department of English to carry out courses in English as a Second Language. The sub-department was established under the headship of Chitra Wickramasooriya who was attached to the Department of Education. After Wickramasooriya, the legendary Doric de Souza took over the sub-department’s reins and conducted intensive vacation courses and regular English courses to students (Halpe, p. 166). The sub-department continued to grow and offer new courses and its cadre subsequently increased.
In 1986, the University felt that a complete reorganization of the sub-department was necessary to meet a wide array of requirements that spanned across different faculties and created a separate English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) under a Head, directly reporting to the English Language Teaching committee of the Senate chaired by the Vice-Chancellor (Halpe, p. 170). ELTU sub-units were established under coordinators in each of the faculties in the University. Among the Heads/Coordinators of the ELTU during the first fifty years of its existence were Doric de Souza, Chitra Wickramasooriya, Thiru Kandiah, Kamal de Abrew, Lalitha Goonewardena, Sarojini Knight, Sumangalika Dharmadasa, Chintha Ellawela, Aubrey Kuruppu, and Mahes Salgado.
The ELTU was upgraded to a Department of English Language Teaching (DELT) in 2020 in the Faculty of Arts, and Professor Emeritus Arjuna Parakrama became its first Head of Department. The status of the sub-units, called ELTUs, attached to all the other faculties of the University did not change, representing an important innovation which combined overall uniformity with the space for faculty-based diversity to ensure that their specific linguistic needs are met.
The current Head of the Department is Professor Pushpa Vitharana, Professor in Education, attached to the Department of Education. The DELT and its ELTUs offer a variety of courses ranging from English for Humanities and Social Sciences in the Faculty of Arts, English Language for Management in the Faculty of Management and English Language for Allied Health Sciences in the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences. A variety of other tailor-made ESP courses are conducted in the Faculties of Engineering, Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Agriculture, Science, Medicine, and Dental Sciences.