Abstract:
In Sri Lanka, except for selected degree programmes in Social Sciences, Humanities or Arts, the medium
of instruction is often English for Medicine, Engineering or Management. In fact, there is a great demand
for English medium instruction in higher education due to rapid globalization. However, when students
switch from their L1 medium of instruction (either Sinhala/Tamil) from the school level to the L2 medium
of instruction (English) at the tertiary level, obviously a gap is created. Thus it has been long observed
that those students often face difficulties in the new context. Moreover, there is often an observation that
students do not perform to their full potential when they are taught the subject matter in a second
language. They may face two major challenges: grasping the subject matter while acquiring the target
language. Thus, the focus in this paper is to explore the existing literature on the impact of English
medium instruction on students' academic performance by reviewing the existing theoretical and
empirical literature.
