Abstract:
Mainstreaming academic literacy is viewed as the best approach to develop undergraduates' academic
literacy in English Medium Degree Programmes (EMDPs) (Jacobs, 2006; McKenna, 2014). This study
examines academic literacy practices in EMDPs in undergraduate management, science, and social
sciences/humanities. The academic literacies framework of Lea and Street (2006) which discusses three
models - study skills, academic socialization and academic literacies has been used as the basis for
identifying academic literacy practices in EMDPs in three state universities of Sri Lanka. A qualitative
research design was employed in this study, and data collection was done through lecturer interviews and
official documentation in the form of curricula and pedagogical practices. Findings reveal that the study
skills view of academic literacy as an autonomous list of transferable General English skills in the mode
of English as a Second Language (ESL) is the commonest practice in the three institutions. The next
commoner practice is the academic socialization model in the form of English for Academic Purposes
(EAP)/ English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in which students are inducted into a set of standard norms
uncritically (McKenna, 2014). The third model the academic literacies model or mainstreaming
