Affiliations with Overseas Universities

• 2013start

  Visiting Scholar

  Department of English Language and Literature, San Francisco State University, California, USA

• endstart

  External Reviewer (Invited)

  MA TESOL Programme, Department of English Language and Literature, San Francisco State University, California, USA

• July 2013start

  Academic Visitor

  Language Centre, University of Cambridge, UK

• July 2013start

  Academic Visitor

  English Language Teaching Centre, University of Edinburgh, UK

• July 2013start

  Academic Visitor

  Language Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

• February 2013start

  Resource person

  California State University, California, USA

• endstart

  Visiting Scholar (Invited)

  Centre for English Language Teaching, University of York, UK

Academic & Administrative Positions in the University of Colombo

• Present2024

  Academic Coordinator

  Certificate in Business English

• Present2024

  Member

  aculty Review Subcommittee on Languages

• Present2022

  Member

  Committee on the Degree in Trilingual Studies, Faculty of Arts

• Present2022

  Coordinator

  Short Course in Basic French, Colombo Language Centre, Faculty of Arts

• Present2022

  Coordinator

  Certificate in English for Tourism and Hospitality Management

• -2022

  Co-Chairperson

  Annual Reserach Symposium, Faculty of Arts

• -2021

  Chairperson

  Editorial Committee, Annual Research Symposium, Faculty of Arts

• Present2021

  Member

  Research, Consultancies and Publications Committee of the Faculty of Arts

• Present2021

  Coordinator

  French for Beginners

• 20212020

  Member

  Ethics Review Committee for Social Sciences and Humanities of the Faculty of Arts

• Present2018

  Member

  Research Committee of the Faculty of Arts

• Present2018

  Coordinator

  Certificate in Business English (Advanced) Course

• Present2018

  Coordinator

  Certificate in Business English (Preliminary) Course

• 20212016

  Academic Coordinator

  In-sessional English Course, Faculty of Law

• 20202018

  University Coordinator, University Test of the English Language

  University of Colombo

• -2020

  Coordinator

  In-sessional English Course, Faculty of Law

• -2019

  Chairperson

  Abstract Review Committee, Annual Research Symposium, Faculty of Arts

• 20112010

  Examination Coordinator

  English Language Teaching Unit

• 20102007

  Coordinator

  In-sessional English Course, Faculty of Law

• -2004

  Coordinator

  Remedial Course in English, Faculty of Science

• -2003

  Coordinator

  Pre-sessional English Course, University of Colombo School of Computing

• -2003

  Coordinator

  Pre-sessional English Course, Faculty of Science

• -2002

  Coordinator

  Pre-sessional English Course, Faculty of Law

Involvement with Other Organisations

• Present2023

  Member

  UTEL Scrutiny Board

• Present2023

  Member

  Board of Management, Post-Graduate Institute of English, The Open University of Sri Lanka

• Present2020

  Director

  National Centre for University Test of the English Language (UTEL) Testing Services of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Sri Lanka

• Present2020

  Chairperson

  UGC Steering Committee to Establish UTEL Testing Services

• Present2022

  Chairperson

  UTEL Results Board

• Present2022

  Chairperson

  UTEL Test Development Committee

• Present2021

  Chairperson

  UTEL Action Plan Committee

• Present2020

  Member

  UGC Standing Committee on Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL)

• Present2021

  Member

  UTEL Advisory Board

• Present2018

  Member

  UGC Steering Committee to Establish UTEL Testing Services

• 20222021

  Resource person

  Accelerating Higher Education and Development (AHEAD) Operation (A World Bank-funded Sri Lankan government operation to support the higher education sector)

• 2021start

  Resource person

  UTEL (General) Benchmarks that describe the language ability of undergraduates of state universities of Sri Lanka

• 21 July 202017 July 2020

  Trainer

  Trainer, Technical writing course for Parliamentary Research Unit, The Parliament of Sri Lanka

• 20212020

  Visiting Lecturer

  Certificate in English for Tourism and Hospitality Management Course, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

• -2019

  Visiting Lecturer

  Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Practice in English, Postgraduate Institute of English, Open University of Sri Lanka

• 20192018

  Part-time Lecturer

  Cambridge Business English Certificate (Higher), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka

• 21 Apr 201717 Apr 2017

  Resource person

  Intensive English Programme for English Teachers of Jaffna College, Jaffna, Sri Lanka

• 21 Apr 202117 Apr 2021

  Resource Person

  Intensive English Programme for English Teachers of Uduvil Girls’ College, Jaffna, Sri Lanka

• -2012

  Part-time Project Assistant

  University Development Grant of the Higher Education for the Twenty First Century (HETC) Project, Sri Lanka

• 20122011

  Team member

  UTEL (Academic) Benchmarks that describe the language ability of undergraduates of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

• -2011

  Visiting Lecturer

  English Language Project conducted at the University of Colombo Institute for Agro-technology and Rural Sciences (UCIARS), Weligatta, Hambantota, Sri Lanka to improve the employability of graduates

• -2011

  Reviewer

  Pre-orientation Programme (POP) for university entrants, Ministry of Higher Education, Sri Lanka

• -2007

  Visiting Lecturer

  Pre-sessional English Course for National Institute of Social Development (NISD), Colombo, Sri Lanka

• 20052004

  Member

  UTEL test development team

• -2004

  Resource person

  E-learning project for the University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka

Professional Expertise & Other Contributions

• Chairperson, Session on ‘Inclusive Language Learning’, Sri Lanka English Language Teacher Educator Conference (SLELTEC) 2024, MAS Athena, Thulhiriya, Sri Lanka, February 29-March 2, 2024.
• Chairperson, Session on ‘English as a Lingua Franca’, Sri Lanka English Language Teacher Educator Conference (SLELTEC) 2024, MAS Athena, Thulhiriya, Sri Lanka, February 29-March 2, 2024.
• B. Abeywickrama & D. Suraweera, Eds. (n.d). A special volume being prepared to be published in Multilingual Education Yearbook (https://www.springer.com/series/15827).
• Chairperson, Session on ‘Assessment and Evaluation’, Rajarata University International Symposium on English Language Teaching (RUISELT) titled ‘Teaching English in the Global Village’, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, June 30, 2021.
• Chairperson, Session on ‘Multiple Intelligences’, Research symposium on English Language Studies titled ‘Reflection, Research and Innovation: New Horizons in English Language Studies’, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 10-11, 2014.
• Chairperson, Session on ‘Learner Language/Corpus’, American Association for Corpus Linguistics (AACL) Conference, San Diego State University, USA, January 18-20, 2013.

Training & Development

• Workshop on Assessing Speaking: A focus on task validity conducted by Professor Luke Harding organised by the Post-Graduate Institute of English, The Open University of Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and The British Council, Colombo (March 4, 2024)
• Workshop on Assessing listening: Working with texts and writing items conducted by Professor Luke Harding organised by the National Centre for UTEL Testing Services of the University Grants Commission in collaboration with the Post-Graduate Institute of English, The Open University of Sri Lanka and The British Council, Colombo (March 4, 2024)
• Language Testing Forum 2021 – the annual conference of the UK Association for Language Testing and Assessment – held online and hosted by Lancaster University, UK (26-27 November 2021)

• Course titled ‘Corpus Linguistics: Method, Analysis and Interpretation’ held online and conducted by Lancaster University, UK (8 weeks - 2019)
• Corpus Linguistics for Language Learning, Teaching and Testing programme held at Lnancaster University, UK (24-27 June 2019)
• Workshop on Developing Language Assessment Literacy organised by the University Grants Commission, Sri Lanka (13-14 June 2019)
• Training programme on Teaching English for Legal Purposes held at Römer Villa, Neu Ulm, Germany (3-7 September 2012)
• Training programme conducted by the National Online Distance Education Service (NODES) of the Distance Education Modernisation Project (DEMP), Ministry of Higher Education , Sri Lanka (15-21 August 2008)
• Course titled ‘Train the Trainer’ conducted by the City and Guilds International English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Spoken ESOL, Sri Lanka (10-17 December 2004)
• Training programme on Instructional Design Methodology for e-Learning/Web-based Training conducted by the University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka (17-21 May 2004)
• Training programme on Testing and Evaluation conducted by the British Council, Colombo, Sri Lanka in collaboration with the University of Reading, UK (10-12 March 2004)
• General course in Diplomacy and World Affairs at the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka (March-June 1999)

CSR Projects

• Resource person, Workshop on “Effective presentation skills and public speaking skills” for the University of Colombo and Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan Distance Learning Summer Programme (10 August 2022)
• Resource person, Workshops on oral and written business communication and soft skills for interns conducted for the fourth year Economics special degree students of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (6 & 13 August 2021)
• Volunteer, Foster Mother Programme for Grade 6 students at the hostel of Royal College, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka (January – March 2020)
• Resource person, English for Tourism and Hospitality Management Course, Foundation for Empowering Employment in partnership with National Youth Corps, Sri Lanka and William Angliss Institute @SLIIT (January 2020)

• Resource person, Workshop conducted at Viharagala 550 Maha Vidyalaya, Hambantota, Sri Lanka to promote English among primary and secondary students (March 2018)