In pre independent Sri Lanka only a minority had access to English education. A dual system of education existed with fee levying English medium schools established by the British and free education in vernacular schools without access to English. After gaining independence, and in early 1950 English was made a second language to be taught in all schools. The intension was to reduce inequality of opportunities as English was essential for social mobility. However this objective had not been achieved due to several reasons. Over the years several measures have been implemented to alleviate some of these problems. One of the more recent measures is the introduction of bilingual education.
In most countries where bilingual education is implemented Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) helps the bilingual learners. However, in Sri Lanka such a model is not available. The present study is part of an ongoing study to develop a CLIL model for Sri Lanka. This paper examines how the existing English as a Second language (ESL) textbooks can contribute to such a model. In this predominantly qualitative study data was gathered through content analysis of ESL textbooks, questionnaires administered to teachers, interviews with teachers and students and classroom interaction analysis.
The initial findings of the documentary analysis reveal that although bilingual education was introduced in 2003, it has spread only to 9% of the entire country Present textbooks do not cater to the language needs of the bilingual learners. English language teachers and subject teachers do not work together to help the bilingual learners. Therefore, if bilingualism is to be developed a CLIL model needs to be developed.