Colonial legacies, geopolitical dynamics, and the future of language policy and planning in Sri Lanka
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19224552 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Noel Dassanayake (0000-0001-6041-5601, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Issues in Language Planning (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1466-4208 • E-ISSN: 1747-7506 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14664208.2026.2675103 |
| OpenAlex | W7163060098 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 50 |
While the colonial legacy continues to linger in the socio-cultural domain, the influence of geopolitical power blocs has dramatically escalated due to the geostrategic location of Sri Lanka. The primary objectives of the present study were to identify the key causes behind the language policy and planning issues in Sri Lanka from a historical perspective and to examine their subsequent consequences on the current language ecology of the country. By using process tracing, the study has triangulated the interplay of colonial, postcolonial, and contemporary trajectories related to language planning, policy, and education. Mapping the local issues alongside the success stories of the Global South and South East Asia, the study proposes several conceptual insights in working towards a sustainable language policy and planning framework for Sri Lanka. The study underscores the need for comprehensive surveying of the current language ecology as the cornerstone move towards such a framework. Exploring the potentials of translanguaging is put forward as an effort towards both decolonizing language education and confronting the identity and iniquity crises in Sri Lanka while moving beyond the rigid binary oppositions and facilitating fluid use of multilingualism would potentially be instrumental in curbing the long-drawn language equity issues
Colonialism · Foreign policy · Geopolitics · Language planning · Language policy · Sri lanka · German Colonialism and Identity Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy
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Translanguaging as a social justice strategy
Thinking through “ in-betweenness ”
Translanguaging as a decolonising approach
Language practices and policies of Singaporean-Japanese families in Singapore
A Nation within a Nation
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Change and Continuity
Decolonizing English
Colonialingualism
Construction of English language skills as human capital and ELT as development aid in Bangladesh
The politics of distraction in planning English-medium education policy in schools
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British Language Policies and Imperialism in India
Language Politics in Sri Lanka
Transformative pedagogy for inclusion and social justice through translanguaging, co-learning, and transpositioning
Blowback
What is Sociolinguistic Theory
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Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |