(Continued from yesterday’s Midweek Review) We noted improvements in English language teaching and learning at the arts faculties of the USJ and University of Sabaragamuwa. The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) of the USJ offers two compulsory English courses with a credit value of 06 (i.e., 300 notional hours of teaching and learning) for all first year students and a compulsory English course of 01 credit value for all third year students. Further, compulsory credit courses in English language are offered in the second year for the students who follow their degree programmes in the Sinhala medium. The Department of English and Linguistics of FHSS, the USJ has pioneered in offering English as a degree programme to the students who have not studied English Language and Literature as a subject at GCE A/L. They have also pioneered in introducing an honours degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). The University of Sabaragamuwa offers four compulsory courses in English with 10 credit value for the first and second year students of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages. These courses have been designed to provide a progression in grammar, speaking, listening, reading and writing in the English language to the students. Furthermore, the students selected to this faculty can study TESL as a minor subject in any honours degree and major or minor in general degree programmes. They also have the opportunity to specialise English in arts degree programmes, even if they have not studied English as a subject for the GCE A/L.