Profile

I first came to Sri Lanka in 1985 as an English language teacher at CIS (Colombo International School). I soon started learning colloquial Sinhala, and became interested in the variety of English spoken in Sri Lanka. I also worked as a Sinhala interpreter with ICRC, and then spent two years in Edinburgh, where I did a Diploma in English Language Teaching, worked as a contributor to the Oxford Wordfinder Dictionary, and worked on my own dictionary of Sri Lankan English.

I returned to Sri Lanka in 1995 and joined the British Council in Colombo as a full-time English teacher. Since 1996 I have been teaching a beginners’ course in spoken Sinhala at the British Council. From October 2009 I will also be teaching a beginners' Tamil course.

My book, A Dictionary of Sri Lankan English, was published in November 2007. I have given presentations on Sri Lankan English at two SLELTA conferences in Colombo, at the World Englishes conference in Hong Kong in December 2008, and at the Galle Literary Festival in January 2009. Also in 2009, I was one of the three judges for the Gratiaen Prize for creative writing in English.

Last update - September 2009