<p>Sinhala and Tamil are the two official languages in Sri Lanka and are also the media of instruction in the primary and secondary state sector schools, up to year 2003, - English being taught as a second language. In the University system, especially in the professional courses of study, English is the medium of instruction. Undergraduates having received secondary education in the mother tongue are now faced with the arduous task of acquiring and mentally separating two language codes with many divergent, overlapping, and intersecting functions, meanings, and forms.</p>