Roll no: H00MAENG20200399

ELE 211

English Language Teaching in Multilingual Contexts

Internal Assessment 3

Bangladesh is especially known as a monolingual country where Bangla is the first language
or mother tongue of the majority of the population. In every sector including official, non-
official, academic and non-academic institutions of Bangladesh, Bangla gets the utmost
priority. It is also evident that English is also learned and taught as a second or foreign
language in our academic institutions from primary to tertiary levels and even the students of
universities are encouraged to use English for academic purposes. Syeda Rumnaz Imam in
her paper “English as a global language and the question of nation-building education in
Bangladesh” addresses feature of a language policy that might help improve Bangla literacy
and English proficiency.
The reality in Bangladesh is, we have a multilingual environment where nearly 60 languages
are used and practiced among different communities. We have 45 indigenous and small
ethnic groups who have their own mother tongues. It is pertinent to mention here that the
ethnic groups learn Bangla to communicate with the Bangla speaking majority and they are
quite habituated to adopt the Bangla language along with their first languages. The Arabic
language is also popular in Bangladesh for religious purposes as most of the people of
Bangladesh follow Islam as their religion and in Kaumi Madrasas of Bangladesh, Arabic is
the medium of instruction. Besides, there is an immigrant community known as the Bihari
community and the people of this community speak in the Urdu language among the
community members.
Since English is regarded an "institutionalised extra language," countries such as
Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Sri Lanka are well advanced in promoting English language
education. Bangladesh, being a growing country with roots in the historic 1952 language
movement, is a relative newcomer to the English language promotion competition. In recent
years, the Bangladesh government has taken a more active role in promoting the English
language in order to better communicate with the rest of the world. However, before making
any decisions about English language education, a country should consider how important
English language is to that country and what can be done to protect the interests of the nation.
As a consequence, Syeda Rumnaz Imam tried to focuses on Bangladesh's English language
education condition and examines parts of a language policy through this article.

It is evident that Bangla continues to receive utmost importance in Bangladesh's existing

implicit language policy, and it is absolutely essential for Bangladeshis to continue to place
equal emphasis on the language. As we all know, language martyrs sacrifice their lives in
1952 to establish Bangla as one of the state languages prior to independence. Since we
currently live in a global community and English is required for economic growth, the
present relevance of the English language is also useful and good for us. It is also worthy to
mention that Bangladesh is now developing rapidly due to the globalization process and

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industrial revolution. Different opportunities in the international arena are wide open for the
people of Bangladesh.

Therefore, as consequence, it is high time for Bangladesh to establish an official national

language strategy that promotes multilingualism and linguistic variety, so that we can obtain
the most benefits in the national and international arena for our sociocultural, political, and
economic growth. The government and officials should evaluate the current policy and set
out to create a new clear National Language Policy.

English was the dominant medium of administration, judicial activity, media communication, and
parliamentary activities under British dominion of the Indian subcontinent. The British employed
English language schools to train a privileged but subservient caste of native people as secondary
administrators and professionals; some even went on to British colleges to complete their studies.
Following partition, the English-educated elite formed a key thread in the developing states'
political, social, and economic leadership. In multilingual India and Pakistan, they maintained English
as their language of international communication and as one of the primaries means of internal
communication. A movement to promote the Bangla language emerged in East Pakistan in 1948,
centred on Dhaka University. The national language selection on Urdu was upheld in 1952, triggering
a second wave of linguistic protest that developed into a rebellion against West Pakistan's
dominance, led by the Awami League. The Pakistani government sought to restrict processions and
gatherings in Dhaka, but a general strike and a student procession took place on February 21,
defying the ban order. Police fired tear gas shells at the protesters, who replied by hurling stones,
prompting the police to open fire, killing three students and two others. The language movement's
martyrs made a lasting influence on the next generation, solidifying Bengali nationalism's secular
linguistic character. Bangla was formally acknowledged as a state language in Pakistan's first
constitution, which took effect on March 23, 1956, although the country was already politically
divided. Bangladesh was granted full country status in 1971, following a nine-month independence
war. In 1999, UNESCO passed a resolution honouring the Bangladesh language movement by
designating February 21 as 'International Mother Language Day,' commemorating the day in 1952
when Bengalis gave their lives in the battle for their national language. This is what has established a
unique place in every Bengali's heart for their mother tongue, and they appreciate and adore their
language on a level that is unlike that of many other nations.

Bangla was reaffirmed as the official language of teaching in government schools after the country's
independence in 1971. The only educational policy issues were whether or not to allow English
medium private schools and how much English to use in post - secondary institutions. English is
becoming more important to modernization and global communication ability as a result of Anglo-
American globalisation. If Bangladesh is to climb along the long curve of economic growth from its
low starting position, it must be nationally proficient in English. Internal democracy and
socioeconomic equality could be aided by the widespread use of English. However, English
proficiency is not a sufficient prerequisite for progress; it must be accompanied with indigenous
social-economic strength and strategically effective political leadership. These indigenous factors, in
turn, depends on national agency and identity, as well as a powerful enough determination to bring
the privileged elite and the masses together.

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Aside from language, several other factors play a role in nation-building. The issue of national
tradition vs global impact in educational language policy is not simply one of national tradition
versus global influence. Rather, it is about how a changing nation may maintain its unique project of
itself within the global context, which is always a mix of traditional and modern activities. The
promotion of educational English and educational Bangla may complement one other under
particular circumstances. However, such a good pairing remains an open question. What makes
Bangladesh's case unique is that, on the one hand, the Bangla language is important to the nation's
biographical identity; on the other hand, the non-linguistic circumstances that permit nation-building
are rather weak. The issues of language and educational policy in Bangladesh are explored in this
article.

Bangladesh is one of the world's most thickly populated nations. Increased investment in private
schools, colleges, and non-formal adult learning, according to the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank, is the most cost-effective way of increasing educational supply here. Secondary
education receives a lot of private funding, but much of it goes into private educational commodities
like individual tutoring rather than school resourcing. Bangladesh boasts one of the world's largest
centralised elementary education systems. The vast majority of students attend government and
private-sector-run Bangla medium schools. Except for English and the Religious Studies course,
which is taught in a combination of Bangla and Arabic, other courses are taught in Bangla. Tuition
costs vary, although they are often modest. A small proportion of students join private English
medium schools, some of which are prestigious and others that are not. This establishes a four-
tiered educational structure, with elite English medium schools at the top, less elite English medium
schools in the middle, public sector Bangla language schools in the middle, and Madrasah at the
bottom.

And while talking about the English language education in Bangladesh, Syeda Rumnaz Imam
mentioned that a fundamental constraint has been scarcity of qualified teachers. The first
commission report, published in 1974, stated expressly that Bengali would be the medium of
education and that English would be taught solely from Grades VI to XII. The Ministry of Education in
1988 maintained a standard beginning point for English at Grade 6, but also noted that English might
be offered in elementary school as early as Grade 3. The government proposed that English be
taught beginning in Grade 1, but this was not possible to execute in 1997. The Bangladesh
government, on the other hand, has recently been increasingly serious about boosting English
language education. "With a view to increasing employment overseas and facilitating technology
transfer," Bangladesh's President declared, "focus would be placed on teaching English language
alongside the home tongue." A new policy is envisaged, focused on the training of instructors of
English. With the help of British Council funding, the teacher training curriculum is now being
updated. Providing lessons alone does not ensure communicative proficiency.

And Except for Bengali classes and religious courses, all courses at private English medium schools
are taught in English using books published in the United Kingdom. The limited number of prominent
English medium schools charging high fees, which are far better resourced than public schools, are at
the heart of this industry. Essentially, these institutions provide a globalised curriculum for the social
elite, which is imported from the United Kingdom. Along this premium core of English medium
schools, there are fewer exclusive institutions with lower tuition fees and, on the whole, worse
English medium education. These schools, which are increasing in number, are meant to grab the
English language education market among non-elite households. Teachers at these schools are not

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needed to have finished an English-medium education or to have taken English at a post-secondary

level. Although the children may not speak English as fluently as their peers at elite institutions, they
do learn to read and write reasonably well.

Problems with global English in Bangladesh that some people think English language emerges as a
crucial device for global hegemony. The English language school in Bangladesh directly reproduces
Anglo-American hegemony. In most Asian nations that were formerly directly dominated by the UK,
such as India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia, these schools perform a comparable worldwide
role. In these nations, English has risen to the top not just in terms of the number of speakers, but
also in terms of the power–knowledge relationships that control and perpetuate its usage.
Government policy encourages demand for English as a second language, which is maintained by a
globally aspirational middle class. English-speaking elites who are well-connected across the world
have a tendency to dominate national privileges. Considering the significance of the national
language to Bangladesh's national identity, the rising prestige of English, which poses a medium-
term threat to the national language's unifying and standardising functions, poses a significant
challenge—all the more so given English's dominance among the Bangladeshi elite. To determine the
nature of the problem, it is vital to keep track of the different roles of English and Bangla in all areas,
as well as to investigate the cultural implications of language usage in each scenario.

While talking about Language planning and strategy in Bangladesh, Syeda Rumnaz Imam highlighted
the point that out of a Bangladeshi viewpoint, one of most key instructional topics is to determine
which policies, strategies, and approaches will best contribute to Bangladesh's economic, social,
political, and cultural growth as an independent nation. Another issue with national language policy
is that most people see national identity and learning English as adversarial rather than
complimentary. This is a direct outcome of the colonial tradition's lengthy use of English as a
technique of divide-and-rule; the comprador nature of the English-focused class; and the
segmentation of the educational system between English medium schools weak in Bangla and
Bangla medium school’s poor in English. Another unfavourable outcome is that global English and
international education are viewed as sources of high educational quality. Public education and local
university education have been demoted to second-class status, unable to retain the elite's social
support or attract significant government funding. National policy must provide more effective
regulation of educational progress.

To sum up, Imam said that developing a strong educational foundation through a strong
language education strategy is critical in resisting all types of dangerous influences and
assisting in the establishment of one's own identity and serving one's own interests.
Pennycook's (1995) concept of 'counter-discourse,' she said, gives a strategic orientation for
non-English-speaking emerging nations such as Bangladesh. In the case of Bangladesh, both
in Bangla and English classrooms, the country need its own educational content that reflects
its own counter-discourse and takes imperialist impact into account and critically examines it.
The diversity of our culture due to the presence of indigenous communities is providing extra
vigour to the national fabric of Bangladesh . However, the languages of indigenous people in
Bangladesh lack vitality because there are problems in the efforts to preserve them. Here the
government should give indigenous people the opportunity to use their own languages for a
certain level of education and for certain activities along with proper English language
training.

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References:

Bari, M. (2002) A brief history of the Bangla language movement. Available online
at: http:// www.cyberbangladesh.org/banglahist.text

Pennycook, A. (2001) Critical applied linguistics: a critical introduction (London,

Lawrence Erlbaum).
Rumnaz Imam, Syeda (2005). English as a global language and the question of
nation building education in Bangladesh. Comparative Education,