LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:6 June 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Dysfunctional Bilingualism in Bangladeshi Education and Society

Faheem Hasan Shahed, Ph.D.

Abstract

There has been constant furor over the declining and ineffective standard of bilingual education policy in Bangladesh. Experts have been arguing for imparting English and Bangla language education to the target groups in terms of need instead of imposing bilingualism to all citizens. This paper investigates and deals with the fundamental question of domain-specific bilingualism for Bangladeshis and shows how the country’s present bilingual education system and language policy have been thwarting the formation of effective bilingual workforces. And subsequently the paper argues how both English and Bangla have turned out to be liabilities rather than assets for the Bangladeshi society while the creation of resource personnel for both intra- and international domains still remains a far cry.

Keywords: bilingualism, biculturalism, Bangla, domain analysis.

Introduction

For many people, the term ‘bilingualism’ relays somewhat a problematic connotation. The actual nuance of the term is not always as clear as it sounds—specifically when we try to talk of producing efficient bilingual personnel in various domains of our national and international lives. Though apparently, bilingualism means a person’s acquisition and consequently her/his ability to use two languages where those ‘two languages’ may or may not include her/his parents’ mother tongue (for example, a Bangladeshi Bangla-speaking parents’ son in Canada who knows English and French, but not Bangla), the issue needs to be understood from pragmatic perspectives.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Faheem Hasan Shahed, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of English
Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)
faheemhs@aiub.edu

Address:
Campus-7; House 23, Road 17
Kemal Ataturk Avenue, Banan
i Dhaka-1213
Bangladesh
faheembangladeshi@gmail.com
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