1st Edition
Language and Sustainable Development in Bangladesh Policies, Practices, and Perceptions
This book examines relationships between language and sustainable development in the context of Bangladesh. Following inclusive and multidisciplinary perspectives, these relationships are explored in mainstream education, teacher education, religious education and indigenous, ethnic minority and refugee settings. The contexts of development are also diverse which include the public sector, international non-government organisations, domestic work, tourism, and the environment.
The book records voices of people from various linguistic, social, cultural, and demographic backgrounds, in urban, rural, and peripheral settings. It makes the language question visible in the manifold contexts of development where it has generally remained invisible. Giving visibility to language by referring to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the chapters embrace language and development in pluralistic ways and underscore their complex but undeniable relationships. The authors come from diverse backgrounds and bring plurality of genres, methods, insights, and implications.
The volume is intended for students, academics, researchers, policy personnel, language practitioners, and other readers whose works and interests straddle language, development, and SDGs. It will benefit them by explicating language-sustainable development relationships in theoretical as well as practical ways, suggesting directives for policies and practices for linguistic and social justice, and equity and inclusion.
Introduction to Language and Sustainable Development
M. Obaidul Hamid, Shaila Sultana, and Mohammod Moninoor Roshid
Part 1: English Language, Teacher Education and Prospects of Development
Chapter 1: English Language Teacher Education in Bangladesh: Global Citizenship Education for Sustainable Development
Rubina Khan
Chapter 2: Transformative Multiliteracies Pedagogy and Sustainable Development: Investigating Government Primary Schools at Chattagram Hill Tracts
Tazin Ahmed, Rajia Sultana, Iram Mehrin, and Shaila Sultana
Chapter 3: Quality in English Language Teaching in an Evolving World: An Examination of the Implications of SDG4 for Teacher Development in Bangladesh
Md Al Amin, and Janinka Greenwood
Part 2: Languages, Employability, Labour Market Experience, and Environment
Chapter 4: Employability and Development Potential of Bangla and English in the Public Sector Job Market in Bangladesh
Bijoy Lal Basu, Mohammad Mahmudul Haque, and M. Obaidul Hamid
Chapter 5: Language Skills, Employability and Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Indigenous Domestic Workers in Bangladesh
Abdullah Al-Mamun and Shaila Sultana
Chapter 6: Language Proficiency in Organizational Dynamics in International Development Partner Organizations and Sustainable Development Goals
Mohammod Moninoor Roshid, and Jubida Aziz
Chapter 7: Sustainability of Language, Tourism, and the Environment in Bangladesh
Md Rabiul Alam, Md Wasiul Islam, and M. Obaidul Hamid
Part 3: Language, Marginality, and Inclusion in Relation to Development
Chapter 8: Globalisation, English for All, and Sustainable Development: Policy Discourses and Schooling Reality in Bangladesh
M. Maksud Ali, and M. Obaidul Hamid
Chapter 9: Sociolinguistic Cohesion for Sustainable Development: Views from a Rural Bangladeshi Madrasa
Qumrul Hasan Chowdhury
Chapter 10: Social Inclusion, Language Education, and SDGs: Perspectives of the Rohingya Community in Bangladesh
Shakila Nur
Chapter 11: Mother Tongue-Based Education in Two Linguistically Marginalised Communities of Bengal
Asifa Sultana, and Dripta Piplai (Mondal)
Epilogue: ‘Sustainability’, ‘Development’ and ‘Language’ in Bangladesh
Hywel Coleman
Biography
M. Obaidul Hamid is Associate Professor of TESOL Education at the University of Queensland in Australia. He teaches and researches TESOL policy and practice in developing societies. He is a co-editor of Language planning for medium of instruction in Asia (Routledge, 2014).
Shaila Sultana is Professor and Director of BRAC Institute of Languages at BRAC University, Bangladesh. Her research interests include sociolinguistics and language education with reference to translingual practices and language, gender, indigeneity and ethnicity, and identity. She is lead editor of Routledge handbook of English language education in Bangladesh (2021).
Mohammod Moninoor Roshid is Professor of TESOL education at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests include Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF), graduate employability, and higher education. He is a co-editor of the Routledge handbook of English language education in Bangladesh (2021).
