Tania Rahman

• Master of Arts
• Senior Lecturer at North South University

Research on the power dynamics in the agentive actions of linguistic minority group members in family language policies or communal decisions at the micro-level to inform macro-level language policy and planning (LPP) decisions in Bangladesh deserves attention. This presentation seeks to answer two broad questions: (1) what is the current state of...

The concept of “collective forgetting” is “an integral part of memory and that unravelling what is omitted and deemed as not worth remembering is essential to understanding how groups define their histories and identities” (Minarova-Banjac, 2018, p. 19; see also Norquay, 1999 and Assman, 2008). Language policies across nations driven by ‘one langua...

Higher education offered by the private sector in Bangladesh is heavily based on English medium instruction (World Bank, 2019; Sultana, 2014) in which the use of the mother tongue is discouraged and only English is encouraged to impart education. At private universities in Bangladesh, the emphasis on English as the only medium of instruction is sti...

Review of Local Research and Glocal Perspectives in English Language Teaching: Teaching in Changing Times.

This session shows how outcome-based education policy in Bangladeshi higher education fails to achieve social justice due to a stratified educational structure, medium of instruction debates, and unequal language policies that impact the learning outcomes related to the learners' critical and creative thinking skills development at the tertiary lev...

Drawing on Teng's model of agency (in Autonomy, agency, and identity in teaching and learning English as a foreign language, Springer, Teng, Springer, 2019) and qualitative case studies of 5 teachers and 10 students of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing courses at a Bangladeshi private university, this chapter provides an empirical justifi...

The concept of prayers is a daily, ‘self-involving’ and ‘discursive’ performative practice (Fitzgerald, 2012; Monteith, 2009; Austin 1975). In today’s world of new media, during times of crisis, nowadays people pray for others digitally, from a distance, using their linguistic repertoires, and thus participate in the performative act of praying col...

The presentation was modelled on the theoretical frameworks of “adaptive expertise” (Hung et al., 2016) and “Learning in Crisis (LiC)" (Antonacopoulou and Sheaffer, 2013). The data for the presentation was based on the broader case study of changes in the assessment in higher education in Bangladesh brought by the macro level of policymaking, and t...

All around the globe, the COVID 19 pandemic has affected human societies at every level, be it social, political, or educational (Tisdell, 2020). One such area has been education where millions of students and teachers worldwide are passing through a challenging and uncertain situation (Schleicher, 2020). Technology has enabled a large segment of t...

This paper is based on a study on the state of language shift and maintenance of a section of migrant Santals, one of the minority indigenous groups of Bangladesh, located in Dhaka. The paper seeks to answer two broad questions: (1) what is the state of the ethnolinguistic and identity affiliations of different generations of migrant Santal familie...

Language planning, particularly language-in-education planning in Bangladesh, has been laden with problematic issues which have slowed down the development of a sustainable and operational policy work for the nation since, and even before independence in 1971. Since a staggering majority of the people in Bangladesh (around 98%) speak different vari...

Recently, outcome based education (OBE) has emerged as a new trend in higher education in Bangladesh. OBE is popular as a student centered approach in education, mostly in science education in many parts of the world (Majid, 2016; Akir, Eng & Malie, 2012; Eng, Akir & Malie, 2012; Lixun, 2013, 2011; Basri, et al., 2004; Schlebusch & Thobedi, 2004; B...

This paper reports a study on the state of language shift and bi-/multilingual practices of a section of migrant Santals in Dhaka, one of the minority indigenous groups of Bangladesh, and the need for macro- and micro-language policies for language maintenance of the community. In this study, the impacts of religious conversion and cultural shift r...

The overall aim of outcome based education (OBE) is to ensure maximum achievement of targeted knowledge and skills necessary for graduates to choose a career, and also, to survive and grow at work. Over the years, as a student centered approach in education, mostly in science education, OBE has gained popularity in many parts of the world (Majid, 2...

This paper reports a study on the sociolinguistic implications of personal naming of a section of migrant Santals in Dhaka, one of the minority indigenous groups of Bangladesh. In this study, the impact of multilingualism, religion, culture and history resulting in bi- and/or multilingual practices, accommodation and language maintenance in Santal...

This paper is based on an investigation of the standard-colloquial debate among the four official languages, English, Mandarin, Tamil and Malay in Singapore. The aim of the study is to examine (1) major steps/movements in the history of Singaporean language policies that have been influential in forwarding the debate in the country and (2) how this...

Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations in the world – a country in which 98% of the people speak the national language Bangla and identify themselves as Bangladeshi nationals. There are also 45 or more indigenous groups which form linguistic minorities in the country, speaking more than 30 different languages, and ethnolinguistically different fr...

The Santals, a significant community among the forty five distinctive minority groups in Bangladesh, possess a rich cultural heritage and their language, Santali, bears their unique cultural identity. Over the years voices have been raised for legal rights for the indigenous minorities of the world and for the preservation of indigenous languages....