Desire and Marketizing English Version of Education as a Commodity in the Linguistic Market in Bangladesh

Authors

Mohammod Moninoor Roshid Professor, University of DhakaFollow
Shaila Sultana Professor, University of DhakaFollow

Abstract

In recent years, the globalization of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) policy has grown exponentially, driven by socio-economic, political, cultural, and educational desires and forces. Despite having a well-established elite English-medium education in Bangladesh, EMI-based, a new type of education system has emerged recently at primary and secondary levels called English-version (EV) education. This paper investigates parents' desires to choose EV schools for their children and how those desires contribute to marketizing EV schools as a new and popular commodity in the education market of Bangladesh. Data were collected using open-ended questionnaires from 120 parents of primary school children studying at five EV schools. Moreover, further qualitative data was collected by conducting three follow-up focus group discussions (FGDs) with 14 parents and three key informant interviews (KIIs) with three EV school principals. Findings show that parents believe in the material value and promises of English as a linguistic capital that has implanted multiple desires in them for their children. They aspire for their children in EV to benefit from their improved English skills in the future at a reasonable cost while continuing to uphold Bangladeshi culture and values. In other words, the exponential market of EVs lies in its affordable cost and future benefits, in tandem with an informed distance from the culture associated with the English language.

Keywords

English version education, desire, commodity, linguistic capital, marketizing, qualitative research, case study, Bangladesh

Author Bio(s)

M Moninoor Roshid is a professor of English language education at the Institute of Education and Research (IER), University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Currently, he is working as a postdoctoral fellow at the International and Comparative Education (ICE) Research Group, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei. Email: moninoor@du.ac.bd (Corresponding author), ORCID: 0000-0001-9212-5895

Shaila Sultana is a professor in the department of English language, Institute of Modern Languages, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She can be contacted at: shailasultana@du.ac.bd.

Acknowledgements

This research is funded by the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. We express our gratitude to the University of Dhaka for funding this research. We express our sincere gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for spending time and effort to give feedback to improve the quality of the paper.

Publication Date

3-19-2023

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2023.5873

Recommended APA Citation

Roshid, M. M., & Sultana, S. (2023). Desire and Marketizing English Version of Education as a Commodity in the Linguistic Market in Bangladesh. The Qualitative Report, 28(3), 906-928. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2023.5873

ORCID ID

​https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9212-5895

ResearcherID

MS #5873