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.

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).