A Comparative Report on Teaching and Learning English at the Tertiary Level in China and Bangladesh

Abstract

Globalization has been taking place due to the capital driven competitiveness among the countries. Although mainly it was supposed to be limited to the development of the countries but now the education sector has been globalized as well. In higher education, it can be seen that the developing countries are taking part in the race with developed countries to tag themselves as globalized as possible (Zajda, 2020). Due to the colonialism, English has still been considered as a common medium to be used for communication and globalization around the world. Also, English is not only considered as “Lingua Franca”, rather it has been considered as a pathway for developing in global economies by most of the countries especially Asian countries like China, Bangladesh and India. Applying the neo-liberal policy, both China and Bangladesh are blindly accepting English as their fundamental language to be exercised at all levels of educational institutions. In case of tertiary level, English has been given more emphasis so that the students are well prepared to face the outer world. Although students are also considering English as their only way to communicate with the outside world but the reality is quite contradictory to the expectation. Thus, it raises the question of conducting research. This research will compare the teaching and learning of the English language at the tertiary level in China and Bangladesh. In this comparative report between two countries, it will explore teaching strategies for a similar language in two different cultural contexts and also aim to understand the importance of English as a global language in both countries along with the student’s perception of learning English.