Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
This article traces the evolution of local English and its relationship with Bangla, the national language, by examining textbooks from different curriculum regimes in Bangladesh. During the early years of independence, English teaching relied on textual resources produced in the Inner Circle. In 1986, when a new textbook for Years 11-12 was written by Bangladeshi authors, it was criticised by academics, leading to its withdrawal. However, such resistance to local English and textbooks started to disappear from the 1990s. English textbooks in the subsequent decades accommodated “Bangladeshi English”, although without official acknowledgement. Nonetheless, the books were English-only and did not include any texts in Bangla as input or instruction. This linguistic orthodoxy of English was put aside in the textbooks introduced in 2023 which included strategic use of Bangla within a competency-based curriculum. The present analysis documents the shift away from exogenous English, English-only, and linguistic purism to English-Bangla co-existence.
M. Obaidul Hamid (Fri,) studied this question.