English Language Teaching at the Tertiary Level in Bangladesh: Trends, Challenges, and Institutional Responses

Abstract

Introduction: The current context of English language teaching (ELT) in tertiary education in Bangladesh is a confluence of several issues such as globalization, employability pressure, multilingual nationhood and a polarized public–private higher education system. There is a growing emphasis on communicative competence, outcome-based education (OBE), English-medium instruction (EMI), and learner-centred pedagogy in the national policy and institutional strategy, but a disconnect remains between policy and practice. This study explores the trends, challenges, and institutional responses that have been shaping tertiary ELT in Bangladesh.

Methodology: This is a documentary secondary data integrative review, which is exploratory in nature and is synthesized narratively. After searching 5 databases and targeting specific institutional sources, 126 documents were kept, which comprised 62 peer-reviewed articles, 45 curriculum documents, 7 national policy documents, and 12 quality-assurance reports published between January 2010 and December 2025. A multi-level institutional analysis framework, combining Scott's three pillars of regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive, and critical applied linguistics, was used in the analysis of the data.

Results: Three trends were found that converged: formal implementation of OBE frameworks, growth of ESP and EAP provision, and digital integration in the post-pandemic era. High tertiary student–teacher ratios, examination-driven pedagogy, uneven enactment of EMI, high levels of code-switching in the classroom, and a high level of variation in entry proficiency are all obstacles to these advances. Institutional responses, such as foundation programmes, language centres, faculty development and employer engagement, are now commonplace but are not often assessed for longer-term impact.

Conclusion: The issue is not that the sector lacks a reform effort, but that the regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive aspects of the sector are structurally misaligned, and that this inevitably leads to a form of performative compliance with ambitious mandates. To achieve sustainable improvement, policy adaptation needs to be contextually grounded, evaluation needs to be done longitudinally, teachers need ongoing development, and there needs to be more articulation between English provision and graduate employability. The study provides an integrated analytical framework for tertiary ELT reform, and a sequenced, provenance-labelled reform agenda.