A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF TERTIARY STUDENT AND TEACHER PERSPECTIVES ABOUT LEARNING/TEACHING ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES (EAP) IN BANGLADESH

This study is a descriptive analysis of tertiary student and teacher perspectives on learning and teaching English for academic purposes (EAP) in Bangladesh. The dissertation’s purpose was to contribute scholarly research with practical suggestions to alleviate a significant problem facing Bangladeshi students and teachers: despite tremendous effort and potential, both groups are relatively behind their south-Asian counterparts in English proficiency (Rahman et al., 2019). The problem is significant because the UN (2023) considers Bangladesh a leastdeveloped country, and English proficiency is critical for its socio-economic development. The research problem was addressed through the theoretical framework of Hallinger and Murphy's (1985) instructional leadership model’s second aspect: managing the instructional curriculum. Quantitative data were gathered through surveys based on two robust questionnaires highlighting beliefs about language learning and learning/teaching styles. A total of 414 participants approximately evenly distributed among the three different independent variable categories—student/teacher, male/female, and inside/outside Dhaka—participated in the study. The results highlight a high motivation for learning/teaching English amongst students/teachers coupled with unrealistic expectations regarding how long it will take to become fluent. Additionally, students and teachers, especially in rural areas, use a traditional grammatical-translation and teacher-centric approach to EAP with an emphasis on memorizing vocabulary. These findings suggest several implications. First, teachers should manage should unrealistic student expectations. Second, curriculum designers should increase focus on grammar in instruction and assessment. Lastly, education officials should use the results to comprehensively assess the progress of the Bangladesh’s transition to the communicative language teaching method for EAP.