Socio-economic Characteristics and English Language Achievement in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper reports data from the author’s PhD research which examined, among other issues, relationships between secondary school students’ family socio-economic characteristics and their academic achievement in English in a rural sub-district in Bangladesh. The data show that the rural students had low levels of academic achievement in English as measured by their scores on a proficiency test as well as their grades in English in the school-leaving examination. Within this overall low level of achievement, there were patterned relationships between the students’ family income and parental education and their academic achievement in English. Students who had higher levels of parental education and family income were more likely to obtain higher scores on the proficiency test as well as higher grades in English in the Secondary School Certificate examination. The paper discusses these findings and suggests their implications for theory, practice and policy of L2 English teaching and learning in developing societies in general and Bangladesh in particular.

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