The Second Seminar of the English Department NRB Lecture Series by Dr. Obaid Hamid, Associate Professor, University of Queensland, Australia

The Seminar Committee of the Department of English, University of Asia Pacific (UAP), takes a great pleasure to inform that the second seminar of the English Department NRB Lecture was held at 11:00 am on 12th March, 2023. Dr. Obaid Hamid, a distinguished Bangladeshi scholar currently working at the University of Queensland, Australia, delivered a webinar on, 'Language standardisation and world Englishes: Insights from local textbooks in Bangladesh.' Prof. Dr. M. A. Baqui Khalily, Dean, School of Business, Acting Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences and School of Law, UAP, and Prof. A. M. M. Hamidur Rahman, Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Daffodil International University, joined the event as our Guests of Honor. The webinar was attended by the faculty members of UAP English Department and a large number of faculty members, experts and students of Applied Linguistics and ELT from home and abroad. Mr. Takad Ahmed Chowdhury, Associate Professor and Convener, Seminar Committee, Department of English, UAP hosted the webinar.


Dr. Obaid Hamid is an Associate Professor of TESOL Education at the University of Queensland, Australia. Previously he worked at the University of Dhaka. He is Co-editor of Language Planning for Medium of Instruction in Asia (Routledge, 2014). He has published his research in many journals including Language Policy, Current Issues in Language Planning, TESOL Quarterly, ELT Journal, and World Englishes. Recent contributions include articles (co-authored) in Oxford Research Encyclopedia in Education and Encyclopedia of World Englishes (Wiley, forthcoming). He is on the editorial boards of Current Issues in Language Planning, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, English Teaching Practice & Critique, Journal of Asia TEFL and Asiatic. He writes a regular column on language, education, and society in the Dhaka-based English daily New Age.

In his talk, Dr. Hamid explored questions around language standardisation in relation to new varieties of Englishes in an English-dominant world. Specifically, he focused on locally produced English textbooks in Bangladesh considering it an act of localisation of English along the line of the world Englishes movement. His examination was guided by a situated view of language and illustrated the nature of standardisation as reflected in the use of English in local textbooks as part of the national curriculum. His analysis and interpretations will have implications for language education actors associated with language policy and pedagogy in the Outer and Expanding Circles of English.

The webinar was inaugurated with an opening speech Prof. Dr. M. A. Baqui Khalily, Dean, School of Business, Acting Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences and School of Law, UAP, while Prof. A. M. M. Hamidur Rahman, Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Daffodil International University, made his concluding remarks on the talk. A vote of thanks to the resource person, honoured guests and participants was delivered by Dr. Zakia Ahmad, Associate Professor and Head, Department of English, UAP.