EAST WEST JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES

What Happens When an Exam- Oriented Country Announces Auto-Pass Grading Impacts of the Exclusion of 2021 SSC English in Bangladesh

Sunjida Kabir; Adiba Murtaza — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Though dedicated research on the impact of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams exists, a curveball was thrown into the situation in 2020 following COVID-19. Resultantly, 2020 and 2021 saw the removal of the SSC English paper exams, the consequences of which could be immediate and far-reaching simultaneously. In that light, this paper tries to fill the research gap by exploring how the exclusion of the SSC 2021 English exam has impacted the autopassed students in terms of their learning (or lack thereof), the amount and quality of preparation, and the aftereffects they faced as college students. To explore this issue, this qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews with six SSC 2021 examinees. Results show a significant lack of English learning due to a lack of exam incentives. Next, those who received a lower grade were unhappy with their auto-pass grades. Finally, some examinees with less developed English skills had trouble understanding lectures at college. Implications of this study suggest teachers and the administration to be considerate towards SSC 2021 examinees, many of whom may require hands-on aid to cope with current studies after skipping the SSC 2021 English exam.

Digital Literacy: A Question of Capacity and Safety in the Post- Pandemic Networked World

Jainab Tabassum Banu — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper, I will address the need to get accustomed to digital literacy in the post-pandemic networked world in the Bangladeshi context. The unanticipated arrival of the deadly coronavirus radically changed the traditional learning zone by shifting it to digital platforms. As a result of this drastic change, in the post-pandemic era, many parts of education still use digital tools to sustain effective modes of knowledge production and transfer. However, digital forums are technology-driven, and the websites contain various unreliable texts. Using these digital tools and utilizing the knowledge effectively and ethically requires an inevitable enhancement of digital literacy among Bangladeshi students (and teachers) at the tertiary level. In this paper, I investigate the challenges related to the capacity and safety of digital literacy and offer recommendations to overcome possible hurdles. I have used the autoethnographic qualitative research method to establish my claim. Secondary data are collected from existing relevant literature to strengthen the research findings and offer a comprehensive analysis. Through this article, my targeted readers, primarily teachers and students at Bangladeshi universities, will get into a dialog and negotiate their positions to navigate digital literacy in their academic and professional areas of study.

Exploring Post-COVID-19 Challenges in Inclusive Classroom Interaction among Tertiary EFL Learners: A Narrative Inquiry

Kohinoor Akther — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The global pandemic has greatly affected tertiary EFL learners due to the emergency online shifts from the face-to-face (F2F) learning mode. The fever, trauma, anxiety, social distance, masking, global shutdown, freeze, digital divide, and augmented reality created through video conferencing have caused several psychological issues among learners. The post-pandemic uneasiness extended from the pandemic tenure among the learners has received less attention in the popular pandemic literature. So, a research has been conducted to explore the issues that EFL learners still struggle with managing themselves in inclusive classroom interaction. Through the lenses of critical pedagogy and social justice, the study has tried to concentrate on the post-COVID-19 challenges that obstruct learners’ performance inside the classroom. These led them to perform unprecedented roles, making the inclusive classroom larger than during pre-pandemic times. This narrative inquiry as research design tries to delve into the inner struggles of five learners during the post-COVID-19 transitions from online to F2F classroom interactions. The study recommends solutions focusing on the L2 learners as essential stakeholders for their sustainable growth in higher education.

CLT in Online Classroom: A Post-pandemic Study on the Tertiary Level Practitioner & Participants of Bangladesh

Md. Rubel Parvez, Md. Saiful Islam — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to investigate the feasibility of implementing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the context of online classrooms. It examines how classroom activities and available resources can be utilized within an existing online platform to meet predefined objectives while defining the roles of both educators and learners. Employing a blend of quantitative and qualitative research methods, the study evaluates its findings in the context of existing literature and the recent shift towards online education, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Amidst this educational transformation, CLT, with its focus on fostering communicative skills, takes center stage. The study aims to determine the effective implementation of CLT in online classrooms, probing its suitability within this evolving educational context.