• Humaira Naznin

  Author

• Farheen Hassan

  Author

The paper aims to identify the linguistic barriers and challenges first year
undergraduate students confront at American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), one
of the leading private universities in Bangladesh. The paper seeks to investigate the impact of
such linguistic transition, which is from Bengali to English, on the students’ performance in
tertiary environment. The paper is an exploratory study. Following case study methodology and
utilizing a blend of qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (survey) approach it
has been found that first year students face negative experiences and greater degree of difficulty
in adapting English as medium of instruction. Another significant finding of the study is that such
constraint of linguistic transition is negatively associated with the social transition of first year
students at the university. In this regard, the teaching method, course content and quality of
English language study at primary, secondary and higher secondary level of education has a
vital role to make this transition smooth.

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