From education to professional life: language proficiency and social adaptation challenges faced by Bangladeshi Madrasah students

Abstract

The increasing demands of globalisation have made the English language a gatekeeper for entering the professional world. Despite having opportunities to enter the job market, madrasah students face difficulties with English. The current study focuses on their English language learning, leaving a gap in understanding their communicative adaptations in the workplace. Thus, to address this gap, this study explores how Bangladeshi madrasah students experience their communicative challenges, how these challenges affect their social adaptation, and what coping strategies they use to overcome them. Employing a qualitative case study, this research captures the lived experiences of five Bangladeshi madrasah students working across multiple sectors through semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify the themes. The findings reveal that English-language education in madrasah is mostly exam-oriented and focuses only on reading and writing, leading participants to face challenges with spoken English, professional writing, formal norms, and accent-related insecurities, which sometimes hinder their professional interactions. Social adaptation challenges include interactions with the opposite gender and discrimination based on attire and in the job sector recruitment. However, participants have developed strategies such as self-directed learning using online tools, writing books and dictionaries, and becoming more flexible in adapting to secular settings. This study recommends curriculum reforms for CLT and provides teacher training to better prepare madrasah students for the professional environment. The findings make a significant contribution to understanding employability, educational equality, and the gatekeeping role of English in a postcolonial context.