

Asifa Sultana, PhD
Professor
Dr. Asifa Sultana joined ENH as a faculty member in 2008. She has completed her PhD in language development of Bangladeshi children from University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2015. She is currently involved in a range of research projects on child language development that connect Bangla child language data to the vast crosslinguistic body of work conducted in this area. She teaches courses in the Applied Linguistics and ELT stream, and supervises theses of both undergraduate- and graduate-level students at the department.
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Education
+–PhD| March 2015 | Department of Communications Disorders, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
- Area: Speech and language Sciences
- Thesis title: Morphosyntactic Development of Typically- and Atypically-developing Bangla- speaking Pre-school Children
M.A. in English | April 2008 | English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad
- Area: Linguistics And English Language Education
B.A. (English)| April 2006 | University of Delhi
- Area: English Literature
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Publications
+–Book Chapters
Sultana, A., Fletcher, P., Klee, T., & Stokes, S. F. (2019). Ba-LARSP: Towards a profile of Bangla. In M. J. Ball, P. Fletcher, & D. Crystal (Eds.), Assessing Grammar: Even more languages of LARSP (pp. 192–208). UK: Multilingual Matters.
Journals
Ahmed, S., Sultana, A., & Ali, S. M. (2022). Challenges of implementing higher order thinking tasks in Bangladeshi secondary English classrooms. NAEM Journal, 16(1), 23–31. https://naem.portal.gov.bd/site/page/56e66a4f-b41c-4f71-a157-5b662ba01ba5
Khan, M., & Sultana, A. (2022). Teaching English to young learners in a pandemic: A Bangladeshi perspective. BELTA Journal, 6(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.36832/beltaj.2022.0601.03
Sultana, A. (2022). The missing majority in child language research: A commentary on Kidd and Garcia. First Language. https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237221094738
Kabir, F., & Sultana, A. (2021). Emerging issues of translanguaging and speaking English: Perspectives of multilingual Bangladeshi young adults. English as International Language Journal, 16(2). https://connect.academics.education/index.php/eilj/article/view/188
Sultana, A. (2021). Early verb morphological development of a Bangla-speaking child. Language Learning and Development, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2021.1875832
Mazumdar, B., Donovan, N. J., & Sultana, A. (2020). Comparing language samples of Bangla speakers using a colour photograph and a black-and-white line drawing. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 55, 793–805. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12564
Sanjana, L., & Sultana, A. (2019). Productivity of verb stems and inflections in Bangla-speaking children. Journal of Child Language Acquisition and Development, 7(3), 73–90.
Sultana, A., Stokes, S. F., Klee, T., & Fletcher, P. (2019). Development of verb inflections among Bangla-speaking children with language disorder. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 54(1), 143–153. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12438
Fabee, N., & Sultana, A. (2019). Online language teacher education in Bangladesh: A possibility ahead. BELTA Journal, 3(1), 1–16. Retrieved from https://www.belta-bd.org/journals/03/0302.pdf
Sultana, A., Stokes, S., Klee, T., & Fletcher, P. (2016). Morphosyntactic development of Bangla-speaking preschool children. First Language, 36(6), 637–657. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723716673958
Sultana, A. (2016). Morphological development of Bangla-speaking children: A pilot study. The EFL Journal, 7(1), 73–92. Retrieved from http://www.openhumanitiesalliance.org/journals/eflj/article/view/94/81
Mohiuddin, M., & Sultana, A. (2016). Preferences and problems in feedback techniques of Bangladeshi tertiary level students. Crossings: A Journal of English Studies, 7, 171–184. Retrieved from https://sah.ulab.edu.bd/crossings/
Sultana, A. (2016). Description of verb morphology in colloquial Bangla. BRAC University Journal, 11(1), 69–77. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10361/6779
Sultana, A. (2010). Specific language impairment: When only language becomes difficult. BRAC University Journal, (Special Issue (01)), 94–100. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10361/5162
Sultana, A. (2009). Peer Correction in ESL classrooms. BRAC University Journal, 6(1), 11–19. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10361/450
Policy and Research Report
Sultan, M., Huq, L., Sultana, A., & Al Mamun, S. (2022). Voicing and challenging workplace sexual harassment in Bangladesh. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD). https://bigd.bracu.ac.bd/publications/voicing-and-challenging-workplace-...Oosterom, M.; Huq, L.; Namuggala, V.; Nazneen, S.; Nankindu, P.; Sultan, M.; Sultana, A. and Azim, F. (2022). The Gendered Price of Precarity: Voicing and Challenging Workplace Sexual Harassment, IDS Research Report 88, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies. https://doi.org/10.19088/IDS.2022.030Conferences
Sultana, A., Stokes, S. F., Fletcher, P., & Klee, T. (2015). Development of verb morphology in Bangla-speaking preschool children. In 37th International Conference of Linguistic Society. New Delhi
Sultana, A., Mazumdar, B., & Donovan, N. (2019). Comparing language samples based on high-context color photograph compared to line drawing. Florida.
Sultana, A., Stokes, S., Klee, T., & Fletcher, P. (2017). Use of verb morphology among Bangla-speaking children with language difficulties. In International Conference on Language Acquisition, Impairment, and Intervention. Dhaka.
Sultana, A., Stokes, S. F., Fletcher, P., & Klee, T. (2016). Verb form use by Bangla-speaking preschool children. In EUCLDIS 2016. Budapest.
Sultana, A., Stokes, S. F., Fletcher, P., & Klee, T. (2016). Morphosyntactic development of Bangla-speaking children with language impairment. Hawaii.
Sultana, A. (2015). A description of verb morphology in standard and colloquial Bangla. In 4th International Congress of Bengal Studies. Tokyo.
Sultana, A., Stokes, S. F., Fletcher, P., & Klee, T. (2014). Morphosyntactic development of Bangla-speaking pre-school children. Wisconsin.
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Professional Activities
+–Undergraduate Program Coordinator, Department of English and Humanities
Chair, BracU Institutional Review Board II (Social and Behaviourial Research)
Chair, Program Self Assessment Committee, Department of English and Humanities
Member, Core Committee, Institutional Review Board, Brac University
Member, Research Metrics CommitteeProject Coordinator, Evaluating Secondary School English Language Teaching and Learning in Bangladesh (2017- 2018) (Grant awarded to the Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh/ Supported by the RELO Grant, American Centre).
Contributor of the Bangladeshi non-standard variety of English to the world atlas eWAVE (http://ewave-atlas.org/). Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Germany (to start from January ’16).
Key organiser of the International Conference on Language Acquisition, Impairment, and Intervention (March, 2016)
Organiser of a two-day International conference on Rethinking Disciplinary Diversity: Challenges of Teaching English in the 21st Century (November ’18)
Member of the curriculum review committee (Department of English & Humanities)
Professional Skills/Trainings
Research Ethics Evaluation (An online course offered by the University of Hong Kong), January ’22.
Course on field linguistics titled ‘Minority Languages in India: Elementary Education and Technology’ offered by IIT Kharagpur, India from 7-28 December ’20Course on Moodle (modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment) organized by the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (November, 2017)
Online course on Transferable Skills Project organised by Auckland University of Technology, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Canterbury, August – November 2013
BRACU Faculty Orientation organised by Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University, September 2008
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Courses Taught
+–Principles of Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Second Language Acquisition, ELT Methodology, Teaching Practicum, Research Methodology, Aspects of Language, English as a Second Language: Theory and Practice
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Conferences, Talks, and Speaking Engagements
+–Sultana, A., Saba, A., & Azim, F. (2022). Expressions of sexual violence by low-income women workers in urban Dhaka. International conference on ‘Just sustainable futures in an urbanising and mobile world’ at the University College London, Development Studies Association (6-8 July).
Sultana, A. (2022). The Language of Harassment– Gaps Between Perception and Expression. Paper presented at the National Workshop on Voicing and Challenging Workplace Sexual Harassment. Brac Institute of Governance and Development (25 May).
Ahmed, S., Sultana, A., & Ali, S. (2022). Outcomes of a Teachers’ Training Workshop on Higher Order Thinking Tasks. International Conference on Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges, 1st AIUB International Conference on Arts and Social Sciences (12- 13 January).
Ahmed, S., Sultana, A., & Ali, S. (2021). Implementing Higher Order Thinking Tasks in Secondary English Classrooms. BELTA Webinar Series (23 October).
Sultana, A. (2020). Writing a Literature Review: Going beyond writing a summary. Invited Plenary Speaker at the 1st International Virtual Research Conference titled ‘Contextualizing Research in Challenging Times’, TESOL Society of Bangladesh (18-19 December ’20).
Sultana, A., Stokes, S., Klee, T., & Fletcher, P. (2016). Verb Form Use by Bangla-speaking Preschool Children. Paper presented at EUCLDIS 2016, Budapest (11th-13th May).
Sultana, A., Stokes, S., Klee, T., & Fletcher, P. (2016). Use of verb morphology among Bangla-speaking children with language difficulties. Paper presented at the International Conference on Language Acquisition, Impairment, and Intervention (24th March).
Sultana, A., Stokes, S., Klee, T., & Fletcher, P. (2016). Morphosyntactic Development of Bangla-Speaking Children with Language Impairment. Virtually presented poster at the IAFOR Conference on Language Learning, 2016, Honolulu, Hawaii (8th - 11th January).
Sultana, A. (2015). A Description of Verb Morphology in Standard and Colloquial Bangla. Paper accepted (did not participate) at the 4th International Congress of Bengal Studies 2015, Tokyo (12th- 13th December).
Sultana, A., Stokes, S., Klee, T., & Fletcher, P. (2015). Development of Verb Morphology in Bangla-speaking Preschool Children. Paper presented at the 37th International Conference of Linguistic Society of India, New Delhi (15th- 17th October).
Sultana, A., Stokes, S. F., Klee, T., & Fletcher, P. (2014). Morphosyntactic development of Bangla-speaking pre-school children. Poster presented at the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders (SRCLD), Madison, Wisconsin, USA (June).
Funded Projects
Principal Investigator, Mother Tongue Based Education through Community Participation (2022-2023), Funded by the Open Society University Network.
Co-investigators: Dr. DriptaPiplai (IIT Kharagpur, India), Indrani Roy (Independent Research Consultant), Dr. Soma Paul (International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad)Local Investigator, LeibnizDream Project (A large scale comparative language acquisition study involving 50 languages, Funded by European Research Council) (2021- 2027).
Principal Investigators (PI): Prof. Artemis Alexiadou (Humboldt University of Berlin), Prof. Maria Teresa Guasti (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy), Prof. Uli Sauerland (Leibniz-Center General Linguistics)Researcher, The Gendered Price of Precarity: Workplace Sexual Harassment and young women’s agency (British Academy’s Youth Futures grant) (2020-22).
Team member, Higher Order Thinking Tasks in Fostering Critical Thinking in Secondary English Classroom (2019- 2020), Funded by the National Academy of Education Management (NAEM), Bangladesh.
Researcher, Characterising language output of neurologically healthy Bangla-speaking adults (January 2018- December 2020).
Co-investigators: Barnali Mazumdar & Dr. Neila J. Donovan (Department of
Communication Sciences and Disorders, Louisiana State University)Project Coordinator, Evaluating Secondary School English Language Teaching and Learning in Bangladesh (2017- 2018) (Awarded to Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh; Funded by the RELO Grant, American Centre).
International Thesis Supervision
Primary Supervisor, A review of the assessment tools used for identification of Developmental Language Disorders in South Asia (A Master’s Thesis, March ’21- August ’21)
Research Student: Swastika Bhattacharya (European Master’s in Clinical Linguistics on Erasmus Mundus Scholarship)
Secondary Supervisor: Prof. Outi Tuomainen, University of Potsdam, Germany -
Awards, Honors
+–The SRCLD Star Student Travel Award, 35th Annual Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders (SRCLD) in Madison, Wisconsin, June 2014
University of Canterbury Doctoral Scholarship, 2011- 2014
Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Scholarship, 2003-2006
5th position in the combined merit list in the Higher Secondary School Certificate examination (2002)
2nd position in the combined merit list in the Secondary School Certificate examination (2000)
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Membership
+–Life member of the Linguistics society of India (since October 2015) (membership no. 36/2015)
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Research Areas/Interests
+–Mother Tongue Based Education in Children
Identification of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in Bangla
Development of morphological and syntactic profiles of typically- and atypically-developing Bangla-speaking children