Answer : Socially People Are Trained Help ?

  One thing that we have all begun to appreciate since the arrival of the Corona-virus Pandemic has been the importance of scientists and those that support them. It is clear to the world that until there is a vaccine there is no real chance of bringing the situation under control. Governments have endeavored to wrestle with the need to minimize risk and deaths, and social distancing has become a key aspect of those efforts. Progress is being made, but it is often fitful and patchy, and there is always the ever present danger of further peaks of infection if we ease up too quickly, or simply resume life as it used to be before the arrival of COVID-19. The reality is that the ways of behavior, of interaction and doing business need to change and already there are signs of a new normal emerging, one that is predicated on the need to be cautious, vigilant and aware of the fact that anyone can catch the disease, and that anyone can spread it. Yet for all that, there is a pressing need to try and return to some form of normality, mindful of the fact that the disease remains a very real danger.

One sector that has found itself severely disrupted by the Corona-virus has been that of higher education. Universities and colleges have been closed, academic and support staff left in fear for their futures, and students' studies interrupted, and exams cancelled or postponed indefinitely. It is as if the pause button has been pressed on the entire sector, and yet this is the very sector that provides those scientists and others that will tackle future crises. Looking at the higher education sector it soon becomes apparent that the current paralysis need not exist, with a little imagination, and some technical know-how learning can continue. Granted the traditional face to face teaching that we have all been used to cannot go ahead at present, but various technological platforms mean that academics and students can interact in a controlled and professional manner. Already hundreds of institutions around the world have realized that they can justify their existence by conducting online teaching, with staff finding the process something of a revelation. Naturally, there have been a few technical glitches and teething problems, but once these have been ironed out all concerned seem to feel that the process is beneficial and what is more know that learning is being maintained and advanced.

So, what are the challenges for such a process in Bangladesh? Well, one of the greatest hurdles to surmount is the psychological one in respect of resistance to change. Some academics and many members of leadership and management teams are not particularly tech savvy and do not entirely grasp how online learning platforms might work. There are understandable anxieties about the need for training, and the development and availability of suitable learning resources. Such processes require total commitment, and that means that staff think through what material is made available and how lessons or units develop along with the learning objectives and assessment tasks. Many staff have little or no experience of such learning and so fear being exposed by such a process. Everyone needs to engage in some heuristic learning - learning by doing, and overtime ambivalence or hostility to such learning evaporates, and it can often be found to be a iterating experience. What is more institutions are finding that they can develop units and courses that can be easily offered to students who for whatever reason actually prefer distance learning. With planning and the appropriate monitoring and checks and balances, and of course safeguards around privacy etc. there is potential to tap into a way of learning that is undergoing exponential growth across much of the world.

For such learning to be effective in Bangladesh it is paramount that all students have access to the learning platforms, and this might well mean that tablets and other devices become a standard learning tool, one that is issued to all students and if necessary built into the fee structure. Rather than viewing such technology as a cost, it is needs to be seen as an asset, one that helps facilitate and optimize learning. It is vital that internet connectivity is improved and consolidated, something that is integral to the national economy. So, with this in mind, there are some questions that need to be asked of each and every HE institution:

There are very real opportunities at the present time to innovate, not just for the time of the Pandemic, but for the future. The most forward-thinking institutions have already recognized that this is a golden opportunity to embrace positive chance, to ensure the sector is both relevant and dynamic. No one is saying that it is easy, but it certainly can be exciting. When people embrace change and are helped to adapt to it remarkable things happen. Now is the time to harness the country's considerable IT talent to ensure that it becomes trans formative in the field of higher education and beyond. Quietly and relentlessly a revolution is taking place, one that will broaden all our horizons about what learning and indeed the world of work can become. Looking further afield we will notice that resistance is futile, change is already happening, it is just that the situation arising from the Corona-virus has speeded things up. No one should be in any doubt that there will be challenges, but the simple fact is that these are far outweighed by the opportunities.

Language is a source of communication with other members of society. It is the reflection of the culture to which it belongs. Salient characteristics of the culture can be inferred with the close study of its language. It is the source to transfer the various aspects of the ideology. "Every act of language whether it is written or spoken is a statement about the position of its author within the social structure in a given culture" (Tabouret, 1985). Many linguists and sociologists considering the significance of language in interpreting the cultural values have theorized the structure, functions, and purposes of language.

Knowledge of language structure, its function, and purposes enables us to understand communication. It makes easier for the listener to comprehend what's going on in the speaker's mind. Parpalea (2011) states that communication cannot be successful unless the utterance is accompanied by certain concepts of language function. For the success in communication skills, the clear idea of the language functions is essential (Brown, 2007). The number of functions varies from linguist to linguist regarding his studies and research but, I have restricted my studies to referential, ideational, and interpersonal functions of language.

Jakobson states six functions of language i.e. the referential, poetic, emotive, conative, metalingual, and phatic function. He explains that context is known as referent and interprets this function in two ways i.e. it relates to the thing "spoken of" or is associated with an element whose truth value is being affirmed. The second application of referential function is more important in which a statement is made that could be either true or false. The nature of our everyday language is dialogic as each person's contributions are orientated towards other speakers (Bakhtin, 1986). Therefore in the referential function of language, some information is conveyed to the interlocutor.

Halliday stated that language is "meaning potential". "It is creature and creator of human society" (Halliday, 2002). He enunciates three functional levels of language i.e. ideational, interpersonal, and textual function. The first one is ideational wherein the speaker expresses his ideas and experiences. This function is all about the conceptualizing process in our mental activities. It helps us to understand what's going all around us. It is also known as the experiential function. The second function i.e. interpersonal is employed when we establish and maintain social relationships. Language is primarily a social phenomenon, so apart from facilitating in communication it helps in projecting the speaker in the desired way. The third function, textual function fuses the interpersonal and ideational function-based language to create text.

From the above discussion, we learn that the language is never purposeless; it is always carrying a purpose or function in it. The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930), however, gave a new direction to the language studies and argued that we must pay more attention to the social conditions which make certain language structures possible. While studying the dynamics of power via language he coined the terms, "cultural reproduction", "habitus", and "symbolic violence". He states that language is not only a source of communication but also a tool to sustain the power structure. The structure of language is usually related to the social status of the speaker. The lingual habit ingrained in the members of society determines the preset action or reaction in a certain situation. Moreover, it decides who will speak, listen, Interrupt, enquire, or argue etc. language serves as one of the mechanisms used for the transmission of cultural values from one generation to the other. The "cultural reproduction" leads to the "social reproduction" i.e. whenever the existing cultural values are transferred to the new generation; the norms of society are handed down as well. The hidden agenda of the dominant class is transferred from generation to generation through language.

Socially people are trained to adopt particular linguistic habits and dispositions. These skills and dispositions are named "habitus" by Pierre Bourdieu. He states that people learn them through the process of imitation. Language practices are tamed in the very same way wherein the communication is not deliberately structured. Due to this attribute of language, it can be categorized as a form of "symbolic violence". Through language, the norms and values of the dominant group are unconsciously imposed upon the subordinate group and without any physical violence. Slavoj Zizek (2008) also states that "symbolic violence is located in the signification of language itself. The ways we talk to one another sustain relations of domination".

In short, the use of language for communication is not recent. When the linguists and sociologists realized its significance in terms of culture they analyzed it deeply and discovered that meanings are encoded into words. They identified that there is a certain function or purpose behind every utterance. There are always several choices for a speaker but he opts for one that suits his needs.