ALC Newsletter - 03/01/2018 (Plain Text Version)

However, two major developments in the second half of the 20th century were considered a breakthrough. As language teaching became a full-fledged profession, applied linguists and educationists drew on the developing fields of linguistics, psychology, sociology, and mainstream education to support a succession of ideas that enlightened the teaching/learning phenomenon. The most important among them was the realization that the learner was not an unthinking being at the receiving end of knowledge transmission but an active human with his or her own preferences on ways of learning. Applied linguists and educationists also developed principles and procedures for designing methods and materials for English language learning, a more humanized classroom methodology and a credible form of assessment.

Rationale for Reconsidering Perceptions Regarding English Language Studies
I then went on to provide the rationale for reconsidering perceptions regarding English language studies in today’s world. I pointed out that South Asian countries are convinced of the high value of English and its transforming power (Graddol, 2010; Erling & Seargeant, 2013). Governments and education planners consider English important for competition in a globalised world. As a result, their agenda is now to develop generations of young people who are able to use their language skills nationally and internationally. 

In terms of perceptions regarding English language education in Bangladesh, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a major shift took place when there was a formal recognition of the teaching of English language as a specialized discipline, with universities opening graduate programs in ELT and TESOL. However, this was not considered a happy state of affairs by the traditional teaching community, which clung to previous schools of thought that believed literature should be the material content for English learning. This has resulted in a literature-language divide among Bangladeshi academics that persists even today.

Some Basic Facts about Bangladesh
At this point, to put things in perspective, I provided some basic socioeconomic and educational facts regarding the country.

Bangladesh is a lower middle income country, according to the World Bank 2015 and the eighth most densely populated country (160 million packed into approximately 56,000 sq. miles, slightly bigger than the size of New York State). I provided the following statistics (2015 Statistical Yearbook Bangladesh):

• Per capita income (US$1602 per annum)
• Urban population (27%)
• Basic literacy rate(61.5% )
• School dropout rates (urban secondary school dropouts 38 %, rural dropouts 61%)
• Education budget (12.6 % of total annual budget)Thus the country faces serious challenges providing access to quality education for all. 

Education Policy
Responding to current perspectives in general, Bangladesh, despite its depressing set of statistics on socioeconomic and educational variables, promised in its National Education Policy (2010) a life-skills approach to education. It advocated

• a modern, quality, suitable education for all;
• an attractive and enjoyable learning environment, methodology, and learning materials;
• professional training for all teachers; and
• a commitment to revise or develop training programs to make them more purposeful, if necessary.

Although there is no specific mention of English in the policy paper, these promises by default relate to English education as well. In the state education setting, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, which is the gatekeeper of primary and secondary education, declared in its Secondary English Curriculum (1996) the following:

• English is not a content-based subject but a skills-based one.
• English has to be recognized as a work-oriented skill needed for employment, development, and higher education. 

Ground Reality Regarding the Teaching/Learning of English
These declared objectives in the curriculum appear to strike the right rhetorical chord, but are they reflected in reality? In Bangladesh, English is a mandatory school subject for Classes 1–12 and students are exposed to nearly 1,800 hours of English lessons over a period of 12 years. However, English language competence remains quite poor. Why? Research has shown that learners learn all about the English language but do not learn to use the language in any realistic or meaningful way (Hamid & Baldauf, 2008; Rahman, 2015). This failure to acquire the language was analyzed as being the result of a mismatch between policy and implementation, with the real culprit identified as the state testing system (Khan 2010). The two gatekeeper tests at the secondary and higher secondary levels are designed in ways that promote rote learning and have a vicious wash back effect on teaching and learning, spawning a massive private coaching business throughout the country.

Major Areas for Serious Reconsideration
I next discussed the four major areas that needed serious reconsideration if English learning were to improve in the country. These areas all related to basic concepts that underlie any curriculum framework:

• Correct understanding of the needs of the learners with regard to English
• Clear formulation of the aims and objectives of English language courses
• Restructuring of the curriculum, materials, and methodology to implement programs
• Reliable assessment systems to test English skills

Thus, I proposed an alignment among curricular objectives, course books, classroom methodology, and testing. By the same token, there was obviously a need to focus on building up a strong cadre of informed and trained English teachers at all levels.

Challenges
I presented the challenges in attaining the aforementioned objectives. The challenges were mainly related to issues of dealing with innovation and change. Besides the reality of human resistance to any form of change, the process appeared to be complex and sometimes messy, partly because of difficulties in recognizing contexts and social practices and partly because of the unpredictability of users’ perceptions and responses. Moreover, the proposed intentions and practices may be partially or fully subverted by the target group. Whatever the reality, the change literature speaks clearly of the fact that innovative practices take much longer than their respective proposed time frame (Fullan 2007).

Thus, the change in the proposed English learning scheme in Bangladesh needed to be managed with sensitivity, bringing together all stakeholders in the process. Fullan (2007) proposed the phenomenon of “re-culturing”—the kind of psychological acceptance required of users when faced with new or changed modalities of delivery. By the same token, Weddel (2009) proposed that this same sense of re-culturing needs to be recognized and practised by change agents themselves in their attempts to understand the context and to empathize with long-practised culture and social practices that users are often loathe to give up.

 

In particular, I pointed out that the education system needs to recognize and understand the discriminatory forces that minimize human rights and empowerment in marginalized groups. The reality of the existence of these forces questions a centralized education policy under the seeming guise of equity in the distribution of school delivery systems. Marginalized communities in developing countries do not benefit in the same manner as more socioeconomically favored populations when provided with similar delivery systems (Rahman 2015). From the viewpoint of the sociology of education, it is imperative that a sensitive, specialized, and extended support system be made available for marginalized groups all over the country.

In addition, I raised a cautionary note regarding the lack of skilled teachers and qualified trainers, which could be a huge constraint and would become even more challenging as the country industrialized and the skills required for growth become more technical and specific.

Concluding Remarks
I concluded the session by emphasizing the need for a quality basic education system right from the elementary level. English is likely to be learned well if there is a strong base for general education—built on first language literacy and numeracy and supporting the development of generic skills. A robust policy would be to invest heavily on a quality basic education system with required resources and mandated operations in place for the whole population, which would likely lead to English language competence and skills, especially at the tertiary level.

References
2015 Statistical Yearbook Bangladesh (published September 2016). Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of Bangladesh. 

Erling, J. E.,& Seargent, P.(Eds.).(2013).English and development: Policy, pedagogy and globalization. Bristol, United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters.

Fullan, M. (2007). The new meaning of educational change (5th ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Graddol, D. (2010). English next India. London, United Kingdom: British Council.

Hamid, M. O., & Baldauf, R. B., Jr. (2008). Will CLT bail out the bogged down ELT in Bangladesh? English Today, 24(3), 16–24. Available at: doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078408000254

Khan, R. (2010). English language assessment in Bangladesh: Developments and challenges. In Y. Moon & B. Spolsky (Eds.), Language assessment in Asia: Local, regional or global? (pp. 121–157). South Korea: Asia TEFL.

National Curriculum and Textbook Board. (1996). Secondary School English Curriculum. Directorate of Secondary Education, Dhaka.

National Education Policy 2010 Bangladesh. Available online at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/02.National-Education-Policy-2010-English.pdf

Rahman, A. (2015).Secondary English education in Bangladesh. In B. Spolsky & K.Sung (Eds.), Secondary school English education in Asia: From policy to practice. New York, NY: Routledge. 

Weddel, M. (2009). Planning for Educational Change (First Edition). London: Continuum.

World Bank 2015. Available online at: https://data.worldbank.org/income-level/lower-middle-income