Article - 2 The Problems of Teaching Communicative English in Bangladesh The aim of this dissertation is to focus on the problems of teaching communicative English in Bangladesh relating to all the factors that are creating these problems, and to find out the possible and pragmatic solutions to the existing and potential problems in teaching communicative English the educational institutions in the country. Before I go to the findings regarding the problems of teaching the Communicative English in Bangladesh, I should also focus on the emergence and need of English in the country dating back to the British colonial rule in the Indian Sub-continent and in the present Bangladesh. The beginning of English in the subcontinent can be traced back to 31 December 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to a few merchants in London, giving them a monopoly of trade with India. Calcutta (now Kolkata) was founded as a commercial settlement by the British in 1690. By the early decades of the eighteenth century, a large volume of trade was being transacted between Bengal and Britain. Bengal occupied a central place among British interests in India and Calcutta was the focal point for contract between the people of Britain and Bengal. The trade relations between the two linguistically different communities gave rise to a language contact situation. But from 1690 to the Battle of Palashy in 1957, the contact between Bengali English speakers had been limited. The language situation of the period was unstable. After the battle of Palassy in 1957, knowledge of English became essential for trading partners in the Bengal business circle. Establishment of warehouses, law courts and other institutions resulted in the increase of the contact between the British and the Bengali, hence increased the demand for English in a section of the community. But in the absence of any administrative assistance to learn English, some expatriates and natives started English school in Calcutta and adjoining areas to impart a communicative skill in English. The natives also realized that knowledge of English would be necessary for status and influence in the new capital Calcutta. As the British rulers were hesitant in providing Western education to the natives, they took nearly eight decades to introduce English education in the subcontinent. Although one of the directors of the East India Company, Sir Charles Grant, wanted English to be introduced in official business as early as in 1792, the company administration in India were not in the favour of the idea. In 18 72, Mr. Wilberforce wanted to add two clauses to the Charter Act of the year for sending out school teachers in India. This encountered great opposition in the Board of Directors and the proposal had to be withdrawn. Instead of teaching English to the natives, the company established the Fort William College in Calcutta in 1800 to train the company officials in Indian vernaculars, laws and customs. The administrators of the Company were busy consolidating their trade and power; they were least concerned about the education of the natives. The Christian missionaries, however, had a different mission. They aimed at converting the natives into Christianity. For this they needed to teach English to the natives. They also undertook research in vernacular languages in order to translate the Bible into indigenous languages. It was the missionaries who first established English schools and introduced western education in India. The missionary efforts started in 1614, but became more effective once they allowed to use the ships of the East India Company. In 1698, when the charter of the Company was renewed, a missionary clause was added to it. But in 1765, the situation changed again, encouragement of the missionaries was stopped. William Carey, who had come to India in 1773, in defiance of the East India Company’s ban, established the Baptist Mission College at Srerampur and started his missionary work and the work of spreading education. Other church organisations engaged themselves in similar activities. The missionary schools played their part in creating an eagerness to learn English, students flocked in growing numbers to the schools established by the missionaries. The Indian themselves also started English schools. These ‘pay schools’, as they were called, were started in different places in Calcutta. There were also some ‘free schools’ giving English education. But as the desire to learn English grew day by day, schools were founded in different districts. Books for English were so much in demand that the School Book Society sold over 31000 English books in two years. However, the introduction of Western education in India was not without conflict. The social elite of Calcutta society were divided in their opinion as to the importance of English education. Consequently, a social controversy called the Anglo-Oriental controversy arose. A petition was presented to Warren Hastings in September 1780 by a considerable number of respectable Muslims for the establishment of a madrasa in Calcutta, to which he agreed. He could thus assume himself of a regular supply of Muslim law officers. Similarly a Sanskrit college was founded in Benares in 1792 at the recommendation of Jonathan Duncan, a British resident there, with a view to endearing the government to the native Hindus. On the other hand, it was the Indian bourgeoisie who opposed these policies that they would excluded from access to social, economic and political development as a result of such policies. The story of the foundation of Hindu college in Calcutta is given by Sir Edward Hyde East, the Chief Justice of Calcutta Supreme Court, in one of his letters. He wrote: About the beginning of May, a Brahmin of Calcutta.........................well known for his intelligence among the principal native inhabitants.....................called upon me and informed me that many of the Hindus were desirous of forming an establishment for the education of their children in a liberal manner as practised by Europeans of condition and desired that I would lend them my aid toward it by having a meeting held under my sanction................the meeting was held at my house on the 14th May 1816 at which 50 and upwards of the most respectable of Hindu inhabitants of rank and wealth attended.............when a sum of nearly half a lac of rupees was subscribed and many more subscriptions were promised................all expressed themselves in favour of making the acquisition of the English language a principal object of education together with its moral and scientific production. While giving evidence before a Parliamentary Committee in 1853, Alexander Duff said that English education was in a manner forced upon the British Government; it did not itself spontaneously originate it. There were two persons who had to do with it, Mr. David Hare and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Ram Mohan Roy, the most distinguished Indian of that time, was the first to speak against Government encouragement of oriental studies. In a letter to Lord Amherst he protested the government plan to establish a Sanskrit college in Calcutta. He wrote: We are filled with the sanguine hope that the sum would be laid out in employing European gentlemen of talent and education to instruct the natives of India in Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Anatomy and other useful sciences which the nations of Europe have carried to a degree of perfection...........................We find that the Government are establishing a Sanskrit school under Hindu pundits to impart the same knowledge as is already current in India......................... There was also controversy among the rulers. William Adam, who was appointed in January 1835 to survey vernacular education in Bengal, stated that English language could not be universal instrument for imparting Western education in millions of villages in Bengal. Apparently, a General Committee for education in India was set up by the Government. The orientalists in the committee were Shakespeare, Princep, Macnaghtenand and Sutherland. The Anglicists were Bird, Saunders, Bushby, Trevelyan and Colvin. The president of the committee, Macaulay, was their leader. Macaulay’s education Minutes were passed on 2 February 1835 in spite of protests from Princep who termed them as “hasty and indiscreet”. The Minute on Language says: ......It seems to be admitted that the intellectual improvement of those classes of people who have the means of pursuing higher education can at present be effected by means of some language not vernacular amongst them. What shall the language be? One half of the committee maintained that it should be English. The other half strongly recommended Arabic and Sanskrit. Which language is the best worth knowing? It is impossible for us with our limited means of attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions we govern; a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave to refine the vernacular dialects and to render them fit for conveying western knowledge............................................... Macaulay’s Minute espoused a selective and elitist approach to education; it ignored the education of the masses and rejected the native languages. Macaulay understood that it would not be possible to educate all members of society, nor was it the intention of the British colonial policy. Macaulay’s Minute was the first major language policy which had profound impact on the teaching of English and other languages in the subcontinent for a long time to come. A more liberal and rational language policy was promulgated by Governor General, Sir Charles Wood. On 9 July 1854, Sir Charles Wood sent the Board of Directors of the East India Company a Dispatch which attempted to allocate elementary roles of English and vernaculars. Despite the clear role which Sir Charles Wood assigned to the vernaculars, the emphasis on English continued unabated. The vernaculars were taught only at the elementary level and could be omitted altogether if the pupil desired. The sad state of vernacular education did not go unnoticed by the Saddler Commission. The Saddler Commission noted: We are emphatically of the opinion that there is something unsound in a system of education which leaves a young man, at the conclusion of his course, unable to write or speak his mother tongue fluently or correctly.................... It recommended the use of vernaculars at the primary and secondary stage and advocated the retention of English as the medium of instruction for all subjects, except the classical and vernacular languages. Although these recommendations resulted in the introduction of vernaculars as compulsory and optional subjects in some universities, English continued to occupy its privileged place as a tool of advancement. Three important events occurred during the period. In 1837 Persian was replaced by English as the official language of law courts. In 1844 it was declared that when Indians were recruited to government posts, preference would be given to those who had received English education. According to Wood’s Dispatch three universities-one each at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were established. Three more, Punjab, Allahabad and Dhaka universities were also established. The importance of English grew more and more with the establishment of colleges and universities in different places. At the beginning of the twentieth century, English became firmly established as the academic and official language of India. This state of affairs continued until the British left in 1947. After the establishment of Pakistan and India, Mohammad Ali Jinnah clearly expressed the opinion that the state language of Pakistan would be Urdu, and those who tried to oppose it were enemies of Pakistan. But when he voiced the same opinion the next day at a convocation held at Dhaka University, students of Dhaka University strongly protested and the State Language Action Committee was formed. Conflict over the language issue with the central government went on and became an emotional issue for all Bengalis and they felt that their culture and tradition were at risk. On 21 February 1952 five people including students were killed in police firings while they were demonstrating to press the demand for Bengali. The incident gave rise to a spontaneous movement known as the Language Movement and in the end the Government had to accept Bengali as one of the state languages. The Language Movement infused a feeling of linguistic nationalism among the Bengalis. Other reasons, such as economic exploitation and refusal to accept the verdict of democratic election by the army, bureaucracy and political leadership in West Pakistan, gradually led to the separation of East Pakistan from the West and Bangladesh emerged as an independent state after nine months war of liberation in which millions of lives were lost. After the independence of Bangladesh, Bengali language was given the status of official language of the republic in the 1972 constitution. From 1947 to 1971, English continued to play a very significant role in the national life of Pakistan. For the people of the East Pakistan, English was the chief means of communication with the people of the West Pakistan. English was widely used in the government administration, law courts and commerce. It was the medium of communication with the outside world. English was studied as a compulsory subject at the secondary and higher secondary levels of education and was also the medium of instruction at higher levels. After the emergence of the independent Bangladesh, English suffered a serious setback. One of the reasons of this was a strong nationalistic sentiment for the mother tongue, Bengali. The Bengali Introduction Law, promulgated in 1983 by Bangladesh Government, made it compulsory for employees in government, semi-government and autonomous institutions to Bengali in interoffice memos, legal documents and correspondences except in case of communication with foreign governments and international offices. Consequently, Bengali began to be used in almost all fields of national life. Thus English lost its previous status as a second language and came to be treated as a foreign language. The consequences began to be felt in all sectors, especially in the field of higher education. English was no longer a compulsory medium of instruction and adequate attention to the teaching of English was not given at lower levels. Paradoxically, more than 90% of the textbooks at higher levels of study continued to be in English. More and more students were coming to the university for higher studies with an inadequate command of English. They were unable to read their textbooks in English or express their thoughts and ideas in English. However, it was soon realised that English could not be neglected by Bangladesh for her all round development. Most of the educationists and political leaders began to feel that English should be given due importance. There is now a more positive attitude towards English both at government and private institutions; though questions frequently arise about the method and approaches we apply for teaching and learning English. Efforts are still underway to improve the teaching of English with a target to make the students reach the goal. Students here want to improve their proficiency in English and are even willing to pay high costs where quality is involved. English is getting due attention because of different reasons, though some people, especially the so called patriots, demand Bengali to be used at every level of the nation. It is an accepted truth that to spread the realm of Bengali we should give increasing importance to English. However, some purposes can be specified here for which people of Bangladesh desire to have command of English. The spheres where English is used are being proliferated day by day. But unfortunately, data regarding the extent of English in Bangladesh are not readily available. We do not even what percentage of the population has a working knowledge of English. Three more specific needs for the learners are social, occupational and academic. Since the natural medium of social intercourse among the Bangladeshis is Bengali, it does not affect the student population. Occupational needs are increasing but the government offices still use Bengali as the sole medium of correspondence, especially inside the country. Different multinational offices and organisations, news agencies and professional training institutions in Bangladesh use English as the medium of instruction. Bangladeshis working in these offices have command of English though of varying degrees. Academic needs or study skills are the ones which affect the learners most keenly. These include reading books in English, listening to lectures and writing essays, term papers and dissertations. A mixed situation prevails in the field of higher education. However, the trend is now towards using English as encouragement for learning English is provided both at the university and at home. As more and more students from Bangladesh are seeking admission into British, American, Canadian, Australian and many other foreign universities, the need for learning English is growing. There has also been a remarkable increase in the number of students taking IELTS, GRE, GMAT, SAT and TOEFL tests. This has given a consequential rise to the number of students pursuing courses on English in a good number of English coaching centres on the way to their taking different tests on their language proficiency. English medium schools are increasing in a considerable number. Even in the rural towns English medium schools have been established. The total number of English medium schools only in Dhaka city is more than 150. There are also schools where national curriculum is taught in English. Accurate figures of the number of students studying in these schools are not available. The state-run general education policy including the latest one of 2010 is however turning out people with different degrees of proficiency in English. We may classify their proficiency in English according to a rating scale as follows: 1. Extremely Limited Users: People who leave primary school or drop out before completing the cycle are at this level. They will possibly be able to read an address or signboard in English and follow very simple instructions, but would not really be able to participate in communicative interaction apart from using a few set phrases. This type of users may also include those who have had no schooling but have ability to speak some sentences in English; it is the ability which they have earned by hearing others speaking in English. 2. Marginal Users: People who complete their secondary and higher secondary education would perhaps belong to this category. A considerable number of them will perhaps be able to read simple texts and understand them, write messages and letters but in general would have difficulty in communicating freely or exchanging information with others as most of the learning has been bookish. Though the textbooks have been compiled focusing on their target at teaching communicative English, the process of teaching in the country fails to reach the target because of the lack of the trained teachers. Students are mostly found to memorise the answers. This is why, a great number of students fail in English. 3. Modest Users: People who complete their graduation or masters may be called modest users. But it does not mean that those who complete their higher education must know better English. Many of them still remain week in English, it is because their medium of instruction is either Bengali or other languages, or they read those subjects where English is not emphasised. However, it is a matter of hope that the number of modest users is rapidly increasing. Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simply the “communicative approach”. As it is taught as a foreign lanugage in Bangladesh, problems are seen innumerable in the implementation of its teaching here. What will be the appropriate and effective mode of teaching Communicative English in Bangladesh; what will be the most pragmatic method: what will be the most correct approach are the questions that always arise in the field of teaching the Communicative English in the country as none of the approaches or method applied till now could bring much result upto the desire or target set by the policy makers. So still there are problems regarding the teaching of Communicative English in the country. This paper attempts to focus on those problems and at the same time on the ways to get a remedy from all those problems to a great extent. The problems are pointed out with the necessary data and information along with the possible solutions to them. English language students, you cant live with them, you cant do without them. Whats a frustrated English as a Foreign or Second language teacher going to do? English language teachers, there are good ones, so-so ones and then there are those that justice would only prevail if they were permanently excused from the classroom. So whats a near-desperate English as a foreign language learner to do? There are different kinds of problems in teaching the Communicative English in a country like Bangladesh. The most critical ones are as follow: Here are the first three of the English language learning classrooms most critical problems with comments on what might be done in dealing or managing each one. Well continue the discussion of the final two critical problems in ELT in a second article. 1. Lack of Learner Motivation: Students skip class, and when they do show up its likely due to fear of failure more than anything else. They may lack any semblance of attention during class, chatting with classmates, doodling in their note books or, (gasp!) in their textbooks. What experienced English or other foreign language teaching professional hasnt faced the problem of reluctant, unmotivated learners? One key to increasing motivation is to use activities matched to the personalities, learning styles and characteristics of the learners as often as practically possible. 2. Insufficient Time, Resources and Materials: There is an old adage, You can never be too rich, too thin or have enough English or foreign language vocabulary. So what can you do when charged with teaching English or a foreign language in only one or two hours per week? Add too little time to a decided lack of resources and virtually zero other resources in many third-world classrooms and you have a critical teaching / learning situation indeed. But there are ways, even on the lowest budget, of producing virtually free or very inexpensive English language teaching and learning aids for use in the EFL or foreign language classroom. 3. Over-crowded Classroom: It is a generally accepted view that the number of learners in a language classroom should not be more than 20, but here in Bangladesh the situation is quite opposite. Almost all the classrooms have students exceeding 50 or 60 or even much more than this. Some of the traditional methods can be applied here to teach students from the prescribes syllabus, but not the Communicative English language as it requires the learners’ well-absorbing interest in the activity-based interactive class with a proper and efficient time budget for each of them or for each of their group. Some techniques like separating advanced learners to help the teacher in facilitating the teaching and learning can work but not 4. Lack of Proper Strategy: Even after the long duration of 40 years of an independent Bangladesh, none of the governments could set a proper strategy for the facilitation of teaching Communicative English here, even if the importance of English is always on the rise. It is interesting to observe how a group of interested citizens were able to make changes in the way language policies are created, how they develop and also how they are implemented. In this particular case, though a national language policy exists, and we know that English must be taught in the primary, secondary and higher secondary levels, but no one talks about learning it in a proper and effective way. Here the difference was that people involved are thinking on how to help individuals learn the language. If a certain policy is presented and kept it in a drawer, the policy will never serve a useful purpose. It is people making things happen that will bring change and progress to our individual sites. 5. Lack of Proper Training and Trained Teachers: Due to the lack of proper and timely training, there is a constant shortage of trained Communicate English teachers across the country. Teachers who are teaching Communicative English in their classes are not becoming successful because they themselves are not well trained in teaching the Communicative English. So there is always a need for a permanent training centre in the centre or in every division of the country where the qualified trainers from home and abroad will train up the teachers for teaching Communicative English in the educational institutions of the country. 6. Different Attitudes among the Learners: The results of a survey made by the writer have explored the fact that there are still some different attitudes among our learners towards English and its learning. These attitudes can surely be attributed to be the hindrances to the teaching and learning of Communicative English Language. Results show that the attitude towards English language learning and using the language in various domains of usage is extremely positive. It has also been found that most of the students had negative feelings or fear regarding classroom instructions in their learning experience. Students of different fields varied in attitudes towards English language learning in terms of domains of usage and focus of learning skills, which show that a single curriculum or teaching methodology is not adequate in Bangladesh. 7. Teaching English with Different View-points and Statuses: We teach English as a foreign language in our educational institutions. It is taught as a subject as required with the same weighting as the mother tongue. English is a required subject in from the primary to higher secondary levels, and also for the undergraduate students in National University. But the problem is that the learners are here focusing more on passing the exam not on learning the language. 8. Defective Examination System: Both teachers and students find the grammar-translation method well suited to an examination system based on testing students’ knowledge about textbook contents and grammar rules. So one (i.e. the method) perpetuates the other (i.e. the exam) and vice versa. In this situation, though the syllabus objectives demand that students’ ability to use the language (i.e. to use the language skills for communication) be tested, in actual fact, students’ ability to memorise and copy the textbook contents is what is required for getting high marks in the examination. This marks based exam system satisfies all the stakeholders. Teachers can teach the contents, translating them in Bangla and helping students to prepare answers to their exam questions, without thinking anything about practising communicative activities in the classrooms. They feel reluctant to do any communicative activities if any teacher wants to arrange the activities for them. They seem happy because they do not need to worry about their exams as the ready-made answers to exam questions are available either from the teachers or from guidebooks. The private publishers are happy as their books (notebooks, guidebooks, digests, suggestions etc.) are in greater demand than the NCTB textbooks. Parents are happy because their children are ‘achieving success’ (i.e. marks) in the exams. But in the long run it proves their complete failure in learning communicative English language. 9. Proliferation of English Medium Schools: With a very few exceptions, most of the so-called English medium schools do not follow any appropriate curriculum (nor they follow any unified one) and textbooks. Commercially motivated, they recruit mostly untrained, unemployed graduates fresh from the universities and colleges on lower pay. But to extract more tuition fee from the parents many of them have glitzy gadgets (i.e. computer, imported teaching aids etc.) and glossy books to hoodwink the parents into believing that these are the best places to give the best education in English to their children. 10. Defective Teaching Methodology: English has been being taught here for a very pretty long time, yet no appropriate and effective methodology has been set to teach the students English for their day-to-day communication with efficiency. Even many more teachers do not have any clear idea about the Communicate Approach of English language teaching. The so-called grammar translation method that is still adapted by most of the teachers can not go with the demand of the Communicate Approach, so the result is really frustrating when students are hardly involved in practice and participatory activities for their learning skills. Before the independence of Bangladesh English was a second language in the undivided Pakistan, but after 1971 English was relegated to a foreign language position. This change in the status was not followed by any change in the teaching methodology. The traditional grammar-translation method effective in a second language situation and deeply rooted in the minds of our English teachers began to be, and is still being, widely used. Moreover, as Bangla is a well-developed L1 spoken by 99% of our people, the practical use of English, especially in the rural areas, has become extremely limited. As a result, both the teachers and students of English are mainly concerned about teaching and learning textbook contents, grammar rules, etc. through this traditional grammar-translation method, they are hardly involved in practice and participatory activities for improving their skills of English. 11. Declines in the Standard of English: The present state of English reveals a frustrating CELT scenario in Bangladesh. The standards of teaching and learning English have so miserably declined that the Government as well as the conscientious section of our population have recently realised that something somewhere is seriously wrong in the whole business of teaching and learning of English in the country. Proper planning considering the importance of English in Bangladesh in line the changing world of globalisation, setting up training institutes with involvement of efficient trainers, facilitating an environment conducive to the teaching and learning Communicative English language, proper syllabus and curriculum, awareness about the linguistic importance of English, availability of teaching aids and other materials, increasing interest among the learners in English, application of the proper teaching methodology, Setting agenda in the language classroom, creating learners’ easy access to the sources of learning English easily, fixing the standard and status of English in the country, immediate and effective implementation of the language policy, promotion of inter-cultural activities between the Bangladeshi learners and the native speakers, and motivating the teachers and learning in performing their activities and roles in the communicative way are the most important requirements to solve the existing problems in teaching the Communicative English Language in Bangladesh.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 08:48:39 +0000
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