LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:9 September 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Doomed to Fail:
The Fate of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Bangladesh

Debasish Biswas, M.A. (Eng. Lit.), M.A. (Applied Language Studies), Nasir Uddin Ahmed, M.A., M.Phil. and Sima Rani Sarker, M.A.

Introduction

English language teaching curriculum in the tertiary level has undergone several changes since Bangladesh became independent in 1971. The scale of these changes has of course been subject to the attitude of the political parties in power towards teaching-learning English. All governments since liberation have put considerable emphasis on teaching-learning English. Therefore, these changes are all well-meaning. The outcome of these changes, however, is difficult to measure.

The latest and the biggest change came in 1998 much in keeping with the global trend of teaching-learning English using the much talked about CLT. The then government in collaboration with the British Council and the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) introduced CLT with the high hopes that it would improve English Language teaching in the country.

Research literature, however, shows that attempts to introduce CLT into English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts have a low rate of success (Brindley & Hood, 1990), and implementing CLT has often proved difficult (Anderson, 1993; Ellis, 1994; Shamin 1996; Valdes & Jhones, 1991). Instead of taking stock of the existing condition of the stakeholders into consideration and conducting the most rudimentary kind of needs analysis (Brown, 1995), the planners of the latest change seemed to be more concerned with “getting a major policy ‘on the books’” (Fullan, 1982.p.101) and no thought seems to have been given to the particulars of the learning context and the existing infrastructure.

In this paper we will try to shed light on the English teaching- learning trend in tertiary level in Bangladesh using the four common places, i.e., subject matter, teachers, students, and milieu (Connelly and Clandinin, 1998) which might help to assess the fate of CLT in Bangladesh.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Debasish Biswas, M.A. (Eng.Lit.), M.A. (Applied Language Studies)
Assistant Professor
Center for English language
Jagannath University
9-10, Chittaranjan Avenue
Dhaka-1100
Bangladesh
debasish002@gmail.com

Nasir Uddin Ahmed, M.A, M.Phil.
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of English
Jagannath University
9-10, Chittaranjan Avenue
Dhaka-1100
Bangladesh
nasirnuman@yahoo.com

Sima Rani Sarker, M.A.
Lecturer
Institute of Educational Development
BRAC University
66, Mohakhali
Dhaka 1212
Bangladesh
simasarker@yahoo.com
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