Several days back I came to see a good piece of news in different newspapers that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Education and the British Council to improve English communication skills of students at secondary schools level and madrasas. Listening and speaking are the two significant skills of language which we have ignored since we started teaching and learning English. Listening covers forty percent and speaking thirty-five percent of our communication. It means to acquire a language, acquiring these two skills is a must. But interestingly, we taught our students only reading and writing skills which cover only twenty-five percent of our everyday communication skills (reading sixteen and writing nine percent). This has been revealed from the research of Burley-Allen. On the basis of this portion we have developed the tradition to award grades to our learners without giving importance to seventy-five percent English language skills. More funny is that we give our students A+ in English who after passing in the public examination cannot communicate comfortably either in the four language skills. Their listening ability is extremely poor as this practice they have never done in their academic life. They obtain very poor marks when they sit for any international Standard English test such as IELTS/TOFEL/SAT/GRE.Proper training for English teachers
A language can be acquired by the process �learning by doing� not by memorising some set grammatical rules. BC may work here developing a group of Master Trainers in each upazila who will provide training to other teachers or can follow some other mechanisms
Masum Billah
Several days back I came to see a good piece of news in different newspapers that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Education and the British Council to improve English communication skills of students at secondary schools level and madrasas. Listening and speaking are the two significant skills of language which we have ignored since we started teaching and learning English. Listening covers forty percent and speaking thirty-five percent of our communication. It means to acquire a language, acquiring these two skills is a must. But interestingly, we taught our students only reading and writing skills which cover only twenty-five percent of our everyday communication skills (reading sixteen and writing nine percent). This has been revealed from the research of Burley-Allen. On the basis of this portion we have developed the tradition to award grades to our learners without giving importance to seventy-five percent English language skills. More funny is that we give our students A+ in English who after passing in the public examination cannot communicate comfortably either in the four language skills. Their listening ability is extremely poor as this practice they have never done in their academic life. They obtain very poor marks when they sit for any international Standard English test such as IELTS/TOFEL/SAT/GRE.
Our education minister Nurul Islam Nahid said, Under the existing educational system, students only achieve English proficiency in reading and writing, we need to focus to improve speaking and listening skills in English for their better access to job markets. He has rightly said that we let our students practice only reading and writing skills. What is their situation in these two skills actually? They practice and do exercises following some selected chapters of their textbooks and pass or some do well in the examinations. If new things beyond their practiced items are set in the examinations they find them extremely difficult to answer. This is in respect of their reading skills. When we consider their writing skills, we experience that many of them cannot write even very familiar things in English. They just practice some particular items set or suggested either by school, or teacher or coaching centers. Actually why we teach English to our students is not clear to our students. They think they learn English just to pass in the examination. Basically they have been taught English to use it in their practical life situation and work outside the country to earn foreign exchange for the country but it does not happen in the real sense of the term. Our students, workers and other professionals successfully show their creativity and better performance outside the country in their respective fields but they lag behind in communication only because of their poverty in English. These people cannot be blamed for that. It is the responsibility of the state to overcome this situation. Thanks to the present government to realize the situation and introduce twenty marks for listening and speaking English. Though it will be difficult at the initial stage to deal with the thing, even then it deserves thanks. Thanks to British Council also for coming forward to extend their helpful hands towards developing the listening and speaking skills of our students who are going to lead the country in different fronts in future.
The MoU says that British Council will extend their supports to give trainings of teachers at secondary schools and madrasas so that they can contribute in improving communication skills of students in English language. The education minister described English language as a technology and said students must be good at reading, writing, speaking and listening English to acquire knowledge as well as to build career in different professions. Barbara Wickhman, the Director of British Council, said, We have long standing friendly relations with Bangladesh. This MOU will further strengthen the friendly bonds between the two countries making a good contribution in improving English skill of Bangladeshi students. I hope the people of Bangladesh would be able to access better employment opportunities.
We do believe that BC has the ability and experience to do the job signed between them and the Ministry of Education. BC has got the expertise to work in various capacities in more than one hundred countries of the world. So, we do believe that things will see successful implementation through this reputed organization. Still we need to learn how they are going to deal with the whole affair as it is in the very initial stage. We dont want that students will obtain marks like practical examinations in science subjects. They hardly do any practical works in the laboratory even in many schools there exists no laboratory but students get full marks in practical works in science subjects. Things must not happen in English. Students must exhibit their practical ability in listening and speaking. Before that, the teachers who teach English particularly in rural Bangladesh most of them dont have fluency in these two skills. Moreover, many of them still think that teaching grammar and grammatical rules is the prime way to teach English. Many still dont believe that English is a skill based subject, not content-based. Developing the skills of students through various activities such as pair work, group work, elicitation, chain drill, choral drill, miming should be practiced in the classroom. English teachers must ensure learners active and fruitful participation in these activities and teachers themselves must be involved in these activities with much vigor, energy and interest. A language can be acquired by the process learning by doing not by memorizing some set grammatical rules. BC may work here developing a group of Master Trainers in each upazila who will provide training to other teachers or can follow some other mechanisms according to the policy of their organization.
But covering about twenty-eight thousand secondary level school and madrassas within a particular period of time is a big challenge. Of course, BC has the courage and ability to take up this new challenge.
The writer is a BRAC education specialist
