Shameem Article PDF
Shameem Article PDF
Shameem Article PDF
There are scores of English language teaching centres in Bangladesh. They have
mushroomed in Dhaka as well as other cities. They offer English proficiency courses with varied
objectives. The popularity and usefulness of these courses are undeniable. But the quality of
these courses is uncertain. No intensive research has yet been done to show the exact nature and
quality of teaching in those centres. Moreover, the courses involve a number of problems:
problem for teacher, problem for learners, problem of teaching methodology and teaching
materials, problem of assessment and testing, problem of syllabus and curriculum. The current
study has been undertaken to identify and observe the exact nature and quality of teaching in
these language centres.
The whole research has been undertaken in a qualitative method. Data was collected on
the basis of materials study, class observation, interviews and questionnaires. Emphasis was
given to direct interview of the Director of the Centre, teacher, and students to know the situation
in the institutes/centres. The current study shows that although the courses involve a number of
problems, in some way these language centres/institutes also have positive sides.
Key words: English, language proficiency, evaluation of language centres, Bangladesh situation
Introduction
The following is a list of the groups of the people who are learning English in
Bangladesh.
There are many English language teaching and learning centres in Bangladesh. They
have mushroomed in Dhaka as well as other cities. The courses offered by different centres in
Dhaka are as follows:
These centres offer courses with different objectives. The main objectives of those courses
are as follows:
- To enable the participants to speak English fluently and correctly;
- To sharpen their listening ability so that they can build themselves into responsible
communicators
- To help them master vocabulary that may facilitate undergoing training or higher education
abroad;
- To develop their skill of creative writing, e.g. drafting letters, recording resolutions,
preparing reports/messages so that they can establish rapport with their clients or
organization.
At present the teaching centres attempts to convince the people of the advantages of learning
in their particular instructions. They use the media of newspaper, poster and banners offer
attractive courses with 100% guarantee of success. Sometimes the course organizer even
declares that they will return the course fees if the participants fail to learn English by the end of
the course. There are a huge variety of centres in almost every area in Dhaka city. Students
choose a particular centre for many different reasons, but their choice often has no sound basis.
The young people select the centres according to the popular nomenclature, the nature of the
courses offered, time schedule and course fees as well as course materials. The young students
rarely consider the teaching personnel behind the courses. The centre should be chosen for its
success (which they do with not many options) but the students have no way of knowing or
testing that.
The popularity of those courses is undeniable. The need for them is also equally
inarguable. But the quality of these courses is uncertain. No intensive research has yet been done
to show the exact nature and quality of the teaching in those centres. Moreover, the courses
involve a number of problems: problem for teachers, problem for learners, problem of teaching
methodology and teaching materials, problem of assessment and testing, the problems of
syllabus and curriculum. These problems can be solved but not until extensive research has been
done. The present study has been undertaken so as to identify and observe the exact nature and
quality of teaching in these centres/institutes.
Although studies have been made on different aspects of English teaching and learning at
different levels, no comprehensive study has so far been attempted on the real condition of
English teaching and learning in these centres. The main objectives of this research have been to
find answers to these questions:
The research is based on the hypothesis that these types of proficiency courses do benefit
the learners.
The whole research has been undertaken in a qualitative method. Data was collected on
the basis of materials study, class observation, interviews and questionnaires. Emphasis was
The possible target students are the adult beginners, professionals, students planning to
study at foreign universities, people who want to go abroad and business executives. These
students want to enhance their English as a foreign/second language from these centres for the
above reasons.
The following centres have been selected in Dhaka city to monitor the nature and quality
of these types of English proficiency courses:
This case study was conducted in order to investigate the existing situations in language
teaching centres so as to obtain data that would help to get a picture of condition of teaching and
learning of English in centres in Dhaka city.
Nunan (1992:75) define a case study as “the investigation of a single instance in the
context in which it occurs.”
Cases … are objects to be studied and are not synonymous with any particular
techniques. They are for this reason methodologically eclectic, with a number of different
Of these methods, it was decided to implement three of them for this particular case
study, namely face-to-face interviews, classroom observation and collection of existing data. The
interview is crucial for this project, since it will allow the researcher to obtain the director’s,
teacher’s, students’ opinions on their particular centres, teaching and learning needs as well as
their experience as owner, teacher and members of the institutes. In addition, the study needs to
be complemented with the actual observations of both the teacher and the students’ performance,
in order to show, suggest and find out which aspect of teaching they would need to improve.
Interviews
There are many different permutations in the methods. Hence, an interview might be
classified into three different types, structures, semi-structured or unstructured. This represents
“a spectrum … from formal and controlled one at one end to more open and less predictable at
the other” (McDonough & McDonough, 1997:182). It is generally argued, however, that these
modes can be used in combination.
The interview for this included closed and open questions (see Appendices: Table A, B &
C), which leave room for follow-up questions. The questions were mainly about the centres,
teachers and students regarding their qualifications, experience and expectations. It was designed
in order to obtain richer data and personalized responses. Certainly, even though all the
interviews conducted had the same questions and topics, an effort was made to provide an
informal and relaxed atmosphere and to personalize each interview.
Classroom Observation
It was needed to observe teachers in action using their knowledge in the real sitting of the
classroom. Classroom observation gives the opportunity to see teachers putting theory into
practice; it shows what teachers do rather than what they know.
Different authors divide the observations into a number of categories or approaches. For
example, McDonough & McDonough write about systematic and naturalistic observation;
Wallace distinguishes system-based/ethnographic and ad hoc procedures. There is also a marked
contrast between structured or un-structured or open observation.
The first step of the process was to ask the directors for permission to conduct the
research in the institution, informing them of the purposes and stages of the research. Then the
same information was given to a teacher and a group of students.
Secondly, the interviews were conducted. The language employed was English, although
in many cases it was natural to switch to the mother tongue, Bengali. This might have happened
because people may feel more comfortable expressing their inner thoughts and feelings in their
mother tongue and also (especially with the directors) due to a lack of fluency in English. Each
interview took approximately 10-15 minutes. They were held before and after classes, in
different rooms. The subjects interviewed were the nine teachers and ten directors.
With respect to recording what is being said, the main options are note-taking and
questionnaire filling with some advantages and disadvantages. Note-taking is problematic as it
requires that everything is written down quickly. As a solution, it was decided to take notes,
using abbreviations and key words. Filling in of questionnaires by directors and teachers at times
also helped a lot to collect necessary and relevant data in this regard.
Thirdly, the classroom observations were carried out, visiting one class of some of the
teachers at certain teaching centres. The whole process involved three stages:
- The observation: This was conducted on the scheduled date and with the instruments
presented.
- The feedback conference: This involved an analysis of the data obtained during the
observation, agreeing on what had happened in the classroom with respect to the
areas of concern. As the feedback session is the ideal place for a teacher to express
him/her about teaching and to put his/her thoughts together.
The choice of a particular method for analyzing the data collected will depend on the type
of methods employed. For the interviews, it was mentioned that a combination of semi-
structured and unstructured interviews was used. As Nunan acknowledges, pen questions result
in richer data but are much difficult to quantify. He suggests, however, to conduct “key word
analysis”. This consists in grouping the responses according to categories that can be noted
through all the interviews. According to McDonough & McDonough (1997:186),
The more open ended, exploratory and ethnographic interviews referred to above may be
analysed qualitatively by searching for themes, by looking for patterns, by looking for
interpretations which are consistent with all the information revealed in the interview.
For the classroom observation data, on the other hand, it should be noted that the data
was recorded in a checklist of categories or issues and in a questionnaire form designed for this
purpose. In this case, the analysis consists of counting the frequency of occurrence of the
categories, that is to say in which class or centre each issue was present.
A number of eleven (11) English teaching centres located around Dhaka city have been
visited for collection of data and information for this research. Among them are: Bhuiyan
Computers (BC), British American Language Institute (BALI), Democracy watch Education
(DW), Pundits (P), Grand English Academy (GEA), FM Institute (FMI), Need Limited (NL),
Global (G), Zenith (Z), Gateway (GW), Saifur’s (S). Henceforth, the above abbreviations will be
used to refer to these language centres for convenience.
One of the stumbling block to conduct this study was inaccessibility of data. This proved
to be the case quite more than that. It was very difficult to interview to collect information,
observe any class of some so-called successful centres in the sake of secrecy and anti-
management decision. Only after much cajoling and convincing, did Centres like G, GW, Z,
GEA, S gave some chance to get some opportunity to observe classes and talk to the teachers.
They were also very secretive about accessibility to data for some unexplained reasons.
The main objectives of the study were to find out the situations of English proficiency
courses in language centres in Dhaka city. The research objectives were to find out different
problems and issues surrounding them as well as to get a picture of how these courses were
beneficial to the learners and what made them so. This current study was conducted on the
following specific areas:
Most of the centres generally do not follow any curriculum and syllabus. It is a common
phenomenon with centres like FMI, G, GW, GEA, S, and NL. But centres like BC, BALI, DW,
and P do have a specific curriculum and syllabus of their own for a step-by-step development of
students’ progress in their English proficiency level. Whereas teachers and directors of the first
category do not think syllabus is necessary for this type of courses, centres like BC, BALI, DW,
and P find the necessity of it for the spoken and written courses. They have their own
programmes and their own teaching methods, testing system and examination methods. It is
necessary to find out the basic difference between the success of the centres with or without
syllabi. Moreover, some of the centres provide different levels of courses, such as elementary,
beginners, intermediate and advanced level of courses.
Furthermore, there is a great scope to analyze the effectiveness of these different levels of
courses. But there is no denying the fact that students at centres like BC, BALI, and DW want to
enroll into a further advance course in English immediately after completing the beginner’s
course. Quite interestingly, centres like FMI, GEA, G, GW, and S offer only courses that they
term somewhat like Foundation or the Basic English course. Especially, FMI and GEA is almost
monomaniacal about it as they claim to have invented their own unique style of teaching and
learning English for the weaker students in Bangladesh.
Methodology
One of the subtle yet effective ploys to attract students to these language centres is the
highlighting of their teaching methodologies adopted for the course. The most interesting thing is
that some of the centres advertise courses being taught by different methods, such as FM
method, American easy method, Scientific HM method, scientific method, easy method, world’s
most popular course, communicative method, participate teaching method etc. It has been found
that those methods are nothing but a self-styled version of the Audio-lingual, grammar-
translation, and the drilling methods. In most cases, the class is taught as whole and pair and
Course books, cassette player, TV, VCR, and back-white board, chalk and markers are
the main teaching aids of the language classes. Unfortunately, most of the teachers do not feel at
ease with using electronic and audio-visual equipments in the classroom. Occasionally, students
have been given course materials. However, those materials can not fulfill the needs of the
students because the materials have not been chosen on the basis f the students’ needs. Many
writers claim that authentic materials motivate learners because they are intrinsically more
interesting or stimulating than artificial or non-authentic materials. In that case, most of the
teachers are pitifully lacking in this area.
Centres such as FMI, Z, G, GW, GEA, S, and NL use their own developed course
materials and don’t have let alone sufficient not even the minimum practice books, audio-visual
practice materials available for the students. Teachers propagating methods such as FM method,
Grand English Academy, Saifur’s use their own developed and marketed books as the exclusive
source for the learners as course materials. They do not use any audio-visual materials in the
classrooms. Whereas at centres like BC, BALI, and DW, teachers use latest and most popular
course books available in the market and extensively use audio-visual materials in the classroom.
Those three centres have a good collection of books, newspapers and magazines, audio-visual
practice materials available to the students. They also constantly update and revise the course
content and materials through latest resources available from the markets, and internet etc.
From face to face interview with the teacher, it is exposed that the teacher does not think
the importance of making lesson plan. But in real classroom situation it has been found that the
teacher frequently wastes their time to select the materials.
According to the student, English is tough subject. Some of the students feel that they are
improving a lot and others think that they have been trying hard but much improvement they
could not felt. The students think that in schools, colleges, and universities, they had no
opportunities to speak in English, so by taking the course they are trying to get an environment in
which to speak English.
Motivation
The people involved in language teaching often say that students who really want to learn
will succeed whatever the circumstances in which they study. The teachers who are lively and
friendly can easily motivate the students. It is found from this study that the majority of the
students of these language centres are self-motivated. The real driving force behind learning the
English proficiency courses is that this will ensure learn English, feel dignified, influence friends
and relatives, colleagues and others, get a good job, shine in life, broaden horizon, know the
world and win the world intellectually.
Students’ Comprehensibility
“Students have been learning English for 14 years but they are unable to use it for real
purposes. The language learners in our country are just like a learner driver. For example, a
learner driver who has knowledge of the different controls of the car and can drive on safe road
sunder the supervision of the instructor. But is it enough? Can he drive, alone, on a busy road in
the city before getting used to the actual driving condition? The answer can easily is, No! The
same thing happens to a language learner.” (Hoque, 1997:220).
The students are weak in average learning English as a foreign language. From the class
observation and questionnaire it has been discovered that the students do not practice their
lessons at home as well as they can not follow the class effectively. According to one of the
participants, “I understand but cannot express my feelings”. In asking teachers reply that most of
the students are not able to give the correct answer. It suggests that the students do not feel
confident enough.
Testing System
Not all of the above eleven centres have a proper placement or diagnostic tests while
collecting or selecting students for the English proficiency courses. One main reason might be
the increasing number of centres of similar kind mushrooming in the city nowadays. Even
though majority of the directors and teachers of the centres claimed to have a proper placement
tests for students selection, the particular picture is exactly the opposite as myself have noticed
and have experienced it with one of the most prominent language centres in Dhaka. It has also
been found that in some cases the achievement tests are also not given. As one of the course
teacher thinks, “The participants have exam phobia so if I will give them exam, they will drop
out from this centre.” Another teacher also opined that he only takes oral and written exam at the
very end of the course so that these professionals do not feel overburdened with the course. He
even skips any home work for students of the same batch (Business Executives) for that matter.
Apart from this, it has been found in the study that most of the centres do have a
systematic and constant testing and evaluating systems for the students throughout the course.
The most common pattern is a three tests system: one after the end of one-third of the classes, a
mid-term and the final certificate awarding test. Some of these centres, such as, BALI, BC, DW,
S, P have a through and meticulous students evaluation and testing systems.
Most of the centre claims highly qualified teaching staff, for example, in the words of one
prospectus, “Conducted entirely by university teachers and English Language specialist”. Are
they really providing university teachers to teach English? From the interview with teachers, a
Physical Facilities
Physical facilities are inadequate in many of these centres. A good number of centres are
situated beside the main road or beside the very busy shopping centres but the classrooms are not
soundproof so the heavy traffic is a nuisance to the class lesson. The classrooms sometimes are
not well ventilated and lights are insufficient. Even though many of these centres have got air
conditioned rooms and some breathing space for the students, but few have got adequate
opportunity or facility for students to nurture the language in a language centre of this kind
(facilities such as library, reading room, practice and resource centre etc.). From the study, it is
also revealed that some of these centres, such as BALI, BC, and DW have got some laudable
facilities of the above kind to create an environment among its students.
What makes the students come to such centres for learning English is that they don’t have
too many options left for them. These centres also give them the opportunity to go for a course at
their own pace and convenient time. There are also quite a good number of students who enroll
into this type of courses solely to get an environment to practice some form or level of English
which is totally absent in their home or working place. It is not that these same students are
learning too many things and are successful in gaining their goals and achieving their target after
completing a two or three months English proficiency course at these centres. But there is no
denying the fact that these centres (irrespective of their rate of success or failure) instilling some
enthusiasm, interest, motivation and eagerness into these learners with their idiosyncratic
methodology, self-developed course materials, untrained teachers, inadequate facilities for
practice etc.
A quick look at some of the centres will also give an idea about their idiosyncrasies,
strengths and weaknesses worth studying. *
Saifur’s Newspaper Some library Teachers from Handbooks 2 and half Individual
Founded in advertisement, and practice other t prepared by months attention;
1995; No. of ex-students, facilities disciplines, No the teacher, Spoken special emphasis
branches: 10 poster, leaflet, available, ELT lecture sheets English on spoken and
(Dhaka- 5, banner etc.; Conversation qualification; 25 on grammar, course; 30 written English;
others- 5) 15-20 students practice, teachers work as vocabulary, classes; debating and
in each batch; course part and full- spoken classes in the intense fluency
Age: 15-40+ handbooks time basis, English etc. morning, practice
teachers not afternoon,
evaluated evening
sessions
* All the data and information were gathered in 2012.
Conclusion
This present study has examined the English teaching and learning situation at the language
centres in Dhaka city. Although the courses involve a number of problems, in some way these
language centres/institutes also have positive sides. They provide a service for students who cannot
go to the schools, colleges and universities for learning English according to their needs and
demands. Therefore, the only avenue open to them is the private academy or language learning
Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 14:9 September 2014
Shameem Ahmed, M.A.
Teaching and Learning of English Proficiency Courses: A Study at Selected Language Centres in
Bangladesh 251
centres. Moreover, there are some definite points for students going to these private sectors because
the students have been provided comparatively modern materials than the government institutions.
Another positive element of these centres is to provide job opportunity to the unemployed. In this
connection, English Language department can provide related courses and training to the students
so in future those students can be appointed as ELT teachers of these centers. On the other hand,
the ELT programmes may develop or continue with better changes. Furthermore, to fill up the gap
advice, inspection and training can be provided through government or semi government
organization in order to run these centres in an established way with proper curriculum and syllabus.
Although studies have been made on different aspects of English teaching and learning at different
levels, no comprehensive study has so far been attempted on the real condition of English teaching
and learning in these centres. So, in the light of these findings, it is recommended that intensive
research work must be done to improve and evaluate the ELT situations in these centres in
Bangladesh.
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References
Table – A
Do you have any library and practice facilities for the students?
If you have any comment on teaching of English in Bangladesh please write briefly.
Do you think that the proficiency course is helpful for the students and how?
What are the books and materials do you use for this course?
If you have any comments on teaching and learning of English, please write briefly here.
QUESTIONNAIRE: STUDENTS
Dear Students,
You are being asked to complete this questionnaire as a part of a research to investigate the teaching
and learning of English in the Institutes/Centres. Remember that this questionnaire will not be seen
by any of your teachers. So answer all the questions as freely and as openly as possible.
If you have any problems while you are answering the questions, please raise your hand.
If you have any comment on this English course, please write briefly.
THINKING POINTS
Table - E
well planned and structured? very moderately not very not at all
varied in activities? very moderately not very not at all
varied in interactions? very moderately not very not at all
balanced in very moderately not very not at all
accuracy/fluency?
appropriate for the group? very moderately not very not at all
enjoyable to watch? very moderately not very not at all
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This paper was presented in the 4th Biennial International Conference on the Teaching
and Learning of English in Asia: Forging Ahead, on 10-12 November, 2013 Penang,
Malaysia, organized by College of Arts & Science, Universiti Utara Malaysia
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Shameem Ahmed, M.A.
Lecturer in English
Universiti Malaysia Sabah
Labuan International Campus
Malaysia
russella1968@yahoo.com