Class Observation on Pre – University Learners (Teaching Practicum)

I observed the class of the Pre – University learners where there were a total of 16 students and the class was a 1 hour 20 minutes class focused on the skills of Speaking and Writing. The teacher started the class with ice – breaking by recapping on the idea of paragraph from the previous class and asked for the submission of assignments from students. Students requested to cancel and submit the assignment later, so teacher agreed and set up a later submission date.

As this discussion was over, the teacher started the discussion by asking students the topic of the current class and informed them that at the end of the class they will have to make a presentation. The teacher then wrote the name of the topic “Quotation” on the whiteboard and started to describe the characteristics of quotation. The teacher explained that quotation is a direct speech by someone important that is written within inverted commas. She further explained that it is an original piece of writing. Then teacher asked the students, “What is quotation? In one sentence, define it.” She asked students to try and answer, so one student gave an example and the teacher clarified that, “A quotation has to be from someone wise.”

Extending on what the student had said about Steve Jobs’ quote, the teacher wrote on the whiteboard a few characteristics of quotation – acceptable, a truth, universal. Then teacher asked the students if proverbs are universally true and as students could not answer, she said the sources of the proverbs are usually unknown. After this, the teacher discussed about Gandhi’s quote – “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

As students participated with the teacher, she then gave them new task about quotation explaining that they will be given a quotation individually and they have to – 1) Mention the source 2) Paraphrase the quote 3) Interpret the quote or explain with reasons (As teacher asked about the meaning of this point, students could not answer, so the teacher explained) 4) Give real life examples in relation to the quotation they have received.

The class had an interactive discussion on quotation after this and there were good allocation of the teacher talking time and student talking time respectively. Their discussion moved from quotation to the issue of the USA vs. Iraq and Israel vs. Palestine war as students responded to quotations with real life examples.

Now, the teacher provided each student a quotation page individually where there was a quotation given for them to work with. She asked students to open the booklet which had the rubric and asked them to follow the rubric in responding to the quotations.

To help the students, the teacher illustrated how they can link real life examples with quotations to write their answers. She also asked if anyone has any confusion regarding the rubric and further explained the rubric. She asked students to avoid plagiarism.

In the first 5 minutes of this individual task, the teacher provided quotation pages to the students from her own hands and students started interpreting the quotation they have received using the 4 stages of interpretation of quotation that the teacher discussed earlier. As instructed by the teacher, the students opened their booklets and took help from it on writing the source of the quotation following the format.

In the last 10 minutes of this task, the teacher asked students to think about expanding their individual quotes and informed them that this is because they will have to make a demo presentation later based on their quotations.

As the students worked, the teacher checked on them individually and provided suggestions as needed. After students were done, the teacher asked a student to come in front of the class and present on his given quotation for 1 minute.

As the student presented, he could not provide proper example, so the teacher helped the student to illustrate his examples. As he was done giving presentation, the teacher thanked him, the peers clapped and the teacher called the next presenter. The next student explained her quotation very briefly with wonderful examples, so the teacher and the peers clapped for appreciation. The next presenter came and he was hesitating in presenting, so the teacher assured him and provided help to explain his quotation and as he was done, the peers clapped.

Finally, the teacher provided marks to these three presenters in collaboration with the other students and concluded the class. As I was leaving from the class observation, the teacher informed me that, the rest of the students will present in the next class and finally, they will work on the quotations in groups following this class’ discussion.

Open Class Observation on Undergraduate Learners (Drama) - Teaching Practicum

We went for an open class observation on one of our Undergraduate English Course of Drama and Poetry in the English Department. Beforehand, we took permission from the course teacher Ms. Rukhsana Rahim Chowdhury to observation her class and explained her purpose of our class observation. She gladly permitted us and gave us the schedule for her next class. So, on Tuesday, 15^th July, we went to the Drama and Poetry class for class observation. As we entered the class, the discussion had already started.

The teacher was discussing about the play by George Bernard Shaw which was “The Arms and the Man”, she was eliciting ideas about the characters from the students. There were a total number of 18 students present in the class. The teacher started by asking them about the play and the main idea of love and war in the play. Then she illustrated on the genre of comedy in relation to the play.

The teacher then used the whiteboard and wrote “Romantic” eliciting the meaning of the word from the students and related it with inner expression and emotion. Then she asked students the meaning of “trivial” and students took part in explaining the meaning of the word to the teacher.

Next, the teacher asked the students about “Romanticism” and they were providing wrong information about the meaning, so the teacher was correcting information about the idea of Romanticism saying, “Romantic in literature is an ideology of one’s created self. It has the tendency to glorify certain ideas, to glorify the dead person for example”. Then she also expressed the idea of “Chivalry for Men” and discussed on the history of the war period. After this, the teacher moved on to the discussion of the main character of the play – Raina and explained that she is a young woman who belongs to an aristocratic family. Describing the atmosphere of the first chapter of the play, the teacher told the students, “What does it say about people who have a library at home? It shows that the family is fond of reading.” Then she moved on to illustrating the main character’s favorite books and writers – Byron, Pushkin and related it with the writers of the Romantic age who focused on writing about the gallant heroes.

Following this discussion, the teacher then asked students about the Romantic notion of War and as students could not reply, she explained, “War bring solutions, any man that goes to war is a hero. Most soldiers encounter ordinary death, those who survive try to hide their stories, because every death is not a heroic solution.” The teacher then explained how the main character Raina had a very glorified notion of war as she was engaged to be married to a soldier whose name was Sergius. 

The teacher then asked students about the opening of the play, the characters and their mindset and students answered one by one. Then she asked students to express the idea of “Altar” and one student volunteered to draw the picture of an altar in the whiteboard. Following this, the teacher described that the altar is a designated space where the religious idol or their photographs is placed. Relating to the idea of the Altar, then teacher then talked about the story and the characters of the play, “Raina has the portrait of her fiancé whom she worships because he went to perform heroic deeds in the war.”

To explain the idea of hero, the teacher further discussed that, “The worshipper thinks that the idol is elevated to a higher level and this person is to be worshipped.” Next, the teacher asked learners to read the lines, “Characters will speak more than they want to speak”. Most of the time the teacher used wonderful dramatic expressions to engage the students’ interest in the discussion. The students also looked eager and attentive and they were less distracting. After students read the certain paragraph, the teacher moved the discussion deeper in the context of the story and the characters.

She asked students about each characters of the play in turns and when any student answered wrong, the teacher corrected their information and explained the idea of that character. The teacher also used hand gestures to illustrate Raina’s character and how she was in doubtful about her fiancé but for practicality agreed to marry him being a good match. The teacher and the students then focused on the conversation of the mother and the daughter’s character. Teacher asked other learners to help understand the ideas of the characters from their peers who understood them well. She again asked about the idea of the “Heroic Soldier” and a few students stood up and discussed on the idea.

There was a supportive and friendly atmosphere in the classroom as the learners were laughing when the teacher said, “The soldier hides in the bedroom of a girl to save his life which is the extreme opposite of what Raina believes in about a heroic soldier, but she still helps the soldier hide in her bedroom”.

The teacher then gives tasks to students for the next class and asks them to read the whole play to discover the character of “Bluntschi”, a mercenary soldier who fights for money that explains the complete opposite of the character of a heroic soldier. Following this, the teacher then compares the characters for both the soldiers – Sergius and Bluntschi for students’ understanding and concludes the first three chapters of the play. After this, the teacher informs the learners that they will have a quiz on the next class based on this discussion.

After this, she divides students in 6 groups with 3 students in each group and gives them the task of reading a particular paragraph from the play for 10 minutes. Assigning them with the task of reading the episode where Bluntschi enters the room, she asks students discuss about it with their group members. The six groups worked for 10 minutes on reading and discussing the certain episode of the play among themselves. Meanwhile, the teacher monitored the groups and provided suggestions when needed. After 10 minutes, the teacher asked if learners have completed reading the episode and when they replied they did. The teacher asked summary of the episode from one group, a presenter from that group made presentation on the episode of the play while the other groups and the teacher listened attentively. The teacher asked the presenter to raise her voice and face the class and helped her with more information during the presentation. After the presenter concluded, everyone clapped for her and the teacher provided feedback on the presentation and the episode from the play.

Finally, the teacher corrected students’ notion of the episode’s texts and notes of which they did not have a clear idea and asked questions. She also gave away some hints about the character contrasts that are to be discussed in the next class. Then she marked attendance and concluded the class. The teacher came to us asking if we have been able to observe the class successfully and whether her class discussion helped on our observation, to which we agreed and thanked her for the opportunity to observe her class.

Video Observation of Teaching at BRAC School (Teaching Practicum)

We observed the video of the primary classes (Class – 5) of the BRAC School of Barabangram, Shahmakhdum, Arban, Rajshahi, a school which is under the BRAC Education Program. There was one teacher and were a total of 29 students who sat in 5 groups in 3 rows in a circular seating arrangement. The class was an English class, the duration of which was 45 minutes. The teacher focused more on picture elicitation, pair work, group work, oral drills, reading, and vocabulary and error correction involving students in different activities. The teacher always asked questions or instructed students in English in the class and the students replied in Bengali, but in case of word meaning, question – answer, oral drill or True/False exercises, the students replied in English.

The classroom environment in the video looked very lovely with language posters of vocabulary and grammatical sentences, vocabulary charts, numerical charts, group names, sentence charts and week charts etc. The teacher called our students by names such as Lima, Jostna, Shakil, Romeo, Nasreen, Tazbiha, Joya etc. and the teacher’s instructions were very clear as the students replied each time she asked a question. The groups of students were rote learners which mean that they needed input to response, without input they cannot respond spontaneously. The main purposes of this English class were focused on the skills of Reading and Vocabulary.

The teacher started the English class by saying, “Now I start our English class”, checking the previous class’ lesson of word meanings from the previous chapter on the English for Today book. Students were divided into different groups and were named in different flowers’ names – Joba, Golap, Shiuli, Rajanigondha etc. The teacher asked the students, “What is our previous lesson?” The students replied her that they were working on word meanings.

Vocabulary:

The teacher started checking the word meanings from the previous lesson. So, she asked word meanings to students such as – heard, throw, believe, imitate, basket, village, villager, ground, summer, lasers, farmer, wearing etc. which were mainly from the previous class. Since, the purpose of the class was reading lesson and learning vocabulary, the teacher asked word meanings in English and students replied in Bengali. She used the Total Physical Response and called students on the blackboard to make sentences with these words and write them on the board.

After they were done with this task, the teacher started the current day’s lesson by asking, “Who can say today’s story name?” The students replied, “The Cap – seller and the Monkeys”, the teacher praised them, “Excellent!” Then the teacher asked them again, “Who can tell the story name?” and called students by name to stand up and answer, Romeo and Tazbiha answered her question. Then the teacher instructed, “Look at the blackboard everybody” and she started to write the name of the lesson and told the name of the story aloud to the students once more, “The Cap – seller and the Monkeys”. Then the teacher asked them, “Do you know who is a Cap – seller?” The students could not answer, so the teacher answered, “A cap – seller, who sells many caps to villagers”.

Picture Elicitation:

Subsequently, the teacher moved on to the next part of the lesson and pointed to the picture on Lesson 23 and asked, “What can you see in the first picture? What is the man doing?” The students answered, “He is sitting under a big tree to take rest.” Then the teacher asked to another student, “What are the monkeys doing? Who can say, Joya?” The student replied to her answer with details.

Pair Work:

Next, the teacher gave students pair work to discuss the pictures with their partners. So, she told the students, “Discuss the picture with your partner”, so the students worked in pairs and discussed the picture. After they were done, the teacher asked, “Nasreen, stand up! What is the title?” As Nasreen replies to her question, the teacher again wrote the name of the lesson herself in the blackboard.

Reading Activity:

The teacher moved on to the Reading activity and instructed the students, “I will read, you will listen and follow the lines with your fingers, understood?” The students replied, “Yes, Maam”. The teacher read out the story of the Cap – seller and the Monkeys from the book aloud and students followed. Once this was done, the teacher then read the story again and this time the students underline the difficult words like worried, passing etc. The teacher noted down these difficult words from the students wrote them on the blackboard and later gave the students Bengali word meaning for these words.

Oral Drill:

The teacher made the students present in Oral Drills by asking the students to read the paragraph with her in English (T – Ss interaction). Later, the teacher and the students read the story together again and this time they read the story in Bengali, “সে তার পাশে টুপির ঝুড়িটি রাখল, সে দেখল তার ঝুড়িতে টুপি নেই।" In this way, the students continued reading the story in Oral Drills following the teacher.

Group Work with Chain Drill:

After students were done reading the story, the teacher asked, “Have you understood the story? Students replied, “Yes, Maam”. So, the teacher asked the students, “Please make 5 groups. Look at the blackboard and see the questions. Your group leader will read the story again and you will follow the lines with your fingers.” Then the teacher asked the students, “Who is your group leader?” The students answered from their groups – “Lima, Jostna, Shakil, and Romeo.” Now, the teacher gave the group a purpose for the next task, “Read questions from the blackboard and answer them by reading in groups.” Mainly, the teacher formed 5 groups with students and asked them to check the Focus questions she wrote on the blackboard. She asked the group leaders to read the story and asked the group members to follow the lines with their group leader.

After the students read the questions, the story and prepared the answers with their group leaders, the teacher asked them the focus questions which she wrote on the blackboard. The three focus questions which the teacher wrote on the blackboard were – Where do the monkey live? Who likes to imitate? Who sat under a big tree? Students answered these three questions from their groups in Chain Drills as they were sitting in 3 rows and in 5 groups, one student asked one question and the next student answered.  After all the groups were done, the teacher praised the students – “Very fine, please give a big hand”. Now teacher told the students, “Copy these three questions in your khata now, write answers and don’t look with each other.”

Error Correction:

After students were done writing the answers to the three Focus questions, the teacher checked each of their scripts and praised them for completing the task. This error correction strategy was very good since students were happy with the way she praised them.

Pair Work, Chain Drill with True/False:

Then the teacher asked the students, “Look at the book, page 76, Session A1. Who can read the instruction A1?” Two students read out the instructions from A1, so the teacher said, “Discuss with your partner about Session A1.” Thus, students worked in pairs with the True/False exercises. Then the whole class practiced the True/False exercises again in Chain Drills – one person asking question, another person answering the question, in this way the Chain Drill continued. Then the teacher checked the True/False exercises with the students again with correct answers “Are you done? Do you agree?” After they were done with the task, the teacher said to the students, “Take your khata and write down the True/False exercises.” Before they started to write, the teacher asked them to go back to making 3 rows again to rearrange the classroom seating before ending the class. As they completed this task, the teacher checked each of their scripts, praised them and informed them that there will be no homework for the next class. 

Conclusion:

These children are mainly rote learners; they need input to respond to the teacher in class. This is why the teachers always assign them with tasks to promote their learning in English Language. As the teacher’s instructions were very clear throughout the class, students had no difficulty in understanding and interacting with the teacher.

The teachers are also only trained for the purpose of the class, they are not fluent in English as most of them have only a secondary or a higher secondary level degree or qualification. This is why, it is hard to develop these teachers sociolinguistically to use English fluently, and they are only trained to use English that is needed solely for the classroom teaching.

Reflection of the Evaluation of Class 9 – 10 English for Today Textbook (Syllabus Design Course)

In this age of globalization, learning English is very important for young learners, so English is a compulsory subject in the schools and colleges as well as in higher studies in Bangladesh. For learning English, students in Bangladesh spend almost 12 years compulsorily in their academic life, so they are supposed to be proficient in the target language. However, in reality, most students cannot even use English satisfactorily as the four basic language skills--reading, writing, listening, and speaking are not practiced, taught and learned adequately in most of the schools in Bangladesh even though the English textbook has been adapted and modified recently.

Earlier, the traditional Grammar Translation Method (GTM) was used in teaching English but due to the huge success of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Method at the secondary level of education in Bangladesh, CLT was adapted in 1995 and first introduced in Classes 9 - 10 in years 2000 - 2001. In Grammar Translation Method, the focus was on the knowledge about the language, its grammar and rules, but the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Method focused more on the communication or the ability to perform. Emphasizing on this idea, the new English for Today textbook was written and introduced for Classes 9 – 10.

The new English for Today text book for Classes 9 – 10 contains the reading materials that are graded according to the linguistic difficulty that was less literary in character because the previous English for today textbook was more literature related and could not meet the demands of the students. The current book of English for Today for classes 9-10 is a decent one containing 14 units in 234 pages including contemporary topics and passages about climate change, world heritage, festivals, renewable energy, media and communications, iconic people etc. They contain exercises on questions, true/false, choosing the correct answer, completing chart, cloze tests, matching, fill in the blanks and writing from imagination etc. The enormous size syllabus and lessons are based on good themes and can provide scopes for learning English communicatively.

Physical Appearance

The cover and back cover of the textbook are attractive and colorful with quotation of Prime Minister about education and the academic year is mentioned. The printing quality and the quality of the paper are good compared to previous editions. The layout and presentation looks neat, the font size is appropriate and the lessons are presented in an organized way according to the Table of contents with proper images, graphs, charts, maps and posters. Overall, the illustrations used in the textbook are interesting, clear and related to the text to exemplify the meaning of the text. For example, in the lesson “Events and Festivals” images of national and internationals events and festivals are given.

Content

The subject matter and units in English for Today textbook are organized topically and the smaller lessons under each unit are presented situationally or functionally. The materials of the textbook are not culturally biased rather cultures are presented in a related way. For example, in the unit “World Heritage” several archaeological constructions from different cultures are presented in lessons throughout the whole unit such as The Shat Gambuj Mosque, Somapura Mahavihara, The Statue of Liberty, Lake Baikal describing heritages from Asia, America and Russia etc.

The topics of the lesson are also related to the needs, age and interests of the learners. For example, in the unit “Renewable Energy”, topics such as electricity production in Bangladesh, hydro – carbon energy resources, solar panels etc. most contemporary topics are introduced.

Even though the functional or communicative syllabus has been designed for Classes 9 - 10 by the NCTB, the examination syllabus or questions designed by the examination board seems to be different from what is needed to test the communicative competence of the learners.

Vocabulary and Grammar

The grammatical items are presented in an increasing order of difficulty such as starting from completing the chart, matching, multiple choice questions, short questions and then writing paragraph etc.  For example, in the lesson “International Mother Language Day”, the new vocabularies related with the topic are presented at an appropriate rate in both the text and exercises. If matching provides new words with meanings, then the next exercises on questions and paragraph writing can be done using those related word meanings from the word meaning list.

Skills Development

The secondary level English for Today for classes 9-10 is actually competency based syllabus which means that students are expected to attain a list of competencies at the end of the secondary level. Even though the textbook aims at making learners attain communicative competence in the target language, it is not fully accomplished because pair or group works cannot be conducted and this prevents participatory learning. For example, in most of the lessons, there are sections for group works and pair discussions which are part of the exercises but they are never done due to scarcity of time and classroom space. Therefore, pair or groups works cannot be done in the classroom using the textbook.

The English for Today textbook follows a proper syllabus where the items are selected, organized and sequenced according to skills for the secondary level Class 9 – 10 learners. An ideal textbook must ensure adequate coverage of syllabus with supplementary materials i.e. audio and video resources. This textbook only serves as the basis for language input and practice, however, only reading and writing are emphasized and listening and speaking remain omitted for the lack of audio materials and teachers’ guide. Reading text are supported by a number of related exercises and writing activities help students develop abilities to write freely such as writing a paragraph, making predictions, report writing etc.

Even though there are detailed instructions on pedagogy and testing in the teachers’ handbook, the objectives cannot be entirely fulfilled for the lack of testing listening and speaking exercises in the textbook. Similarly, teachers are not provided with the teaching tools and guides for testing listening and speaking, so there is an incomplete paradigm shift. For example, in the unit “Are We Aware”, there is a section in listening where students will listen to the teacher/CD that will give them idea about the population of Bangladesh, however, if this topic is not played through CD or teacher does not read out the topic, then there is no way in which students could complete the questions, charts and gap filling activities related to it. This means that omitting the listening topic or text will leave out students from knowing about the topic as no additional text is given about the topic but only exercises in the book.

In most cases, teachers may avoid listening text or speaking topics that includes group and pair discussions which would mean that students will not be using the Communicative Language Teaching method which requires them to speak English in class but rather use the GTM method where the teachers talks more and students only focus on reading the writing omitting listening and speaking. Overall, the four skills are not taught in an integrated way.

Exercises and Activities

The exercises are mainly task – based activities which are organized in a way to promote fluency and accuracy of learners. For example, the unit on “Media and E – Communications” has been arranged in a way so that students explore and enjoy reading the topics which motivates them to know more about the email, social networking sites, digital education program, learning management system (LMS) etc.

There are different types of exercises and activities with examples illustrated in images, charts and tables to clarify ideas about the text. The exercise types are questions; fill in the blanks, multiple choice questions, comparison tables, completing dialogues etc.  Most of the tasks have instructions which are clearly stated in one or two sentences for both the learners and the teacher. Interesting exercises such as use of email and social networking sites may help students to advance in their thinking and communication in the classroom.

Conclusion

The English for Today textbook has a wide range of lesson to be covered, so due to scarcity of time, the teachers have to plan on organizing the lessons of the book taking consideration of the students' interest and level and the duration of the class hours should also be extended for pair and group works, presentation etc.

The less important or non-important lessons may be omitted from the text in order to remove the students' fear of huge syllabus in English and to provide them more interest in reading. The lessons should be designed in such a way that each lesson should contain a variety of activities and skills with maximum student-involvement.

Even though the new English for Today aims at applying the CLT method for achieving the target language competence in English, this goal has not been fulfilled yet due to the lack of sufficient trained teachers, teaching-learning materials, lack of teacher-student interaction, lack of students' motivation, poor performance of the students, students' fear in using English etc. While the government is willing to give teacher training and provide textbooks, they are unwilling to change the examination system which is the biggest challenge in any education reform. So, step by step planning is needed to facilitate change in language teaching and language learning.

Reflection of the Evaluation of Class 9 – 10 English Curriculum (Syllabus Design Course)

We know that, curriculum content is a body of facts, ideas, concepts and skills that are presented, discussed and involved in the course. The content or materials selected for the course should reflect the pre-determined curriculum objectives which are intended for the learner. Therefore, while selecting the contents of the curriculum, the curriculum designer should give attention to the fact that the materials to be selected for the curriculum must be of established value and they should be able to meet the needs and interests of the learners.

In our country, the effectiveness of the curriculum is measured by the process of continuous assessment throughout the course through quizzes and terminal examinations, as well as final examination at the end of the course in classes 9 and 10. The higher secondary education (Classes 9 –10) is designed to prepare the students to enter into the higher secondary stage. The academic program terminates at the end of class 10 when students prepare themselves to appear at the public examination called S.S.C. (Secondary School Certificate).

In today’s world, the approach and style of learning English is changing gradually and relentlessly, so various attempts have been taken into concern in this regard consequently to serve this demand in course of time. In the past, the English learning was content-based and was also Grammar Translation Method based. Then English learning mainly focused on literature and emphasized on the grammar, however, now-a-days, it emphasizes on the Communication Language Teaching Method in learning English, which is considered to be an effective method in learning English. Since, the Communication Language Teaching Method has become a popular method in the developed countries; it has also been included in our English curriculum too. From this perspective we can say that, the present English curriculum in our country has been designed based on the Communication Language Teaching Method (CLT).

Curriculum or syllabus design has always been an important issue in our education system, because only an effective syllabus can ensure language learning successfully. With this view, educationists and curriculum planners in Bangladesh and abroad have worked on the English curriculum designing at the secondary or higher secondary level and they have given their valuable opinions regarding the imbalance between the present syllabus and its successful implementation. They have suggested that an appropriate graded syllabus should be introduced at each level and text books related to the needs and abilities of the learners should be prepared. They emphasized that, there is a deficiency in learning English on our country which has been accelerated by the lack of efficient English teachers. The present Class 9 – 10 English syllabuses emphasizes on learning the language through interactive and communicative process, which is the Communicative Language Teaching Method or CLT.

By following the Communicative Language Teaching Method, learners are expected to use the language effectively in real life situations outside the classroom through constant and regular practice with the teachers and the fellow students and they are expected to acquire competency in the concerned language. This present communicative syllabus is introduced from the failure of the past syllabus which was grammar and content-based and emphasized on rote learning or memorization, but not on comprehension and oral practice of the learners. Therefore, consequently, learners memorized English without understanding and as a result they could not become creative, imaginative and competent in communication in terms of learning English.

For this reason, the Communicative Language Teaching Method was introduced to emphasize on the learners’ ability to internalize a second language, to be creative and imaginative in real-life situations and to be competent on oral practice. So, after the introduction of the CLT approach based curriculum at classes 9 - 10, learners were expected to acquire competency in English and to use it effectively both inside and outside of the classroom. Since then, learners’ tendency to memorize has been reduced. Some examples can be drawn to explain this issues further.

For example, in the examination of English First Paper of Class 9 - 10, learners have to comprehend a passage given in the question paper and then answer the questions from No. 1 - 8 by reading and understanding the passage. Again, they have to be creative in answering questions 9, 10, 11 and 12 which requires using their grammatical knowledge by linking it with the idea of the passage or the text. Only question No. 13 and 14 (Paragraph and Letter writing of 20 marks) depended on the free hand writing. So this curriculum or syllabus does not force learners on their depth of knowledge but rather on their learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.

In the case of English Second Paper of Class 9 - 10, questions No. 1 to 8 (a total of 40 marks) needs to be answered on grammatical items which do not depend on the memorization of learners but rather on their understanding of the items. Similarly, in part B, in answering question in the paragraph, dialogue/ summary and completing story learners have to use their imagination and writing skills because they are not selected in the question paper conventionally. Likewise, a composition of 15 marks and application of 10 marks also depends on learners’ free hand writing skills and experiences. Also, the exercises on the transformation of sentences like affirmative-negative; simple-complex-compound, changing degree and voice change etc. each have 5 marks which require learners to apply their own knowledge in understanding and answering the questions in the examination.

Therefore, it is observed that both the English First paper and Second paper of Classes 9 - 10 require learners’ comprehension and understanding capability in acquiring real competency in English language. They not only require learners’ regular study, regular home work and regular attending of classes but also their motivation in the class and their increase of interaction with the teacher in class too. When there is an interaction of learners with the teachers in class, the teachers can give emphasis on the four basic skills - reading, writing, speaking and listening which makes learners communicatively competent in English. In this regard, it can be said that learners' understanding capability, vocabulary list and grammatical understanding have increased for introducing CLT approach in the secondary level in Classes 9 – 10 and also their performance is better than the traditional learning students in real life situations.

The present curriculum emphasizes on the comprehensive and imaginative power of the learners and includes the necessary grammatical items that help learners in learning English. However, the reasons for which learners in rural schools are weak in English than learners in city schools are because of the lack of teachers' responsibility, learners' fear of English and their lack of motivation, backdated attitude of teachers especially in the rural areas, untrained teachers, lack of teaching materials and most prominently the lack of teacher-student interaction in the class.

As many teachers in the rural schools are not trained properly, they do not have clear idea about Communicative Language Teaching Method, so they teach in the traditional Grammar Translation Method which they are mostly used to. They teach grammar through memorization most of the time and deliver lecture using Bangla which does not benefit the learners. On the other hand, many learners have fear about English from the early age and do not respond in the classroom. Therefore, we can hope that the present English curriculum which has been designed focusing on the CLT method can solve these problems of the learners in the rural schools. Moreover, for the effective implementation of the present English curriculum in Classes 9 - 10, the teachers and the learners can emphasize on group discussions, presentations, English language clubs, additional English teaching materials and library books and so on.

In addition, teachers should be trained to make them familiar with the CLT approach based English curriculum so that they can come out of their back-dated attitudes, can make their class more lively and interactive and follow the four basic language skills to benefit their learners. Also, enough teaching materials should be provided for the teachers and learners and the teacher-student ratio should be reduced, so that the teacher-student interaction is increased for language learning and communication. Hence, the combination of a communicative English curriculum and effective teaching method can successfully help learners in learning English for communication in their real life.

Reflection on the Proposed Organization I Prepared for the ELT Leadership and Management Course

Leadership and Management for the Organization

The leaders of my organization will mainly include the Program Director, the Secretary and the Department Heads of the Admission, Administration, Coordination and Supervising, Human Resources and Public Relations, Marketing and Advertisement and Accounts and Finance Units. They will lead the organization through the Middle – of – the Road Management where they will balance the conditions of work for the employees through maintaining their satisfaction level at the work place and assuring their well being. In addition, they will also get the works done by the employees as well as maintain friendly relationship with the employees by providing them facilities and building a relationship of trust and respect. So, the leaders will have concern for both the people and for the work results of the organization.

The leadership approach that I will propose for my key leaders would be the Skills Approach which will emphasize on their three skills of problem – solving, social judgment skills and knowledge that they will need to lead the organization.

 

Through this approach, the leaders will not only be able to accomplish the works, activities and operations for the organization following a task – oriented behavior but also bond with their workers by following a relationship – oriented behavior.

The key management positions in this organization will include the Program Director, the Secretary and the Department Heads of the Admission, Administration, Coordination and Supervising, Human Resources and Public Relations, Marketing and Advertisement and Accounts and Finance Units.     

                                       

They will work for the effective planning and regulation of my organization and will accomplish all the management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling the organization’s activities. These key leaders will design the future course of action for the organization and make sure that the pre – determined goals are achieved and all the resources are utilized properly. They will organize all the resources, delegate responsibilities to employees and coordinate projects for teaching and learning. In addition, they would also plan on recruiting staffs, supervising employees and monitoring their performances to achieve the organizational goals.

Proposed Plan for Teaching - Learning

For my organization, teaching the English Language skills to my learners from different backgrounds in order to develop their language skills is my main goal. Similarly, training the teachers to plan objectives-based, communicative and student-centered lessons, syllabus and class activities, strengthen their teaching and leadership skills and enriching their personal development is the other goal of my organization. Therefore, I would anticipate such teaching learning activities in my organization that will not only help learners to develop their language skills but also enrich personal and professional development and experiences. In the same way, the teachers who will come for training to improve their teaching skills will also learn about different teaching methods that will help them prepare communicative lessons and activities to create a student – centered classroom. They will also get the idea of using technology in the classroom for teaching and preparing interesting materials in a way for increasing student participation.

This will be different from the traditional practices because our English Language learning program will not be limited to classroom experience, but will also involve group discussions, lectures, problem-solving activities and games etc. which will build relationship between the teacher and the learners. The teachers under training will learn about the traditional and contemporary second language teaching methods, the effective use of the technology, media, and materials to be used in the classroom and understand the role of ICT for interactive classroom teaching. Our hope is that our teachers will not only share the gift of English, but cultivate life-long relationships with their students that will bring about success in life.

In addition to learning and preparation of resources, my organization will provide facilities and tools that will help evaluate and build the English-language skills of learners, teachers and employees.

Professional Development Strategy

The professional development scheme that I propose for my organizational staff and employees would include professional training and post training guidance and development that will enhance their knowledge and skills for working in the organization. Through these trainings, they will achieve both personal and professional development that will help them focus in their occupational role foe improving the quality of teaching and learning activities in the organization.

I will propose the INSET (In – Service Education and Training) for my organizational staff which my organization will provide to all the staffs for improving their needs. After their receive this training, they will have clear ideas about their own Professional Development Cycle where they will reflect on the evaluation of their activities, identify their own professional and personal needs, learn the skills and apply them in their practices for the organization activities. Besides, coaching of the employees will facilitate their learning in developing their performances and mentoring will develop them professionally. In addition, the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) will enable the staffs of my organization to improve their own practices in their professional fields. 

Learning Organization:

My organization is going to be a “Learning Organization” because it will create its own future by adapting to the environmental changes that comes through the way and proactively shape its environment accordingly by training all the teachers, employees and organizational staff. All the staff will be trained in a way so that they can cope with any changes that come in the organizational policies and practices and plan for it way ahead. It will be the responsibility of my organization to foster professional development of my employees and emphasize on organizational improvement by making use of skills and disciplined actions so that we can solve the incoming problems systematically and learn from those experiences for future implementation.

The culture of learning in my organization is more supportive because I engage my employees in taking responsibilities of activities and projects and take part in the decision making process for the organizational development. They are my organization’s topmost priority regarding participating in developing and implementing a compelling vision and strategy for my organization.

Marketing Approach for the Proposed Organization

For my English Language Teaching Organization (ELTO), the marketing view is more of a combination of both Market oriented view and Sales oriented because my organization not only tries to identify the current trends of language learning approaches but also emphasizes on the values of my clients. My organizational teachers and staffs tries their best to satisfy my clients i. e. the learners coming for learning English language and the teachers coming for receiving teachers’ training for language teaching. Thus, by assessing on the needs of our clients, we decide how to serve them profitably and in what way in order to achieve our organizational objectives.

My organization focuses more on Relationship marketing approach and this approach seems more appropriate in my view because it emphasizes on building promising relationship with the customers and focuses on their necessities. Since, my organizational staff is responsible for the quality of teaching and learning in my organization, the orientation is more on customer benefits. As I place high emphasis on customer service and customer contact, we have a long term relationship with them and our business runs on the long timescale. We believe in the customer commitment and hence try our very best to build a relationship of trust and respect with our clients with our services in English Language Teaching.

Conclusion

My proposed organization is going to be different from other existing organizations of the similar kind, because we look out for the opening and closing of strategic windows that come in our way and invest our resources for benefiting clients and achieving profit. We try to understand the key requirements of our customers and their English Language teaching and learning needs and apply our skills and competencies to provide English language teaching and learning services to our clients. As a learning organization, we also adapt to the environmental changes in the market by modifying the current needs of the clients and changing our policies and practices for achieving our organizational goals. On the whole, we learn from our experiences and apply those learning in our organizational culture so that there is a long – term relationship between the leaders and staffs of the organization.

Proposed Organization Model for our ELT Leadership and Management Course

For the submission of the Final Paper in the ELT Leadership and Management course, we were asked to create an imaginary organization mentioning the goals and objectives. So this is what I came up with in my writing:

To provide English Language Teaching Services to students from different backgrounds and also training the teachers in profession who wants to improve their teaching skills, I am going to establish a new organization by the name One Stop English Language Center. The reason behind the choosing this name for the organization is to reflect the objectives of the organization as it focuses both on English language teaching and learning services. The name ‘One Stop’ emphasizes how this can be the one destination for the students to learn English Language and also for the teachers to develop their teaching skills through training. The main belief of my organization is – “Education is not received, it is achieved.”

The specific goals of my organization would be:

1. To provide English language education to the learners from different backgrounds in Dhaka area and also establish a strong linkage with other education centers or schools.
2. To provide training and guidance to teachers to make them familiar with the traditional and contemporary second language teaching methods and resources.
3. To create opportunities and trust for the learners and the teachers and develop long – term relationship with other education centers.

There are several objectives of my organization that are mainly focused on the welfare of language learning and teaching for the learners and teachers:

1. Teach English Language skills to learners from different backgrounds in order to develop their principles of language learning that will result in personal and professional achievement.
2. The English Language learning program will not be limited to classroom experience, but will also involve group discussions, lectures, problem-solving activities and games etc.
3. In addition to learning and preparation of resources, my organization will provide tools that will help evaluate and build the English-language skills of learners, employees or individuals.
4. Training teachers to plan objectives-based, communicative and student-centered lessons, syllabus and class activities, strengthen their teaching and leadership skills and enriching their personal development.
5. Instructing teachers about the effective use of the technology, media, audio and video tools and materials to be used in the classroom for English Language teaching and assisting them to learn evaluate their learners’ achievements.

I think my proposed organization could be a model for the English language teaching and learning in Bangladesh. We could easily move from the traditional to contemporary teaching techniques and incorporate ICT in language learning in institutions. What do you think?