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?

Steps of Writing a Wikipedia Article

Writing in Wikipedia is not easy and many people even states that Wikipedia is an unreliable source to cite. However, that does not mean that we are completely going to avoid Wikipedia! We can certainly look for general information about a topic in Wikipedia by simply searching it and we will find neatly written Wikipedia article ready for us. Even though the sources given as references might not be fully reliable, we can still count on that.

BEFORE WRITING:

However, before thinking of writing in Wikipedia, you need to gather information on the topic you want to write about, in that case:

a) Try to collect data as much as you can about the topic you wish to write and arrange them in a draft with the sources (web links) for your own convenience.

b) Try to paraphrase the data you have collected beforehand in Word Document (if possible), it might be useful when you will be needing the whole compiled data in case anything goes wrong in Wikipedia.

c) If your Wikipedia article is not cited properly, then there are chances that your article might get deleted by the authority, so in that case, you need to create the citations of your sources in the correct format (For Wikipedia it is either MLA format or Wikipedia's own format) and save them as draft too as you will be needing them later.

d) Now that you are prepared with your information and sources, you can proceed on to your Wikipedia article (finally!)

WHEN WRITING:

Well, for the new people, these are the few simple steps on how you can open an account on Wikipedia and proceed on to writing your own Wikipedia article (These are the steps based on my own writing experiences in Wikipedia, so you can give it a try):

1) At first, you need to open an account on visiting: http://www.wikipedia.org/ and it will take you to the page as follows:

2) Click on English and it will take you to the main page of Wikipedia where you can find the Create Account button at the upper right corner of the page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

3) Fill in all the necessary details and create your account with a Username and Password and once you get a confirmation email, you can log in to your Wikipedia account:

4) Once your account is created, you can click the Log In button at the upper right corner of the page and Log In to the website using your Username and Password:

5) Once, you have logged in to your Wikipedia account, you need to start writing your Wikipedia article now. However, the easiest way to find the Edit Page for writing a new Wikipedia article is by searching by that topic (which does not exist yet) in the Search Box, once you search with the topic name, the Search Results will show as follows:

Now, you will see a dialogue at the end of the Search Results, which says:

"You may create the page "Exams Invigilator", but consider checking the search results below to see whether the topic is already covered."

This means that by clicking on the Topic Name now (beside - you may create the page), you can directly go the Edit Page of your new Wikipedia article and start writing your Wikipedia article straightaway!

6) As you have come straight into the Edit Page of your new Wikipedia article now, just start writing! Use your collected data and information (which you have previously compiled as Word Document) and start writing them here in the Create or Edit Box/Page:

7) You can use different icons (shortcut menus) and options to edit your writing, insert in - text citations, web links, Wiki links, add References and External sources etc. If you carefully notice, you will see that in the Help Bar of the Edit Box there are several Wiki codes manually given, which you can use to create Bold Texts, Italic Texts, Headings, Sub - Headings etc. Since, I personally have not used the BETA version, so I worked with these simple editing tools manually. I think it is better and help you to understand how to add Headings, Links, Lists etc. manually.

8) Similarly, for References, You can follow the same manual options by scrolling down the Help Bar or try using the options from the Cite Bar. Before that, however, you can create your sources, if you want to put them in the MLA format and then add appropriate web links or Wiki Links in addition to them.

One Quick TIP for adding your Reference links i.e. the Web Links/ External Sources automatically can be done simply by pasting this Wiki code at the very end of your writing:

== External Links ==
{{Reflist}}

9) Now, once you are done writing the whole Wikipedia article completely with proper Headings, Sub - Heading, In - text citations, web links, Wiki links, References and External sources etc. you can simply click on the Save Page button or even have a look at your article before publishing by clicking on the Preview button. Remember that once you click on the Save Page button, your article will be published in Wikipedia, but you can always go back to the Edit Page to make changes or even add new information.

10) Now, as your article will be published, you can copy the link to your article and share it with everyone else! Mostly, published article web links will be as follows and your published article will look like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exam_Invigilator

The References:

This is how you can Write your own Wikipedia Article!

Experience of Writing First Individual Wikipedia Article

Long before a few years ago in 2008, I opened my Wikipedia account and was writing and contributing in already existing articles on the website. For the last two years, I had not visited the Wikipedia website or edited any articles, however, I had to visit the website again after all this time, when our "Use of Technology" course required us to submit an individual Wikipedia project as instructed by our teacher Mr. Zohur Ahmed. Since, this was not my first experience on writing a Wikipedia article, I was a little familiar with the process. Before, we were given the task, Zohur Sir asked us to read and follow an article that illustrated the steps of creating a Wikipedia article. That article gave me new views on how to collect data and then start working on an individual Wikipedia project. So, after reading the article, I decided to do my Wikipedia article on the topic of "Exam Invigilator" seeing that no such article exists in Wikipedia (after the search) and as I am working as a part time Exam Invigilator myself at British Council, I though why not write about it?

My first task was to collect data from all over the internet about the responsibilities and roles of Exam Invigilators and after doing a rigorous research, I found useful information about my topic. However, it was only last week when all my hard work of the collected data got accidentally erased by viruses that affected my pendrive and as I did not have any back up of the file in my computer, I had to start all over again, which was a bit challenging. I recollected the data and arranged them in the draft and was searching on the web to read a few articles on how to create a proper Wikipedia article.

Writing individual article in Wikipedia is a bit tough and there are chances that your article might get deleted by the authority if not properly written or cited. However, at first, I arranged all my collected data, paraphrased them in a draft and then entered them into the edit page in creating my first Wikipedia article. On the other hand, I created the citations of my sources I collected from different websites and arranged them in MLA format to add them as References below the Wikipedia article. There was no major problem (except losing all my collected data from the pendrive) and I read and followed the steps in which headings, sub - headings and text should be added and worked accordingly. However, even though I managed to put up quite a decent article, I still could not find or use the options properly to insert in - text citations, external web links, wikipedia links or even add image inside the article, which are still left. Other than that, I have successfully completed writing my first Wikipedia article on "Exam Invigilator" which I have decided to forward to British Council office once I will be done creating it properly (adding hyperlinks, images, in - text citations that are still left) and I hope they will be delighted to see something that might come into their use.

What was surprising was that, Wikipedia accepted my project as I submitted it without stating any edit issues or any other problems, so it was a first time success for me. Here is my Wikipedia article, I have tried my best to include everything that is needed to know about the role of an Exam Invigilator, you can all have a look at it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exam_Invigilator

This experience of creating the Wikipedia project will certainly help me to use it in teaching English to future learners. We know that blogs help to increase the writing creativity of the learners, but when learners will be writing Wikipedia articles, it will be more of a disciplined writing technique that they will learn. They will learn not only to write, but also how to include in - text citations, prepare citations, hyperlinks and make use of existing information around the web to create their own individual Wikipedia project. Once, they learn about Wikipedia article, they will be able to contribute to existing Wikipedia articles by accessing and modifying them as Wikipedia articles are open sources. Wikipedia can be used to teach and give learners project type tasks and allow them to even make peer corrections on each others' articles and help create formal Wikipedia articles. Blogs are easier to write, but since writing Wikipedia articles requires knowing and following certain instructions and how to apply them in writing, learners will have a great deal to learn while making use of it as part of their education. It will not only enhance their writing skills, but also increase their knowledge on how to research, collect and arrange data, make use of data properly by paraphrasing them and properly inserting in - text references, wikilinks or external web links that will give them clear idea about writing a formal research article on the web.

Syllabus Design and Materials Development

Similar to the name of the course - Syllabus Design and Materials Development, the classes also seems serious taught by one of the best educators of the country Mr. Hamidur Rahman. He himself is a running library who has abundance of knowledge and tries to provide us a glimpse of that knowledge from that. As remarked by Hamidur Sir, we have somehow successfully been able to change the Syllabus pattern, materials and textbooks to embrace the Communicative Language Teaching in our Country, however, we still cannot leave the previous Grammar Translation Method which is mainly because our whole Exam system has not changed a bit and it can never be changed. So, overall change will never happen and our education system will remain the way it is.

The situation of the Education Board in Bangladesh looks more like this:

 

According to Hamidur Sir, it is our old backdated exam system and the craziness of achieving GPA 5 which has barred the progress of the education system in our country. We might accept contemporary teaching methods such as the CLT, but our exam system pulls us back to GTM! We cannot learn communicatively, because whatever path our students take, it will end in the same examination process where everyone has to climb the ladder with their results!

Aren't we lagging behind?

Leadership and Management - What do we learn?

The course of Leader and Management is not simply a course that we are doing for the sake of getting grades, but there is also a lot to learn from the course. I personally, have never done any course on Business or Leadership, so this was a new experience for me, as I am learning more than I thought I would. Our course instructor Mr. Rino Wiseman focuses more on practical learning rather than providing tons of books, PDFs or references! We do discussions and group activities practically to learn about the topics and their ideas. All the difficult topics are covered and discussed briefly.

One of the two activities that were uncommon was that our Sir pasted four different characteristics of Leadership in each corners of the classroom and we had to choose one stance and express our reason for supporting the statement. The other one was that our Sir provided each of us a card to respond which had 'AGREE' labelled on one side and 'DISAGREE' labelled on another side! Also, in our very first day, we were provided our name badges by our course instructor which everyone has forgotten about since the first class.

We even made a presentation about our "ELT Organization" and how we would overcome our employees' lacking skills and what methods and approaches we would use to improve their organizational skills!

I could only conclude by saying:

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader". – John Quincy Adams