An Evaluation of the English Teaching Materials at the Secondary Level in Bangladesh

Md. Mahabub Ullah Khan

Chapter-1

Preamble
English is not just a language, it’s a state of mind—the global mind. Mahathir Mohammad, the former Malaysian premier, calls it ‘a technology’. In Bangladesh, like many other countries all over the world, enjoys the status of a great significant, opportunity and supreme prestige. Because of the increasing demand of English; it is now a must to ensure the designing of appropriate English with effective teaching materials.
In the changeable world, it is obvious that the approach and style of learning language is changing gradually and relentlessly. Various attempts have been taken into concern in this regard consequently to serve the demand in course of time. In the past, the English learning was content-based and was also based on Grammar-translation method. Then English learning mainly focused on literature and emphasized on the grammar. But now-a-days, it emphasizes on the communicative–competence in learning English, which is considered to be an effective method in learning English and has become a popular method in the developed countries. From this perspective, the present English syllabus has been designed based on the CLTA in Bangladesh.
Over the last part of the twentieth century, ELT methodology has developed very rapidly and has been subject to changes and controversies. Communicative approach to teaching and learning English has been a significant development; at present, it is used worldwide in teaching and learning English, especially, in EFL and ESL situations. In Bangladesh also this approach is recommended by NCTB and being implemented by ELTIP, PERC, and American Peace Corps and by teachers and experts, trained both overseas and locally. Instead of grammar-based approach, practice-based learning is considered important in recent theoretical approaches. This practice covers training of all four basic skills- listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Success of the teaching of English through communicative approach depends entirely on the practice of these skills. Among the major skills, teaching of reading has a significant place in Bangladesh as it is still very important for higher education (Haque, 2006).

The secondary classroom context is somewhat different as the teachers are specialist teachers of English and all have degrees with many holding MA/MEd. The emphasis here is on school-based teacher professional development. Through the use of handheld learning devices, bilingual, multi-modal materials are delivered which engage teachers in practical activities that represent classroom realities and the sociolinguistic situation in Bangladesh. The program also encourages teachers to reflect on activities, adapt them to their own contexts, and slowly gain confidence in a localized version of CLT.
Teachers are not expected to have native-like fluency in English, and are encouraged to use Bangla when necessary. As with the primary materials, there are also files with classroom language and video of classroom practice. These devices can also be used in the classroom as many text book dialogues, readings, poems and songs have been recorded. Teachers in the program learn and apply their learning in the authentic setting of the classrooms, schools and communities in which they work. They also participate in local, national and, ultimately we hope international, professional networks which help develop, support and sustain their new practices.
For learning English, students in Bangladesh spend minimum 12 years compulsorily in their academic life. So, they are supposed to be proficient in the target language. But most of the students, in reality, cannot use English satisfactorily or properly. An English learner requires being expert enough in the four basic language skills--reading, writing, listening, and speaking. But these four skills are not practiced, taught and learned adequately in most of the schools and colleges in Bangladesh. The reason in the past was due to the failure in designing an appropriate syllabus and its implementation.
And at present, though CLT approach has been introduced in the S.S.C level in Bangladesh, the target language competence in English 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, students' fear in using English and the irresponsibility of some teachers and some concerned authority. That is why; a successful communicative-competence in English requires solving these problems and modification of the SSC level's English syllabus.


English learning, in this age of globalization, is very important for the citizens of Bangladesh for various reasons. It is used as a compulsory subject at the school and college levels as well as the language of higher studies in Bangladesh. English proficiency is a must for those who want to go abroad for higher studies. Moreover, foreign companies, non-government organizations, multinational companies etc. give priority in recruiting those people who have satisfactory performance in English. However, it is unfortunate that Bangladesh is losing international job market due to the poor performance in English among the job seekers.

1.1 English in Bangladesh
After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 on the basis of two nation theory of Jinnah and later on the emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign country, English has been an important medium of instructions in the administrative and the political system of the subcontinent. Even the conservative Muslims were learning English with enthusiasm. But the language policies adopted in Bangladesh, including the Language Act of 1987, have been characterized by a stress on ‘Bengali in all spheres; which in turn has stood in the way of using English in the different domains of Bangladeshi life and cultures. This effect is especially seen in the four main formal domains of Bangladeshi life: administration, education, law and the media. (Banu & Sussex 1999, p122)
The education sector was greatly affected by this policy especially at the primary and secondary levels. All the English medium schools were abolished in 1972. (Banu & Sussex 1999, p126)
It is essential to discuss the position of English in Bangladesh if we want to examine the appropriateness of the CLT in Bangladesh. Before that we need to see the different between the EFL and ESL contexts for the teaching of English. Although both EFL and ESL refer to the teaching of English to non-native speakers, ESL takes place within an English-speaking environment. This scenario indicates students learning English in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand etc. where English is the primary language of interaction, communication, education, business.
Ellis (1996) distinguishes ESL and EFL contexts and states that ESL is integrative, in that it is designed to help individual function in the community, EFL is part of the school curriculum, and therefore subject to contextual factors such as support from principal and the local community, government policy etc. It is also dependent on the teacher’s language proficiency, teaching resources, the availability of suitable materials…..For ESL students language learning is part and parcel of survival and growth. (Ellis 1996, p.215)


Another characteristic of ESL situation is that students in the ESL classes do not share the same L1 thus helping to the greatest urge for learning and practicing the target language. This culturally heterogeneous classroom leads to higher motivation and faster adaptation of learning strategies (Ellis, 1996).
In such a situation a teacher is simply the facilitator of learning. On the other hand, EFL contexts do not have English-speaking environment. EFL teachers are the only source of the target language. In an EFL environment learning is teacher-centered. Examples of EFL learning countries are Bangladesh, Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia. Here English is not the only medium of instruction. Bilingual education system prevails there. Students have the exposure to the target language only during the class hours in a limited way. The main purpose of learning English is to pass the examination. Students mostly resort to the mother tongue for interaction. The motivation for learning English also varies greatly from person to person.
The environment in which learners learn English is very important to assess the students’ motivation for and success in learning. Another important factor is the cultural appropriateness of a language teaching method in a given society. In most parts of the world, English learning and teaching is done in a traditional way where there is the minimum of learner participation and interaction in the classroom. On the other hand, CLT requires student participation for proper learning of English. These differences in EFL and ESL contexts should be considered while implementing CLT in EFL situation. Most scholars are of the view that second language acquisition research and second language teaching is not transferrable to foreign language contexts. A good number of researches have been done about the non-adoptability of CLT, a product of ESL country in EFL contexts. (Burnaby & Sun, 1989; Fox, 1993; Sato & Kleinsasser, 1999)
However, it was not possible to ban English from the universities of the country. It is difficult to predict the future of English in Bangladesh. It is true that both from linguistic and literary point of view, the English language has contributed substantially to the language of Bangladesh and has also been influenced by the sociolinguistic setting. Finally, English has made a room in the mind of the people as a prestigious means of communication.

1.2 Language Teaching: Approach, Method and Technique
Language is the way of communication and the purpose of language is to communicate with each other. As people started using language with the time people elaborated their uses of language and as consequence, the language has developed. And as a result, new approaches and methods of language teaching materials came out and are developed. As new language teaching materials are made easier, most of the people of today’s world are multilingual and the way to know about the world is language.
Foreign language teaching has started 500 years ago with Latin language as it was the dominate language of education, commerce, religion and government in the Western World. In the sixteenth, a result of political change in Europe, French, and English gained importance and Latin gradually loosed its importance. From sixteenth to nineteenth centuries the study of classical Latin became the model for foreign language study, where Latin was taught through grammar rules, study of declensions and conjugation translation and practice in writing same sentence, sometimes with the use of parallel bilingual texts and dialogue. (Richards & Rodgers, 2002)
In the eighteenth century when modern language began to enter the curriculum of European schools used the same procedures used for teaching Latin and by nineteenth century this approach became the standard way of studying foreign language. And this approach of foreign language teaching became the Grammar Translation Method, and dominates foreign language teaching from the 1840s to 1940s. With the questioning and rejection of Grammar Translation ne methods came, C. Marcel, T. Prendergast, and F. Gouin proposed about situational approach, where most basic structural patterns of language and language to accomplish event consisting of a sequence of a related actions are to be taught, and it based on principle of children’s language learning, and it based on principles of language teaching. Another approach named Natural Approach which developed by the principles of language teaching out of naturalistic principles of first language.


From the 1880s practical minded linguistics such as Henry Sweet, Wilhelm Victor and Paul Passy began to provide ideas for Language teaching by the late nineteenth century as a new approach’s principles are developed and these are the foundation for Natural Method. Moreover the Natural language for namely Direct Method and the schools worked for Direct Methods are F. Franke, Sauveur and Manimilian Berlitz. Direct Methods are successful in private language schools but it was criticized for several draw backs. In the 1920s and 1930s linguistics systematized the principles which developed into the British approach to teaching English as a Foreign Language and whereas subsequent developments lead to Audio-lingualism in United States and the situational language teaching in Britain. (Richards & Rodgers, 2002)
“The spread of English round the world in the wake of trade, empire-building, migration, and settlement has ensured the teaching of the language a role, sometimes central, sometimes peripheral, in the educational history of virtually every country on earth” (Howatt, 1984: XIII). Now-a-days the study of modern foreign language has become an integral part of the entire education system all over the world. In Bangladesh also, a number of foreign languages such as English, French, Japanese, Arabic, and Persian and so on, are taught and learned. But, English occupies a privileged place in our educational system as the international language of communication. It is the only foreign language taught and learned in Bangladesh as a compulsory subject besides our first language Bengali.
When English was introduced as a compulsory subject in the curriculum for the secondary level by the British imperialists, English was taught in the Grammar-Translation Methods. In India English educational introduced some techniques and principles of language teaching which they had and by that time discarded in England. The introduced the Grammar-Translation Method which had been in practice in their country in the teaching and learning of Latin and Greek. This method found a favorable ground in India because the native teachers, the ‘Moulvies’ and ‘pundits’ had already been teaching Persian and Sanskrit in the same method. The method had been used for a very long time the adoption of the Audio-lingual method.

In this method of testing, the learning of English began with reading and writing and proceeded on to the study of grammar, and lastly if at all, leaning to speak. This method upheld a process of learning which is opposite to the natural order or process of learning which is opposite to the natural order or process of acquiring a language. In this method development of reading skill was emphasized. And it required the teachers to impart almost no or little lesson in the speaking skill. Generally teachers impart lessons in a mechanical way in the classroom and students were taught to memories those lessons and reproduce them in the classroom and in the examination.
As proficiency was them an indispensible condition to achieve success in professional life, school students were mainly absorbed in learning English. However, despite all their laborious efforts, students could hardly acquire sufficient command over this foreign language. As this method of language teaching placed in high importance in accumulation of knowledge about the language, rather than developing a capacity to use English spontaneously and fluently, developed a tendency toward mechanical repetition of English phrases, sentences, and expressions, which they could hardly understand. This habit of memorizing, reproducing, and repeating the memorized content, adversely, further discouraged the practice and development of the ability to use English naturally and spontaneously. In this method of teaching, students were taught to writer compositions, letters, applications, and paragraphs, and so on. They were also taught to read prose passages for comprehension along with the rules of grammar. They were required to build a good stock of English words. It also included the study of English literature. Above all, they were extensively taught to translate Bengali sentences into English and voce versa.
Since the preamble of English at the secondary level of education, it has been tested by a final standardized public achievement test, which was known, then, as the matriculation examination. In this examination, proficiency of the students was tested along with the other subject on the curriculum. This test was conducted to assess the achievement of the students in the students to produce writer composition, to comprehend reading texts, to accomplish translation exercises and on their knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary.

The secondary school curriculum was determined by this examination. An excessive emphasis on examination dominated the education of English at the secondary level.
However, this method proved ineffective in teaching a living language like English. Gradually, learners, teachers, and educationalists become disillusioned of this method and rejected it. Yet the influence of this method is so strong on our English teaching system, that it is still preferred as a suitable method for English in our secondary school.
In 1963, Anthony formulated a framework to describe various language teaching methods, which consists three levels: approach, method, and technique. According to Anthony, "The arrangement is hierarchical. The organizational key is that techniques carry out a method which is consistent with an approach." His concept of approach was of a set of principles or ideas about the nature of language learning which would be consistent over time; "an approach is axiomatic". His method was more procedural; "an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach." Finally, his concept of technique referred to the actual implementation in the language classroom; "a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective." He saw techniques as being consistent with a given method and by extension, with a given approach.
Anthony's framework was welcomed by the language teaching community when it was introduced, and it was seen as a useful way of classifying different teaching practices. However, it did not clearly define the difference between approach, method, and technique, and reports that due to this ambiguity there was "widespread dissatisfaction" with it. Anthony himself recognized the limitations of his framework, and was open to the idea of improvements being made to it.


1.3 English Education in Bangladesh: Historical Overview
In the late sixties, Kelly (1969) produced an overview of language teaching history which began in the period around 500 BC among Western countries. His long historical perspective carries a message for anyone looking at the development of language teaching. But English language teaching was originated with the propagation of English nation and in Bangladesh; it was initiated in the colonial period. As English enjoyed very prestigious position during colonial period, due attention was given in teaching this language in undivided India. It continued as a colonial leftover after 1947 till 1971.
During the Pakistan period, as a legacy of British rule, English was a second language in Bangladesh (the then East Pakistan). The educated or even fairly educated people had to use English for official, professional, educational and other purposes. However, after the War of Liberation in 1971 in independent Bangladesh the official status of the English language changed to that of a foreign language. In this monolingual country people could do almost everything in Bengali, thus not using English in real life communication, they started facing problems when they were required to communicate in English. More recently, in the EFL situation in post-liberation Bangladesh, English has regained an important unofficial status. English is used in many government, semi-government and private organizations along with Bengali.
Through history Bangladesh has gone through various changes of education system. During the British rule, in the subcontinent education was mainly reversed for the wealthy class and the language of teaching was English as schools were run by religious nuns and other British people. Education was largely deprived from general people even after the division of India and Pakistan still it was difficult for East Pakistan to get education. English language was the key to get good jobs, university degree and the means to get the first class citizenship, that’s why English language largely functioned in the subcontinent. Though India and Pakistan were divided, but to get success in life for general people learning English language was an aim and so that, from that time English language has got position in educational system and people started learning English as the key to get success.

With the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the policy makers of this country diminished the importance of English. As a result teaching of English in Bangladesh experienced different dimension regarding its curriculum, syllabus, materials, methodology, testing and evaluation. It also experienced a mismatch between different components of the program. Different methods have been found to be used. Therefore, it becomes necessary to examine the effectiveness of the present methods in teaching English at the Secondary Education in Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, over the periods a number of English language teaching methods have been demonstrated and these methods have been changed again and again on the basis of unhygienic evaluations. The policy makers in this country have changed this ELTM correlation with their various domains of using both quantitative and qualitative measures, Parametric and non-parametric measures of ELTM which were used to test hypothesis without knowing the authentic and fundamental needs of the students and the proficiency of the teachers. This study thus finds out its importance to evaluate the existing methods of English teaching materials at the secondary education in Bangladesh.


1.3.1 CLT in Bangladesh
Though this method was started in England in the early 19th century but it was introduced for teaching English at secondary education in Bangladesh in 2001 and similarly introduced in the higher secondary courses and is being continued till today. In Bangladesh, a number of methods were initiated at the colonial period (at that time Grammar-Translation Method was the most popular one). As English enjoyed very prestigious position during colonial period, due attention was given in teaching this language in undivided India.
It continued as a colonial leftover after 1947 till 1971. With the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the policy makers of this country diminished the importance of English and they changed this English Language Teaching Method (ELTM) correlation with their various domains of using both quantitative and qualitative measures, parametric and non-parametric measures of ELTM which were used to test hypothesis without knowing the authentic and fundamental needs of the students and the proficiency of the teachers.
As a result, teaching of English in Bangladesh experienced different dimension regarding its curriculum, syllabus, materials, methodology, testing and evaluation. It also experienced a mismatch between different components of the program. Different methods have been found to be used where CLT is the latest method of teaching language. This method is developed by the English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP). The purpose of using this method in Bangladesh was to update the English language teaching at the secondary education in Bangladesh meaningfully.
ELTIP started working since July 1997. The project is sponsored by the ministry of education. This project has been working to promote teaching learning English in the Secondary level education in Bangladesh and introduced the communicative language teaching approach in the English curriculum of the country for the first time. Afterwards this method is used in higher secondary (college) level education in Bangladesh and changed a little with the passage of time without knowing the perfect demands and evaluation of the students. Therefore, it becomes necessary to examine the higher secondary level students’ evaluation of CLT in Bangladesh.

According to Rodgers (2001), there are four characteristics of the communicative view of language:
a) Language is a system for the expression of meaning.

b) The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication.

c) The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.

d) The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of function and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.
Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasize communication, as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. The origins of it are to be found in the changes of the British language teaching tradition dating from the late1960s. Wilkins (1972) in his book titled “Notional Syllabus” played a significant role for the development of CLT and its greater application between the teachers and learners simultaneously. One of the most characteristic features of CLT is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language and describes spoken and written discourse.

The goal of CLT is to develop communicative competence. It means what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community which adjacent with a number of functions such as, instrumental, regulatory, inter-actional, personal, and heuristic, imaginative and representational. Though this method was started in England in the early 19thcentury but it was introduced for teaching English at higher secondary education in Bangladesh in 2001 and is being continued till today. According to Richards, et al (2001), there are four characteristics of the communicative view of language as:

(i) Language is a system for the expression of meaning,

(ii) The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication,




(iii) The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses,

(iv) The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of function and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.

The above mentioned methods are used in many countries of the world in different situations but these methods are not well-used in Bangladeshi teaching program like secondary, higher-secondary and advanced level education. Among the above mentioned methods the grammar translation method is being used in Bangladesh before 1971 to till today at all stages of educational program including higher-secondary level education. But at present Communicative language teaching has been included with it.


1.3.2 NCTB
National Curriculum and Textbook Board of Bangladesh, was established in 1954 as East Pakistan STB and underwent several changes in 1956, 1961, and 1963. Its objective was development, approval, publication and distribution of syllabi and textbooks for primary and secondary levels of education in Bangladesh. After the independence in 1971 the National Curriculum and Syllabus Committee formed in 1976 and the Board undertook the responsibility of implementing a new curriculum and syllabus and the Ministry of Education in Bangladesh. It is responsible for the development of curriculum, production and distribution of textbook at primary, secondary and higher secondary levels. (Wikipedia, NCTB, 9 Aug 2011)
Anis et al said that:
Since the instruction of the new curriculum by the Jatiyo Shikkya Upaestha
Parishad or National Derisory Council of Education in 1978, English has continued to be taught as a compulsory subject. (CLT in Bangladesh, 2011)


And as the concept of CLT has recently been introduced in Bangladesh. NCTB has taken a courageous step by introducing communicative syllabus and textbook at primary, secondary and higher secondary levels of education. (Anis et al., CLT in Bangladesh, 2011)
And in the national curriculum report 1995 the teaching and learning of English are to be expected to be achieved through various curricular activities. (As cited in Hasan & Anis, 2010) these activities are the following:
i. Making the infrastructure or the physical facilities such as classroom and teaching aids etc, favorable for English language teaching and learning.

ii. Developing or adapting suitable materials such as textbooks and teachers’ guide etc.

iii. Developing appropriate teaching methodology.

iv. Developing appropriate evaluation tools and evaluating the success of the program at its different stages.

v. Having always an open window to bring about necessary changes to make it becoming appropriate for the times to come on the basis of the feedback receive from evaluation results at different stages of the program, language policy, teacher’s and learner’s need and development made in other developing and developed countries.


1.4 Language Skills
We know that, language has four skills; there are Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing Skill. When learner’s these language’s skills are gradually developed, their ability to use language is increased.
Listening Skill
Listening is a purposeful process of making sense of what we hear. Learners hear language with their own ideas, experiences and knowledge and by creating the meaning they understand the language. We acquire language by meeting language and listening is a source of comprehensible input to procedure language. The purposes of listening are to get the main idea, get specific information, get the whole sentences and get inference meaning. (Nunan, 2003)
Listening activities divided into pre-listening, while listening and post listening (McDonough & Shaw, 2003). And for listening materials we can attend a lecture, follow instruction or directions, listen TV news, Radio programs, Music, listen to an interview or peoples experience.

Speaking Skill
Speaking consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning. Foe developing speaking skill communicative activities and real life conversation and situation is more important. To promote speaking skill communicative activities are used such as problem solving, role play, simulation, information gap, jigsaw, tango seating, conversation activities, personal speaking and academic speaking and of course pronunciation and authenticity of target language is given consideration. (McDonough & Shaw, 2003)
Teaching materials are designed for the activities that focus or involve the negotiation and sharing of information, that the learners are provided the opportunity to use the language in meaningful activities (McDonough & Shaw, 2003).

Reading Skill
For reading skill comprehension is the goal of reading. Reading is a fluent process, combining information from a text and use background knowledge to build meaning. For developing reading comprehension of language have to be developed. According to David Nunan (2003) for teaching reading there has some principles, these are:
• Exploit the reader’s background knowledge.

• Build a string vocabulary base.

• Teach for comprehension.

• Work on increasing reading rate.

• Teach reading strategies.

• Encourage reader to transform strategies into skills.

• Build assessment and evaluation into teaching.

• Strive for continuous improvement as a reading teacher.
The reading process includes three types of processes these are
1. Top-down Process,

2. Bottom-up Process, and

3. Interactive Process. (Nunan, 2003)
And for reading materials we can include newspaper, letters booklets, leaflets, advertisement, labels on jars, tins and packets, magazine and so on and, ‘traditional’ types of texts, novels, poems, written documents and so on.

Writing Skill
In writing skill we have to know the uses of language to be able to use the language. Writing should serve as vehicle for language practice and through writing a writer should be able to communicate with the reader. In writing skill learners are expected to articulate their own thought processes and expected to manipulate data and make inference statements according to explicit cognitive criteria. (McDonough & Shaw, 2003)
As writing consists of ‘process’ and ‘products’ where products are personal writing, public writing, creative writing, social writing, study writing and institutional writing. And the process has three main stages
• Gathering ideas: Pre writing and planning,

• Working on drafts and

• Preparing the final version. (McDonough & Shaw, 2003)
And the writing activities require the knowledge of function and linguistic structures of the language.


1.5 Language Teaching Materials
CLT Materials
For CLT, we got various materials and materials should be such type which are easy to understand and easy to use for the learners. According to McDonough and Shaw (pp20, 2003) there has some claims for communicative materials, these are:
• ‘for students interested in using language rather than learning more about structures….students learn to use the appropriate language they need for communicating in real life’

• ‘…..is a dynamic, functionally-based course book. It is an intensively practical book, giving the students opportunity for thorough and meaningful rehearsal of English they will need for effective communication.

• ‘…to use the language to communicate in real life’

• ‘…teaches students to communicate effectively by understanding and controlling the relationship between language forms and function.

• ‘…places emphasis on developing skills of discourse within a wide range of communicative settings. It actively trains the learner an important discourse functions… all the language practice is presented in real-life contexts and related to the learner’s own experience.

Different types of materials from different view
For language teaching, materials are the medium of language teaching and for teaching materials are the way of influencing the quality of classroom interaction and language use. According to Richards & Rodgers (2002) materials used for CLT are three types as:


a) Text Based Materials
There are numerous textbooks, are designed for CLT. Whereas some textbook’s contents are selected and graded by structure of language practice and some books have slight justification for communicative approach. In communicative book typically lessons consists theme, task analysis for thematic development, practical situation description, a stimulus presentation, comprehension questions and paraphrase exercise.
b) Task Based Materials
Variety of games, role play, simulations, cue cards, activity cards, pair practice, interaction activities, jigsaw activities, information gap activities, conversation, interview, presentation, sharing information or exercise and no one can use task books materials. In pair communication materials, two set of materials are used where each set contains information, complementation, patterns and so on and other set contains differ.
c) Realia
In CLT enhances the use of ‘authentic’, ‘real life’ materials in the classroom include language based realia, such as signs, magazines, advertisements, newspaper of graphic and visual source as maps, pictures, symbols, graphs, charts and different objects can be used in the classroom.

According to Penny Ur, for language teaching materials we can use course book or textbooks with supplementary materials. By using textbooks we can get advantages and disadvantages too. On the one hand, contemporary language textbooks are visually appealing, with full color art and sophisticated magazine-like design, printed on high-quality paper and supported by an assortment of supplementary resources, such as workbooks, cassettes, CDs, CD-ROMs and videos and today’s textbooks are also much more culturally sensitive than their predecessors. And also efforts are made to avoid social bias and ethnocentrism and to reflect universal human concerns, needs and feelings in the content of the books.

On the other hand, sometimes textbooks are not so. In textbooks the contents do not have enough interesting materials and tasks and activities and the knowledge is only bookish because lack of relevance of real life experience. In textbooks sometimes topic and theme is boring and teacher does not provide extra materials to show the use of language that textbooks make the teacher book centered. For using a course book, according to Penny Ur (1991) any single unite of a course book should cover a fair range of language and skills.

Course Book Coverage
 Pronunciation practice

 Introduction of new vocabulary

 Grammar explanations and practice

 Recording for listening practice

 Listening and speaking communicative tasks

 Reading and writing communicative tasks

 Mixed skills communicative tasks

 Short and long reading tasks

 Dictionary work

 Review of previously learnt materials

 Some entertaining or fun activities
(Cambridge University Press 1996)
(As cited in Penny Ur pp.188)


Supplementary Materials
For language teaching, course book is not enough and need supplementary materials to enhance language teaching. For supplementary materials we can use various types of materials which can be helpful for language teaching. According to Penny Ur packages of supplementary materials are as following:
Package 1: A set of computers for learner’s use, with accompanying language                   learning programs on floppy disk.
Package 2: A set of reference books for the teachers, including: grammars, dictionaries; various specialized textbooks; handbooks of activities; and a subscription to a teacher’s journal of your choice.
Package 3: A number of overhead projectors, with all necessary film, slides and markers.
Package 4: Video equipment, with assorted cassettes, including language learning materials and films in the target language.
Package 5: Computers and printers for teacher’s use; each computer has a hard disk with the latest word processor and various programs that enable you to compose your own computer tasks for learners.
Package 6: Several cassette recorders with accompanying earphones (so that several learners can listen quietly to one machine); a selection of accompanying cassettes for language learning.
Package 7: A wide variety of posters and sets of colored pictures, plus board and card games for language learning.
Package 8: A library of simplified readers in the target language, ranging from very simple to advance. There would be enough books in this library to enable all students to borrow freely.
(Cambridge University Press 1996)
(As cited in Ur, Penny, pp. 190)

Teacher’s Own materials
Instead of textbooks teacher can provide own materials in language classroom. He or she can make interesting and imaginative documents of information, include practical tasks and activities, can add acting, games and can use own made information gap activities, pair works, cue cards, flash cards, interacting activities, and can provide video and audio records of the real language uses and so on. A teacher’s own materials can be technically good, enriched and superior materials because they are based on systematic and carefully developed materials.
Commercial Materials
Commercial made materials are reference or supplementary textbooks with recorded CDs, cue cards, flash cards, games and so on. But these materials can be dissimilar with the different syllabus. According to McDonough and Shaw (pp. 42) there have some claims for current materials. The development of CLT is the reason that various methods and syllabus include communicative approach and with their development of materials as current materials which are using for language teaching support the communicative approach. These are:
i. ‘carefully structured multi-syllabus approach…systematic development of all four skills…emphasis on pronunciation, study skills and vocabulary learning…authentic and semi-authentic reading and listening practice…language for immediate communication’

ii. ‘thorough communicative practice of grammatical structures…coverage of all four skills…comprehensive coverage of the English tense system’

iii. ‘plenty of practice in “core” grammatical structure and deals with language at a deeper level…covers all the four skills…makes students think about the language they are using’



iv. ‘proven multi-syllabus approach…careful pacing…allowance for different learning styles and teaching situations…authentic reading and listening material…motivating range of up-to-date topics’

v. ‘focuses on the real English students will encounter and need to use in today’s world…regular grammar sections focus on important grammatical areas at sentence level and above…wide cross-section of real texts promotes reading for pleasure, as well as developing functional reading skills…word study…encourages students to be selective in their vocabulary building’

vi. ‘combine thorough language work with real life skills to give students the confidence and ability to communicate successfully in English’

vii. ‘builds on and expends students’ existing knowledge, encourages learner independence and develops fluency, accuracy and confidence’

viii. ‘gives learners a new set of skills and strategies for mastering the language’












1.6 Secondary Teaching and Learning Materials
The ‘EIA Secondary Teaching and Learning Program’ (STLP) seeks to empower teachers to change their classroom practice, through adopting a more communicative approach to English language teaching and learning. The main focus of the STLP is thus on teachers’ professional development. To change the classroom practice at secondary level, English in Action has developed different types of innovative materials for the teachers as well as students. These communicative language-teaching materials include:
• English in Action Guide
• English for Today in Action
• Audio Resources
• Video Resources
• Visual materials
All materials are fully integrated and need to be used in combination with each other. Audio and video materials are delivered through a media player (IPod touch) with speakers. The technology used allows for individual professional development to take place through the media players. Training modules for teachers are uploaded on these media players and the EIA teachers thus have the ‘trainer’ in their own pocket. EIA has also developed `Teacher Facilitator Handbook’ for the Teacher Facilitators, who support teachers on an ongoing basis.

English in Action Guide
English in Action Guide is a study guide for the secondary teachers to develop teachers’ knowledge of new teaching strategies and ideas for teaching English in the classroom. This guide is fully linked with the content provided on the media players. All the modules and other resources are uploaded on the iPod Touch. The guide provides the instruction when and how to use the media player, and provides additional learning elements as well.



In total 12 modules have been developed, with additional resources linked to the English for Today textbooks. The modules in the guides are:
• Active listening
• Choral dialogue
• Listening and Responding
• Information Gaps
• Pronunciation practice
• Predictive listening
• Role-play
• Songs for Language practice
• Using visual aids
• Creative writing
• Listening to the world
• Grammar Games
There are two sections of each module in EIA guide. One is the introduction section, which describes the module to the teacher. The second section is about the application, which includes activities for the teacher to carry out a lesson and issues to discuss with his/her partner while trying them out in the classroom. There is a lesson plan for each module which helps the teacher to try out these ideas with the EFT book. To help the teacher in the classroom further, there are examples of the English vocabulary he/she might use in teaching each lesson, which is included as ‘Classroom Language’ in each of the modules.
English for Today in Action
English for Today in Action (EFTIA) is a classroom teaching manual for secondary teachers, which deals with the concepts and techniques of the twelve modules of the English in Action Guide, but provides specific suggestions on how to apply these in relation to the English for Today (EFT) textbooks. The manual includes:
• A clear review of what is in the module;
• Specific examples of how to use the techniques of the module in a variety of EFT lessons from a range of different classes. For the purpose of developing understanding, a number of questions to think about and key points that provide clear and practical suggestions for answering the questions;

Audio materials
English in Action secondary audio resources are divided into three parts:
• Module based audio (for teacher professional development
• Textbook based audio (for classroom use)
• Additional audio (for extending classroom language)
There are both Bangla and English versions of the audio files for each module. The audio files for professional development cover discussions on specific topics according to the modules that are also included in the Teacher Guide, presentation and modeling of teaching techniques and the use of relevant classroom language. The textbook-based audio includes:
• Stories
• Dialogues
• Listening Passages
• Poems
The additional audio materials support classroom teaching with links to the textbook
Video materials
There are 12 classroom activity-based videos, which are also an integral part of the modules. These videos provide models of teaching practice to illustrate the techniques demonstrated in the modules.
Visual materials
Visual materials are supplementary materials that include:
Song Cards for the module - ‘songs for language practice’ to introduce the idea of practicing English grammar and vocabulary through the use of songs.
Street Map & Picture Cards for language learning through communicative activities in English.


Teacher Facilitator handbook
EIA secondary Teacher Facilitators (TFs) are a group of qualified and experienced secondary English teachers responsible for providing peer support to the teachers. They have a crucial role to play as ‘change-agents’ in the transformation process of classroom teaching and learning.
The Teacher Facilitator Handbook is provided as a guide for the TFs to support their own capacity building in this process:
• The role of Teacher Facilitators
• The relationship with The Teachers
• Conducting classroom support visits
• Facilitating Cluster Meetings
• Specific Suggestions about the EIA Modules.



1.7 Statement of the Problem
Importance of the four skills of English has reached new heights in the present context of the globalized world. But the question is: how far are the learners in Bangladesh prepared for it?

Students’ proficiency of the four skills is very poor here. A large majority of students at the secondary level in our country cannot access English textbooks prescribed in their syllabus for their lack of required proficiency of the four skills in English. Therefore, they depend only on Bangla books, and the vast resources in the libraries being in English remain unutilized. As a result, in most cases, higher education in this country suffers miserably; it falls far below the international standard.

Though students do some reading in school, they prefer memorizing things—words from dictionaries, sentences from various books, and rules of grammar from different grammar books.

The present research was designed to investigate the assessment of English teaching materials at the secondary level in Bangladesh. The problem of the study actually indicates to a larger extent the limitations of the research works in several sectors. In this research work the researchers could not visit a huge number of educational institutions because of the time limitations and some other bindings. Though the researchers have visited some institutions for this purpose but did not get the proper response from all of them, here, we all apologize for working within a limited field. In fact, though researchers have worked within a boundary but it we tried a lot to make the most appropriate suggestions for getting the desired result from the English Teaching Materials.








1.8 Objectives of the Study
The study would examine the recent developments in the methodology for the teaching of the four skills and its implementation in the academic setting of Bangladesh. It seeks to outline the problems students face in the four skills. It would recommend measures to overcome the problems of the teaching of the four skills prevailing at the secondary levels. The objectives of the study are to
• Examine the problems students face during their reading, writing, listening and speaking;

• Examine the recent development in reading, writing, listening and speaking pedagogy;

• Evaluate the four component or the English syllabi;

• Evaluate the four pedagogy, materials and tests currently in use in the country;

• Recommend measures to improve the present condition.

• To review the desired personal and professional competencies in Secondary School Teachers in the subject of English.

• To find out the level of competencies of Secondary School Teachers in the subject of English.

• To find out the gaps between the desired and existing competencies.



• To identify the factors affecting the teacher’s competencies.

• To suggest the measures for the improvement of competencies in teachers.

The objectives of the study were implemented through following specific questions:
• Which materials are used in English language teaching at the secondary level in Bangladesh?

• What are the merits and demerits of the existing materials?

• How the existing materials can be improved?




1.9 Significant of the Study
This study has great importance for the teachers in general and for secondary school teachers in particular, as this study has collected a lot of information about teaching materials, their effectiveness and appropriateness about various disciplines at the secondary level. Furthermore, study will guide the head teachers in exploring proper methodologies for teaching. The significance of the study will also be for the planners and education managers in policy formulation or revision of teacher education programs at the secondary level education in the country. It will also help in- service teacher education institution to award or offer relevant in service i.e. training programs.
There have been significant developments in the theories and practices of the four skills, in the world in the last three or four decades. It is important to examine those developments for insights that can help us bring about significant changes in reading, writing, listening and speaking pedagogy in Bangladesh.
Research in this field is very significant for Bangladesh, because standard of education of the country depends on students’ skills proficiency in English. For meaningful education, it is very important to improve the skills proficiency of learners in English. It is equally important to examine the present state of students’ the four skills in Bangladesh, to identify the problems and address those to improve the overall situation in the interest of the country.
It is admitted that secondary education of the country suffers a setback because of students’ poor level skills proficiency. To improve the situation in the country, some measures must be taken to identify the problems, address them, and improve the situation. This study is an attempt to do so. Therefore, the study will be of great significance and interest for the country as a whole.





This study is significant with respect to the following reasons;
a- It will be helpful to identify the secondary school teachers’ competency in the subject of English as well as teaching techniques.

b- This study will also be helpful to find out Secondary School Teachers’ personal competency that has a great impact on students’ character building.

c- This study will seek out the factors affecting on teachers’ performance and competency.

d- This study can be helpful for policy makers to minimize the factors affecting teachers’ performance.

e- This study can benefit teachers’ training centers to develop pedagogical skills in teachers.

f- It can provide guidelines for preparing recruitment criteria for teachers and framing suitable curricula in the subject of English at Secondary level.

g- This study can be beneficial for researchers.

h- It will help to raise the quality of education at school level especially in the subject of English and in turn to achieve the objectives at this stage.

Chapter-2
Review of the Literature
A brief review of the literature relating to materials evaluation reveals that, to date, the focus of attention has been more or less exclusively on predictive evaluation. There are two principal ways in which teachers can carry out this kind of evaluation. One is to rely on evaluations carried out by ‘expert’ reviewers. Journals like ELT Journal assist teachers in this respect by providing reviews of published course-books. In some cases (such as the survey reviews this journal provides from time to time), the reviews identity specific criteria for evaluating materials. However, in reviews of individual course-books, the criteria often remain inexact and implicit.
We hope to do this by offering a model that distinguishes the purpose behind the evaluation—be it to ‘keep up to date with current developments’ or to adopt/select materials for a given course. As Cunningsworth (1995: 5) notes, “it is important to limit the number of criteria used, the number of questions asked, to manageable proportions. Otherwise we risk being swamped in a sea of detail.” Tomlinson (1999: 11) also suggests that ‘the obvious but important point is that there can be no one model framework for the evaluation of materials; the framework used must be determined by the reasons, objectives and circumstances of the evaluation.’
The ability to evaluate teaching materials effectively is a very important professional activity for all EFL teachers. Let us look at why we need to evaluate materials in the first place. Cunningsworth (1984) suggests that there are very few teachers who do not use published course materials at some stage in their teaching career. One example of materials by Porter-Ladousse (1983), which contains twelve units of fluency practice that have been devised along these lines. The aim of these materials is to encourage learners to react individually to questions concerning many aspects of their daily lives, on such topics as their image as seen by others, their futures, views on honesty and truthfulness and so on.


Our aim is basically that of examining the organization of the materials as stated explicitly by the author/publisher by looking at the ‘blurb’, or the claims made on the cover of the teacher’s/students’ book, and the introduction and table of contents that should enable the evaluator to assess what Cunningsworth (1984: 2) has termed ‘what the books say about themselves’.
Alternatively, teachers can carry out their own predictive evaluations. There are numerous checklists and guidelines available to help them do so (e.g. Cunningsworth 1984, Breen and Candlin 1987, Skierso 1991, McDonough and Shaw 1993). These instruments are generally organized in a manner that reflects the decision-making process which it is hypothesized teachers go through. Breen and Candlin 1987, for example, organize the questions in their checklist into two phases, the first of which enables teachers to address the overall ‘usefulness’ of the materials, while the second caters for ‘a more searching analysis’ based on the teacher’s actual teaching situation. The idea behind these guides is to help teachers carry out a predictive evaluation systematically.
However, there are limits to how ‘scientific’ such an evaluation can be. An Sheldeon (1988: 245) observes, “it is clear that course-book assessment is fundamentally a subjective, rule-of-thumb activity, and that no neat formula, grid or system will ever provide a definite yardstick.”
To adapt materials is to try to bring together these individual elements under each heading, or combinations of them, so that they match each other as closely as possible. For instance, we may be unable to use the full range of listening skills practiced in a course-book because of resource limitations; and the link between a stated proficiency level and that of our own learners is an obvious one. Madsen and Bower refer to this matching as the principle of ‘congruence’: ‘Effective adaptation is a matter of achieving “congruence”… the good teacher is constantly striving for congruence among several related variables: teaching materials, methodology, students, course objectives, the target language and its context, and the teacher’s own personality and teaching style’ (1978: ix).


With an emphasis on materials, Stevick talks for bringing a gap: ‘the teacher must satisfy the demands of the textbook, but in ways that will be satisfying to those who learn from it’ (1972). In general, than, teaching materials may be largely appropriate at the same time as they show signs of an inconsistent organization.
This being so, the need to evaluate materials retrospectively takes on special importance. Such as evaluation provides the teacher with information which can be used to determine whether it is worthwhile using the materials again, which activities ‘work’ and which do not, and how to modify the materials to make them more effective for future use. A retrospective evaluation also serves as a means of ‘testing’ the validity of a predictive evaluation, and may point to ways in which the predictive instruments can be improved for future use.
Somewhat surprisingly, however, there are very few published accounts of retrospective evaluations of course materials, and very little information about how to conduct them. The bulk of the published literature on evaluation deals with program or project evaluation (e.g. Alderson 1992, Weir and Roberts 1994, Lynch 1996). Such evaluations may incorporate materials evaluation they are necessarily much broader in scope. Otherwise, the only other published work on the evaluation of teaching materials is to be found in accounts of the trialing new materials (e.g. Barnard and Randall 1995).


2.1 Management Systems
The main approach to academic education is management systems. These systems gear up testing and instruction to specific performance objectives. According to Ransom (p. 80) most management systems “provide for specific individual learning activities.” He has suggested two ‘general ways’ through which these activities are performed. They are

a) Pace-variable management systems, and

b) Skill-specific management systems.

There are used for different students in different situations. In pace-variable management systems, all the learners are supposes to advance through the same activities, though their speed may differ. On the other hand, skill-specific systems are applied in some particular areas where the students seem to be weak (and it is determined by suggested tests).

Five leading scholars, all with strong practical experience of central issues in the development of ELT projects, have written the four reports in this section. There ports offer a theoretical underpinning for the case studies which follow. By problematising the notions of innovation and the project, and by reviewing the challenges which face policy makers and implementers when designing interventions and evaluating the impact that these interventions have made, we hope to provide the reader with a fuller appreciation of the complexity of designing and delivering innovation in education.

We also wish to provide accounts, based on current research, of what we can expect of an innovation in ELT and what the limitations of the project approach are in educational reform and renewal. If, as Pawson (2003) says, there is ‘Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory’, in what is a highly practical collection, we nevertheless feel that it is important to frame our account of practice with an appreciation of current theories on the management of innovation in general and innovation in English language education in particular.




Kiely examines the role of evaluation in change management processes in English language teaching. He first outlines two purposes for evaluation in ELT projects. The first relates to accountability that is, measuring or otherwise determining the success of the project in terms of the impact of the activities and resources introduced by the project. The second purpose relates to facilitating such success, through enhanced understanding of project activities, opportunities, and constraints. The accountability purpose orients evaluation towards rigorous, objective accounts of impact which sponsors and policy makers can have confidence in and the sector as a whole can draw lessons from. The development purpose situates evaluation ownership and activity within projects, where the focus is on understanding project processes and on advocacy for the success of these processes and overall project goals.

Kiely’s discussion reflects key strands of the paradigm debate in program evaluation generally and the ways these have shaped theoretical work on ELT project evaluation over recent decades. Linking these perspectives to constructs of stake holding, innovation, and knowledge building in the ELT field, Kiely concludes by describing three characterizations of evaluation practice where a focus on understanding and developing project processes can, over time, contribute to the accountability agenda. The first is evaluation for development, where teachers and program managers use the processes of evaluation to understand and explain the factors which shape learning opportunities. The second is evaluation for quality assurance, where the goal is to demonstrate to immediate and remote stake holders that the program is well managed and achieving its goals. The third is evaluation as situated practitioner research, where ELT professionals within projects devise studies which build knowledge relevant to the success of that project. In all cases these evaluation processes contribute to innovation and change which improve programs and extend the skills and knowledge of teachers and other ELT professionals.

Kiely concludes that the challenge for evaluation is to engineer a merging of these different and sometimes competing agendas and processes, so that all program stakeholders work together for successful innovation and change, for the improvement of programs, for the building of integrated theories of ELT effectiveness, and, through these, for rigorous accounts of the value of investment in ELT.


2.2 Knowledge and Experience
Pre-requisite knowledge may accompany a learner when he or she goes to a text, or he or she may be entirely stranger to the content of the text. According to Rauch et al. (1968), having pre-experience about a text enables a learner to pursue its meaning effectively. Their argument is that “A good learner brings a variety of experiences and meanings to the printed symbol” because “the more vital experiences one has the more opportunities he has to observe and participate in the many-faceted world about him, the more meaning he will bring to the printed word.” If the learner brings more experience related to the textual content with him, he or she can share, support or oppose the information he or she obtains while learning more successfully; otherwise he or she has to depend totally on the information the book supplies.
Yet this latter attitude can add a new dimension of knowledge to the learner’s existing experience or knowledge. However, an efficient learner always brings some prerequisite knowledge with him. According to Williams, the elements a learner should bring with him or her are—
i. Knowledge of the writing, reading, listening and speaking system

ii. Knowledge of the language

iii. Ability to interpret

iv. Appropriate knowledge of the world as assumed by the learner

v. A reason for writing, reading, listening and speaking that determines his style.
Through the acquired data or information we can compare “what we learn with our own experience; for example, it is interesting to learn about another country because we can compare with our own, or we can imagine ourselves being there” (Doff, 1997: 181).

Chapter-3
Context
English teaching materials are effect in all classes from six to ten in secondary level. It is indeed bitter to notice that even though serious efforts have been made by the government and educationists for improving the state of affairs of English language teaching for the past few decades in Bangladesh, a bad situation is still found to exist in the achievement of English among the students at all levels, especially among the Secondary students. Therefore, it is really imperative to unearth the real reasons behind the poor achievement of the students in English.
Before that, it is important to identify the level of achievement by the students in English language skills and the problems they encounter in the process of learning English. Realizing the importance of English, it has been taught compulsorily in the schools, colleges and madrashas as a foreign language in Bangladesh. For long time English has been included as one of the major subjects in madrashas curriculum considering it dominant tool of instruction in higher studies and its role in international communication.
The teaching of English as a foreign language at the secondary level aims at;
1) Developing abilities of young learner in terms of right expression and apt communication in English,
2) Developing appropriateness and fluency in both oral and written expressions,
3) Enhancing reading and listening comprehension ability
The researcher studies a good number of works and investigations carried out in the similar fields with a view to supporting and justifying the findings found in the present study.
Chidabaram (2006) carries out a study among the Higher Secondary students in India and identifies some weaknesses of learners in English language skills. His study reveals that 75% students dislike the practice of speaking skill; whereas 77% learners prefer writing practice in the class. Among the students 66% students disclose the fact that they do not practice listening.

The aim of the present study is to identify the level of performance of SSC students in the four skills of English language. It presents an approximate picture of the knowledge and the performance level in English; and finds out some of the learning problems that are usually encountered while learning English.
For the present study, 250 Secondary students have been randomly selected from 20 High Schools. The subjects have already received English instruction for 10 years. 25 English teachers teaching English with the same students are also interviewed through questionnaire.
The data for the study is collected through 2 item questionnaires. The questionnaires are constructed following the model of kenning (2001). The model of Gardner (1985) and Brindely (1984), Nunan and Lamb (1996) and Tang (2002), are also studied for justification, validity and reliability of the questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises two parts; part one is for students and part two for the teachers.
The secondary level chosen for my research is secondary level which comprises class six to ten.

3.1 The Teacher
Education encompasses both the teaching and learning of knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency. It thus focuses on the cultivation of skills, trades or professions, as well as mental, moral and aesthetic development. Education is a two way process there is some giving person and taking person. So, a teacher plays a pivotal role in a system of education and its roles in education are facilitator, interpreter, translator, a guide etc. Education systems are established to provide education and training, in most of the cases for children and young. A curriculum defines what students should know and have to know, understand and be able to do as the result of education.
Teaching also refers to learning facilitated by a real live teacher. Training refers to learning toward preparing learners with specific knowledge, skills, or abilities that can be applied immediately in practical life. Instruction refers to the intentional facilitating of learning toward identified goals, delivered either by an instructor or other forms. So, a teacher’s role is multifunctional. Teachers are knowledge facilitators but only for some, and for whom they were the creator of opportunity and potential. Schools provide the role of engineering for the society. According to U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (2001) teachers play an important role in fostering the intellectual and social development of children during their formative years. Teachers act as facilitators or coaches, using classroom presentations or individual instruction to help students learn and apply concepts in subjects such as science, mathematics, English etc.



According to Rahman, et al; (2005) teachers play an important role in delivering new knowledge and skills to students. They are regarded as excellent and competent teachers by parents’ on the bases of excellent academic achievement of the students. Schools play a variety of important social, custodial and organizational roles in communities and with schools come teachers who have primary obligation to help students to learn how to recognize and solve problems, comprehend new phenomenon, construct mental models of those phenomena , and, given a new situation, set goals and regulate their own learning.
Learning and teaching always remain ‘the main game’ of education. To this end, teachers’ educational expertise needs to be strengthened, together with their professional knowledge, skills and dispositions. Teachers can then bring their wisdom to bear on the challenge new technologies pose for literacy education as well as for teaching more generally (Lank shear, 2000).
Teachers have a primary role in determining what is needed or what would work best with their students. Findings from research (Eslami & Fatahi, 2004) on teachers’ perceptions and beliefs indicate that these perceptions and beliefs not only have considerable influence on their instructional practices and classroom behavior but also are related to their students’ achievement. Thus, knowing, the perceptions and beliefs of teachers enable one to make predictions about teaching and assessment practices in classrooms. Teachers clearly play a key role in the process of learning and education. Teachers, students, the educational atmosphere, the syllabi, and educational aids are the main components of the whole process without which it can neither start nor accomplish anything.


The student is dependent on the teacher for the acquisition of knowledge. The existence or absence of an ideal educational atmosphere, a good syllabus, and effective aids does affect the objectives and quality of education, but only to an extent. These are neither absolutely necessary, nor does their absence halt the process. But the availability of an able and motivational teacher could end the students’ dependence on all other factors. It would take well-educated, caring and compassionate teachers-teachers trained in their subjects as per the needs of the students with respect to their gender, age, psyche and level of comprehension (Khalid &Khan 2006).
The learners adopt a relativistic view in which one can see that knowledge is relative to the frame of reference that is applied to it by the learner, and that this needs to be taken into account when working with knowledge. Correspondingly now, the learner sees the role of a teacher as one of partner and facilitator in the development of knowledge. Knowledge is seen as certain or absolute and formal learning is a matter of absorption of the knowledge of the experts (e.g. teachers). It is described as ‘transitional knowledge’, a second stage in which learner begins to have doubts about the certainly of knowledge and gains a position where one acknowledges that there is both partial certainly and partial uncertainly. The third stage is ‘independent knowledge’ when learners recognize the uncertainly of the knowledge, and cope with this by taking the position that everyone has a right to her own opinion or beliefs. This seems to be the most sophisticated domain, that of ‘contextual knowledge’.



In this knowledge is seen as constructed, and is understood in relation to effective deployment of evidence that best fits a given context. Teachers are, at this stage, seen as facilitators and partners in the process of the development of knowledge. The link between epistemological beliefs and learning is, of course, crucial (Moon, 2008).But with the passage of time and changes in ages also change the role and responsibility of a teacher.


3.2 The Course Book
Though secondary ELT education spreads over only two years of the nine and ten classes, NCTB prescribed book ‘English For Today’ which is followed compulsorily in each class. In the classes, there is no particular course book, but the NCTB has prescribed some books and the syllabus contents are grammar and composition. The Chairman of NCTB in the preface to the book English For Today says that, the book is based on the principle that had guided the writing of the English For Today books from class 6 onwards- the principle of learning a language by actually practicing it. The practice which is carried out through the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, usually in an interactive mode, underlies the communicative approach to language learning.
As the focus is on the communicative functions of language, the main aim of the textbook is to provide ample opportunities for students to use English for a variety of purposes in interesting situations. The book is divided into units. Each unit, based on a theme, has several lessons that contain reading texts and a range of tasks and activities designed to enable students to practice the different skills, sometimes in pairs or groups. This communicative approach to learning English is familiar to the students of classes 9 and 10, who have already used the English For Today textbooks from class 6.
It is very often seen that though the course book contains communicative activities for interactional activities in the classroom, the classes are rather non-communicative or teacher-centered where the traditional ‘teacher initiation-learner response-teacher follow up’ interaction patterns happen. They do not ultimately lead to communicative environment in the classroom. In Bangladesh ELT teachers still follow the grammar explanation, lecture-based, memorization-oriented ELT pedagogy. The same is true about the ELT classes in the higher Secondary level.


3.3 Communication Activities in the Course Book
The course book is replete with plenty of communicative activities. In each lesson there are three to four communicative activities, such as pair work, group work, problem solving and communicative games. For the convenience of classroom management which is, however, a practical reason because in Bangladeshi ELT classes, there are sometimes as many as two hundred students in a class, there is more pair work than group work. It is seen from this section that course book is written following the Communicative Language Teaching approach. There are communicative activities in very lesson of this course book.


Chapter-4
Methodology of the Research
The methodology of this research describes the location of the study followed by data collection and procedures and data analysis.
A successful research requires both library research and empirical investigations, that is, suitable research methodology and instrument have to be used by the researcher. Empirical research is important because it helps to support or reject the hypothesis/statement stated in the theoretical arguments of a study. The empirical research of this study focuses the problems students face during their reading, writing, listening and speaking pedagogy, materials and tests currently in use in the classes, present state of the four skills of the students at the secondary level, and teachers’ role in conducting the four skills activities in the class.
The main purpose of this research work is to find out the actual reasons for not getting the desired result through the identification of the limitation of the previous students in this sector after the review of the literature. As an international language the demand of English is increasing day by day not only in our country but also in other non-native English speaking countries of the world. As a result a lot of emphasis is now put on the teaching and learning of English in most of the countries of the world including Bangladesh. But in Bangladesh there are many problems in acquiring the English as a second language and the English teaching materials could not fulfill its principles. For this reason the researchers have selected this topic and try to provide the proper strategies.
The study explores the attitude and motivation of the teachers and the students towards the English teaching materials at the Secondary level as the researcher's concern to this study is to analyze the English teaching materials thoroughly and to find out its merits and faults with providing some recommendations. The researcher has contacted primary sources and secondary sources to strengthen the research validity and have followed the following techniques to conduct the research activity. This research paper can be very much helpful for the teachers who are the builder of nation, as it provides some important instructions related to language teaching. Also through this research work, people can get the proper guideline for learning English as a means of communication with each other.
4.1 Data Collection and Procedures
A potential participant is contacted by the selected procedure and the nature of the study is explained. The present study would give them opportunities to skills concerns about their learning. Firstly I collected data by using questionnaire from learners then I make an interviews and gathered data from them. When two types of data are collected I make a committee for analyzing that sort of data. I collected specific data and keep them correctly.
Most of the questions in the questionnaires were Yes/No questions. These questions were basically on the classroom environment, teaching methodology, syllabus and materials and regarding the competence and the performance of the teachers. The researcher thought that they would be helpful to get an idea of the attitude and the feelings of both the teachers and the students about the problems of speaking in English at the secondary level. The teachers were observed while conducting the classes, and were also interviewed on different aspects of English teaching and learning at the universities.
A well – planned observation checklist was followed to analyze the performance of the teachers. The teachers were not allowed to stay in the classroom during the students’ filling up the questionnaire so that the students could freely respond to the questions.

4.2 Data Analysis
Basically the nature of this study is similar to those of a descriptive study. Considering this fact, the survey method was chosen for this empirical study. Three main techniques of the survey method are: Questionnaire survey for teachers and students, classroom observation and the interviews with the teachers and the students. Therefore, the data were collected from:
1) Students’ Questionnaire,

2) Questionnaires for teachers, and

3) Classroom observation.
The researcher analyzed the data both in qualitative and in quantitative way. In accordance with Ellis (1991), this is a ‘hybrid research’. The researcher kept the following things in mind while collecting data:
i. If the environment is congenial to the teaching and learning of speaking in English;

ii. If the teachers use English as a medium of instructions;

iii. If the students feel like speaking;

iv. If the syllabus is eligible for the students;


Studying English
From all respondents, 64% consent that they read English regularly whether 36% consent that they do not read English regularly. From the respondents who do not read English regularly, 86% believe that English is hard, 5% do not get interest in English and 9% students think that teachers do not make them understand clearly and as a result they do not like to study English.


Yes

No


Ways of Capturing Lesson
Among the all respondents, 5% learn lessons understanding by themselves, 5% learn in teachers’ class, 40% learn by reading guidebooks, 50% learn with the help of private tutors.

Speaking exercise in the classroom
From all the students, 10% consent that English teachers always make speaking exercise in the class while 38% consent that English teachers sometimes make speaking exercise in the classrooms and 52% admit that English teacher rarely make speaking in the class.


Writing exercise in the classroom
Secondary school students of Bangladesh claim that teacher don’t make regular writing exercise. From all students, 3% consent that English always make writing exercise regularly while 54% sometimes make writing exercise in the class whether 43% think that English teacher rarely make writing exercise in the class.


Reading exercise in classroom
From all the students, 13% consent that English teacher always make reading exercise in the class whether 78% consent that sometimes English teacher make reading exercise and 9% think that English teacher rarely make reading exercise in the class.


Listening exercise in the class
Unfortunately, all students claim that no secondary teacher make listening practice in classroom.




4.3 Selecting the Areas
The researcher visited four Schools, each of which is situated in Dhaka city. The main reason for selecting the schools in Dhaka is that most of them are well-established and well-reputed. Therefore, the classroom activities of these schools are supposed to be standard. The four schools are Tongi Pilot School and Girls College, Holy Child School and College, Israil Mazumder School and College, and I.E.S. School and College.


Chapter-5
Consequences of the Empirical Study
5.1 Interview of the Students
Fifteen students were interviewed on the different issues related to the English teaching and learning situation at the secondary level. They have individually put their opinions on the issues. The main aspects of their opinions are as follows:
i. Almost all the teachers conduct their classes in English.

ii. Almost all the teachers encourage them to speak in English.

iii. They do not speak English to their classmates always.

iv. They are not always able to speak in English in every situation.

v. They think that their syllabus is not supportive to promote their skills speaking in English.

vi. Most of the schools do not have lab facilities.

vii. Teachers are not competent enough to teach English language.

viii. The teachers are always reluctant to speak in English.

ix. Extra curricular activities are not adequately organized to improve the speaking skills.

x. Finally, the environments are not favorable for practicing English.



5.2 Interview of the Teachers
Eight teachers of the four schools were interviewed. Their opinions are as follows:
i. Teacher-student relationship is not supportive. Sometimes the teachers are too much frank, and sometimes they are too much reserved.

ii. CLT is not followed at almost all the schools.

iii. Grammar based teaching is still dominant at the secondary level.

iv. Due to poor salary, teachers are not much caring to their students. Somehow they finish the syllabus and provide suggestions for the students. They look for part-time jobs at other schools for earning more money.

v. Students are always careful of passing the examination rather than of achieving competence in, listening, writing, reading, speaking English.



5.3 Report on Class Observation
Four classes of teachers at the four schools were observed. The following findings came out from the classroom observation:
i. Most of the observed teachers found coming into the class without lesson plans.

ii. Only three teachers were found methodically lecturing in the class.

iii. Their lecture was quite audible to the last bench.

iv. Four teachers were found interesting with the students.

v. Three of the classes were on presentation.

vi. Most of them were timely present in the class.




5.4 Consequence of Questionnaire for the Students
1. Do you know about the teaching materials?
Yes No Sometimes
47.37% 44.65% 7.98%

2. Do you like to read grammar?

Like Don’t Like
91.66% 8.34%

3. Is your teacher enough capable to teach in grammatical terms?

Yes No Sometimes
47.37% 44.65% 7.98%

4. Are you satisfied with the teaching materials?

Yes No Sometimes
47.59% 14.38% 38.03%

5. Do you think that teaching materials have been designed with the interest of developing competence?

Yes No Sometimes
90.37% 4.65% 4.98%

6. Do you use any multi-media or electrical equipment?

Yes No Sometimes
4.49% 88.48% 7.03%

7. Do you think that teaching materials are suitable according to the infrastructure of Bangladesh?

Yes No Sometimes
73.15% 12.13% 14.72%

8. Does your classroom environment support you for proper learning?

Yes No Sometimes
48.38% 43.63% 7.99%

9. Do you think about the existing test system are appropriate enough according to the teaching materials to ensure the communicative competence?

Yes No
31.43% 62.56%

10. Do you think that the materials are appropriate to develop the communicative competence among learners?

Yes No
94.66% 5.34%

11. Do you expect something more from your present materials?

Yes No Sometimes
100%

12. Do you get proper help from your teachers to develop your English language learning?

Yes No Sometimes
40.37% 51.65% 7.98%

13. Does your classroom environment support you for proper learning?

Yes No Sometimes
54.96% 37.42% 7.64%

14. Does the teacher use the teaching materials in the classroom?

Yes No Sometimes
27.65% 64.37% 7.98%

15. Does your teacher use any vocabulary related materials in your classroom?

Yes No Sometimes
31.50% 60.47% 8.03%

16. Do you use any handbook for teaching English language in your classroom?

Yes No Sometimes
78.47% 11%

5.5 Consequence of Questionnaire for the Teachers
1. What types of materials you use in your classroom?
Modern Old Normal
45.13% 23.38% 31.49%


2. Do you use any multi-media equipment or audio-lingual equipment in the classroom?
Yes No Sometimes
25.40% 63.88% 10.72%




3. Do you use video equipment for listening?
Yes No Sometimes
7.77% 86.08% 6.15%


4. Do you use audio equipment for listening?
Yes No Sometimes
59.67% 33.13% 7.20%


5. Do you use any computer in your class?
Yes No Sometimes
5.76% 89.19% 5.05%




6. Do you use any reference book for English language teaching?
Yes No Sometimes
91.33% 8.43%

7. Do you use any projectors for developing writing skill in English language teaching
Yes No Sometimes
3.65% 88.74% 7.61%



8. What technique do you use in teaching grammar?
Creating Sense of Confidence Practicing Conversations All of These
16.65% 23.87% 59.48%

9. What is the perception of the participating secondary English language teachers about the principles of communicative language teaching Approach?
State of Competence Sufficient Vocabulary Shyness
78.33% 21.45%



10. How do you describe the role of teachers in classroom?
Friendly Closely Not so Important
84.76% 13.88%



11. How do you describe the role of students in classroom?
Active Inactive
98% 2%


12. What are the difficulties in using textbook in the classroom?
Lack of competence Insufficient All of these
16.66% 16.66% 65.87%



13. How frequently do you use the communicative activity of the course-book in the classroom?
Confidence Feel at Ease All of These
50% 33.43% 16.56%


14. Do you use any overhead projectors for attention-catching in your classroom?

Yes No Sometimes
12.03% 76% 11.97%



15. Do you use any picture for teaching English language course?
Yes No Sometimes
17.67% 68.06% 14.27%




16. Do you spend time in classroom where English is widely spoken?

Long Time Short Time Sometimes
67.89% 22.03% 10.08%





17. How do you personally teach English?
Creating Confidence Practicing Conversations All of These
27.44% 21.34% 51.22%



18. Do you use any worksheet for students to teach English language teaching?

Yes No Sometimes
48.41% 37% 14.59%





19. How important do you think to teach grammar to students?

Very Important Important Do not Important
73.12% 15.71% 11.15%


20. Do you teach grammar in the context of some communicative activity?

Yes No Sometimes
47.65% 18.59% 32.07%






21. Do you teach vocabulary in the context of some communicative activity?

Yes No Sometimes
41.43% 22.56% 30%




22. How far do you think speaking or listening should be the priority of learning a language?

Long Distant Short Distant No Distant
24.49% 64.49% 11.02%





23. Do you use teaching materials and classroom methods and techniques based on similar?

Yes No Sometimes
35.43% 45.33% 19.24%





24. What is your idea about developing materials in a communicative way of teaching?

Rich Moderate Poor
27.71% 58.45% 13.86%


25. What opportunities do you give your students to produce pieces of writing?

Good Very Good Not Satisfactory
56.63% 22.33% 22.02%





26. Do you use any work-cards for student to teach English language in secondary level?
Yes No Sometimes
39.26% 21.15% 59.59%




Chapter-6
Yard-sticks: ELT evaluating CLT materials
Having the above points in mind, the following yardsticks are proposed to evaluate the textbooks used in the subsystems.
Yardstick 1: The layout of the book— whether the layout of the book is student-comfortable.
Yardstick 2: Objectives of lessons— whether the objectives set out for each lesson are vivid.
Yardstick 3: Opportunities to practise language skills
Yardstick 4: Whether presentations are not stereotyped and activity boring.
Yardstick 5: Whether themes/topics are enjoyable and contexts of language realistic.
Yardstick 6: Whether traditional grammar teaching is avoided and grammar items and functions are integrated with different types of text or discourse.
Yardstick 7: Whether language used in each lesson is natural and resembles the language used in real life.
Yardstick 8: Whether the activities are student-centred rather than teacher-centred with greater emphasis on fluency rather than accuracy.




Review of English For Today series:
All students of the general education i.e., most secondary level students use this book as their textbook. This section will look in the English For Today books for classes 6 to 10 and attempt to review them in terms of the yardsticks proposed above.
The new English for today series has been developed by English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) jointly funded by the government of Bangladesh and DFID of the UK Government. The book for class ix was written by three writers, who were trained in the UK and under guidance of a national and an expatriate foreign consultant. The trialling and evaluation of the manuscript have been carried out by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB).
As stated in the prefaces to them, the books follow the communicative approach to the teaching and learning of English in Bangladeshi context. They provide learners with a variety of materials such as reading texts, dialogues, pictures, diagrams, tasks and activities. Learners can practise language skills using these materials. They can actively participate in pair or group or individual work. The book includes a wide range of topics from both national and global contexts. Topics are appropriate and interesting to the learners thematically, culturally and linguistically. Also adequate grammar elements are integrated with language skills so that learners can transfer the elements learned to the real life situations. This opposes the memorisation of discrete grammar items.


Yardstick 1: The layout of the book:
The book consists of units, each unit consisting of lessons. Just after the publisher’s page, it gives chronological list of the topics and themes. After this content page, a book map, which includes thematic area of each unit, topic of each lesson, language skills focused with functions, grammar elements or structures and new vocabulary that appeared in each topic has been given in the book for classes 9 and 10.
So, language skills, functions, grammar/structures and new vocabulary are presented in an integrated manner. Each lesson of the book has a presentation-practice-production format, which follows a statement of objectives.
Objectives: clear objectives of each lesson are mentioned at the beginning.
Example:
Objectives: By the end of this lesson you will have —
•        learnt about Becky’s family
•        made a list of activities Becky liked and disliked
•        interviewed a partner about his/her activities and his/her like and dislikes
•        described past habits of a friend
                        (EFT for classes 9 and 10: Unit one: Lesson three)


Presentation: Language items with functions have been presented through meaningful text (written and spoken). Different language skills have been integrated. For this, linguistic as well as paralinguistic means of communication have been used. In Lesson 1 of Unit One of the book for classes 9 and 10, for example, present simple tense with the functions of greetings and introducing are presented through dialogues in bulbs written in a jumbled order and following a series of pictures that will go with the dialogues. Students are asked to match the dialogues with the pictures. Before all these, a picture of Becky along with some other people getting down from an aircraft is presented and students are asked to guess some information about them from the picture. The pictures along with the written texts, which provide a pre-reading task, make the lesson meaningful and natural.
Practice: Each lesson focuses on one or more skills. Skills are always integrated. Before the practice of language skill(s) learners do some pre-skill (i.e., pre-reading or pre-listening) tasks. In the above-mentioned lesson, for example, Becky’s picture with others at the airport and the question ‘what do you see?’ or ‘guess the following information’ give the students a pre-reading task, which will engage them in the learning process.
For language practice, students have to do a variety of activities. These include pair work, group work, working as whole class and solo work. Examples are given below–



 Pair works:
A. Read the questions given below. Work in pairs and share your personal information.
•        Have you ever been in a foreign country?
•        Do you have any relatives or friends living overseas?
•        would you like to visit another country? If so, which one and why?
•        What would you do if you visited another country?
      (EFT for classes 9 and 10: Unit Four: Lesson 5: Section A)
Group work:
D. Work in groups. Write list of rules like the ones above for either school discipline or home security. Write at least five rules for each. One is done for you.
Students should come to school in uniform.
(Lesson 4: Unit Four: EFT for classes 9 and 10)
Solo work:
B. Replace the underlined word(s) with a word from the brochure with the same meaning. (Notes: Students have already been introduced the brochure in the previous section of the lesson.)



Neela went to both tours. She enjoyed herself very much. The fascinating animals of the Night Safari took her breath away. She saw how the night animals become active after a rest. To know about her surroundings, Neela walked leisurely and could see the tigers and hyenas rejoicing in a kill. The faint lighting had the effect of real jungle at… … … (Lesson 5: Unit Four: EFT for classes 9 and 10)


Controlled and free practice of language:
Some activities involve practice of language skills controlled at varied degrees by the teacher. Some activities, on the other hand, involve more free practice of language skills. Students involve free production of language in some activities. In Sections A, B, C and D of Lesson 1 of Unit Seven of the book English For Today for classes 9 and 10 the students’ activities are teacher-controlled, but the degree of control lessens in each succeeding section. In Section E, thus, students involve in free production of language. The following extracts are from Lesson 1 of Unit Seven:





Extract 1:
A. Match the pictures of the playing field with their names.
 Play Field


Extract 2:
B. Ask the following to your partner.
•              Have you ever seen a hockey match?
•              When was the last time you saw a football match?
          etc.

Extract 3:
C. Look at the following schedule of a TV sports channel and fill in the gap in the passage.
 TV GUIDE
4th July 2000, Tuesday
07:30   Fighting Time: World Boxing Championship
08:30   Need for Speed: Motor Cycle Race 09:00   Football focus: Replay of the yesterday’s match
10:30   World Snooker
12:00   Australia vs. Zimbabwe cricket test
1.      Football focus will be telecast at _______.
2.      The cricket match between Australia vs. Zimbabwe will be shown at _______.
      etc.

Extract 4:
D. The following diagram is about how a goal was made in a match. Describe the process of scoring the goal. You can start like the following.
In some activities like the one in Section E of Lesson 3 of the same unit learners are involved in more free production of language.

Extract 5: Write a short essay of about 200 words on the importance of radio in our lives. Use the clues in the box.
As a means of` entertainment
As a means of communication
different types of programs
News
Whether forest
Educational programs
Sports commentary
Impact on rural Bangladesh.
Your favourite program
                        (Section E, Lesson 3, Unit Seven/ EFT for classes 9 and 10)

Yardstick 2: Objectives of lessons and teacher’s guide:
Objectives of each lesson have been stated at the beginning. But guidelines for teachers on how to teach the lessons are not given. Neither any guidebook for the teachers has been published. Although the curriculum document admits the necessity of such guidelines and says that such teacher guides will be prepared and published, they are yet to come in light.

Yardstick 3: Opportunities to practise language skills:
The prefaces to the books state that the books provide learners with a variety of materials such as reading texts, dialogues, pictures, diagrams, tasks and activities. These materials have been designed and developed for learners’ practice in four basic skills — listening, speaking, reading and writing. The classes are expected to be interactive with students’ participation in pair work, group work and solo work. Tasks are so designed as to provide students with opportunities so that they can participate in discussion, information gap activity and role-play etc.
Reading texts and dialogues are on a variety of themes and topics. Pictures and diagrams are not used just for decorative purposes. Rather they are accompanied by a wide range of tasks and activities, which give learners opportunities to practise language skills.
The four skills: The four skills are integrated in different lessons. Listening comprehension passages are provided at the end of the textbooks for classes 6, 7 and 8 and the exercise and activities are given in different lessons throughout the books. The textbook for classes 9 –10 does not include any listening comprehension passage in itself though listening comprehension exercises are given in many lessons. The comprehension passages are likely to be given in the teachers’ books, which is more effective than those given in the students’ textbooks.  



Yardstick 4: Whether the presentations are stereotyped and activity boring:
For making a lesson interesting, new items should be presented in realistic contexts and tasks and activities should be so designed as to provide learners with as many new things as possible to do. For this to happen, it should be ensured that the presentation is not stereotyped. Stereotyped presentation makes lessons uninteresting and activities boring. A look into English For Today for class six reveals that most of the lessons of this book starts with a ‘Look at the picture’ type activity.
Examples:
Section A, Lesson 1, Unit 8: Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task presented with two pictures)
Section A, Lesson 7, Unit 7: Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task presented with a picture and a table)
Section A, Lesson 8, Unit 7: Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task presented with a picture)
Section A, Lesson 9, Unit 7: Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task presented with a picture)
Section A, Lesson 10, Unit 7: Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task presented with a picture)
Section A, Lesson 11, Unit 7: Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task presented with a picture)


Section A, Lesson 12, Unit 7: Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task accompanied by a picture)
Section A, Lesson 10, Unit 7: Talk about the pictures … (a pre-reading task accompanied by two pictures)
Examples cited above show that each of the above lessons starts with a typical activity, i.e., looking at the picture(s). When most lessons start with such types of stereotypical activities, learners as well as the teachers get in difficulty to carry out them. They often feel bore.
The same type of examples of stereotypical presentation can be cited from the book for class 7 and 8.
A.           Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task accompanied by a picture) (Unit 1: Lesson 1:Section 1)
B.           Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task accompanied by a picture) (Unit 1: Lesson 2: Section 1)
C.           Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task accompanied by a picture) (Unit 1: Lesson 3: Section 1)
D.           Talk about the picture … (a pre-reading task accompanied by a picture) (Unit 1: Lesson 4: Section 1)
                        (A –D from English for Today for class 7)



The same type of monotony is observable in the book for class 8. Lessons 1 —7, 9, 10, 11 and 13 of Unit 1 start with the same ‘talk about the picture’ type activities. Although some pictures are considerably different from others in terms of physical contexts, students are not provided with any linguistic context at the beginning. As a result, these may often produce boredom among the pupils and teachers may face difficulty to arousing interest among the learners.
However, the lessons in English For Today for classes 9 and 10 adopt a wide range of techniques in presenting new language. Activities are of different types and are so designed as to favour students’ creative participation. Each lesson in this book starts with different types of task. Students’ role in one lesson varies considerably from another so as to make it interesting for them. The following extracts show how differently each lesson starts:
B.           Read the following information about a woman called Prity. Work in pairs. Ask and answer questions about the information.
         Prity, 40, schoolteacher —— two children, Nina 10, Raju 6, husband -Salam 42, postal clerk.
         e.g.       Q: How old is Prity?
                     A: She is 40/40 years old.                                                          
                     (Section A Lesson 2 Unit 1)
C.        While talking to Masum’s family, Becky told a lot about her own family. The following tree diagram is about Becky’s family Look at the picture. What do you see?


 Works in pairs:
Ask and answer the following questions about the family tree.
  1. Who is Mr. John Mable?
  2. Who is Tracy Mable?
         And so on.    (Unit 1: Lesson 3: Section A & B)
D.           Becky was surprised to hear about a New Year celebration in the middle of the year. Later Masum explained it to her. She then read the following newspaper article. First guess and answer the following questions and then read the newspaper article below. (Questions given in bubbles and a newspaper article on ‘Pahela Baishakh today is presented) (Unit 1: Lesson 1: Section A)
The tasks of the above extracts cited from English For Today book for classes 9 and 10 seem to be more interesting and student comfortable than those cited from the textbooks of classes 6, 7 and 8. A close look into the English For Today series reveals that most of the lessons of English For Today books for classes 6, 7 and 8 starts with a ‘look-at the-picture’ type task. These are likely to arouse boredom among the students. This is especially true for the classes where teachers are not trained in communicative language teaching (CLT).




Yardstick 5: Whether the themes/topics are enjoyable and contexts of language realistic:
In communicative textbooks the topics/ themes though are not introduced for their own sake, rather they are used as vehicles for different activities to take place. For the activities to be carried out successfully and learning outcomes to be achieved, the topics should be realistic and be taken from the learners’ familiar world. Of course, the wider world context can be gradually introduced. A wider range of topics should be included so as to cover different spheres of life.
In the English For Today book series, the emphasis has been shifted from literature to language and it is an well-known view that what the learners need more is English language to communicate rather than the English literature. The question, however, still remains, whether it is possible and desirable to separate language from literature in an absolute manner. To try to teach language without the help of literature is doomed to be unattractive and, therefore, ineffective. Ultimately that is what is frequently observable in some of the textbooks. The following examples are cited to illustrate this point:
From English For Today for class 6:
Unit one: Introduction: This unit comprises the tittles — class six, introductions, Sabina, Salam, Guess who, what’s my name is and others. In all these lessons, the focus is on how to introduce, greet, and give personal account. In this unit there is no home for imaginative stories and essays. This can be termed as ‘feeding on a mechanical diet’ to the young learners. The same type of mechanical approach is observable in the lessons ‘My daily life’, ‘Telling time’ ‘At the shop’ and others.

Of coarse, there are a few fables and imaginative articles like ‘Do not quarrel’ (unit 2: lessons 11 and 12), ‘Morning in Sherpur’ (unit 7: lesson 5) and ‘The hidden treasure’ (unit 8, lessons 1 and 2). These and some articles on science and daily life definitely bear values and interest for the learners. But most of the lessons with their mechanical presentation of language are likely to bring boredom among teachers as well as students. (cf. Choudhury S.I.: Rethinking the Two Englishes in Alam F. et al (eds.) 2001: p-17)

From English For Today for class 7:
Topics included in the textbook for class 7 are Diaries and Events, The World around Us, Pen Friends, and Working Together. Students are more or less familiar with these topics. But problems lie on the fact that they do not get any new information in these and so, loose interest in them. For example, the following reading text is taken from Lesson 1 of Unit 1. The text follows a picture of Samira and her cousin Karim:
This is Samira. She is twelve years old. She is a student. She lives in a village near Sonapur. At the moment she is sitting under a mango tree in her yard, reading a book. It is a small blue book. Her cousin Karim is also there. He is a student too. He is standing and looking at some flowers in the garden.  
Karim doesn’t live in the country. ……..


This reading text is followed by a task of asking and answering to some w/h-questions. This text is suitable to introduce many linguistic items like ‘subject-verb-object’ word order, place and time adverbials etc. and so; the linguistic relevance of this text is undeniable. But problem lies on the fact that most children do not have any new experience in the text. For them the lesson turns boring.
In the textbook EFT for class 7 also there is little home for any imaginative or creative stories and essays. Of course, the extracts of letters (unit 3) and diary events (unit 1) and a few poems and rhymes are definitely interesting and tell many things new to the students. But all the students are not equally interested in these two forms of writing. Here some other forms of literature, e.g., story and travelogue could be included.
From English For Today for class 8:
In the textbook for class 8, topics have been taken from students’ familiar as well as unfamiliar worlds. A number of lessons present stories as well. Like the other two books described above, this is also a book of tasks and activities. For giving so much emphasis on tasks and activities, the stories have got an artificial flavour. Say, for example, the story of Ant and grasshopper, which is a famous fable of Aesop and covers five lessons of unit 2; for giving much emphasis on the functions of telling stories and talking about things, the story has lost its natural appeal and has become uninteresting. Further, a story of this type would be more appropriate for learners of younger age than those of class 8. Moreover, the stories, which have non-human characters, could be presented with more visual images or pictures. Children of younger age would enjoy it much, if it were a cartoon story.

English For Today for classes 9 and 10:
The textbook for classes 9 and 10 includes a wider range topics and themes, which cover different issues and events, knowledge of different disciplines and subjects, lives and cultures of different countries and communities, tales and fable of different tribes and nations. But the artificiality of the text lies still on the fact that very often language items and their functions are so presented that they seem to be isolated from everyday happenings. For example, language for the functions of greeting and introducing in the first lesson of the first unit is presented in bubbles. It seems that the writers want to teach the students but do not want to let them enjoy.
The book included topics that do not have affinity with the lives of mass students of rural Bangladesh. Almost all the topics are associated with urban life, for example, it included tittles like the ones such as Devonport High School for Girls, My School in Okasaki, A school in town, and Sunshine KG school, but it fails to include a village school. (Lesson 1– 4 of Unit 3). From the beginning to the end of the book there has been an effort to introduce Bangladesh to a non-Bengali. Whilst a rural connection is made as in ‘Meeting Feroza’ (Unit 10: Lesson 1), it is done in such a manner that can be compared to seeing a village of Bangladesh with occidental eyes. However, a balance has been maintained including tittles like professor Yunus and Mother Teresa along with Albert Einstein and Muhammad Ali (He flies like a butterfly but stings lay a bee) as sparkling icons of the 20th century.


To sum up, although the topics are of a wide range, they are yet to be student-comfortable so as to arouse interest among the learners while being taught. For this to happen, the presentation should be up side down. That is, the learners should see rather than being seen.

Yardstick 6: Whether traditional grammar teaching is avoided and grammar items and functions are integrated with different types of text and discourse:
Present English For Today book series do not include any topic on explicit grammar. Grammar items and their functions are included within texts and discourse of varied types in each lesson. This point has been made clear in book-map of the book for classes 9 and 10. However, the books for 6, 7 and 8 do not have any book-map. Nevertheless, these also have some exercises on grammatical form and functions. For example, the following task is on the use of adverb of frequency:
C.           Use usually and sometimes to ask and answer questions … … … … like this.
Q      What do you usually do everyday at seven o’clock?
A      I usually …….….. , but sometimes I ……….. .What about you?  
         (Lesson 5, Unit 5, English For Today for class six)



This task also integrates the functions talking (asking and answering) about one’s daily chores. In case, the students need help on these grammatical structures and functions teacher may give additional exercises from supplementary grammar books or he may design task of his own for his class.

Yardstick 7:      Whether language used in lessons is natural and resembles the language used in real communication:
The following extract from the textbook for class 6 will illustrate this point:
Salam:     What do you usually eat everyday, Sabina?
Sabina:    Usually I eat rice with vegetables and small fish.
Salam:     Do you ever eat mutton or chicken?
Sabina:    Sometimes I eat chicken, but I don’t usually eat mutton. How about you,
Salam?
Although the content of the above conversation is familiar to the students, the language used in the dialogue is not natural. Usually people do not use full sentences like “Usually I eat rice with vegetables and small fish.” to answer a question that it follows. Again, a spoken discourse especially, an informal one would be livelier with informal expressions like have, like instead of eat etc.
However, the language in the following conversation is near natural and begging an excuse at the beginning makes it livelier:

Karim:     Excuse me, Samira. What’s that little book?
Samira:    Oh, it’s my diary, Karim.
Karim:     Did you make it?
Samira:    I only made the cover.
Karim:     It looks very nice.
Samira:    Thank you, Karim. Have you ever written a diary?
Karim:     Yes, but I don’t write it everyday.
               (Lesson 2, Unit 1, English For Today for class 7)
The following two extracts are from the textbook of classes 9 and 10. The first one is of a newspaper article on the significance of Eid and the second is of a letter:
Extract 1: Section B, Lesson 8, Unit Seven/ EFT for classes 9 and 10.
 Extract 2: EFT for classes 9 and 10.
So far as the language of the above extracts is concerned, it is natural and appropriate for the text types. However, in the second extract, the convention of saying ‘salam’ at the opening of letters has been broken. In the other parts of the book e.g., in dialogues, role-play and discussions language is natural or near natural.
The book has several listening comprehension tasks, which follow some pre-listening activities. However, the text is neither given at the end of the book nor it is provided in audiocassette or compact disc and there are no indications about where the listening texts will be available.  Again, the teacher books have not yet

been published.  The listening comprehension passages of English For Today books for classes 7 and 8 have been given at the end of books. In EFT for classes 9 and 10, in absence of any listening text the learners have to just skip the tasks. The following example illustrates the point:
D. You are going to listen to a short conversation between some people. While listening, try to guess the answers to the following questions.
Now listen to the conversation between Becky and Masum’s Family. Answer the questions given below:
1.            What are they talking about?
2.            What do you think ‘freshen up’ means?
3.            Why do you think Masum’s mother asked Becky if she needed to freshen up?
4.            Why do you think Becky paused before answering Masum’s mother?
5.            Who is the youngest member of the family?
6.            Do you think Masum’s family is happy to meet Becky? How do you know that?
(Lesson 2, Unit One)


Yardstick 8:      Whether the activities are student-centred rather than subject-centred with greater emphasis on fluency rather than accuracy:
Throughput the lessons and units tasks are so designed as to involve students in active participation and interaction. And it is the students who have to do most of the things. Teacher’s role is to help them carry out these tasks. He is no more a dictator who controls everything in the class. Sometimes he is a co-learner, sometimes manager of the class. So, it can be said that the new revised English For today books are student-centred.
Further, in all the activities, the learners have to comprehend and/or produce language, i.e., they have to use language. Emphasis is always given on fluency rather than accuracy. However, teacher is always ready to correct errors, mistakes and lapses they commit if required. But correcting all the mistakes is discouraged. The focus is always on a specific linguistic or functional aspect. This point has been made vivid in the book-map of English For Today for classes 9 –10.  Textbooks which do not have any book-map, the exercises might provide clues for the teacher to give students additional exercises from supplementary grammar books or from his own.


Case of supplementary books:
The day has long gone when ELT materials were only a grammar book and a bilingual dictionary. In this work the sections on learning theories and teaching methodologies give a clear idea about how many types of materials can be used as teaching aids in an English language class. Among these, books of grammar, workbooks or activity books, pictures, posters are worth mentioning. However, for many reasons, in countries like Bangladesh, a textbook itself supplements all others except a core grammar book. The English For Today series has been prepared to meet all these needs. The NCTB curriculum acknowledged the necessity of a supplementary grammar book.
Grammar books which are being used in most schools are not suitable for communicative language teaching. There are only a few urban schools that follow grammar books like Essential Grammar in Use (1998) by Raymond Murphy (published by Cambridge University Press) or Oxford Practice Grammar by John Eastwood (published by Oxford University Press).
Grammar books of the local publishers in most cases have got a name with communicative flavour. But their contents and arrangements still remain the same as those of books of traditional grammar. To make this point explicit, here is a comparison between the Chapter headings of the first part of Latest Communicative English Grammar for class 6 (first published in 2000) written by A. K. M. Md. Hanif et al and the chapter headings of the second part of a traditional Grammar book A Book of English Grammar Translation and


Composition for class 6 (published in 1983) written by Kalimdad Khan and popularly used for decades.
Contents of Latest Communicative English Grammar for class 6 (first published in 2000) written by A. K. M. Md. Hanif et al:
Part 1: Basic Grammar
      Lesson –1       Introduction: Language and Grammar                                      1
      Lesson –2       Vocabulary                                                                                 13
Lesson –3       Sentence                                                                                      18
Lesson –4       Parts of Speech                                                                            23
Lesson –5       Articles                                                                                        47
Lesson –6       Number                                                                                       56
Lesson –7       Gender                                                                                        67
Lesson –8       Possessive Forms                                                                        76
Lesson –9       Tenses                                                                                         83
Lesson –10     Division of Tenses                                                                       93
Lesson –11     This, That, These & Those                                                        115
Lesson –12  Very, Many, Much, Any, Each, Every, Some, Something etc.    199
Lesson –13     Interrogative Sentence                                                               122
Lesson –14     Uses of Capital Letters                                                              128

Lesson –15     Punctuation Marks                                                                    131
Contents of A Book of English Grammar Translation and Composition for class 6 (published in 1983) written by Kalimdad Khan.

Part II: Grammar
      Chapter –1     Parts of Speech                                                                            
      Chapter –2     The Sentence
      Chapter –3     The Parts of the Sentence
      Chapter –4     Kinds of Sentences and their structures
      Chapter –5     Words
      Chapter –6     The Noun and its classification
      Chapter –7     The Number
      Chapter –8     The Gender
      Chapter –9     The Case
      Chapter –10   The Pronouns and their uses
      Chapter –11   The Adjectives
      Chapter –12   Comparison of Adjective

      Chapter –13   Articles
      Chapter –14  The Verb
      Chapter –15   Strong Verbs and Weak Verbs
      Chapter –16  Mood
      Chapter –17  The Tense: The Present
      And so on.
The first chapter of the book Latest Communicative English Grammar defines the terms ‘language’ ‘grammar’ ‘letter’ ‘sound’ ‘sentence’ and so on with examples. This chapter also introduces small and capital letters. Chapter 2 gives lists of useful words with their Bengali equivalents and model sentences with some of those words and asks students to make sentences with the others. Chapter 3 is on ‘sentence’, ‘subject’ and ‘predicate’. So, the arrangement of these chapters is similar to any traditional grammar book. The treatment of parts of speech, article, number, gender and tenses are very much traditional. However, a user of traditional grammar may expect separate chapters of interjections, prepositions, conjunctions, voice, narration, inversion and conjugation etc., which are lacking here.  The writer may have excluded these because no questions are set in the examinations from these topics. However, all the chapters include some exercises on 'cloze' test because students have to attempt some 'cloze' tests in their examination.


The second part of the book presents some model questions. Most students consider this part as most important part. In the final part is on essay writing. Instead of giving any exercise of free or controlled practise of writing skills, the writer gives some so-called model essays in this part.
Most of the grammar books of the local publishers have the above character.



6.1 Reasons for Evaluation of Materials
The ability to evaluate teaching materials effectively is a very important professional activity for all EFL teachers. Cunningsworth (1984) suggests that there are very few teachers who do not use published course materials at some stage in their teaching career.
However, before we look at why we need to evaluate materials in the first place, it may be worthwhile to mention the distinction that McDonough and Shaw (2oo3) make between teaching situations where ‘open-market’ materials are chosen on the one hand, and where a ministry of Education produces materials that are subsequently passed on to the teacher for classroom use on the other. In the first type of situation teachers may have quite a large amount of choice in the materials they select. However, situations where teachers are ‘handed’ materials by a Ministry or a Director involve teachers in an understanding of why the materials have been written in such a way and how they can make effective use of them in the classroom.
Reasons:
i. For the vast majority of teachers working in the first situation, writing their own materials can be very time consuming and not necessarily cost-effective; hence the need to be able to discriminate effectively between the entire course books on the market.

ii. Today there is a wealth of EFL materials available, with literally hundreds of new, commercially available titles appearing every year in the English-speaking countries. In some cases, basic faults remain in the books available on the market.




iii. Teachers or course organizers are often under considerable professional and financial pressure to select a course book for an ELT program that will then become the textbook for years to come. In many contexts materials are often seen as being the core of a particular program and are often the most visible representation of what happens in the classroom. The evaluation of current materials therefore merits serious consideration as an inappropriate choice may waste funds and time, not to mention the demotivating effect that it would have on students and possibly other colleagues.

iv. For some teachers the selection of a good textbook can be valuable, particularly in contexts where the assimilation of stimulating, authentic materials can be difficult to organize. Other teachers working with materials given to then by a Ministry of similar body will not have to evaluate to adopt materials; nevertheless, they may well be interested in evaluation as a useful process in its own right, giving insight into the organizational principles of the materials and helping them to keep up with developments in the field. This in turn can help the teacher to focus on realistic ways of adapting the materials to a particular group of learners where pertinent.



6.2 Criteria used for Evaluating Materials
The ability to evaluate teaching materials effectively is a very important professional activity for all EFL teachers. McDonough and Shaw (2003) discuss the criteria that can be used to evaluate materials by suggesting a working model. The model that they suggest is based on the view that it is useful for teachers to perform an external evaluation of materials first in order to gain an overview of the organizational principles involved. After this they should move on a to a detailed internal evaluation of the materials to see how far the materials in question match up to what the author claims as well as to the aims and objectives of a given teaching program.
Thus, McDonough and Shaw (2003) examine criteria in two stages; an external evaluation that offers a brief overview of the materials from the outside (cover, introduction, abstract, table of contents), which is then followed by a closer and more detailed internal evaluation.
The external evaluation
Criteria included in this central stage of the model will provide a comprehensive, external overview of how the materials have been organized. We can examine the organization of the materials stated explicitly by the author/publisher by looking at
• The ‘blurb’, or the claims made on the cover of the book

• The introduction and table of contents.
This should enable the evaluator to assess what Cunningsworth (1984L 2) has termed ‘what the books say about themselves’. We shall find it useful to scan the table of contents page in that it often represents a ‘bridge’ between the external claim made for the materials and what will actually be presented ‘inside’ the materials themselves.



From the ‘blurb’ and the introduction we can normally expect comments on some or all of the following:
a) The intended audience. We need to ascertain who the materials are targeted at, be it teenagers aged 13 and upwards or adults. The topics that will motivate one audience will probably not be suitable for another.

b) The proficiency level. Most materials claim to aim at a particular level, such as false beginner or lower intermediate.

c) The context in which the materials are to be used. We need to establish whether the materials are for teaching general learners or perhaps for teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP).

d) How the language has been presented and organized into teachable units/lessons. The materials will contain a number of units/lessons and their respective lengths need to be borne in mind when deciding if and how they will fit into a given educational program.

e) The author’s views on language and methodology and the relationship between the language, the learning process and the learner.

f) The date of publication of the materials will be of importance in many cases.
When evaluating materials it is useful to keep a note of these claims, which we can then refer back to later in the process. Other factors to take into account at this external stage are as follows:
i. Are the materials going to be used as the main ‘core’ course or as supplementary to it?

Is a teacher’s book in print and locally available?

ii. Is a vocabulary list/index included?

iii. What visual material does the book contain (photographs, charts, diagrams) and is it there for cosmetic value only or is it integrated into the text?

iv. Is the layout and presentation clear or cluttered?

v. Is the material too culturally biased or specific?

vi. Do the materials represent minority groups and/or women in a negative way? Do they present a ‘balanced’ picture of the particular country/society?

vii. The inclusion of audio/video material and resultant cost. Is it essential to possess this extra material in order to use the textbook successfully?

viii. The inclusion of tests in the teaching materials (diagnostic, progress, achievement,). Would they be useful for the particular learners?
To sum up, during this external evaluation stage we examine the claims made for the materials by the author/publisher with respect to the intended audience, the proficiency level, the context and presentation of language items, whether the materials are to be core or supplementary, the role and availability of a teacher’s book, the inclusion of a vocabulary list/index, the table of contents, the use of visual and presentation, the cultural specificity of the materials, the provision of audio/video material and inclusion of tests.
After completing this external evaluation, and having funds and a potential group of learners in mind, we can arrive at a decision as to the materials’ appropriateness for adoption/selection purposes. If our evaluation shows the materials to be potentially appropriate and worthy of a more detailed inspection then we can continue with our internal or more detailed evaluation. If not, then we can exit at this stage and start to evaluate other materials if we so wish.



The Internal Evaluation
The next stage of our evaluation procedure is to perform an in-depth investigation into the materials. The essential issue at this stage is for us to analyze the extent to which the aforementioned factors in the external evaluating stage match up with the internal consistency and organization of the materials as stated by the author/publisher. In order to perform an effective internal inspection of the materials, we need to examine at least two units (preferably more) of a book or set of materials to investigate the following factors:
1. The presentation of the skills in the materials. We may want to investigate if all the language skills are covered and in what proportion, and if this proportion is appropriate to the context in which we are working. Are the skills treated discretely or in an investigated way?

2. The grading and sequencing of the materials. This criterion is an important one and merits some investigation as it is not always patently clear what the principle is. Some materials are quite ‘steeply’ graded while others claim to have no grading at all.

3. Where reading/’discourse’ skills are involved, is there much in the way of appropriate text beyond the sentence? As teachers we sometimes find that materials provide too much emphasis on skills development and not enough opportunity for students to practice those skills on extended reading passages.

4. Where listening skills are involved, are recordings ‘authentic’ or artificial?

5. Do speaking materials incorporate what we know about the nature of real interaction or are artificial dialogues offered instead?



6. The relationship of tests and exercises to

a. Learner needs, and

b. What is taught by the course materials?
Where these are included as part of the materials, we need to see if they are appropriate in context.
7. Do you feel that the materials are suitable for different learning styles? Is a claim and provision made for self-study and is such a claim justified?
8. Are the materials sufficiently ‘transparent’ to motivate both students and teachers alike, or would you foresee a student/teacher mismatch?
To sum up, in the internal evaluation stage we examine the following criteria: the treatment and presentation of the skills, the sequencing and grading of the materials, the type of reading, listening, speaking and writing materials contained in the materials, appropriateness of tests and experiences, self-study provision and teacher-learner ‘balance’ in use of the materials.



6.3 Reasons for Materials Adaptation
I shall now try to enumerate some of the reasons why teachers might need to adapt their teaching material. It wills the useful to compare your own reasons with those in the following list. The list is not intended to the comprehensive, but simply to show some of the possible areas of mismatch that teachers identify and that can be dealt with by adaptation:
i. Not enough grammar coverage in general.

ii. Not enough practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners.

iii. The communicative focus means that grammar is presented unsystematically.

iv. Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary.

v. Comprehension questions are too easy, because the answers can be lifted directly from the text with no real understanding.

vi. Listening passages are not authentic, because they should too much like written material being read out.

vii. Not enough guidance on pronunciation.

viii. Subject matter inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level.

ix. Photographs and other illustrative material not culturally acceptable.

x. Amount of material too much or too little to cover in the time allocated to lessons.


xi. No guidance for teachers on handling group work and role play activities with a large class.

xii. Dialogues too formal and not representative of everyday speech.

xiii. Audio material difficult to use because of problems to do with room size and technical equipment.

xiv. Too much or too little variety in the activities.

xv. Vocabulary list and a key to the exercises would be helpful.

xvi. Accompanying tests needed.
Undoubtedly much more could be added to this list, but it serves as an illustration of some of the possibilities. All aspects of the language classroom can be covered: the few examples above include
a. Aspects of language use,

b. Skills,

c. Classroom organization, and

d. Supplementary material.




Chapter-7
Findings
In the whole of the study procedure, the researcher minutely observed several factors related to teaching and learning English at the secondary level in Bangladesh. In addition, the researcher also tried to learn about the teaching materials, classroom situations, learners’ expectations and a few other related things. The following findings resulted from the empirical investigation:

7.1 Regarding the Students
i. Most students think that English is a difficult subject.

ii. The existing syllabus is not supportive to the improvement of the four skills in English.

iii. Almost all the teachers found disinclined in conducting their classes in English.

iv. Teachers are not caring much to the development of students’ skills in English.

v. Most students feel shy in speaking in English in the class and outside the class.

vi. Extra-curriculum activities such as debate in English, recitation, set speech etc. are not usually organized by the authorities of the school.

vii. Traditional testing system, with a focus on achievement rather than on performance, is not supportive to promote students’ skills.

viii. Most of the schools have no multi-media facilities and modern materials for promoting students’ skills in English.

ix. Some students and teachers found to have prejudice against English. They think that to speak here and there is the flamboyancy and the colonial mentality of the individuals.

7.2 Regarding the Teacher
i. Most of the teachers are not well-trained.

ii. They are dissatisfied with the students’ performance.

iii. Almost all of them do not use English as a medium of instructions.

iv. They think grammar is essential to achieve competence in English.

v. Though they encourage the students to speak in English outside the class, they do not.

vi. According to the teachers, the main problems of the students skills in English are as follows:
• lack of practice, shyness, insufficient command of vocabulary; and necessary sentence structures.



7.3 Suggestions given by the Teachers
Eight teachers were interviewed. They put forward the following suggestions:
a. The student should be encouraged to speak in English at home and school with teachers and friends.

b. Listening to and watching programs in English on Radio and TV should be encouraged.

c. The student should read English newspapers and magazines regularly.

d. If possible, students should try to make friendship with native speakers.

e. The teacher has to be very friendly with the students and encourage them to speak in English.

f. The student should be given assignment for presentation on various topics so that they can overcome shyness in speaking in English.

g. Higher authorities along with the teachers should motivate the students to speak in English on the campus.

h. Every school should have language lab with modern equipments.

i. Continuous motivation, practice and development of a sense of confidence may facilitate the students to overcome the problems in English.

j. Course materials to be participatory in nature for both the teachers and the students.



Chapter-8
Recommendations
With a view to analyzing and evaluating the English Syllabus at the Secondary level, the researcher has undergone a very rigorous journey. After doing the procedures relevant and necessary for this, the researcher comes up with the following suggestions with a view to implementing and upgrading the present syllabus in order to get the maximal benefit from it as well as to reduce the rate of failure in English:
 Teachers should be trained so that they can come out of the back-dated attitude, can make the class lively, interactive and follow the four basic language skills. Because many teachers in rural areas and also in urban areas are not familiar with CLT approach and do not know how to teach CLT approach. Training gives teacher new vigor in teaching.

 Enough teaching materials should be provided for the teachers and students. At the same time teacher-student ratio should be reduced. In communicative language teaching, teacher-student interaction is a must. If the ratio is much, the interaction will not be successful.

 Teacher should play role as a researcher and as a learner. So, with the change of teaching and learning system, the role of the teacher should be changed. He should try to present the new language items, structure and vocabulary clearly in English.

 The teachers have to plan an organized lessons taking consideration of the students' interest and level.

 Duration of class hour should be extended and group work, presentation etc should be done. English learning is learning a foreign language; not like other subjects. Hence it requires more time.

 Viva-voce examination may be introduced to test speaking skill. Here, starting English Language Club can be very helpful in increasing speaking skill and can remove students' fear and nervousness of English.



 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.

 The teachers should help, praise and encourage their students to improve and should not be fussy about minimal points of grammatical accuracy. They should remember that their main goal is to create and sustain the students' motivation and interest in learning English.

 Field-work related lessons can be included in the text. Two things will be gained then: a student will learn English and they will know about our culture, society and economic condition at the same time.

 Some items can be changed or added in the exam question papers. For example, in English first paper, MCQ or true/false can be replaced by re-translation (English to Bengali) or antonym and synonym and in first paper informal letter of 10 marks can be added. Transformation in the second paper can be divided into transformation of sentences like affirmative-negative, simple-complex-compound, changing degree and voice change etc. and each having 5 marks. Changing parts of speech or joining sentences can be of 5 marks and can be added in the grammar part. Amplification can be added in S.S.C second paper as an optional to dialogue.

 Grammar should be of 50 marks in English second paper. Dialogue or summary should be of 5 marks and story writing should be of 10 marks and the rest marks can be taken to grammar part.

 The ongoing professional development of teachers needs to be given utmost priority. To ensure quality assurance in the public and the private sectors, a regular body and an accreditation system need to be set in place accurately.


8.1. Recommendation for Materials
The amount of the four skills in the present textbook is not adequate. The teaching materials should provide more materials—both longer and shorter ones.  The materials should be test-based or activities oriented that involve the students in the four skills.
The book should provide for both lower and higher order sub-skills. There also should be a large amount of literary texts. More and varied the four skills activities such as reading cloze, using clues to guess meanings, general comprehension check tasks, supplying title to a passage, identifying the topic sentence, arranging jumbled text, jigsaw reading, writing an outline of the text, finding surface and deeper meaning, transferring information from one from to another etc. have to be included in the book.

8.2 Recommendation for Pedagogy
The four skills are not really taught in the classroom nowadays. But students’ skills will never develop without their active engagement in the practicing process with the modern equipment of teaching materials. The more they are made to read, write, listen and speak; the bitter they will be able to expose.
Students must be engaged in doing tasks on the entire skills, and learning by doing should be encouraged in the classroom.



8.2.1 Teacher’s Role
Teachers should set students with the skills activities. They should help them with hints and clues, train them the cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies to read, write, listen and speak.
Teachers must not lecture, and explain everything to the students. They should make the students read, write, listen and speak, and find out for themselves the different layers of meaning in the texts. Teachers should monitor students’ activities, assist them and provide guidance and feedback.
They should do what Nuttall (1996: 32-33) describes as responsibilities of the teachers:
• Helping students to enjoy and value the four skills, including making sure there is an attractive extensive skills program;

• Finding out what the students can and cannot do, and working out a program to develop the skills they lack;

• Choosing suitable texts to work on;

• Choosing or devising effective tasks and activities;

• Preparing the students to undertake the tasks;

• Making sure that everyone works productively and to their full potential by encouraging students, promoting text-focused discussion and providing ‘scaffolding’ to enable them to interpret the text themselves, rather than having to rely on the teacher;

• Monitoring progress to make sure that everyone in the class improves steadily according to their own capabilities.


8.2.2 Learner’s Role
Learners need to be engaged in the four skills process. They should read, write, listen and speak individually, work in pairs or groups to find out meanings of words, sentences and texts. In other word, they should be engaged in ‘work attack’, ‘sentence attack’ and ‘text attack’ activities.
Students should be active organizers, not passive recipients.

8.3 Recommendation for Teacher Training
A large number of teachers in Bangladesh are not competent for implementing the modern approaches to the teaching materials. Though some teachers use modern approaches, they are not trained and hence cannot apply the methods properly. Therefore, arrangements should be made to train teachers in the new approaches to teaching materials.


Chapter-9
Conclusion
After a vast exploration, it is scrutinized that the importance of English as a means of communication is increasing rapidly. Hence, we need an appropriate English syllabus designing and teaching method or approach. It is clear that this study has prompted in finding out the effectiveness of the present Secondary syllabuses in learning English as a foreign language as well as a second language. The researcher has observed, analyzed and evaluated the syllabus thoroughly and minutely and tried to find out its merits and drawbacks. Then having analyzed the drawbacks, the researcher has attempted to provide some suggestions for modification to make the syllabus more effective and upgrade.
Data collection finds out the reasons why a huge number of students fail in English every year and the ways to come out of this. It has been found from data that untrained teachers, lack of teaching material, lack of teacher-student interaction, huge lessons etc. are responsible for the downfall of the S.S.C students in English. By removing these shortcomings, we can hope our students to be competent and better performers in both the exam and in the real-life situations. Hence, there is a crucial need for individuals, institutions and forums to raise voices of concern in order that English language teaching and learning should move in an appropriate direction.
In this regard, we need to learn from past mistakes in our attempts to curricular change. Moreover, the on-going professional development of teachers needs to be given priority and we need to be aware of the pitfalls of the changing process. We have to take into account contextual factors, the local learning culture and the attitude of the teachers and the students. The authority concerned about this regard should be aware of all these facts and take vital initiatives to achieve the goal ultimately.



9.1 Steps to be taken by the Teachers
While teaching in the classroom, the teachers should use English as medium of instruction and involve the students in various types of language tasks and activities in groups of pairs to help them learn English through constant skill practice. They should also encourage their students to actively participate in the learning process.
Furthermore, they should monitor and assist their students while they are engaged in skills practice. Besides, they should emphasize both accuracy and fluency at the time of teaching the four skills in English. Finally, the teachers should adopt the modern English teaching materials in the classroom.

9.2 Test Reform
In Bangladesh, the examination system is more product-oriented rather than process-oriented, leading to an emphasis on grades than performance. A few teachers in the interview suggested for changing the examination system, including listening and speaking test. (Li: 1998, p13)
Definitely, unless the examination system is changed, the competence level of the students will remain stagnant.

9.3 Reduction of Class Size
According to Halliday (1994), the communicative approach is often rejected for a big classroom. It is difficult to manage a huge class 40 or 50 student. The growing population of Bangladesh has created a huge pressure, especially on the public schools and on some private schools. It causes difficulties for the teachers to meet the demand of every student in the limited class time. Therefore, the size of the classroom should be reduced to a small one which can accommodate 20 or 25 students.

10. Reflection
Doing research for the first time is both stressful and perplexing. The pain of hard work is bitter but, the fruit is sweet. The research that I have undertaken has opened up many unexplored avenues before me. Doing this research was challenging for me because for some very unavoidable reasons. I had to spend the whole semester for in my country’s atmosphere. So, I was very worried about my performance and progress. So, sometimes I became very confused and frustrated. But, the prompt responses from my supervisor made my work easy.
Initially, I had a plan to do my research on ‘An Evaluation of the English Teaching Materials at the Secondary Level in Bangladesh’. Though teachers usually bypass the interactional activities on excuse that it is the large class size for which they cannot engage students in communicative activities. So my objective was to see if there is connection between large class size and teachers’ avoiding interactive activities in the class. Accordingly, I had the plan to observe three classes of three different sizes to look for myself whether the excuse is either plausible or baseless. Of the three classes the largest one might consist of 75-80, the medium one of 45-50 and the smallest one 30 students. Each class was to be observed for 2 days. But, the interview with four teachers revealed the fact that even the smallest class did not have any communicative activities.
So, I changed the original plan of the research proposal and gave up the idea of observing classes. Accordingly, in place of observation, I changed my questionnaire a little bit and included among other things. The questions helped me to collect data that I would have got through classroom observation. However, I observed a specially arranged private tutorial class of 28 students.
I changed the topic and direction of my research and decided that I would investigate the secondary teachers’ perception about teaching materials and their real classroom practices and if there is any mismatch between these two.



This study revealed the findings that though the participant secondary English language teachers have misconceptions about the teaching materials, they can indentify the communicative activities. The also uphold many right perceptions about the English teaching materials. However, their classes are not developing. They still follow the traditional system of English language teaching. What is found from this study is that teachers can correctly indentify the communicative activities and their perceptions about the teaching materials are in most cases right though they have many misconceptions too. Whereas in other studies there is not any mention of mismatch between perceptions and classroom practices, there are staggering mismatches between these two in this study.
Another great obstacle was in getting the interview. I wanted to make the four teachers sit together for the interview. But, after much efforts and patient waiting for long time, I was able to make two of them sit together. The other two were interviewed separately.
I felt relaxed when I got mails from my group-mates enquiring about the progress of my dissertation. I was also happy to realize that I was going to be able to meet the deadline for submission, which, however, was possible for the sincere and prompt responses from my supervisor.











Works Cited
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