International Teachers of English Conference Abstracts

Bangladesh

Fostering the Practice of Communicative Competence in ESL classrooms -- Shaheena Choudhury, Dhaka, Bangladesh

In an attempt to make our students literate in international discourse, to make them compete successfully on a national and international level, the demand to teach communicative English is increasing more and more in Bangladesh. Recognizing the fact that English communication abilities can only be formed when students are taught English by applying the Communicative Language Teaching method in English, most of our educational institutions are following the trend, but with little or no success, since students are failing to develop an acceptable level of English proficiency for communication.

This paper attempts to identify the pitfalls and recommend solutions. I have explored some of the predicaments surrounding the practice of Communicative English at the university level in Bangladesh and suggested different approaches that can be undertaken to overcome this impediment.

Techniques Used to Teach Grammar in Bengali and English Medium Schools -- Tania Afroz Khan, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Over the decades, students of English Medium Schools (EMSs) in Bangladesh proved to be more competent in their command over English than their Bengali Medium counterparts. Although English is taught throughout their school and college life, students of Bengali Medium Schools (BMSs) struggle to understand, speak and write in English.

Since English is learned as a second language only after a child goes to school (age 4+), special attention must be given to ensure that s/he learns the basic components of language. If we take into account Noam Chomsky’s Innatist Theory, human beings are born with a set of rules about language which he refers to as the 'Universal Grammar.' As grammar is the most basic foundation of any language, the focus of this paper is on how grammar is taught in Bangladesh.

The Grammar-Translation Method has been obsolete in many parts of the world for decades but it is still widely practiced in BMSs across the country. On the other hand, the Direct Method is used in most EMSs with the communicative approach gradually gaining ground. Teaching grammar deductively in BMSs has resulted in hardly any language practice done in class whereas in EMSs, inductive teaching of grammar gives students scope to know their usage and not only the rules. This paper not only looks at what techniques are used in the two mediums of instruction but also the advantages and disadvantages of each.