An evaluation of_communicative_language_teaching_in_bangladesh

1.  Abstract
This study presents “An Evaluation of Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT) in Bangladesh”. English has got a
long legacy since the British rule in India. In 1835 Lord
Macaulay, through a Royal decree, launched the teaching of
English in the undivided British India. Since its introduction as
a colonial language, English has got different status at
different phases of history of Bangladesh. Now English is
being taught as an international language using
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approaches in
1995. But there have been always some questions how much
of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach is
actually applied in teaching English and what out put it brings.
(a). What are the perceptions of the participating Post
Secondary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers
about the principles of Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT)? (b). Are they able to come out from the traditional
view? (c). What do they identify as training needs for the
successful implementation of Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) in Bangladesh? This study will use a mixed
methodology, explores the state of Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) in teaching English at secondary level. This
study will use two questionnaires to survey on students and
teachers of English classes at secondary level and also
interview the teachers. This survey will be conducted in two
specific urban schools with good reputation. This paper will be
able to indicate the teacher development initiatives, redefining
the entry and exit levels of the learners, providing alternative
and supplementary instructional materials, the participants

2. between teachers, students and reforming the assessment
system.
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3.  Introduction:
The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach
to the teaching of second and foreign languages which emphasizes
communication or interaction and the ultimate goal of learning a
language. The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was the
product of educators and linguistics who had grown dissatisfied with
earlier Grammar Translation and Audio Lingual methods, because
the both of methods were not able to fulfill the demand of
communicative competence of learners perfectly. Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT) sets the goal of creating
‘Communicative Competence’ in the learners.
The origin of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is to be
found in the changes in British language teaching tradition dating
back from the late 1960s. Brumfit, Kith Johnson and other British
applied linguistics found the theatrical basis for communicative or
functional approach to language teaching. Although the movement
began as a largely British innovation, focusing on alternative
conception of syllabus, since the mid 1970s the scope of
communicative language teaching has expanded.
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4. The main purpose of teaching English is to make learners acquire
language skills. Unlike most of the other subjects in the curriculum,
English is a skill based subject and not content based one. National
Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB) has taken a courageous
step by introducing communicative syllabus and text book at
primary, secondary and higher secondary levels of education.
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is still a challenge for the
teachers and students of Bangladesh. Because it requires expertise
in many aspects such as first and second language acquisition,
theories of language learning, communicative competence, syllabus
design, material production and evaluation. Most of the subjects are
studied in Bengali now, but since more than 80% of the books in the
higher education are in English. English still enjoys a special status
not only among teaching but also among students.
English is an official language in Bangladesh and knowledge of
English broadens access to economic and educational opportunity
but the graduates will be in the fore-front of linking Bangladesh to
the global economic, technological, intellectual, political, cultural and
social advancement.
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5.  Problem of the Study
In the opinion of Gibson, “A problem is really a spring board
for a leap into the unknown.” We understand of the existence of a
problem, then identifying the causes of the problem, analyzing the
linkage among the course, extracting the minor causes and
selecting the major causes; and finally suggesting the possible
remedial measures for solving the problem. The researchers face
some problems in completing the research work. First of all, the
researchers went to a school and they could not find the scope to
collect the data. Then they went another school and faced some
problems. The major problems are-
1) Shortage of time in conducting of the research.
2) Incapability of student to capture the questions.
3) Students took long time for answer the questions.
4) Non-cooperation from some sources.
5) Insufficient source to collect related information.
6) To draw descriptive or inferential conclusions from sample
data about a larger group.
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6.  Research Objectives
This study will analyze the role played by the learners in schools
in Bangladesh. The researchers discussed about Communicative
Language Teaching with the teachers and students. The researches
closely observed the teacher-student relationship, teaching systems,
teaching materials and also the classroom environment. This
Research will find out the limitations of the CLT in Bangladeshi
contexts. This study moves forward with the objectives are mention
below.
(a) To improve the present condition of English Teaching.
(b) To observe measures taken by the teachers.
(c) To observe measures taken by the students.
(d) To observe teachers role.
(e) To observe effectiveness of teaching methods.
(f) To observe adopted teaching ethics.
(g) To observe students performance and attainment.
(h) To explore students interest in English class.
In Communicative language teaching reading and writing are more
emphasized, but less emphasis is given on the listening and
speaking skills.
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7. So, the researchers think that this paper will give a fruitful solution of
those limitation. All of the teacher and students will capture the for
language mills in proper way.
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8.  Review of the Literature
Actually, Review of the Literature is a statement is given by
the earliest researchers. It is the analysis of the prior research of the
earliest research and finding the problems. In Bangladesh the
English Language Teaching methods in the S.S.C and H.S.C. level
the Communicative Language Teaching is used significantly but
most of the students are not able to achieve communicative
competence. So, Communicative Language Teaching is a
prominent the theoretical model in English language Teaching and
CLT is accepted by many applied linguists and teachers as one of
the effective approaches. Different linguist, scientist, scholar and
teacher are given different opinion about CLT. This research paper
shows some opinion from the earliest research about CLT.
Richard and Rodgers (2001) state “The Communicative
approach in language teaching states from a theory of language as
communication.” CLT aims to make competence the goal of
language teaching and develop procedures to teach the four
language skills that allow the independence of language and
communication. Communicative Language Teaching thus
encourages learners to communicate in a meaningful way using the
target language from the very initial stage. While using the
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9. language, accuracy is important but communication precedes it. So,
it is advocated in CLT that if messages are understood, accuracy
may be achieved later. Richards and Rogers also illustrate that the
emphasis of communicative language teaching on the process of
communication, rather than mastery of language forms, leads to
different roles for learners from those found in more traditional
second language classrooms. Learners are considered as active
participants in the language learning process. As a result, CLT also
alters the role of the teacher.
According to Littlewood (1981), “One of the most characteristics
features of Communicative Teaching is that it pays systematic
attention of functional as well as structural aspects of language,
combining these into a more fully communicative view.” CLT
advocates to go beyond teaching grammatical rules of the target
language, and recommended that, by wing the target language in a
meaningful way, learners will develop communicative competence.
Canale and Swain (1980) referred communicative competence as
the interaction between grammatical competence, or the knowledge
of the rules of grammar and sociolinguistic competence, or
knowledge of the rules. Canale and Swain (1980) identified
grammatical sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence as
part of communicative competence.
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10. According to Canale (1983), “grammatical competence” focus
directly on the knowledge and skill required to understand and
express accurately the literal meaning of utterances”. Sociolinguistic
competence represents the learner’s ability to use the language
properly in different social contexts. Communicative competence
applies to both written and spoken language, as well as to many
other symbolic systems.
A discussion indicates that, Communicative Language Teaching
accuracy is essential to communicative competence. The focus of
the literature review was on the appropriateness of CLT in the
Bangladeshi and broader Asian contexts, and the strengths and
limitations of CLT as an approach to language teaching in these
contexts. The earliest research work has may gap, but this paper will
try to fulfill this gap and make a correct solution.
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11.  Methodology of Research
Methodology is the analysis of the principles of methods, rules
and postulates employed by a discipline. Methodology may be
understood as a science of studying how research is done
scientifically. Methodology is the study of pedagogical practice in
general including theoretical underpinnings and related matters.
Methodology is a documented process for management of projects
that contains procedures, definitions, approach, method, syllabus,
design and explanations of techniques used to collect analysis and
evaluate data as part of a research process in a given discipline.
This part of the paper deals with the research methodology in order
to investigate the teachers and students perception towards CLT
approach. To conduct the research we used qualitative method.
This type of research analyzes data from direct field work
observations, in depth, open–ended interviews and written
questionnaire. The careful and detailed description is required in
terms of quantitative research rather than measurements, ratings
and scores. There are many ways to collect data in qualitative
method: interactive interviewing, written description by participants
and observation.
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12. To find out the teachers and students perception towards CLT we
were taking interview from two secondary schools in Dhaka city. All
of them are familiar with four language skills: reading, writing,
speaking and listening. The students have practiced different types
of communication activities in their class, such as role playing, group
activities, pair activities etc. As they know about, they have their own
perspective towards CLT that will help this study in finding of the
answer research question.
Generally, we used two methods these are questionnaire, survey
and interview. The first data collection instrument was a teacher
questionnaire to investigate the perception towards CLT. The
teachers gave their opinion and suggestion about CLT which has
more impact on our research. Then the second instrument was
students questionnaire to study the students perception towards
CLT. In students questionnaire we used the M.C.Q format where the
students showed their feelings and experience about C.L.T.
Otherwise, we also took the interview of the teachers and students.
They were very much interested in giving interview. They all were
co-operative in collecting the data. However, it was difficult in terms
of every school to find of all the English language teachers in one
time. First of all we collected students from different classes and sat
with them in a different room. Then we distributed them the
questionnaire and asked them to write their names, schools name
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13. and class on the top of the paper. As they were secondary English
language learner they might have faced problems in understanding
the questions. So, we explained all the questions thoroughly using
both Bengali and English language before they started to write.
They were given as much time as they needed to answer the
questions. All the students were excited and they felt happy to taken
part in this survey. After collecting the data, every interview and
questionnaire was analyzed and interpreted. We had to study every
script for several times in account to analyze the qualitative result
and then we had to interpret. As we are undertake in Bangladeshi
context, the data was collected from Bengali medium teachers and
students. We visited two schools to collect the result. Among them
one was a governmental and another was non-government school.
All the schools gave us permission and they help us very much and
they received us warmly.
In finding the results, we noticed that, all the students were
very poor in speaking and listening skill. They had just practiced in
the reading and writing skills. If the students do not follow the four
language skills, they can not improve their language competence. If
we want to develop CLT, first of all we should develop the speaking
and listening skills. Then CLT will be a successful approach in
English language teaching in Bangladesh context.
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14.  Justification of the Rationale
The researcher has to clearly identify the knowledge gap
after the reviewing of literature. To fill-up this knowledge gap, this
section is very important. A researcher should also concern about
the necessity and national and international importance of research
in this section. Researcher can also mention the utility of the
research among the group of people in the society at large.
A group of researcher of AUB studied on “An Evaluation of
Communication language teaching in Bangladesh.” They were
very much concerned about the above aspect of research. At now
English is mandatory in the academic curriculum in Bangladesh and
carries have weight age in every level of education. But in
Bangladesh there are many problems in acquiring the English as a
communicative language. For this reason researchers selected this
topic and try to provide the proper treatment. In Bangladesh,
students do not get the proper guidance to improve their efficiency
in English, because they can not get the proper teaching from their
teachers. In our country has limited recourse and economic
constraints inevitable hamper the effort and motivation of CLT
practitioners. The teaching community in Bangladesh is on the
whole relatively underpaid. The majority of the teachers at all levels
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15. resort to extra teaching jobs, working either as private tutors or in
several institutions to remain financially solvent. To remove this all
unrespectable situation this research is more important. Through
this research, it may be helpful and provide the proper instruction for
the teachers who are the builder of any nation. Through this
research people can be able to use the correct English for their
communication with each other. And it may the one of the desire for
the people and should be justified. One the basis of above
statement researcher should fill-up their all purpose according to
their proper justification.
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16.  Data Analysis
Data Analysis is the most important factor for a research
project. Before collecting data, it is quite impossible to analyze data.
For this reason the researcher’s went to some schools in order to
collect data for their research work. So, researcher went to “Uttara
High School” and “Nowab Habibullah Model School and
College”. At first researcher went to “Uttara High School” and
then “Nawab Habibullah Model Model School and College” to
collect data. After going there we are able to collect data about our
research subject that is “An Evaluation of Communicative Language
Teaching in Bangladesh” from the teachers and the students also in
a very friendly atmosphere. Two questionnaire were prepared in a
MCQ style about “Communicative language Teachings”. One for the
teachers and another is for the students. The researchers provided
the questionnaire both of the teachers and the students. Both the
teachers and the students read the question paper very carefully,
and provide their answers of the questions.
After collecting data we are started to analyze tem to fulfill our
research ambition. And then we get the result of our research work.
We find that the “communicative language teaching” is a process
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17. which is favourite everyone. As foreign language teachings the
teachers are following the “Communicative approach”. They think
that if the teaching system is improved they must be successfully
achieving communicative competence.
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18.  Findings
After data analysis the researcher have found that through the
Communicative Language Teaching the majority of the students
can’t attain the accepted result in speaking and listening. Though
Communicative Language Teaching focuses on the four learning
skills but it is not properly followed in the most of the schools
especially in the rural schools. It is because of the limited teaching
materials in the classrooms. Students get hardly the chance to
practice the English language in the classroom. Moreover the
teachers in the maximum schools especially in the rural areas are
not properly train up. It is one of the most important reasons for not
getting the accepted result from communicative language teaching.
The result of the survey is mentioned through the chart
consequently analyzing from primary data.
Topic Proficiency
Reading 43%
Writing 46%
Listening 7%
Speaking 4%
 Result
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19. A Review of the Curriculum and Textbook:
In Bangladesh, the textbooks from primary to higher
secondary levels are centrally published and distributed by NCTB.
Generally the schools do not have any teaching materials other than
these textbooks. Ideally, the text books should come with teacher’s
guides but due to various reasons these are not available to
teachers. Though the curriculum documents suggest for additional
materials such as students’ workbooks and simplified readers, these
are non-existent in most of the schools. Both the textbooks and the
teacher’s guides are monocular, newspaper-printed materials with
unattractive, small sized, hazy drawings. Moreover, there is criticism
that the textbooks are too easy for some of the urban schools but
difficult for many rural schools. The textbooks are written following
communicative approach and, so, they emphasize communication
rather than teaching of literature.
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20. Assessment Strategies
The NCTB curriculum has recommended 3 types of tests for
evaluating learner’s achievement/proficiency level:
a) continuous assessment, b) internal examinations, and c) the
public examination. The three main functions of tests and
examinations as described in the syllabus are:
 to ascertain the extent to which students have attained the stated
learning
outcomes;
 to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses for the purpose of
guiding
subsequent teaching and learning;
 to motivate students by giving them a regular sense of
achievement and to make
their parents aware of their progress. (NCTB, 1996: 146)
In order to carry out these functions properly it is necessary to test
students’ language skills, but unfortunately, the existing assessment
system is chiefly memory based. At the same time, in most of the
schools there is no
generally agreed system for continuous assessment. The test items
suggested in the sample papers in Teacher’s Guides do not often
relate to any of the four skills.
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21. Two important skills-speaking and listening are totally excluded from
the test format while the testing of the two other skills-reading and
writing has very little elements of validity and reliability. Some
problems of the test
items currently used to test students’ reading and writing skills are
as follows:
The test of Reading:
In the existing test format learners’ reading skills are tested by
asking candidates to read a text and then to answer various types of
questions based on the text. The question types are: multiple
choice,
true/false, filling in gaps with/without clues, cloze test, information
transfer, making sentences from substitution table, matching words,
and open ended questions. These test items are considered as fairly
good items to test reading skills. However, the problem is that the
test setters are not trained and experienced enough to design test
items which are based on testing andidate’s communicative
competences. In fact, many of the test items set by the test setters,
both for the school tests and public examinations such as the
Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination contain very little
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22. communicative content. For example, the multiple-choice or true
false questions (as found in the SSC questions) are often unrelated
to the nature of communicative language in use. Candidates facing
such items have a chance
of answering those questions not by comprehension but by using
some other strategies, like eliminating the ones that must be wrong.
The test of writing:
In the second paper particularly, students are asked to write
letters, passages and essays. The writing tasks often do not clarify
the purpose, audience or genre of the writing. If students are
communicating,
there has to be a purpose of that communication. In order to have a
purpose they need to have a proper context, and for that, there
should be an audience, at least, some ideas. Composition topics:
Writing essays on topics like “Your Favorite Teacher”, “The Rainy
Season”, “The Post man” are kinds of very typical and
decontextualized essay topics. Moreover, teachers can easily guess
such traditional topics for their students who have got good memory,
and they are quite good at memorizing texts. Memory is an
important component of language learning but it’s not the same
thing as language use
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23. The marking of writing:
Another problem with the writing tasks given in the test
question is that they don’t explain the assessment criteria; students
are only asked to write but they have no idea about whether they
are going to be marked on content or on the accuracy. As a result,
some students put emphasis on the length of writing, whereas
others on accuracy; to yet another, argument may become more
important than the length or the accuracy. Same is the case with the
markers. They vary considerably in their notion of what makes a
good piece of writing. The problem is there is no clear guideline to
ensure inter-marker reliability.
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24.  Recommendations
The features of CLT and the criteria set for teaching and
learning in the curriculum documents provide the opportunities for
the teachers and learners to improve their practices and attitudes.
However, the present realities do not replicate the methodological
aspects suggested in the curriculum documents. In fact, the
implementation of the methodological underpinning of the
Communicative Approach is being impeded by many constraints
that exist in the present teaching-learning context. To overcome
those problems, teachers were asked to suggest ways for adjusting
the features of CLT within their classroom realities. The teachers
suggested measures for improving the teaching learning practices
especially in communicative teaching situation. They help identify a
number of opportunities offered by CLT to enhance the learners’
proficiency in English
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25.  Conclusion
The Communicative Language Teaching is considered
approach rather than a method. The initiative of introducing
CLT at the secondary and higher secondary levels by revising
the ELT curriculum marked a paradigm shift of NCTB from
traditional teaching to a new approach. It refers to a diverse
set of principles that reflect a communicative view of language
and language learning and that can be used to support a wide
variety of classroom procedures. So, CLT sets the goal of
creating “communicative competence”, in the learners. The
communicative language teaching makes use of real-life
situations that facilitate communication.
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26.  The Basic module of CLT
Fig: The basic module of CLT.
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27.  Diagram: 01
Diagram: The result of CLT in Bangladesh.
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Speakin
g
(04%
)
Listening
(07%)
Reading (43%)
Writing (46%)
27

28.  Diagram: 02
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29. Page No. 29

30. Fig: The increasing rate of foreign language conversation in
Bangladesh.
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31.  Abbreviations and Acronyms
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
ELT: English Language Teaching
NCTB: National Curriculum and Text Board
ELTIP: English Language Teaching Improvement Project
PERC: Primary Educational Research Council
HSERC: Higher Secondary Educational Research Council
EFT: English For Today
English as a Second Language (ESL):
Referred to as "situations in which English is being taught and
learned in countries, contexts and cultures in which English is the
predominant language of communication" (Carter & Nunan, 200 1 ;
P- 2).
English as a Foreign Language (EFL):
EFL is used in contexts where English is neither widely used in
communication, nor used as the medium of instruction (Carter &
Nunan, 200 1 ; p. 2).
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32. Second language acquisition (SLA):
SLA, according to Krashen (1 982), means that students are able to
interact in a meaningful and natural way of communication, in
which speakers are concerned with the meaning they are conveying and
understanding instead of the form of their utterances.
Approach:
"Theoretically well-informed positions and beliefs about the nature
of language, the nature of language learning, and the applicability
of both to pedagogical settings" (Brown, 2001; p. 16).
Method:
" A generalized set of classroom specifications for accomplishing
linguistics objectives. Methods tend to be concerned primarily with
teacher and student roles and behaviors and secondarily with such
features as linguistic and subject-matter objectives, sequencing,
and materials. They are almost always thought of as being broadly
applicable to a variety of audiences in a variety of contexts"
(Brown, 2001 ; p. 16).
Competence:
"Knowledge of the grammatical and other rules of a language
which enable a speaker to use and understand it" (Hubbard et al,
1983; p. 326).
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33. ¨ Bibliography ¨
1. C.R. kothari : Research Methodology
2. Dr. Binoy Barman, Zakia Sultana and Bijoy Lal Bashu;
“ELT Theory and Practice”.
3. Dr.Shahidullah, M. Islam. J. Majid, I. A. N. and Haque, M.S.
English for Today for Classes 11-12. Dhaka, NCTB, 2011.
4. Dr. M. Zainul Abedin; “A Hand Book of Research” 1996
5. Ho Y. (2003) 'Audiotaped dialogue journals: An alternative
form of speaking practice' in ELT Journal 57/3
6. Howatt A.P.R. (1984), A History of English Language
Teaching (OUP)
7. Jack. C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers; “Approaches
and methods in language teaching.
2nd
edition. 17lh ch. Cambridge University press, 1996
8. Palmer H.E. (1922), The Principles of Language-Study (OUP)
9. Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum Development,1971.
10. Rippa, S. Alexander 1971. Education in a Free Society,
11. Teaching Foreign Language Skills, 2nd Edition. Chicago:
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12. The Development of Modern Language Skills: Theory to
Practice.
13. Websites: www.google.com
14. www.englishjournal.com
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