The problem of teaching English in Bangladesh

Md. Mizanur Rahaman: In Bangladesh students are required to read English for about 12 years because it is a foreign language. But the level of proficiency they hardly reach and soo most of the students fail in  English.Today English is the world’s most widely studied language. It is not easy to control. Almost all the candidates have Master’s degree in various disciplines. Even those who pass are hardly able to write a free composition in English. They do not know how to teach English in a proper way. Most of the teachers are not at home in English. They are not actually English teachers. They come to teaching profession from various disciplines, such as Bengali, History, Geography, etc. as a result they do not know how to teach their students properly. Moreover, they do not get proper training to teach their students. For this our students fail to understand their topic easily.English is a hybrid language. One cannot learn English unless one is motivated to do so. Most of the students in this country feel a lack of motivation not only in their English courses but also in their studies in general. There is hardly any subject they know or care to know really well. They are interested not in acquiring knowledge or skill but in passing the examination either by copying or by memorizing answers written for them in books variously, called suggestion “Sure Success” guide, “Touch & Pass”, etc.

As a foreign language, English is very tough to teach . In Bangladesh most of the teachers are not very expert in English. There is an acute shortage of competent teachers here. Most school teachers are graduates. They are very weak in English. They do not get the real way to teach them. Actually they are not well equipped  to teach English. In Bangladesh teaching material is a must to teach our students. Our students do not understand their topics without suitable teaching materials. No knowledge is perfect without proper teaching aids. Most of the teaching materials are very costly and most of the teachers don’t use them. As a result classes cannot be fruitful and effective. So effective teaching requires not only competent teachers but also suitable teaching materials.

In Bangladesh most of the teachers are in the habit of speaking Bengali. They are not in the habit of speaking English. As a result, their fluency of English is not rich. Without speaking English our classes will not be fruitful and comfortable. Moreover our students and teachers are very shy to speak English always in a rural area. So the importance of speaking English needs no telling.The school level syllabus and text books are far from practical needs of the students. The national curriculum and text book board has produced a series of books called ‘EFT’ for school children. The 1st in the series intended for classes IX-X lists various kinds of grammatical structures which are  difficult for our teachers to teach them without proper training.The space of our class room is not large. On the other hand, there are about 90 students in a class. In this situation, it is very difficult to teach them properly. Moreover, in this position a teacher cannot teach their students by making ‘pair work’, ‘group work’, ‘monitoring’, ‘oral’, ‘choral’, ‘chain drill’, ‘worm up’ and any kind of playing game, etc. so they fail to motivate their students any kinds of topics in to-to.

Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most of the teachers are unskilled here. They have no vast knowledge in English. They are not trained teachers also. Our education department is not providing sufficient training for them. So they are unable to take the class in a systematical ay. It is a great problem to teach and learn.There are various kinds of grammatical items in the syllabus. Such as, Right form of Verbs, preposition, Articles, Idioms and Phrase, Linking words, tag question, Narration, Transformation, Completing sentence, etc. moreover, there are about 100 structure here. Teachers are hardly qualified to teach their students because one can get a pass degree without studying English or without securing qualifying marks. As most of the teachers are not trained, they fail to realise it properly. Classroom environment is not suitable.Teachers do not get interest to take the class and students are not able to learn. They feel very unpleasant and boring. Most of the students are from poor background.Their guardians are not conscious enough to look after their studies. In this situation most of the teachers don’t get interest to teach them beautifully. Teaching is a noble profession. Effective teaching requires not only competent teachers but also suitable teaching materials. No teacher can teach perfectly or good without training.