Cultural Model of Classroom Instruction for ELT in Bangladesh

Abstract

<p>It is now argued that a very close relationship exists between culture and learning, and that learners can learn better if the way of their learning corresponds to the cultural features of their society. Taking this argument into account, many linguists, teachers and researchers now suggest that language teaching-learning practices in the classroom should be based on learners’ culture. They argue that if there is a harmony between the mode of teaching-learning activities in the classroom and the cultural features in the broader community outside the classroom, learners can behave competently in the classroom and can, therefore, learn effectively. The present article has attempted to discuss this relationship between culture and learning in general, and also between culture and language learning in particular, with a view to determining a cultural model of classroom instruction for ELT in Bangladesh.</p

University English: Issues and directions for curriculum development

“…While this could be viewed as a limitation in terms of the functional nature of the curriculum (UE Type 3), it might also reflect a language analysis/language awareness (Svalberg, 2007) approach. The teacher's construction of the students as wholly dependent on the classroom process is a significant strand in the narrative here too, aligning with the perspectives on Bangladeshi classroom culture in AUTHOR (nnnn) and Huda, 2013) for example. The tutor regularly advised students to do homework and to read in the library, but noted that 'they rarely do'.…”

“…Despite the teacher-led lesson structure, the main objective seems to be skills development and practice in the four skills -listening, speaking, reading and writing. Teachers tend to work in isolation from each other, and consider the students as dependent of tutor input and classroom experience for learning, a view reflected in other studies of English language teaching in Bangladesh, for example, Islam (2000), Wasiuzzaman (2012), andHuda (2013). To illustrate the limited opportunities for collaborative learning, a Speaking and Listening tutor described the challenge of getting students to engage in groupwork, partly because of their limited listening skills and partly because they feel they should only speak to or listen to the teacher.…”

“…Historically in the Bangladeshi context, undergraduates in the English department would have accessed university study through an English-medium schooling system, thus prepared for study in a programme which had many of the features of the Type 1 framework. More recently however, students have been entering the programme with more limited competence in English: Abedin (2012) and Huda (2013), for example, provide recent analyses of the limited success in developing communicative English language schools in the Bangladeshi High school system. In the universities, there have been some curriculum changes focussing on language skills development, along the lines of the Type 2 curriculum.…”

“…The practice developed by this teacher may illustrate an accommodation of the expectation of students that they work with the attention of and direct guidance from the teacher in the classroom, a practice noted by Huda (2013) as typical of English lessons in schools in Bangladesh. Four observations can be made.…”

“…Third, we explore these ideas in relation to initial findings from a curriculum development research project in Bangladesh. This is a context where there has been little systematic research into curriculum development, but which has been experiencing questions about the role and efficacy of English in the education system as a whole (Ali, 2010;Abedin, 2012;Huda, 2013). This discussion illustrates the complexity of practices in University English, and the ways in which any one curriculum draws on different traditions, and how these traditions can be linked to processes of curriculum development (Markee, 1997;Graves, 2008;Nation & Macalister, 2010;Kennedy 2011;Maley, 2012).…”