Methodological Pitfalls Of ELT At The Secondary Level

Abstract

English is a compulsory subject in the primary and secondary education of Bangladesh. Although English Language Teaching ( ELT ) has always been an important issue in the country yet it has not reached any satisfactory level of success. Teachers tend to follow the traditional Grammar Translation Method (GTM) in the class. Classroom is teacher centered. Students are not encouraged for creative answers. Considering the necessity of the students, the policymakers introduced CLT in 1990s to improve their (students’) language skills (Barman, Sultana and Basu, 2006 ). The study looked at eleven schools in Dhaka to observe the ongoing scenario of CLT to identify which approach or method is being used at the secondary level, to find out the problems of English language teaching at the secondary level and to look into the conditions (academic knowledge, training etc ) of the teachers at the secondary level. The data was collected from 290 students and 24 teachers of these 11 schools. The findings suggest that GTM is still dominant in the classrooms and till now most of the teachers prefer to speak Bangla in English classes. The positive thing is the situation is changing. The teachers want to follow both GTM and CLT method in the class and it is a very positive sign.