Linguistics and elt courses at national university undergraduate english programme in bangladesh: an appraisal

Abstract

Foreign language teaching and teacher education go concurrently in many of the English as a foreign language (EFL) countries of the world in order to prepare proficient English language teachers. In Bangladesh also, especially, in rural Bangladesh, the lack of proficient English language teachers is the single biggest bottleneck in the pursuit of English language skills. So, various universities in Bangladesh provide pre-service teacher education through ELT/TEFL/TESOL programmes to prepare a quality EFL teacher generation for the future. Linguistics and ELT (Approaches and Methods of Language Teaching) are two of the core courses of a typical ELT/TESOL/TEFL programme of the tertiary level English curriculum in Bangladesh. This study is conducted to reveal the factors that hinder the success of linguistics and ELT (LELT) courses in the undergraduate English programme of higher education colleges affiliated to the National University (NU) in Bangladesh. The study is carried out with an assumption that teachers' and students' unwillingness and inexperience might be found as major shortcomings and challenges for the courses to achieve their goals and ojectives. In order to illuminate the assumption, teachers' and students' perceptions and motivations for the mentioned courses are examined and their classroom activities are also assessed. In doing so, both qualitative and quantitative methods are followed. Through two self- explorative semistructured questionnaires, this study conducts a survey on 25 teachers involved in teaching-learning of the courses, and 420 English Honours final year students from category-based selected higher education colleges of Bangladesh. Besides, relevant qualitative data is collected through Focus Group Discussion, Key Informant Interviews and Classroom Observations in order to deepen our understanding regarding the shortcomings and challenges which hamper the success of implementing the courses and to obtain directions for passage from them. Findings reveal that a section of teachers and the majority of the students have a vague understanding of the nature, goal and objectives of the courses, and they also hold an ambivalent perception regarding the value of the courses, showing their lack of experience and their irresolution about the necessity of the said courses. Besides, a section of the teachers and the majority of the students demonstrate an unmotivated approach towards the courses and are critical towards the decision of incorporating ELT-based courses in the literature programme without any prior institutional arrangement or preparation. Moreover, disinterest in teaching profession due to low socio-economic status in Bangladesh, the optionality of ELT course and the workload of other courses impact a section of teachers and a large section of students negatively towards the courses. In addition, a significant proportion of teachers are upset and unhappy due to lack of adequate training opportunities, lack of autonomy in making independent decisions about course teaching and assessment, and lack of connectivity with students due to their absenteeism resulting from their lack of potential and aptitude for the courses. Meanwhile, the students find the courses "boring", and 'hasslesome and are dissatisfied with the ELT teacher shortage at the NU. Classroom observations also reveal that teachers' inexperience, students' low competence, low motivation and also the lack of teaching-learning materials and logistic supports hinder the courses to fully achieve their goals and objectives. The findings indicate the need to create an ideal situation for the courses to be effective. For this, first of all, institutional capacity needs to be increased by recruiting adequate number of ELT expert teachers, providing training in ELT for working teachers, admitting potential students through admission tests, and ensuring the availability of required teaching- learning materials and logistical supports. Besides, by increasing teacher autonomy and competence and strengthening connectivity between teachers and students, making the course compulsory, and finally, upgrading the socio-economic status of the teaching profession, the shortcomings and challenges can be addressed, and thus, the success rate of the courses is possible to boost up. The study is significant because it adds Bangladesh in general and NU in particular as a new context to the existing literature on EFL pre- service teacher education programme, as no such wider scale research work has been accomplished in Bangladesh to evaluate such programme or any of its course till date. The study also helps to understand the dynamics and situation of pre-service teacher education programmes in the country and contributes to the implementation of practical efforts and action plans undertaken by Bangladesh to prepare future proficient English language teachers.