Theories and Practices of Teaching and Learning the Basic English Language Skills and the Realities in the National University of Bangladesh

Abstract

This research attempts to study the theories and the practices of teaching and learning the Basic English Language Skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, investigating the realities in National University of Bangladesh. It measures the growth rate of practices of the four (04) Basic English language skills in the light of the language theories evolving over centuries all over the world. It also measures the overall rate of students who have the minimum proficiency in four basic English language skills. The research has been conducted in perspective of teaching and learning situations of the National University Compulsory English Course (NUCEC) in Bangladesh. The National University compulsory English course (NUCEC) was introduced in 1995 for enhancing English Language proficiency of nearly one (01) million undergraduating students across the country of Bangladesh in more than 1700 colleges. It drew attention of the researcher for having so many obstacles and so, questions aroused in the mind of the researcher about the condition of the implementation of its syllabus. Implementation of a syllabus is generally possible only through the achievement of the syllabus goals. The syllabus goals ofNUCEC are set to integrate the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing in classroom practices and develop proficiency of students in basic language skills (BLS) to benefit them personally and professionally. These created interests in the mind of the researcher to study language theories, theories of curriculum development, Enlish language teaching (EL T), syllabus design and so on to study and evaluate the syllabus of NUCEC and observe the condition of its implementation in Bangladesh. So, the researcher has explored how the processes of teaching, learning and practices of basic language skills (BLS), in perspective of the NUCEC, are going on in his country. He has also observed how the practices of BLS are held in Bangladesh in the light of the common existing theories of language and English Language Teaching (ELT). The researcher felt inquisitive to empirically investigate: (a) the real position of students' overall proficiency level (OPL) indicating the overall growth rate of the practices (OGRP) of the four basic language skills and (b) the ovrall rate of proficient students (ORPS) in basic language skills in Bangladesh; in regard to the teaching and learning of NUCEC. So, the present research was initiated. The research has investigated the status of the overall growth rate of the practices (OGRP) ofBLS in Bangladesh. It has also measured the overall rate of proficient students (ORPS) in the country practising BLS with minimum level of standard (:MLS). --------