The English syllabus of Higher Secondary school Certificate is on the basis of

Communicative Language Teaching and Learning method in which communication and

interaction are emphasized. In CLT, communication and interaction are the means and the
ultimate goal of learning and teaching a language. As CLT is a realistic process, the elements
of the English Syllabus of HSC are related with socially necessary events. So, the elements of
the English syllabus of HSC are designed on the communicative-style teaching. As
communicative-style teaching and learning focuses on the authentic language use and class
room exchanges where students engage in real life communication with one another, we
encounter problems. They are—

1. Students of HSC are not used to with authentic language use.

2. Class room exchange needs trained teachers to cooperate with students.

CLT sets the goal of earning ‘communicative competence’ among learners. As

‘communicative competence’ is measured on the four basic skills of language----- reading,
writing, speaking and listening, the English syllabus of HSC has events on reading and
writing has events on reading and writing, but we do not find elements related to speaking
and listening. So, as the English syllabus of HSC follows CLT as a teaching method, we are
50% successful. In our syllabus, verbal competences are emphasized but oral competences
are completely ignored except reading.

Syllabus
Higher Secondary school Certificate
English
Paper-1

1. Seen comprehension----------------(reading & writing)……………….40 marks

2. Vocabulary---------------------------(reading)…………………………..20 marks
3. Guided writing----------------------(writing)…………………………...40 marks
*** Skill development graph- reading-40%, writing- 60% , speaking-0%, listening- 0%

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 Paper-2

1. Grammar-----------------------------------------------------------------------40 marks

2. Composition -------------------------(writing)…………………………60 marks

****** Skill development graph- reading-0%, writing- 60% , speaking-0%, listening-

0%

In both paper-1 and paper-2, we see, the listening and reading skills are very poor among the
students of higher secondary level. In class , students attain pair work , group work,
dialogues, role play to enhance listening and speaking skills but though there have no
individual marks on listening and speaking in the exam, students do not take care of them.
Also ,the teachers do not get careful of the listening and speaking skills of their students
because they does not hold any marks in the exam. In paper-2 composition, we find ‘writing
arguments logically and clearly’ and ‘writing a dialogue on a given situation’. These events
should be practiced through listening and speaking, but we find them among writings in the
exam.

Communicative English, one of the major objectives of which is to emphasise on speaking

skill, was introduced in the national curriculum more than a decade ago in order to enhance
our students' overall skills, specially speaking skill, that were neglected in our curriculum
since independence. But have we achieved any level of success and are we on the right track
to achieve our objectives? The answer is a big "no."

Here, we are going to point out some of the reasons for which our students in general are not
able to achieve even a rudimentary level of speaking skill even after they have studied
English as a compulsory subject from the primary level to the higher secondary level.
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In Bangladesh, researchers have found that students are highly exam oriented and have no
interest in things that are not included/important in the exam (this is not the fault of the
students because we traditionally judge a student's merit by the marks s/he gets in the exam).

The text books (English for today) up to higher secondary level provide materials to engage
students in oral communication by group work, pair work, dialogues, role-play etc. But since
these things are not included in the public exams, students do not feel interested in such oral
practice and language teachers face a lot of trouble in the communicative language classes.

Experts, while designing communicative English language materials for the students and
guidelines/instructions for the teachers, provided sample questions that later turned into so-
called model questions and students got real interest here. Now, in most schools and colleges,
communicative English has dwindled to the practice of model questions that exclude the oral
practice of language. These models, which are almost the same items from class six through
twelve, have made the bar of exams much easier to cross.

Exam and result oriented syllabus as a problem and its solution:

The system developed over the ages in our country is exam and result oriented which we
cannot avoid. We don’t want to encourage our students just to follow the guide books to
make good results avoiding the original spirit of communicative English. Neither can we
ignore the burning desire of the students and schools to make good results in all the public
exams. In order to address these issues we must devise our training module which will reflect
the communicative English as well as present examination system..

If we avoid totally exam and question based training teachers will not feel encouraged fully
to implement the training. Hundreds of comprehensions , cloze test with clues and without
clues and creative items must be exercised by the students before sending them to the public
exams. These practice makes the students acquainted with many vocabularies, develop their
ability of understanding comprehension and writing English of their own.Almost all the
students both at urban and rural areas do this practice to prepare the students to face the
challenges of the public exams.

English For Today does not contain enough test items like information transfer, making
sentences from substitution tables , cloze test with clues and without clues whereas students
need a lot of practice on these items directly. What the ELTIP says that first students are to
develop their skill and then they will be able to face any kind of challenge of the exam.
Actually examination means that. But we are to consider the weakness of the students . Weak
students can at least derive benefit by doing the practices of test items directly if they
continue the practice. This will give them opportunities to develop their vocabularies,
grammar based ideas and sentence making capacities. We tend to encourage both our
students and teachers to remain limited to the EFT putting the arguments that it contains
everything .necessary for facing any test .ELTIP experts discourage students and teachers to
bother about second paper, they say EFT is enough to cover both papers when it is properly
taught and followed .This statement goes against the actual situation .How to answer different
test items must be included in any training module .How to write the answers of cloze test
and rearrangement, information transfer is still vague to the rural and even some urban
teachers. Teachers hold different opinions in these matters and students become the victims
of their whims.
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Similar question pattern is a risk to Communicative English:

Question pattern must not be same every year. Communicative English says to develop
the four skills of the students following the exercises given in the EFT. Still many teachers
are giving suggestion to the students on essay, paragraph and letters and even
comprehensions and it is interesting enough that the questions fully reflect the suggestions
just like the traditional system and the teachers concerned acquire reputation and are
considered famous teachers. So where and how communicative English give us benefit and
what’s the difference between traditional and communicative English?

A suggestion on Grammar and Vocabulary testing:

Grammar and vocabulary test should be done in various ways. Why with clues and without
clues only. This test keeps a lot of scope for the weaker students to follow several words from
their fellow classmates and easily obtain marks which they don’t deserve. Rather they are not
learning anything. It has another problem that students always try to have quick benefit. They
don’t try to exercise these test. They think only two cloze tests will be in the exam so why
should we exercise more. We can easily collect this thing from our fellow students. So,
vocabulary and grammar test should be in such a way as students must engage themselves
and find out the answers of their own utilizing their talent.

Students of urban and rural areas differ far in respect of their merit and talent. In spite of
existing this fact two separate kinds of questions cannot be prepared as a result the general
standard fails to justify the standard of brilliant students.

Teaching grammar through CLT:

As each language is based on particular structures, the communicative English cannot avoid
teaching the learners those structural patters. But the way of teaching and practicing them is
different from what they were done and taught before coming this method. Teaching
exclusive grammatical rules and putting much importance on them is termed by the
specialists traditional way to teach English. In this methodology learners gained much more
accuracy but not so fluency and spontaneity in using the language for which it is meant.

As fully English learning environment cannot be created to contribute to practical teaching , a

controlled situation is created to teach English to the students. Structures and grammars are
taught from the context that is from the lessons they are taught. Teacher is to work a lot for
this kind of teaching and learning. As teachers are to find out the ways and grammars used
and hidden in the context. To develop that kind of skill and competency in the teachers,
specialised training is a must. Due to the lack of the training the objectives of teaching
communicative English may not reach its desired goal. But it is a matter of good news that
training programmes have already been taken up by both in the government and private
sectors and they are leading the training programmes gradually towards the way of success.

The introduction of communicative English has not yet been embraced by most of the
teachers, students and guardians .It is very usual because since the people of our country
started learning English they had been following traditional method. The present day scholars

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who are at the helm of affairs are the product of that English. They developed a solid
foundation of English through the grammar translation method.

Innovation in teaching and learning English has started happening in recent years in
Bangladesh. Traditional teaching focuses on grammatical rules rather than meaning.
Teaching a grammatical structure is believed by the traditional teachers that learning a
foreign language is about learning to master its linguistic system and if students know the
grammar rules, they will be able to learn the language well. The facts shows that although
students can learn and remember grammar rules very well, they can not communicate in the
target langue at the expected level. However, in the CLT class the teacher pays more
attention to enabling students to work with the target language during the lesson and
communicate in it by the end of it.

In a typical grammar class according to Communicative Language Teaching the teacher uses
visual aids to present the grammar structure to be taught. Students deduce the meaning, the
form and the use of it. The teacher checks students’ understanding by asking yes /no
questions focusing on form, meaning and use. The teacher gets students to practice the
structure through Repetition and Substitution Drills. The teacher tries to provide maximum
practice within controlled but realistic and contextualized framework and to build students’
confidence in using the new language. The teacher provides students with opportunities to
use new language in a freer and more creative way. The teacher creates activities in which
students can integrate new language with the previously learnt language and apply what they
have learnt to talk about their real life activities. What makes this kind of lesson different
from the traditional one is that the teacher tires to make the language used in the lesson real
and true. The teacher creates real or like-real situations in which the language can be used.
This will better enable students to communicate in English not only in the classroom but also
outside the classroom.

In secondary level in our country, focus tends to be entirely on grammar. It is surprising to

see how many students have to analyze sentences up and until the most complicated labels
for different sentence elements. As soon as it comes to reality the language however, they are
often at a loss. If we focus entirely on grammatical correctness, students may become
reluctant to use the language for fear of making mistakes. If, on the other hand we focus on
using the language from the very beginning, this will give the students more confidence. if
students know all about structure, does it make them more independent, can they really apply
rules in other contexts? If we want to teach structure, we should at least provide a realistic
context and relate it to communicate situations. The best thing to do is probably to integrate
all different aspects of language. It is all right then to introduce and explain grammatical rules
as we go along. We should not teach grammar simply for the sake of grammar.

Strictly explicit grammar study however, and even-grammar-focused lessons are often not
communicatively based. They can therefore be boring, cumbersome and difficult for students
to assimilate. The strict teaching of grammar can be frustrating and highly ineffective. By
providing grammar in context, in an implicit manner, we can expose students to substantial
doses of grammar study without alienating them to the learning of English. The principal
manner in which I accomplish this is by teaching short grammar –based sessions immediately
followed by additional function –based lessons in which the new grammar is applied in
context.

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CLT as a curriculum in HSC:

We hardly doubt that "the curriculum of secondary English is a complete flop" considering
the poor standard of our students in English. The reason is not introduction of CLT into our
curriculum.

Our English language teaching in general, and at secondary level in particular, was always a
fiasco and if some people came out with a good grip in the language even through this
system, they did it chiefly on their own effort. This whole problem of English language
teaching in Bangladesh which is a result of many years should not to be associated simply
with a method. The reasons are many: teacher-student ratio, poor infrastructure and facilities,
defective evaluation system where no language skills can be validly and reliably assessed,
lack of training for the English language teachers, etc.

Because of these limitations, we thought that only by changing our way of teaching (which
also we could not do properly) the situation may get better. Communicative Approach to
Language Teaching is often misunderstood by language teachers and more often by laymen
as they somehow manage to understand that it does not allow to teach grammar. In fact, this
is the most flexible way of language teaching the world has ever seen, it is not a method like
many others that set some demarcation lines, it is rather an approach that gives teachers a
huge latitude to teach English.

The core of this approach is teaching whatever the learners need and doing that interestingly
through proper contextualization. But such good features of this approach may prove to be
ineffective if the teachers are not well trained and creative enough and are not supported by
other related aspects like evaluation system, design of textbooks etc. For example, you are
teaching students how to write communicatively on their own in classroom but asking them
to memorize some set topics for exam. Such situation will never motivate the students to
develop writing skills which is precisely the case in Bangladesh.

Moreover, when we are introducing CLT into our curriculum, there is no room for measuring
two important language skills in our exams namely speaking and listening. In this system of
language teaching, if we discover that our students are not developing these skills it is
unreasonable to blame CLT.

The Textbook, namely English For Today, meant for the HSC students contains 24 units.
Each unit contains several lessons. At the end of each lesson there are some questions which
require the students to work in'' pairs'' and ''groups''. In fact communicative method of
language teaching requires the students and teachers to take part in such activities.

We wonder if the authors of the said textbook are alive to the real life classroom situation of
our colleges. Whereas the language experts assert that an ideal classroom consists of some 50
students, a classroom of our college may accommodate four times of the said figure or even
more. So here the perennial gap between theory and practice is evident as in many other
fields.

As the contents of the textbooks do not correspond to the question papers of the respective
boards, the students and even teachers are using guidebooks. These guidebooks are full of
typos, faulty sentences and shoddy pieces of compositions and very few students even carry
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the textbooks to the classroom. In the name of communicative English, we have said a hasty
goodbye to English!

Teachers’ training as a solution:

After the introduction of Communicative English in the secondary and Higher Secondary
levels how much change in teaching and learning English has taken place remains a question
to the conscious citizens of the country. Have our students who have passed the SSC or HSC
examinations developed their four skills necessary for communication? Of course, time is
not ripe enough to ask these questions but we should see whether the path is leading to the
right direction. However, several training programmes have been taken up by ELTIP(
English Language Teaching Improvement Project), BRAC and UKBET( United Kingdom
and Bangladesh Education Trust) to prepare our secondary school teachers to deal with the
English For Today and to develop their teaching abilities. The materials produced on the
basis of the techniques of EFT. Again, question arises how far the training materials address
the practical issues.

English For Today has been produced on the basis of four skills namely speaking. reading,
listening and writing . We are making our teachers acquainted with the four skills and the
ways how to deal with the different lessons and units of EFT in the real classroom scenario.
Teachers are made acquainted with different techniques of teaching like pair work, group
work, chain drill, choral drill, elicitation etc. to deal with the text and four skills and the
trained teachers have already developed some skills to deal with the things. We are not sure
whether they are implementing the techniques in the class fully or partially but we have at
least sensitized them. Removing the shyness of the students as well as of the teachers through
training has at least been partially successful as our trained teachers speak or try to speak
English in the class.

All the training modules give the teachers ideas about test items like making sentences from
substitution tables, rearranging sentences, information transfer, answering questions in a
paragraph etc. but are not teaching them how to deal with these items in the class which will
give them particularly the rural students some direct and practical benefit.

Monstrous failures in English at the HSC level:

The results of the HSC exams of six Education Boards were published on 13 October 2003.
The number of failures of the HSC candidates has hurt our feelings; the strings of our heart
seem to have been torn and we are shedding the blood of pain. The conscious class of our
society cannot but express their utmost surprise and shock at the failure of the HSC
examinees. But wherein lies the root cause of this tragic and pathetic failure? It has been
found that the failure and weakness of the students in English exceed all other failures and
weaknesses.

But the main factor that should be held responsible for the students' weakness and failure in
English is the lack of proper guidance of the teachers, who are supposed to be well versed
and have good command over the English language. The environment necessary for teaching
and learning English is totally absent in the schools and colleges of Bangladesh. The faulty
method of teaching English is largely responsible for the poor performance of the students.
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We know, there are four skills of teaching and learning a language -- listening, speaking,
reading and writing. In order to write English correctly a student will have to learn the
grammatical rules at the secondary level along with the above four skills. But at present,
NCTB has introduced communicative method for teaching and learning English at the
secondary and higher secondary levels. This communicative method is not as effective as the
traditional method, as is obvious from the fact that a student who has passed the HSC exam
cannot write or speak a sentence correctly.

On the contrary, a student who has passed the HSC exam in the traditional method can write
English better. Its main cause is that in communicative method the teacher only helps the
students understand the texts and know the meanings of the difficult and unknown words.
After doing this, the teacher asks the students to answer the different forms of questions on
the passage. Hence, very naturally, the learners learn only how to pick up the right word from
the passage to answer the questions. The process requires the students to use only one word
in most cases. This one-word exercise and practice cannot enable a student to write correct
English or communicate with other people properly, which is the main target of the present
education system. It is thus seen that a student who knows nothing of English language and
grammar gets good marks, at least pass marks, in the exam. It is because s/he could take help
from his/her friend in the exam hall. Thus, after passing the HSC exam, when he enters into
university and other institutions for higher education, he cannot secure even pass marks. This
is really disgraceful.

The skills of teaching English, in the first place, are not being properly applied at present,
though the syllabus of the higher secondary level is designed on the basis of the four skills.
What I have said about the communicative methodology can be understood more clearly
from the specimens of the question patterns of the HSC exam.

Passage (seen & unseen)

Q.1. True/false

2. MCQ

3. Filling in the gaps with clues.

4. Information transfer.

5. Open ended questions.

6. Filling in the gaps without clues.

7. Summarizing.

8. Flow chart.

9. Cloze test with clues.

10. Cloze test without clues.

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11. Producing sentences from a substitution table.

12. Reordering sentences.

13. Paragraph writing.

The HSC students are very rarely inspired to learn words or increase their vocabulary.
Though they are sometimes told to learn the meaning of the unknown words, they are not
taught the use, usage and derivatives of the words. As a result, they cannot properly apply or
use those learned words in the right context.

The second cause is the lack of suitable class environment, that is, in the classroom the
teachers don't encourage the students to talk English. "Practice makes a man perfect," goes
the saying. Practice has no alternative. Therefore, lack of practice leads the students
ultimately to fear and hesitation which they cannot overcome even in the later part of their
life.

Thirdly, the students are encouraged to memorize some selected and suggested compositions
for passing the exams. The most shocking matter is that, when the students, who memorize
compositions, do not find common topic for writing composition in the exam question, they
get upset and nervous, and as such cut a sorry figure in the exam frustrating everybody.

-Now I would like to suggest some effective ways of English at the HSC level.
-English grammar (parts of speech, articles, tense, voice, narration, sequence of tense, clause,
formation of sentence, sub-verb agreement, different parts of a sentence, use of prepositions,
phrases and idioms, basic sentence patterns etc.
-The derivatives of words.
-Encouraging the students to write compositions in the classrooms and identifying and
correcting their mistakes.
-Encouraging learning words from Eng-Eng dictionary with examples and illustrations.

Some items that are not effective for learning English should be removed from the HSC
English syllabus. Hence in order to learn English effectively the English syllabus should be
reshuffled once again.

Professor Md. Yousuf Farooq’s evaluation1

Development of a CLT text book

The new English textbook has been developed for classes 11 & 12 by English Language
Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) jointly funded by the Government of Bangladesh
and DFID of the UK Government. A team of writers trained in the UK under ELTIP has
written the book over a period of one and a half years. The whole process of writing, trialing
and evaluating the manuscript was carried out by national and expatriate consultants of
ELTIP in cooperation with NCTB.

                                                            
1
 Professor Md. Yousuf Farooq, Chairman, National Curriculum & Textbook Board , Dhaka. 

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Principles

The book is based on the principle that has guided the writing of the English for Today books
from class 6 onwards- the principle of learning a language by actually practicing it. This
practice which is carried out through the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading
and writing usually in an interactive mode, underlies the communicative approach to
language learning.

Aim

As the focus is on the communicative functions of language, the main aim of the textbook is
to provide ample opportunities for students to use English for a variety of purposes in
interesting situations. The book is divided into units . Each unit based on a theme , has
several lessons that contain reading texts and a range of tasks and activities designed to
enable students to practice the different skills, sometimes individually and sometimes in pairs
or groups. Some literary texts have also been included. However , the emphasis in such cases
is not just on content but on the exploitation of the texts to trigger a variety of language
activities.

Grammar in CLT

The emphasis on the communicative approach, however , does not disregard the role of
grammar. Instead of treating grammar as a set of rules to be memorized in isolation, the book
has integrated grammar items into the lesson activities allowing grammar to assume a more
meaningful role in the learning of English. Thus students develop their language skills by
practicing language activities and not merely by knowing the rules of the language.

Observation

This communicative approach to learning English is familiar to the students of 11 & 12. A
unit on population education has been appended to the book to raise awareness about the
adverse effects of over population on the socio-economic conditions of the country. It is
expected that the new textbook will be an effective resource for the learning of English at this
level.

Conclusion:

Curriculum and textbooks need to be revised simultaneously with teachers training. Books
which fail to give interest to the students will hardly bring benefit for them. Ample colourful
pictures, stories along with practical situational lessons and dialogues may rouse interest
among the learners Trained teachers will create the controlled and guided situations in the
classroom. These multifarious steps can come to our learners with the message of
communicate approach which will really help them communicate in their real life situations.

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