Difficulties Facing English Teachers in Teaching Literary Texts at Higher Secondary Level in Bangladesh

Khandoker Montasir Hassan

doi:10.5539/ells.v8n3p15

Abstract

The present Study examines the difficulties facing English teachers in teaching literary texts in English for Today (11-12) textbook which has been prescribed by the NCTB (National Curriculum Textbook Board) of Bangladesh from the academic session 2015-2016. Literature has always been an integral part of teaching foreign languages. In the era of CA (Communicative Approach), the aim of reading literature has been changed. From this view point, in July 2015, the NCTB has published a new version of English textbook for classes XI-XII, and included some literary texts in this book. The emphasis of these literary texts is not just on content but on the exploitation of the texts to trigger a variety of language activities. Based on a semi-structured interview with six HSC (Higher Secondary) level English teachers from four colleges of Dhaka city, this study particularly focuses on the newly included literary texts to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the materials; and identifies the difficulties that the teachers may encounter. Finally, some recommendations are drawn by means of valuable opinions of the participants.

Highlights

As one of the most predominant language teaching approaches, the CLT has developed and expanded for over thirty years since its initial appearance in ESL (English as a second language) countries in the 1970s and during this time numerous attempts have been made to introduce the CLT to EFL contexts
The present Study examines the difficulties facing English teachers in teaching literary texts in English for Today (11-12) textbook which has been prescribed by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) (National Curriculum Textbook Board) of Bangladesh from the academic session 2015-2016
Based on a semi-structured interview with six HSC (Higher Secondary) level English teachers from four colleges of Dhaka city, this study focuses on the newly included literary texts to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the materials; and identifies the difficulties that the teachers may encounter

Summary

Introduction

As one of the most predominant language teaching approaches, the CLT has developed and expanded for over thirty years since its initial appearance in ESL (English as a second language) countries in the 1970s and during this time numerous attempts have been made to introduce the CLT to EFL contexts. In case of Bangladesh before 1996, English was long taught as a compulsory subject from class-I to class-XII and for the language teaching method, ELT practitioners followed the Grammar- Translation Method (GTM). To keep pace with the global trend of teaching and learning English using the CLT, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Bangladesh brought about a revolutionary change by introducing the CLT in the late 1990s as it felt that the age old language teaching tradition known as the GTM was not any longer up to the mark to achieve the desired goal of language learning (Mohibullah, 2013). A series of English text books English for Today from class-VI to class-XII were written. The book has been guided by the principle of learning a language by practicing it through the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion