The teaching situation of the department of English in the universities of Bangladesh: a critical evaluation

Md Ruhul Amin

doi:10.30595/lks.v13i1.4062

Abstract

It has a long history of teaching English literature and language in this sub-continent. The European colonial rulers introduced this teaching with the motive of serving their own purpose, but paradoxically this teaching has benefited the people of this soil as well in many ways. From the very beginning, the English department of any college or university has been treated as one of the most prestigious departments that have produced the best citizens of this soil. But recently the teaching scenario of these departments in Bangladesh is being severely affected owing to different kinds of changes that have occurred in the social and academic arenas of the country. It is now the demand of the present time that the English departments of the universities of our country should take proper steps to address those problems properly and bring back its reputation. The present study attempts to find out the problems that are affecting the teaching and learning process of these departments and thereby damaging the glory and reputation of them, and also to provide some suggestions to cope with those problems.

Highlights

Introduction further enhanced when, with the passage of time, some other universities were established in the English education began in the different parts of the undivided India under British
All the funds that were supposed to be spent by the government for the purpose of promoting the education of the natives began to be utilized for “imparting to the native population knowledge of English literature and science through the medium of the English language” (Aggarwal 1984 cited in Krishnaswamy and Sriraman 1995)
It is true that one of the motives of Macaulay behind his insistence on making English the medium of education was, according to Serajul Islam Choudhury (2001), “to create through this education a class of natives who, despite their color and blood, would be English in culture and be able to serve as interpreters between the rulers and the millions the English were destined to rule”; but despite the ill-motivated of Macaulay, English education in general and English literature in particular paradoxically proved very helpful in creating the Indian nationalistic feelings in the minds of learners

Summary

The Lack of Competence of the Students coming to Study English Literature

Of all the problems mentioned above, the most acute one is the quality of the students who are coming to the English departments of the universities of Bangladesh for studying English literature Though they are coming to these departments after completing their primary, secondary and higher secondary levels of education, they are found to be linguistically poor and, quite ineligible for bearing the linguistic load on the subject. Referring to this miserable condition of the linguistic competence of the students who get admission to the Department of English of Dhaka University, Alam (2001) says, “... What are the problems the English departments of the universities of Bangladesh are suffering from?

The Problems with the Teaching of English Literature

The Inappropriateness of Teaching Method

What should be done?

Method