Exclusion at the heart of preferred teaching techniques: English in Action development project in Bangladesh

Perez-Gore, Isabelle (2014). Exclusion at the heart of preferred teaching techniques: English in Action development project in Bangladesh. In: 9th International and 45th Annual ELT@I Conference: English - From Classes to Masses, 21-23 Aug 2014, Jaipur, India.

Abstract

The paper reports findings of a study in Bangladesh on teachers’ and students’ perceptions and attitudes to learning English. The study links to English in Action (EIA), a large-scale UKaid-funded English language development project, and aims to provide learning opportunities to 25 million people. The project includes a professional development programme for Government teachers of English, which introduces new communicative teaching methodologies.
Results show teachers and students feel confident using English in their classes. Although teachers feel they encourage communication, they also embrace more traditional teaching techniques, which appear to fulfil examination requirements. However, such practices appear socially-exclusive because only ‘star pupils’ are engaged.
The concepts of social inclusion and exclusion are used in the classroom context, as a social environment, with individuals with diverse backgrounds and needs. The paper explores teachers’ exclusive approaches – stemming from more traditional methodologies – and looks at how EIA could address these issues more specifically.

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