Testing and English language teaching and learning at the primary level in Bangladesh

1.1 Background of the study:

The importance of test cannot be denied in language teaching-learning process as it helps teachers get the overall picture of a student’s language ability- both strengths and weaknesses. It becomes even more crucial when it comes to evaluating the learners and giving each of them an appropriate rank based on his or her merit during and at the end of the course. More importantly, it can assist educators or administration in planning and designing the language programs. So, it is clear that a perfect test can help a learner to become proficient in a particular language.

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The primary level of education, including both teachers and students, in Bengali medium has been chosen as sample. The main concern of this research paper is English question papers of both first and second parts from class one to five, especially English question papers of Primary School Certificate (PSC) examination. However, class five will be given more priority because it is the last stage of the primary level and students belong to this grade are considered mature enough to undergo this study. It should be mentioned here that the period of primary level of education is from class one to class five. This level of education plays the most vital role in building up the foundation of formal education for the students. If students are not given primary education properly, they will be unable to get higher studies, causing a total collapse of the entire education system.

1.2 Literary review:

Related to the background given above, the researcher has tried his best to make an intensive review of similar kind of literature. Several researches on the similar type of topic have been carried out both at home and abroad. Researchers in the developing as well as developed countries have shown several factors of testing that affect English language teaching and learning at the primary level education. In Bangladesh, very few studies related to this topic have been conducted, and thus, requiring further investigation to find out the deficiencies of the whole testing process. The problems are as follows-

An English language test is considered incomplete because it does not seek to know the level of expertise a student has in speaking and listening, and it is true for both classroom testing and public examinations. Therefore, it does not provide any assistance in improving the basic knowledge of students, thus leading them not to become communicatively competent (Khan 2010).

Because there is no formal examination for speaking and listening skills, both teachers and students do not take these language skills seriously. As a result, teachers have to face the challenge in involving students in various classroom activities, like peer work, group work, demonstration, role play, debate etc. (Ali 2011).

Inadequacy of teaching aids acts as a barrier in implementing the primary English curriculum, thus influencing the English language teaching and learning process in the classroom. Deficiency in English language test becomes more decisive because of the unavailability of language lab facility. For this reason, students cannot practice listening, one of the key and authentic sources of learning English language (Hossain, Nessa & Kafi 2015).

Another problem that affects testing in English language teaching and learning at the primary level is the lack of skill and inexperience of test setters. Because of this, they cannot design test items based on the testing candidate’s communicative competence. Test items, set by them for both the school tests and public examinations such as the Primary School certificate (PSC) examination, contain very little communicative content (Haider and Chowdhury 2012). 

English question papers cannot test the reading skill of a learner properly. Students do not feel the need for reading the entire reading passage to answer the questions. Moreover, a lot of emphasis is given on grammar. That is why examination papers include a lot of questions based on grammar which are not quite necessary to enable them to communicate in English (Haque 2017).

1.3 Statement of Research Question:

Based on the background given above, the researcher prepares the research questions as follows:

1.   Is the current testing system appropriate for testing all skills of English language?

2.   What are the main lacking of a test and how it affects in English teaching-learning process?

3.   What initiatives can be taken to develop the test?

1.4 Objectives of the Research:

The main purpose of this study is to find answers of the above stated research questions and to investigate them in order to find out the solutions. In addition, this thesis has also its objectives which are as follows:

·         To demonstrate the testing technique used in English language teaching and learning at the primary level schools in Bangladesh.

·         To find out the problems of Test in English language teaching and learning process at the primary schools in Bangladesh.

·         To find out the solutions to develop the test taking place at the primary level in Bangladesh.

1.5 Hypothesis:

Students generally focus on those sections that they expect to be evaluated on during the tests. From that point of view, it can be said that tests can play the most important role in assessing and measuring all four skills of a language in teaching-learning process. Despite learning English from primary level to tertiary level of education, we cannot acquire the language totally. For this reason, most of the teachers and students blame the testing techniques. The research is based on the hypothesis that if all language skills are equally examined in a test, students will be able to communicate successfully in the language and there will be no shortage in their skills. Teaching and learning of English will become easier after solving the problem.

1.6 Significance of the study:

The significance of this study is to make authority related to education sector aware about the shortage of language test at the primary level education in Bangladesh. It is expected that this study will be helpful for the teachers, students, teacher-trainers, educational administrators, policy makers and researchers in Bangladesh, for it will help them understand that the shortage of tests for the language learners has become a major stumbling block in English language teaching-learning process. Moreover, this study will try to reveal several areas where important steps must be taken to develop the ways of taking tests in English language teaching and learning at the primary level in Bangladesh.

1.7 Limitations of the study:

While doing the research, the researcher may face several potential problems. Lack of cooperation from educational institutions is perhaps the first thing he will have to deal with because he may not be permitted by them to do investigation and survey though he will try his level best to make them realize. Collecting English question papers from educational institutions will be very difficult job because concerned authority, citing internal issues, may not provide questions to the researcher. Secondly, due to inadequate amount of instruments, the researcher will find it hard to collect data from the field, questioning the accuracy, validity and reliability of the research. Another problem is the allocation of time. Because of the very limited time, data will have to be collected quickly which might have negative impact on the output or result of the survey. The small size of sample cannot be described as the result of the whole population. It also may not be hundred percent accurate.

1.8 Definitions of key terms:

While going through the research, readers may come across some difficult terms. Operational definitions of these terms are provided so that readers can understand the terms and can relate them with the study. These terms with adequate explanations are given below-

Test: It is a method aimed at assessing a person’s depth of knowledge or ability in a particular subject or skill.

Assessment: Synonyms of this word are “evaluation”, “measurement”, “judgment” etc. So, it can be defined as one kind of act that is used to determine the value, amount or number of something.

Focus Group Discussion (FGD): It is one of the data collection methods of qualitative research. It is a group discussion conducted by a moderator in several groups of 6 to 12 members each with similar backgrounds and experiences. The researcher will select the FGD members keeping in mind the aim of the research. The group of participants will share their ideas, knowledge and opinions about specific topics or issues presented before them by the moderator. Duration of each FGD session is around 1.5-2 hours.

2. Research Design:

In this chapter, design and ways of data collection for this research will be narrated. Though the primary purpose of this study is to demonstrate the weaknesses of ‘testing’ both teachers and students face while learning English language at the primary level in Bangladesh, its importance in planning and designing language programs is also the key issue of this study. In the first section of this chapter, methods applied in this study will be discussed, while in the second section, researcher will talk about the participants of the study. A list of instructions will be given in the third section and the fourth section will give an elaborate description of how all the important information will be gathered and time spent on each segment by following specific procedures of data collection and timeline. The fifth and final section will demonstrate in details how the collected data will be analyzed.

2.1 Methodology of the research:

Qualitative research method will be applied by the researcher for gaining in-depth knowledge of the problem. This type of research is more descriptive because it allows the researcher to investigate small number of sample and later generalize the findings to the whole population. In this research, three survey techniques- survey study, interview and observation of L2 classes, will be used by the researcher. Therefore, to collect data, this study will make use of different types of methods which will be designed as follows-

1) Students’ survey questionnaire survey, 2) Teachers’ survey questionnaire, 3) Students’ interview, 4) Teachers’ interview, 4) Classroom observation.

By following the aforementioned methods, the researcher can be directly connected with his source of information, and thus, leading him to produce ideas for this study.

2.2 Participants:

This study will take place in five schools in Dhaka, Bangladesh. English language teachers and students at the primary level are the participants of this study. Five English language teachers at the primary level in Bengali medium schools will be interviewed. Related to the research topic, the interview questionnaire for the teachers will be made. The questionnaire is expected to have 15 questions, including 10 closed and 5 open ended. Three FGDs (Focus Group Discussion) with each having around 10 students will be conducted based on 10 questions regarding topic. A total of 30 students from English language classes will take part in these FGD sessions. At least 10 question papers, including first and second parts, from five primary schools, will be collected by the researcher. Then, in order to write down the overall classroom activities, five English language classes will be carefully observed. An observation check list with nine criteria will be used to collect all data in details during classroom observations. Because this study is aimed at finding the errors of testing in English language teaching and learning at the primary level of education in Bengali medium schools, question papers will be the main cause of concern for this study.

2.3 Instruments:

In this research, both primary and secondary data will be used. To collect primary data, three instruments- 1) interviews of English language teachers, 2) FGDs of the primary level students and 3) classroom observations- will be used by the researcher. Structured questionnaire for teacher interview having 15 questions will be used for survey. Then, relevant data will be collected through FGDs and classroom observations. Each of the FGDs will have 10 questions while classroom observation will follow a checklist consisting of nine criteria. Using FGDs, the researcher will be able to get information directly from the students, especially answers of the questions: why students cannot become competent in English, what are the factors that affect the testing in English language teaching and learning, and how this problem can be solved. Through open discussion on the relevant issues it will be possible to get almost all the information. During the classroom observation, an observation sheet will be maintained by the researcher for his future use.

The instruments mentioned above will help the researcher identify the factors restricting the students from reaching their desired goals and the testing techniques that can effectively enhance the English language skills of the students. Overall, the lack of testing for the English language students will be apparently visible upon completion of the study, and the secondary data, similarly collected, will only strengthen the findings.

2.4 Procedure and Timeline:

All three instruments will be used to collect the necessary data- teacher interviews, 3 FGDs with the students of English classes and 5 classroom observations. English language teachers from Bengali medium schools in Dhaka city will be interviewed at their suitable time. Either survey questionnaire or recording device will be used to record all the answers given by the teachers.

Then, three FGD sessions will be organized in three English language classrooms of the selected schools. Both male and female students will take part in it and they will be encouraged to participate spontaneously in the discussions. During FGDs, students will be asked 10 questions one after another and their responses will be recorded by using recording devices and important notes will be written down. Finally, classrooms will be observed and data will be collected following the checklist featuring nine criteria.

It will take 10 days for the researcher to take interviews of the teachers and 5 days to analyze the data. Because of the time constraint, only 10 to15 minutes will be allotted for interviewing each teacher. However, 3 FGDs will be conducted on 3 different days with three distinct groups of students consisting of both male and female students. All of their responses will be recorded by audio devices and noted down as well. It will take around 20 minutes to complete each FGD. Afterwards, total 5 classes will be observed on the basis of the checklist in five days. To collect data, the procedure described above will be followed by the researcher.

In this study, all the above mentioned instruments will be used to collect data. All instruments are very useful and important to collect all the possible information. Instead of relying on only one instrument, three instruments will be equally utilized to analyze the data and reach to the possible solutions.

2.5 Data Analysis:

In the methodology section, it has already been mentioned that qualitative research method will be employed to analyze the data. Firstly, three instruments- interviews, FGDs and classroom observations- will be carried out in Bengali medium schools by using audio recording aids as well as survey questionnaire and taking notes. Secondly, the data collected through several instruments will be gathered. Every note-taking and audio recording will be analyzed and presented in the form of charts and tables. While conducting teacher interviews and FGDs, the answers appearing frequently will be noted down. Similarly, the regularly noticed classroom activities will be noted down following nine criteria of the observation checklist. As a result, some interesting responses or activities, which may seem relevant as well, would be highly emphasized. Because this research will be conducted using the qualitative method, the emphasis will be given to the participants’ responses instead of the number of participants. Finally, all the findings collected from different instruments will be thoroughly analyzed, leading the researcher to come down to the conclusions upon completion of the study.

References:

Ali, M. (2011). Teachers and students perspectives on English language assessment in the secondary English language teaching (ELT) curriculum in Bangladesh: EDEM 691, a thesis submitted to the College of Education of the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Education (Unpublished master's thesis).

Haider, M. Z., & Chowdhury, T. A. (2012). Repositioning of CLT from Curriculum to Classroom: A Review of the English Language Instructions at Bangladeshi Secondary Schools. International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(4). doi:10.5539/ijel.v2n4p12

Haque, S. R. (2017, November 2). Problems of learning and teaching English in Bangladesh. Retrieved January 10, 2018, from http://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/265627/Problems-of-learning-and-teaching-English-in-Bangladesh

Hossain, M. A., Nessa, M., & Kafi, M. A. (April 2015). Challenges of Teaching English Language at the Primary Level Schools in Bangladesh.  Banglavision, 15. Retrieved January 10, 2018, from http://bv-f.org/VOL-15/01.%20BV%20Final.pdf

Khan, R. 2010. “English Language Assessment in Bangladesh: Developments and Challenges”. In Moon, Y-in and Spolsky, B. Language Assessment in Asia: Local, Regional or Global. Seoul, South Korea. Asia TEFL. Pp.121-157.