English in Action

Introduction

English in Action, a nine years project, has been started in 2008 with the aim at enabling 25 million Bangladeshi adults and school children to improve their communicative English language skills[1] that will help them access better economic and social opportunities. The project is funded by UK Department for International Development (DFID)[2] and being jointly implemented by Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and Ministry of Education of Bangladesh Govt. In order to help people to improve their level of living, English in Action is using English language as tool of changing life though learning . Aiming to improve the communicative English skills of 25 million people, EIA works with Primary and Secondary teachers and students through schools to change classroom practice, and adult learners through media. EIA uses modern technology, such as mobile phones, Television, and internet along, with print materials, as tools of learning English. It is mentioned earlier that EIA is a nine years project from 2008 to 2017. By April 2014, more than 12,500 teachers and almost a million students have been reached by the programme. By 2017, EIA aim to reach 76,500 teachers and over 10 million students.

Changing classroom practices

English in Action brings major pedagogic changes to primary and secondary teachers’ classroom practice through introducing new English language teaching and learning activities to teachers and students in the country. EIA works for the Professional Development of Primary and Secondary Schools' English Teachers of Bangladesh. EIA activities provide continuous professional development to enhance the professional skills and classroom practices of teachers. EIA activities also improve Teachers own English language competence and provide them follow-on support. After Initial Teacher training the practice evolves as a practice circle. E.g. Self-study practice in the classroom self-reflection reflection with peer reflection at cluster meeting new learning regular practice self-study (continue) . Teacher training is supported with a wide and varied group of English teaching and teacher training specialists from The Open University, UK; a group of Core Trainer who plays a role of mentors and facilitators to the Teacher Facilitators and sometimes to the teachers also and finally trained Teacher Facilitators, specially selected from the skilled teachers, who support the teachers as local mentors and peers all the time. All training and support activities are implemented through and with the support from existing Bangladesh Government system. Upazila Education Officer (UEO), Upazila Secondary Education Officer (USEO), Assistant Upazila Education Officer (AUEO), Upazila Resource Centre Instructor and others are directly involved with the program implementation in Upazila level.

EIA classroom change practice develops through some key mechanisms:

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

English in Action (EIA) works for the Professional Development of Primary and Secondary Schools' English Teachers of Bangladesh. EIA activities provide continuous professional development to enhance the professional skills and classroom practices of teachers. EIA activities also improve Teachers own English language competence and provide them follow-on support.

Trainer in the pocket

Maximum materials of English in Action are provided to the teachers through SD card/memory card to use on the mobile. Among which there are audio and video materials for professional Development and English Language for Teachers (EL4T) audio lessons for teachers own language development. Teachers can always keep these materials with them and can improve their expertise by using these any time accord to their need.

School based teacher development approach

EIA's continuous professional development programme is built around teachers introducing new activities into their classroom practice. An initial workshop introduces teachers to the materials and approach, and then they put things into practice at school, supported by: new classroom materials, including audio via the mobile phone; teacher development videos, showing how to carry out the activities; sharing experiences with other English teachers, in the school and at cluster, through the school year.

Cluster Meeting

Cluster Meetings (CM) are held in Upazila level with 20 to 24 EIA teachers from same area at every after 6 to 8 weeks. Generally, two Teacher Facilitators conduct these Cluster Meetings. Teacher Facilitators are also the English teachers of same Upazila who get additional training on conducting CMs. With reviewing and sharing the success and challenges of implementing the techniques of earlier modules, the teachers also take preparation to apply the new techniques of the next module in the CMs.

Peer support

To ensure peer support EIA always involves two teachers from each school. Together, they develop lesson plan, observe each other's' class, provide feedback, share teaching experiences and challenges and also help each other to find out solutions. Moreover, EIA teachers get help from other EIA teachers and Teacher Facilitators of the same area in the CMs to share their challenges and to have a possible solution.

Self reflection

One of the major features of EIA's continuous professional development activities is self-evaluation and self-reflection. Which part of the lesson was good and the area where they had chance to improve more: teachers reflect on themselves and also keep note discussing with their colleagues. Subsequently, they bring their notes in the CM to discuss with other teachers as a further effort of professional skill development.

EIA materials

A large number of interactive materials for both the primary and the secondary schools of Bangladesh has been developed by EIA. These materials were designed based on the principles of communicative language learning according to the Govt. Curriculum of Bangladesh. The materials can be mainly categorized into three areas: According to their function, all the audio, video and print materials of EIA can be categorized into three groups:

  1. Classroom materials to develop the English language skills of the students
  2. Professional development materials for the teachers
  3. Self-learning materials for the English language development of the teachers

Audio visual professional development materials are provided on a mobile phone SD-card.Teachers are helped to introduce new activities, through videos, in the mobile phone, showing such activities being carried out by other teachers, with their own students, in typical schools across Bangladesh. However teachers are also provided EfT based interactive audio to use in the classroom, through a rechargeable speaker. There are also print materials including teacher guidebooks and classroom posters and flashcards separately developed both for primary and secondary sector teachers and students. All the classroom materials and teachers’ professional development materials are linked with Government Curriculum and based on textbook.

Innovative approach for adults

As a part of EIA, BBC Janala is an award-winning creates a multi-platform service for the adult population of Bangladesh, which is enabling millions of Bangladeshis to learn English in a low price – through their mobile phones, the web, television programmes, print media and peer-to-peer learning.Innovative use of television lies at the heart of the success of BBC Janala. The project’s two biggest – series the drama Bishaash and accompanying educational game show BBC Janala – Mojay Mojay Shekha (“Learning with fun”) – are two biggest series which used the television innovatively for millions of Bangladesh Television viewers to learn English together. Through fun and games the show motivated the audiences to learn English. Along with classroom changes practice EIA again has altered mobile phone service, a simple handset into a low-cost learning device for the adult learners. Anyone can learn and practise English by calling a mobile shortcode, from any Bangladeshi mobile operator.

Quality assurance process

All EIA activities, whether it be material development, teacher training or teacher support quality assurance are ensured with different techniques, e.g. interviews, focused group discussion and other instruments to collect information. The information is also collected from classroom observation by the Core Trainers of EIA and Education Managers from GoB; from the quarterly progress sharing meeting with the Upazila Education Managers as well as from the quarterly Head Teacher meetings. All collected information is then fed back into the next round of activities to ensure quality with necessary decisions, measures and steps. Feedback from teachers and many other sources, is highly important to the revisions to the classroom materials.

Institutionalization

The project is implemented jointly by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and the Ministry of Education. It is expected that, by 2017, the Government will take over the EIA schools programme within its regular education structures and programmes. In order to integrate EIA techniques into the Education system of Bangladesh for long term, EIA has been working with different Government organizations and projects since 2010. Assimilation of EIA training and monitoring activities with English Subject Based Training for the Primary teachers and Assessment policy development, DPEd programme with NAPE[3] and PTI, Short and long term training for the secondary school teachers with TQI-ii, Teacher Training with Skill development project, Digital Education content development with A2I as well as different research and a MPhill course with IER, Dhaka university- these are the mention able initiatives in this area. Simultaneously, EIA is also linked in with different NGOs and Donor organizations who are working for English Language Education. From the very beginning EIA is connected with NCTB for developing Education materials. Among which Primary English textbook and teacher guide development, try out, and audio materials development for listening text of secondary are evident.

References

  1. ↑ Richards, Jack C. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today (PDF). New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 2–5. ISBN 978-0-521-92512-9.
  2. ↑ "DFID". GOV.UK.
  3. ↑ "Nape". National Academy for Primary Education.

External links

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