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English Language Teacher Education in Bangladesh: Towards an Alternative Paradigm

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English Language Teacher Education in Bangladesh: Towards an Alternative Paradigm ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH: TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE PARADIGM Arifa Rahman Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Languages in Education University of London Institute of Education June 1999 To my son Nayeem For the times not shared And the stresses not spared ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH: TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE PARADIGM ABSTRACT In this thesis I examme the issue of linking teachers' implicit beliefs to teacher education. This is based on the assumption that teachers' own conceptualisations have a crucial function in curriculum implementation. As the training programme for secondary school teachers of English in Bangladesh fulfils an in-service function with 80% course participants on a year's secondment, I propose that teachers' instructional behaviour needs to be understood through their beliefs and within the specific context in which they operate. An important purpose of teacher education then has to enable teachers to clarify their prior perceptions, elaborate and develop their current schema about learning and teaching and finds ways of linking them to available theories. I maintain that programmes developed on the principles of current educational aims, however worthwhile, remain marginal unless teachers' psychological and ecological contexts are taken into account. With Bangladesh envisaging developing EL T in secondary schools, a reflexive process between personal theory and classroom action needs to be seen as being at the heart of curriculum change. I therefore, develop a framework of second language teacher education based on current literature and within this framework I investigate the assumptions underlying a recently revised English teacher-education programme in Bangladesh. An ethnographic approach is then advanced in regarding the classroom as a specific cultural entity where teacher perspectives are analysed. The belief system of a cohort of student-teachers on the training course is also investigated and the findings from the two groups are compared. Finally, I integrate my hypothesis of recognising teacher perspectives (supported by the study findings) into a conceptual paradigm for educating secondary school English teachers. In so doing, I emphasise-in line with curriculum design theory-the importance of framing design solutions to suit specific contexts. 2 CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. 8 ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1: Setting the scene: ELT in Bangladesh ............................................... 16 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 16 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................ 17 1.1.1 The issue of a national language .................................................................... 17 1.1.2 The history of English in the region .............................................................. 19 1.1.2.1 English in the colonial era (1835-1947) ..................................................... 19 1.1.2.2 English during the East Pakistan period (1947-1971) ............................... 21 1.1.2.3 English in Bangladesh (the first decade) ................................................... 22 1.1.3 The current status of English ......................................................................... 24 1.1.4 Attitudes towards English .............................................................................. 28 1.1.5 The question of norms ................................................................................... 31 1.2 ELT in Bangladesh ................................................................................................ 33 1.2.1 English language policy ................................................................................. 33 1.2.2 English in the curriculum ............................................................................... 35 1.2.3 Standards of English at secondary level ........................................................ 38 1.2.4 Recent attempts at EL T reform ...................................................................... 40 1.3 Education: structure, administration and ethos ...................................................... 42 1.3.1 Secondary schools .......................................................................................... 44 1.3.2 The educational ideology ............................................................................... 46 1.4. Summary and conclusion ................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 2: Language teaching and the teacher: trends and issues ................... 50 2. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 50 2.1 Influences on language teaching and teacher education ........................................ 52 2.1.1 Tradition and method ..................................................................................... 53 2.1.2 Linguistics and the nature of language .......................................................... 56 2.1.3 Psychology: theories oflearning, language learning and SLA ...................... 59 2.1.4 Sociolinguistics and the ethnography of speech ............................................ 62 2.1.5 Education and language teaching ................................................................... 65 2.1.6 The issue of context and culture .................................................................... 67 2.1. 7 The management of innovation and change .................................................. 69 2.2 The focus on the teacher ........................................................................................ 72 2.2.1 Teacher cognition ........................................................................................... 74 2.2.2 Native-speaker versus non-native speaker teacher ........................................ 76 2.2.3 The teacher as the focus of research .............................................................. 79 2.2.4 The teacher as researcher ............................................................................... 83 2.2.5 The teacher as professional.. .......................................................................... 88 2.2.6 Critical discourses in teacher development.. .................................................. 90 2.2.7 Synthesising the findings on the teacher.. ...................................................... 92 2.3 Summary and conclusion ............................................................................... 93 3 CHAPTER 3: Second language teacher education: A conceptual framework ...... 96 3. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 96 3.1 Theory and practice in second language teaching ................................................. 96 3.1.1 Theory development ...................................................................................... 97 3.1.1.1 The role of theoretical studies .................................................................... 98 3.1.1.2 Theory applied ........................................................................................... 99 3.1.1.3 Theory espoused ...................................................................................... 100 3.1.2 Theory and language teachers ...................................................................... 102 3.1.3 Theory and practice: an interrelated form .................................................... 104 3.2 Theory and practice in second language teacher education ................................. 106 3.2.1 Reconciling theory and practice: early attempts .......................................... 108 3.2.2 GURT'83 ..................................................................................................... 109 3.2.3 The enquiry-oriented approach .................................................................... 111 3.3 Education and training: key concepts .................................................................. 114 3.3.1 Holistic versus atomistic approaches ........................................................... 117 3.3.2 The necessity for a combined approach ....................................................... 118 3.3.3 Professional development ............................................................................ 120 3.4 Models of second language teacher education ..................................................... 121 3.4.1 The craft model ............................................................................................ 122 3.4.2 The applied science model.. ......................................................................... 124 3.4.3 The reflective model .................................................................................... 128 3.4.4 A model of mediation .................................................................................
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