Testing System and Communicative Competence in English Language: a Study at Secondary Level in Bangladesh
By
Mohammad Al Amin
A dissertation submitted to
Department of English
Bangladesh University of Business & Technology (BUBT)
In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in English
January, 2010
Testing System and communicative Competence in English Language: a Study at Secondary Level in Bangladesh
A dissertation submitted
By
Mohammad Al Amin
Student Id. 06071102001
Department of English
Bangladesh University of Business & Technology (BUBT)
Supervised By
Ms. Bipasha Binte Haque
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Bangladesh University of Business & Technology (BUBT)
Acknowledgements
First of all, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my creator, Almighty Allah, for giving me enough intellectual ability to carry out such a study and keeping me safe and sound throughout the period of the study.
I would also like to extend my special thanks to my friends and family members whose love and best wishes were a source of inspiration, encouragement and motivation for me as I was successfully completing this study.
I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Ms. Bipasha Binte Haque, who read my draft copies, listened to my anxieties and cordially suggested me the ways to overcome difficulties. .
The Report on Study Guide Business 101
Study Guide B101 Exam 4 Chapters 12-14 True/False ____1. External data refer to data about other organizations. ____2. Attitudes and opinions are psychographic characteristics. ____3. The early stages of a product’s life cycle are generally the most profitable for the company because there is little competition. ____4. Sales offices typically do not store or warehouse any inventory. ____5. A ...
Finally, I am extremely thankful to all the participants who provided me rich and
Detail data for the study and lent breadth and value to the research findings.
Abstract
This study aims at investigating the inconsistency between present English language curriculum and prevailing English language testing system in the Secondary level in the expectation of revealing an uninvestigated relationship between testing system and students’ low communicative competence in English language learning. The study involves a critical analysis of the current SSC English test. The findings of this study reveal that the SSC examination is not an effective test of communicative English and the existing question pattern demotivates the majority of the students leading to proficiency oriented learning. The study concludes that the SSC English tests as a whole are deficient in both validity and reliability. The findings have raised important issues which concern the test designers and markers, the test takers and other stakeholders of SSC. Some specific areas of improvements have been identified and recommendations have been made for improving assessment of communicative English at the SSC level.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction…………………………… ……..….1
Chapter Two: Background of the Study …………………..…………..3
Chapter Three: Literature Review………….……………………..5
Chapter Four: Methodology ………………………………….…12
Chapter five: Findings and discussions………………………….14
Chapter Six: Recommendations and conclusion ………………..20
References……………………………………………………….21
Appendices………………………………………………………23
Chapter-1
Introduction
The present age is marked by a new phenomenon called globalization which aims at treating the whole world as a unit and English has already got the status of being lingua franca. As a result, there is a growing demand of learning and using English as a foreign language in Bangladesh. As a former colony of British imperialism, English language teaching in Bangladesh has passed a long way. The government is also very much concerned about the necessity of English and it made English language learning compulsory from the primary level to the higher secondary level in 1991( Hamid and Baldauf, 2008).
The Term Paper on English Language Teaching
This paper aims to highlight the importance of teaching sociolinguistic competence to ESL learners in Malaysian schools. Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of socio cultural rules of language and of discourse. This type of competence requires an understanding of the socio context in which language is used. It is proposed that carefully designed language activities be carried out by ...
For this purpose government also changed the teaching method in 1997 and decided to follow CLT approach (ibid).
At present nearly a decade has been passed since communicative language teaching (CLT) was introduced in Bangladesh. Yet, the communicative competence level of the students in English language in Bangladesh is very low. “It is indeed bitter to notice that even though serious efforts have been made by the government and educationists for improving the state of affairs of English language teaching for the past few decades in Bangladesh, a bad situation is still found to exist in the achievement of English among the students at all levels, especially among the Secondary students” ( Hoque,2008).
“A huge part of the educated population at present is almost incapable of writing, reading, and speaking English” (Islam, 2004).
But most of them showed good performance in the courses of their formal education which is measured by achievement tests based directly on those courses. “Many of our students, who obtained GPA 5 in SSC, even in all subjects, are failing to manifest the expected level of proficiency in English at HSC level.” (Islam and Ahsan, 2005).
This is a clear indication that our students are very much examination oriented rather than proficiency oriented in case of English language learning. At the same time it also indicates that our language testing system is measuring something else rather than communicative competence. According to Haider (2008) “the aims and objectives of the communicative curriculum can never be achieved without a testing system that assesses the communicative ability of learners”. This study aims at investigating the inconsistency between present English language curriculum and prevailing English language testing system in the Secondary level in the expectation of revealing the still uninvestigated relationship between testing system and students’ low communicative competence in English language learning.
Chapter 2
Background of this study
English language teaching (ELT) in Bangladesh has a long history. The beginning of ELT in Bangladesh can be traced back to the colonial era. ( Haider, 2008).
The Essay on A Global Language: English Language
English is an international language spoken all over the world that was originally borrowed from the world. If English is used as a global language, there might be some advantages related to communication and business. However, there are also several disadvantages in terms of losing mother tongue and taking time and money. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages, so English should be made the ...
At that time language studies were based on literature and grammar and the means of studies was the grammar-translation method. The spoken component of the language was not practiced. The emphasis was given on accuracy and full sentence. ( Hasan,2004).
However, the British models of teaching English continued to influence the ELT scenario of post-colonial Bengal even after the colonial rule was over in 1947. ( Haider,2008).
After the independent of Bangladesh in 1971 the same method was followed in Bangladesh up to 1997. After that, the Government of Bangladesh started making changes in ELT policies to improve English language teaching in the country since it was clearly evident that students’ English language skill could not be improved with the existing ELT policies. In 1997 the government of Bangladesh introduced Communicative Language teaching (CLT) method. (Hamid and Baldauf, 2008).
“It was envisaged that CLT would develop learners’ ‘communicative competence’” (ibid).
“The changes were brought about through several means. The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) designed a communicative syllabus for the secondary level, published the guidelines to produce textbooks, and encouraged the teachers to carry out the teaching according to the syllabus. It has also produced communicative textbooks for classes 6 to 12. The new curriculum stressed the need for students to learn to communicate in English rather than to just master the structure of the language. Furthermore, it has revised the evaluation policy and developed several assessment tools and examination formats to help measure students’ ability to use English in communication.” (Hasan, 2004).
Since then, CLT approach is being followed for ELT in Bangladesh. It has been almost thirteen years since CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) was introduced in Bangladesh in replacement of the long-standing GT (Grammar-Translation) Method. But the focus of teaching and learning, however, has changed little. While GT Method was preoccupied with reading and writing skills only leaving listening and speaking almost neglected, CLT was supposed to emphasize on a balanced development of all the four basic skills. But, the pictures of English language classrooms still reflect the traditional teaching style. Teachers still stress the development of reading and writing skills for the purpose of getting good results in examinations (Hasan, 2004).
The Term Paper on Adapting Communicative Language Teaching Approach to China’s Context
... Changes in English test For a long time, English examinations in China did not have oral test and the language use section. Recently, some important English tests in ... way, accuracy and fluency can be achieved and students’ English linguistic competence and communicative competence can both be developed. 3.2.2 Student-centered orientation For ...
The teaching and learning process has again centered on the concrete and easily tangible end products, for example, the grammatical items and score in the final exams, gradually making the score obtained in the final examination of SSC and HSC potentially unreliable.
Therefore, it is a matter worth considering how far our existing English language teaching and testing systems are effective.
Chapter 3
Literature Review
Testing System
Testing system can be defined as “any procedure for measuring for measuring ability, knowledge or performance” (Jack et al 1983, cited in Akter, 1999).
In the arena of Language Testing different kinds of tests are used based on purposes, such as placement test, Diagnostic test, Achievement test and proficiency test. “Naturally in the class and course final examinations achievement test is used” (ibid).
So, the test of English language in SSC final examinations in Bangladesh which is the central focus of this study is an achievement test. An achievement test in Andrew Harrison’s words (1983, P.7) “looks back over a longer period of learning for example, a year’s work, or a whole course, or even a variety of different courses- it is intended to show the standard which the students have now reached in relation to other students at the same stage” (cited in ibid).
Again, as CLT prevails in the ELT situation in Bangladesh, the English language test in SSC final examinations is a communicative language test. Davies et al. ( 1999: 26), ( cited in Haider,2008) gives the definition of communicative language tests “Communicative tests are tests of communicative skills, typically used in contradistinction to tests of grammatical knowledge. Such tests often claim to operationalise theories of communicative competence, although the form they take will depend on which dimension they choose to emphasis, be it specificity to context, authenticity of materials or the simulation of real life performance.
The Review on English Language problems experienced by overseas students in Australia
International education is of major significance to Australia. The number of oversees students enrolled in Australian higher education institutions rose from 24,998 to 210,397 between 1990 and 2003. Most of the students come from countries where English is learnt as a foreign language. It is noted that in Australia, education is the third largest export service after tourism and transport, ...
Communicative Competence:
The prominent applied linguist Dell Hymes coined this term. In Hymes’s view, (cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2002) a person who acquires ‘Communicative Competence’ acquires both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to –
1. whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;
2. whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means of implementation available;
3. whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate. Adequate, happy, successful in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated;
4. whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails.
(Hymes1972:281)
Since Hymes’s introduction of ‘Communicative Competence’ the term has widely been elaborated and explained. Widdowson notes (1989 P.135, cited in Akter, 1999) “ it is much more a matter of partially pre-assembled patterns, formulaic frame works, and a kit of rules so to speak, and being able to apply these rules to make whatever adjustments are necessary according to contextual demands”. Cannale and Swain (1980), on the other hand, have identified four dimensions of “Communicative Competence” namely Grammatical Competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. (cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2002).
More specifically, ‘Communicative Competence’ includes:
a) knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of the language
b) knowledge of rules of speaking
c) Knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts, such as requests, apologies, thanks and invitations.” ( Akter,1999)
Relationship between Testing System and Communicative Competence:
There is, no doubt, a close relationship between language testing system and the learners’ communicative competence in the target language as the first variable is designed to measure the second one. There are a lot of empirical opinions that ensure this relationship, but very few come from systematic research. Akter (1999), Hasan(2004), and Haider(2008) conducted systematic researches in the context of Bangladesh and showed that our existing language testing system ( testing items, question patterns etc.) can not measure the actual level of communicative competence of our students. On the other hand, Islam and Ahsan (2005), Islam (2004), Hoque (2005) suggested from their personal teaching experiences that our language testing system must be changed to improve the communicative competence level of our students.
The Essay on Becoming a Better English Student
Last year my ability to write was above the average of my English class. At the time I thought that reading and writing were the only things to English. This year I was handed a light to show me that reading and writing are only the outlines of English. When handed this light I started seeing the interior: the texture, the color, and a lot more about the high lights of English.The texture of ...
Akter(1999) made an analysis of question pattern and test items set in the Higher Secondary level. He found that in our testing system in the HSC level, two basic skills speaking and listening are quite dropped. The selection of the test items confines to a number of limited topics for ages. From the high frequency of repetition, it is perhaps not hard to predict the probable questions resulting memorization. He also comments that “our testing system is far away from being able to reflect communicative competence and more regretfully still, the score of the testee is not the true reflection of his/her performance. He concludes that if we want ‘communicative competence’ to be the goal of our learners, our testing system must be in the line and not just a caricature of a test.
Hasan(2004) conducted his research in a large scale on the English language curriculum at the secondary level in Bangladesh. In the sixth chapter of his research paper he made a thorough analysis of the existing testing system and evaluation policy of ELT in secondary level of Bangladesh and found that The general education boards and the schools affiliated under these boards adopted an examination format that matches the one provided in the NCTB curriculum guidelines. But examination questions were mostly set from the set textbooks. So, the students always had a chance to memorise the answers to questions before. As a result, these examinations failed to evaluate students’ ability to use English in communication. Then he made some recommendation regarding examination question. To him, In examinations:
1. Questions should not be set from any notebooks or guidebooks available in the market. Rather, they should be new. Students will answer them using their knowledge of English.
2. Question format should go on changes each year so as to encourage students to read to learn instead of memorising the textbook-content, presently, which they are tended to do.
Haider(2008) made an evaluation of the SSC English examination. The findings have raised important issues which concern the test designers and markers, the test takers and other stakeholders of SSC. Some specific areas of improvements have been identified and recommendations have been made for improving assessment of communicative English at the SSC level. The key findings of the analysis of the SSC test format are: the test is based on reading and writing skills only, the writing tasks do not often offer suitable communicative purposes, there is little consistency between the curriculum goals and the test format, and there is no analytic marking scheme to mark the subjective items. Many of the objective tasks such as true/false, multiple choice questions and gap-filling with clues do not serve any communicative purpose. He also found typicality in selecting topics for writing test for which there is a chance that students may well predict the topics beforehand and might memorize the essays or paragraphs and reproduce them in examination halls. Then he has made the following recommendation:
1. It must be ensured that the test items test what they are intended to test. An item intended
to test candidates’ communicative ability should not test something else such as
memorization, guessing etc. The current SSC examination partially tests communicative
language skills; there should be items on testing listening and speaking.
2. The curriculum should be more specific about the purpose and objectives for English
language use in Bangladesh.
3. A set of test specifications for SSC English can be developed in accordance with the
curriculum goals.
4. The writing tasks in the SSC English papers should have meaningful context, purpose and
audience. The test takers must be given some ideas about the situation in which the target
language is going to be used.
5. Test takers should be informed about what genres of writing they are expected to produce
and what aspects of their writing would be assessed.
6. There should be a marking scheme, both for the objective as well as subjective writing
items.
7. The SSC test format should be consistent with the sample questions given in the Teachers
guides for English for Today textbooks.
Teachers’ knowledge and skills:
8. Secondary school English teachers should have a basic understanding of the
communicative needs of their learners. Teachers and markers should be trained on
language testing issues
9. Teachers should use the newly written English for Today textbooks more extensively in
the classroom to enhance students’ communicative writing skills.
Apart from these systematic researches, Islam and Ahsan (2005), from their professional experience of English language teaching, found that many of their students, who obtained GPA 5 in SSC, even in all subjects, are failing to manifest the expected level of proficiency in English at HSC level. Disappointedly, they fail to produce correct phrases or sentences of their own without reproducing something, which had been, memorized by them earlier. According to them, “There can be various reasons behind this failure of the SSC and HSC marks scored to achieve reliability and to become the successful indicators of proficiency in English. Firstly, our education system still has not so far been successful in effectively encouraging proficiency-oriented education in opposition to result-oriented education. Secondly, since scoring higher GPA in SSC and HSC increases and/or ensures admittance to reputed colleges and universities, our learners get naturally obsessed with obtaining it and they look for some shortcut to get that magic score without being concerned about the proficiency achieved. Thirdly, guardians of the learners also possess the same outlook. Fourthly, our testing system at secondary and higher secondary level education itself encourages little to change the outlook of the learners and guardians. To score well, students follow the ready made guidebooks competitively available in the market, ignoring the NCTB prescribed material. They can manage fairly will even without consulting the NCTB textbook. Fifthly, there is a wide gap between the objectives of the curriculum and the assessment system. It instructs to teach many things (e.g. speaking, listening items, etcetera) that never appear in the final assessment and, as a result, not only students but also the teachers become interested in teaching items that directly resemble question items in SSC and HSC.
According to Islam (2004), “The students of Bangladesh generally memorize everything including grammar, composition, letters, applications, paragraphs, essays, and so on, and reproduce them in the examination. They never learn the language.” As a teacher in a university, he experienced that many students who are otherwise good in their subject, cannot write a single sentence in English correctly. Even the students who obtain good marks in English in their public examinations cannot write compositions independently. Most of the good books at the university level are written in English, but the students cannot read them. The condition of spoken English is worse still. This naturally gives scope to raise question what do our language examination test?
Chapter 4
Methodology
Research Hypotheses
To carry out this study, the following hypotheses were formulated for testing.
1. The English test (part 1) of SSC examination is not designed in a communicative test. Two skills (reading and writing) out of four (reading, writing, listening and speaking) are tested in this test and the topics of the questions can not measure what these are supposed to measure.
2. The testing system and the topics of the questions discourage the students leading to proficiency oriented learning.
Instruments
To conduct this research a questionnaire containing 12 questions was administered for collecting retrospective data. The questions were close ended and the answer to each question had three options (no, neutral, and yes).
Besides, to test the first hypothesis, 35 English(part-1) question papers of SSC final examination prepared by 7 general education boards in the last five years were analyzed. The boards were Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Jessore, Comilla, Barisal, and Sylhet. Five question papers were taken from each board and the question papers were of S.S.C. final examination of five consecutive years (2005-2009).
Participants
For the study, 40 students were selected who completed their secondary education within last five years. The students were chosen from a private university named Bangladesh University of Business & Technology (BUBT).
Among the participants there were 22 female and 18 male. The participants completed their secondary education from 13 different education institutions and all of them were enrolled in B.B.A. program of their university. The questionnaire was conducted among them in a class.
Chapter-6
Findings and discussions
To test the first hypothesis, 35 S.S.C. English (part-1) question papers were analyzed and it was found that each question paper was prepared in three sections. The first one section was titled as ‘Reading Test’ which carries 40 marks out of total 100 marks. The second section was titled as ‘Vocabulary Test’ which contains 20 marks, and the third section was titled as ‘Writing Test’ which carries 40 marks. Out of 100 marks, there was no provision for listening or speaking skill. Then the passages of the reading test were scrutinized and it was found that all the passages were copied from the text book for class 9-10 titled ‘English for Today’ published by National Curriculum & Textbook Board ( NCTB).
But it was suggested in the syllabus of class 9-10 prepared by NCTB that the passages of the reading test will be reproduced on the S.S.C. question paper. The following table (Table-1) shows from which unit and lesson the passages were copied in the last five year’s S.S.C. English question papers of seven education board.
|Board |2005 |2006 |2007 |2008 |2009 |
|Dhaka |Unit-11, Lesson-3 |Unit-11, Lesson-5 |Unit-18, Lesson-5 |Unit-15, Lesson-7 |Unit-22, Lesson-6 |
|Rajshahi |Unit-15, Lesson-7 |Unit-22, Lesson-6 |Unit-18, Lesson-2 |Unit-14, Lesson-1 |Unit-18, Lesson-5 |
|Comilla |Unit-10, Lesson-7 |Unit-14, Lesson-1 |Unit-22, lesson-6 |Unit-14, Lesson-1 |Unit-15, Lesson-7 |
|Chittagong |Unit-8, Lesson-3 |Unit-14, Lesson-1 |Unit-10, Lesson-7 |Unit-7, Lesson-3 |Unit-11, Lesson-5 |
|Jessore |Unit-18, Lesson-5 |Unit-11, Lesson-5 |Unit-10, Lesson-4 |Unit-11, Lesson-5 |Unit-11, Lesson-1 |
|Barisal |Unit-11, Lesson-5 |Unit-15, Lesson-7 |Unit-19, Lesson-4 |Unit-14, Lesson-2 |Unit-10, Lesson-4 |
|Sylhet |Unit-17, Lesson-1 |Unit-15, Lesson-7 |Unit-11, Lesson-5 |Unit-15, Lesson-7 |Unit-14, Lesson-1 |
Table-1
From the table it is seen that some passages were in repeated in the questions of other year.
For better understanding table -2 contains a list of repeated passages with frequencies.
|Units and lessons |Frequency of Repetition |
|Unit-10, Lesson-4 |2 |
|Unit-10, Lesson-7 |2 |
|Unit-11, Lesson-5 |6 |
|Unit-14, Lesson-1 |5 |
|Unit-15, Lesson-7 |6 |
|Unit-18, Lesson-5 |3 |
|Unit-22, Lesson-6 |3 |
Table-2
The above table shows that out of 35 question papers, 27 question papers were prepares based on only 7 passages. Such repetition tendency may encourage the learners going for memorization. It also questions the validity of the reading test. It can reasonably be questioned that how far a student’s reading ability can be measured by these question papers.
Such forms of repetition are also found in the writing test sections. The following three tables (Table-3, Table-4, and Table-5) show the repeated topics of paragraphs, letters, and compositions set in the English test of S.S.C. final examinations in the last five years’ questions ( 2005-09) in the above discussed seven boards.
|Topics of Paragraph |Frequency of Repetition |
|A book Fair |2 |
|A bus Stand |2 |
|A School Library |3 |
|A School Magazine |3 |
|A Tea Stall |3 |
|Traffic Jam |5 |
|Tree Plantation |2 |
|Water pollution |2 |
Table-3
|Issues of writing Letters |Frequency of Repetition |
|A letter to your friend congratulating her on her brilliant success in|6 |
|the S.S.C. examination. | |
|A letter to your friend describing what you intend to do after your |5 |
|S.S.C. examination. | |
|A letter to your pen-friend describing the foods and food-habits of |4 |
|the people of Bangladesh. | |
|A letter to your friend telling about how to improve English |3 |
Table-4
|Topics of composition |Frequency of Repetition |
|A Prize Giving Day at Your School |3 |
|Tree Plantation |3 |
|Your Childhood Memories |4 |
|Your Hobby |4 |
|A journey by Boat |2 |
|Your Visit to a Place of Historical Interest |2 |
Table-5
From the high frequency of repetition in the writing section, it is not impossible for the students to predict the probable questions which may result in memorization.
To know how far it is possible to guess the probable questions, the participants were asked in the question no. 11 and 12 of the questionnaire (See appendix).
The result has been shown in the following Table.
|Question No. |No. |% |Neutral |% |Yes |% |
|11 |7 |17.5 |4 |10 |29 |72.5 |
|12 |6 |15 |2 |5 |32 |80 |
Table-6
The table shows that 72.5% students think that it is possible to guess which passage is going to be set for reading comprehension in the SSC final examination while 10% can neither support nor deny the possibility and 17.5% think that it is not possible. On the other hand, 80% students think that it is possible to guess the possible topics of writing for the SSC final examination.
In these circumstances, it can be supposed that such repetition tendency in preparing question paper destroys the validity of the tests which accepts the first hypothesis of this study.
To test the second hypothesis, a questionnaire (see appendix) of 13 questions were administered whose first ii questions relevant. Among these questions, affirmative answers to first 6 questions and negative answers to next 4 questions indicate the students’ examination oriented learning which will favor the hypothesis. The following table (Table-7) shows the participants response to the questions no. 1-6 and the table-8 shows the participants response to the questions no. 7-10.
|Question No. |No |% |Neutral |% |Yes |% |
|1 |9 |22.5 |2 |5 |29 |72.5 |
|2 |6 |15 |3 |7.5 |31 |77.5 |
|3 |6 |15 |3 |7.5 |31 |77.5 |
|4 |5 |12.5 |2 |5 |33 |82.5 |
|5 |3 |7.5 |3 |7.5 |34 |85 |
|6 |11 |27.5 |1 |2.5 |28 |70 |
|Mean |6.67 |16.67 |2.33 |5.83 |31 |77.5 |
Table-7
|Question No. |No |% |Neutral |% |Yes |% |
|7 |27 |67.5 |4 |10 |9 |22.5 |
|8 |24 |60 |2 |5 |14 |35 |
|9 |38 |95 |0 |0 |2 |5 |
|10 |35 |87.5 |3 |7.5 |2 |5 |
|Mean |31 |77.5 |2.25 |5.63 |6.75 |16.88 |
Table-8
Table-7 shows that 72.5% students read only their text book to prepare themselves for reading test in the S.S.C. examination while 77.5% students prepare themselves for writing test by memorization and 82.5% students take preparation for writing test on some selected topics. Again 85% students follow suggestions for examination while 70% students admit that they learn English to do well in the examination. In fact, all the students who confine their studies to a limited area like following only text book and memorizing writing items on some selected topics are somehow demotivated. As a matter of fact these students are demotivated due to the testing system and question patterns with repetition tendency as shown earlier. Regarding these two skills, on an average 77.5% students are found examination oriented learners. On the other hand, if other two skills – listening and speaking, are considered, it is also found that 77.5% students are not interested to develop their these two skills. It is a clear indication that majority of the secondary level learners do not go for proficiency oriented learning rather they devote themselves to examination oriented learning.
Chapter-7
Recommendations and conclusion
The findings of the study give some scopes for the following recommendations.
1. Passages for the reading test should not be copied from the text. The theme may be same but the language must change. In a word, the passages should be reproduced as prescribed in the syllabus. At the same time repetition tendency must be ceased.
2. In selecting topics for paragraphs, letters, or compositions, real life happenings should be given preference.
3. There must have some provisions for testing the students listening and speaking skills. For these purpose, a portion of total marks may be allotted for these skills so that students become compelled to develop these two skills.
In conclusion it can be said that this study has successfully been able to investigate the cause effect relationship between testing system and students low communicative competence though the study has not investigated all the related aspects of students’ low communicative competence due to testing system. In this regard there leaves a scope for studying the teachers teaching behavior due to such an invalid testing system. Besides, there is a scope to carry out this study in the higher secondary level.
References
Richards J. C. & Rodgers T S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press
Hamid & Baldauf (2008).
Will CLT bail out the bogged down ELT in Bangladesh?
Hasan(2004).A linguistic study of English language curriculum at the secondary level in Bangladesh – a communicative approach to curriculum development. Language in India, Volume 4: 8 August 2004
Islam & Ahsan (2005).
Proficiency oriented learning. The Daily Independent Bangladesh. Internet Edition.html
Islam M. A.(2004).
English: Looking for the lost language. The Daily Star Web Edition Vol. 5 Num 110.htm. 5 Num 110
Akter, Z. (1999).English Language Testing System in Bangladesh and Communicative Competence: An Investigation. Published in Collected Papers by British council and NCTB, Dhaka.
Hoque M S.(2005).
Suggestions on improving English language teaching: Primary and secondary level. The Independent, Internet Edition.( 04-01-2005)
Haider, M. Z. (2008).
Assessing “Communicative” Writing Skills:
An Evaluation of the SSC English Examination. Bangladesh Education Journal, Vol. 7, Number 2.
NCTB (2001).
English For Today: For Class 9 –10 NCTB, Dhaka
Panjeree Publications(2009).
Panjeree S.S.C. Test Papers.
Appendix
Questionnaire
1. Did you follow only English for Today to get prepared for comprehension test for S. S. C. final examination?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
2. Did you memorize letters and applications for the examination and write from your memory?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
3. Did you memorize compositions and paragraphs for the examination and write from your memory?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
4. Did you take preparation for composition and paragraph by memorizing on some selected topics for the final examination?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
5. Did you follow any suggestion to prepare yourself for the English test in the SSC final examination?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
6. Do you think that you learnt English Language in the secondary level only for doing well in the examination?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
7. Did you make any effort to develop your listening skill?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
8. Did you make any effort to develop your speaking skill?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
9. Did you sit for any test on speaking skill in your secondary level?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
10. Did you sit for any test on listening skill in your secondary level?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
11. Do you think it is possible to guess which passage is going to be set for reading comprehension in the SSC final examination?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
12. Do you think it is possible to guess the possible topics of writing for the SSC final examination?
a) No b) Neutral c) Yes
