Causes behind Poor Performance in English of Bangladeshi Primary Students

1. Causes behind Poor
Performance in English of
Bangladeshi Primary Students
Goutam Roy
Lecturer, Institute of Education and Research
University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
NELTA 19th International Conference
Kathmandu, Nepal
March 1, 2014

2. Bangladesh

3. Bangladesh

4. Background
 Bangladeshi students learn English from grade 1.
 Previously teaching-learning system of English was
grammar or content-based; now this is following
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach.
 Curriculum and textbooks used in the primary
education are competency-based. National Curriculum
and Textbook Board, Bangladesh (NCTB) makes
textbooks based on the competencies.

5. Background (contd...)
 National level assessment is not competency-based;
however, some NGOs took initiatives to assess primary
graduates based on the terminal competencies.
 It is observed that students were comparatively week
in English. Thus, initiatives were taken to know the
reason behind poor performance in this subject.

6. Objectives
The main objective of the study is to know the causes
behind poor performance in English of the primary
students of Bangladesh.
The specific objectives
 To explore the situation of the primary graduates
regarding their learning achievement in English
 To investigate the reasons behind their poor
performance in English

7. Methodology
 The study is qualitative in nature. Both primary and
secondary sources were considered.
 Existing situation in achieving English competency
were identified through secondary data as well as
literature review.
 Primary data collection procedures were considered to
explore the reasons behind poor performance in
English.

8. Methodology (contd...)
Data sources and Sample
 Competency test data and literature review: Education
Watch, BRAC and other studies
 In-depth Interview: Grade five students (30), their parents
(30), English teachers (30) and head teachers (30)
 Informal discussions: Non-English Teachers (30) and
primary graduates (15)

9. Methodology (contd...)
 Qualitative information was collected from 30 Primary
schools from six divisions.
 Separate checklists for each type of respondents were
used.
 Triangulation was done.

10. Methodology (contd...)
Competency Test items Minimum level for
achievement
Listening Answer two questions based on a
pre-recorded dialogue between
two friends
Answer one correctly
Reading - Answer two questions from a
printed paragraph
- Answer two questions from a
hand-written paragraph
- Answer one correctly
- Answer one correctly
Writing Describe a given picture in five
sentences
Write three sentences
Table 1: Criteria of assessed competencies (Nath & Chowdhury, 2001)

11. Salient Findings
38.4
43.7
11
15.514.4
26.5
16.4
19
31.2 32.3
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
2006 2012
Bengali
English
Mathematics
Social studies
General science
Figure 1: Competency achievement of the students by subjects (Nath,
Roy, Dutta & Hossain, 2006 and Roy & Uddin, 2012)

12. Salient Findings (contd...)
80
89.4
79.5
88.5
13.4
34.8
11
15.5
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2006 2012
Listening
Reading
Writing
English
Figure 2: Competency achievement of the students in English by skills
(Nath, Roy, Dutta & Hossain, 2006 and Roy & Uddin, 2012)

13. Salient Findings (contd...)
 Previous figures show that, among the subjects under test,
students were the weakest in English and, among the
language skills, they were the weakest in writing skill.
 However, informal discussions gave the sense that speaking
skill of the students could get the lowest position, if
formally assessed.
“I never speak in English. Even though I cannot think of
speaking in this language. I just know some English words
and that’s all. Only the educated people speak in English
and I do not find any such person in my village.”
- A primary graduate students of Bangladesh

14. Salient Findings (contd...)
Reasons behind low performance in English
 Educational qualification of the English teachers did not match
with their subject they taught.
 Teaching-learning provisions in classrooms were not
appropriate. For instance, in many schools, only lecture
method was used to teach English.
 Teachers did not practices the principles of CLT.
 An English teacher of a primary school said, “I have to conduct
5-6 classes in a day. Besides, I am also not from English
background. We do not have any subject-teacher in English.

15. Salient Findings (contd...)
 Textbook were not attractive to the students.
 Students got very little scope to have help from the
other members at home.
 The whole range of syllabus kept unfinished every
year.
 Students got less interest in this subject because of the
mentioned reasons.

16. Salient Findings (contd...)
 Society bear a pre-concept that learning English is very
tough. Students also had this fear.
 English is taught like as content-based subject, not as a
skill-based one.
“We all know that English is very tough. Our parents
thought that and many of us are also following their
traditional thoughts. As I do not know English, so I
should not provide any comment whether learning
English is tough, but we see that most of the people
think such.”
- A mother of a grade 5 student

17. Major Recommendations
 Teachers from English educational background should
be appointed as English teachers in all primary schools
in Bangladesh.
 All the teachers should be properly trained on how to
teach English. Besides, they should get pre-service and
in-service training regularly.
 Practice of speaking in English should be a regular
process in all primary schools.
 Textbooks should be more attractive to the students
and these should be made in a way that they can be
able to study of their own.

18. Discussion and Questions
Please...
Goutam Roy
goutamroy@ru.ac.bd
Thank You!