Examining the Impact of an English in Action Training Program on Secondary-School English Teachers’ Classroom Practice in Bangladesh

Authors

Abdul Karim Mr., Universiti Sains MalaysiaFollow
Abdul Rashid Mohamed Dr., Universiti Sains MalaysiaFollow

Abstract

English teachers in Bangladesh have undergone numerous training programs. Both government-initiated and donor-sponsored training programs have been in operation in Bangladesh. Government initiated institutions to train teachers are Primary Training Institutes (PTIs) and Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs). However, researchers seemed to label training provided by PTIs and TTCs as inadequate. Bridging the gaps intrigued government of Bangladesh to devise donor-aided training programs, including English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP), English for Teaching, Teaching for English (ETTE), Secondary Education Quality and Access Enhancement Project (SEQAEP), Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project (TQI-SEP). Studies reported their potential failure to bring changes in English teachers’ classroom practices. English in Action (EIA) was the last donor-funded project that incorporated school-based training program. The aim of the study was to examine the impact of EIA training program on secondary-school English teachers’ classroom practice in Bangladesh, drawing the questions in relation to the elements learned in the training program and the elements practiced in the training program. The present study undertook the Integrated Approaches to Teacher Development suggested by Hargreaves and Fullan (1992) and Reflective Model developed by Wallace (1991). This study adopted phenomenological approach since it subsumed the experience of an activity or concept from the participants’ perspective. Eight Participants were selected who had been trained from EIA training program and who had experience of participating in other donor-aided program, in the spirit of yielding the uniqueness of EIA which informed the sustainability of this program. It had been divulged that teachers learned a lot of activities that were related to English language teaching. However, the present studies observed limited practice of such activities in the classroom.

Keywords

English in Action (EIA), Teacher Training, Impact, Classroom Practice, English Language Teaching (ELT), Communicative Activities, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), EFL

Author Bio(s)

Abdul Karim is a Lecturer at BRAC Institute of Languages, BRAC University. He has a Master’s of Art (Education) by research. Before that, he completed MA in TESOL from North South University, Bangladesh. He has published widely in the field of English language teacher education in numerous international journals (Indexed in SCOPUS). He has been reviewing for many international journals in the field. Besides, he has developed instructional materials for the fundamental English language course for tertiary students. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: khasan13aiub@gmail.com.

Dr. Abdul Rashid Mohamed is a senior professor of education. He was a long-time dean of the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia from 2005 to 2015 and the Chairman of the Malaysian Education Deans’ Council (from 2009 - 2015). Currently he is an advisor to the council. He is presently the deputy Chairman of the Malaysian Professorial Board (Education and Human Resource Cluster, since 2010). He also sits on a number of national and international levels committees on education. Among the roles he still plays are advisors to IDEC (Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation), Hiroshima University and Republic of Maldives Ministry of Education. He was the Chief Editor of two journals until 2015; APJEE (Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education) and MEDC Journal (Malaysian Education Deans Council Journal). He is currently the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Albukhary International University, Malaysia. Correspondence regarding this article can also be addressed directly to: richsesusm@gmail.com.

Acknowledgements

My supervisor, Dato’ Professor Dr. Abdul Rashid Mohamed, guided me through in this journey, I am really indebted to him for everything. I want to acknowledge the contribution of my school, School of Educational Studies in the journey. The teachers who participated in my study, I am grateful to you. I hope, I have projected you thoughts and emotion rightfully.

Publication Date

3-3-2019

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3703

Recommended APA Citation

Karim, A., & Mohamed, A. R. (2019). Examining the Impact of an English in Action Training Program on Secondary-School English Teachers’ Classroom Practice in Bangladesh. The Qualitative Report, 24(3), 441-469. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3703