Speakers tell int’l conference
With a view to developing professional skills and proactive mindsets, teachers from different countries have assembled at a conference in Dhaka, sharing their ideas and discussing the challenges and issues of English teaching. Since teachers play a crucial role in the process of language learning, there is no alternative to improving the methods of teaching up to international standard, speakers told the inaugural session yesterday.
Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (Belta) is hosting the three-day 6th international conference on “The Multiple Realities of English: ELT and Beyond” at National Academy of Educational Management (Naem). It will feature 97 presentations, 27 workshops, two panel discussions and a PechaKucha event.
Belta President Prof Rubina Khan said, “Educational transformation for achieving global standards cannot take place without due emphasis on English language education.” Belta aims to establish a support network to empower English language teachers throughout the country, she added.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid emphasised ensuring the quality of language learning and said many students did well in the exams and achieved GPA-5 but many of them did not have proficiency in English.
This conference, he hoped, would play a role in improving the quality of English teaching in the country.
Dr Arifa Rahman, co-chair of the conference, said, “It is an attempt to bring together English language educators from home and abroad for networking on issues and challenges that we all face in this field.”
At a presentation, some researchers observed that despite an emphasis on communicative English, the standard of English in learners remained poor in Bangladesh.
With the assistances of different donors, the government has run several projects to improve competencies of English learners since the 1980s but the outcomes are still frustrating, they said.
A key reason for poor English has been identified as a lack of an effective structure to improve English and that of proper monitoring of the initiatives, said one of the presenters, Dr Sharmistha Das.
Talking to The Daily Star, Kathryn Kelly, English language advisor of the British Council, said 2013 was a very important year for all teachers of Bangladesh, as 270 million copies of new textbooks were handed over to students all over the country on January 1.
“I take the opportunity to congratulate all the teachers of the country for this achievement,” she said.
-With The Daily Star input
