Feasibility of Communicative Language Teaching in Different Madrashs Specially in Class VI

Abstract

Communicative language teaching (CLT) was originated in the 1940s during the tradition of the British language teaching tradition (Richards and Rodgers: 2001, 153). According to Siddique (2004: 16) CLT entered the arena of English language teaching in Bangladesh in the 1990s, and it was introduced to the secondary school level classroom with a series of communicative language textbooks entitled Eng/ish For Today. In CL T approach, teachers tend to help learners in the way that motivates them to work with the language. Generally, CLT approach focuses on four basic language skills (i.e. listening, speaking, reading, and writing). According to Siddique (2004: 17) in Bangladesh majority of the teachers at the primary and secondary level do not have competence in the four basic skills. Generally, students enrolling in different madrasahs tend to face difficulties in coping with CLT approach, English texts, and the syllabus. The study investigated the feasibility of CLT in class VI in different madrasahs. The researcher visited five different madrasahs in Gazipur and Uttara to collect the data. The data was collected from 50 students and five teachers through questionnaires. The data was collected from the students in the classroom. The researcher took the last 30 minutes to explain the questionnaire and gather the data. The data was also collected from the English language teachers in the teachers' room. The fmdings suggest that though the present syllabus is based on CLT approach, it has not been implemented properly in the classroom. Till now the teachers tend to follow the traditional teaching style (GTM). Moreover, there is only one English teacher for each madrasah for class VI to X, and most of the teachers have only BA (Pass) degree.