Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction:
The present structure of formal education in Bangladesh, if especially considered, may be divided into five stages: the primary, the secondary, the higher secondary, the under graduate and the graduate levels. In this government sponsored education system the “HSC” level in the title is located immediately after the secondary level consisting of 11 and 12. After the completion of two years of study at this level, the students sit for the HSC examination which is the second public examination they face in the life. In the main stream system of formal education in Bangladesh English is introduced as a compulsory subject from class 1 and continues with the same status up to class 12. When HSC level is considered, English is taught here as a compulsory subject consisting of two papers each carrying one hundred marks To face the challenges of new century, the English textbook of class XI-XII has been rationally evaluated by foreign consultants and local experts. The evaluated and modified textbook was designed for introducing communicative techniques and for providing adequate practice in language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. But necessity of grammar can not be avoided in the context of Bangladesh. The purpose for designing H.S.C. syllabus is to make the learner competent in communication in the target language and which is similar to CLTA method in language teaching and learning. In CLTA usually a notional-functional syllabus is followed. In this type of syllabus, instruction is organized not in terms of grammatical structure, but in terms of ‘notions’ and ‘functions’. But grammar is also included by the experts. It is expected that the revised textbook will meet the real needs of the students and teachers and eventually results in more effective teaching and learning of English.

In this study, HSC level (higher secondary level) in particular is chosen because at this level the students are supposed to receive foundation knowledge and skill necessary for their later life. Their opportunities for higher education mostly depend on the standard of education received at this level. Moreover there are very few researchers at this level.

It is an established fact that the learner should be the central point of focus in Second Language (SL) or Foreign Language (FL) teaching/ learning and nowadays many linguist, applied linguist or researcher is found to undertake researches to explore the socio-psychological variables which strongly influence Foreign Language (FL) Second Language (SL) learning. Even most of the influential linguists consider FL learning as a socio-psychological phenomenon and ‘motivation’ as the key to the learning process. It is found through research that learners with high motivation perform better than those with less motivational intensity to learn English as a Foreign Language (EFL). There some other factors which are close related to motivation and a discussion on it must include the interrelationship among them and their combined role to motivate EFL learners. Attitude, syllabus, methodology, socio-economic background, quality and training of EFL staff, and ‘classroom factors’ including anxiety are the most important variables of them.

Being predominantly a monolingual developing country, Bangladesh needs extensive research for successful implementation of a stable and farsighted national language policy to remove ‘English phobia’ and thus to motivate the EFL learners. But our language policy makers are extensively busy with methodology, ignoring all other variables. Scattered and weak short- term national plans were carried out to deal with the complex matter of SL/FL teaching and learning by mass pupils at national level. Specially, very little has been done in the field of learner motivation at Higher Secondary level in Bangladesh. Success in any step in national language policy requires repetitive examination of the theories and their practice or implementation through extensive researches. The scarcity of ‘real’ researches in the field is caused by many complex factors including lack of both commitment and competence of concerned authorities and prospect of individually undertaken researches.

Now it has become a primary need to analyze how and to what extent the EFL learners at mid level, between Secondary School level and undergraduate level, are motivated. Those who pass the Secondary School Certificate(SSC) examination are expected to posses the minimum command of English and those who take admission into undergraduate courses are likely to have more than average command of English. Hence, the EFL learners at Higher Secondary level are taken to have command of an average standard of English in the country. Moreover, the rural colleges of that level are found to be ignored in comparison with urban ones in researches. Therefore, the present study is undertaken for an investigation into the motivational orientations of EFL learners at the Higher Secondary level at rural and urban areas in Bangladesh.

1.1 Historical background:
Language of a speech community is closely related to its historical background. This statement is more pertinent to Bangladesh context. Bangladesh is predominantly a monolingual country. Before independence, the country experienced the British colonial rule of two hundred years preceding Pakistani reign of more than two decades.

Kachru (1983) divided the introduction of bilingualism in English in Indian subcontinent into three phases. At first, the missionaries and traders introduced English to the Indians in the first decade of the 16th century. In the second phase, the local educated Indians, even the best ones who wished to promote Indian language and literature, took English as superior language which would lead them to western scientific knowledge (Agnihotri and Khanna quoted in Rahman 2006:12). At the final step, the British took initiatives to established English firmly in middle of the 19th century turning it into a way for the educated Indians to inter into the privileged class. A national education policy, proposed by a committee led by Lord Macaulay, was passed in 1835. Macaulay’s controvertial Minutes states: We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions we govern; a class of persons Indian in blood and color, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave to refuge the vernacular dialects and to render them fit vehicles for conveying western knowledge (Kachru 1996:21-22).

In the British colonial period, the colonial rulers and their local representatives, official servants, highly educated persons, and other elite persons used English for administrative, educational and commercial works, jobs, and for communication between rulers and their representatives (Mannan et. Al., 1998).

After the partition in the subcontinent between India and Pakistan, English became more influential in commercial and educational activities in the Pakistan period although only 3.12% of total population of Pakistan had some command of English, according to the 1951 census, and in unprivileged East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) the percentage can be assumed to be lower than the other part of Pakistan (Musa 1996:66-67). The rulers, high govt. officials, and high class people used it as a prestigious foreign language for beneficiary purpose. It was also the medium of instruction in academic works at higher levels (ibid).

But Bangla language was the force that kept the people of East Pakistan united in many movements. The Bangalee is one of the very few nations that fought for mother tongue. The naming of the country at its birth in 1971, as the consequence of many movements including the language movement in 1952, may indicate to the importance of Bangla language in its socio-economic background (islam 2000). After the liberation war in 1971, the first government overemphasized the use of Bangla in every sphere of socio-economic and administrative sectors.

Still, none can deny the fact that the middle class had a soft corner for Englis. Added to that, the roles of English language and English speaking countries in international arena inspired Bangladeshi people, its government and policy makers to face the challenge of English language as the medium of communication in the new global political settings of super powers in the 1980’s. The situation was more challenging after the fall of the USSR from its dominating position in the 1990’s. The importance of English language grew rapidly in all the spheres in Bangladesh also. As English in the most dominating language used for communication in the western economic block and the dominance of USA and the WTO over the world politics is gaining strength fast since the fall of USSR, the importance of English in increasing with it in national and international spheres of Bangladesh.

1.2 Present State of English Teaching & Learning in Bangladesh:
Overemphasis on Bangla in the new born state of Bangladesh was a very important milestone in the national language policy. Though English continued to be the medium of instruction at university level due to scarcity of books and other materials in bangle, the learners at Secondary and Higher Secondary levels were left attended to grew with weakness in English. The standard of English of English Language Teaching (ELT) and learning also was going downwards very fast.

There were at least six Education Commissions since independence, but none could be implemented so far. The report of the first Education Commission of Bangladesh was published in 1974 which recommended: It is not necessary to learn any language other than Bangla up to class V. From class VI to class XII, however, a modern and developed foreign language must be learnt compulsorily. For historical reasons and for the sake of reality, English will continue as a second compulsory language. ( Bangladesh Education Commission Report 1974:15 as translated in Rahman 2006)

But Bangladesh can no longer be considered as a genuine ESL situation. Neither does it qualify as a purely EFL one. As Bowers (1986) in this study on ELT observes that ESL is lapsing into EFL and this is in fact, the present status of English on Bangladesh (Begum 1999:215)
Though few educated professionals felt the need of English to cope with other nations and for scientific advancement, the emotional and political factors influence the subsequent governments to ignore the importance of effective steps to increase the standard of teaching and learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) and the use English in official fobs. The report of the English Teaching Taskforce 1976 shows, ‘At least 70% of the trainees at the Teacher Training Colleges are not proficient in beyond that used in the textbook for class 7, yet they are expected to teach 10 (Rahman 1999:15).
Most of the school teachers have studied only a full unit course at degree level and are not subject teacher in almost all of the cases. They have the scope to attend course or training programs like 1 year certificate course from Primary Training Institute or 1 year Bachelor of Education (B Ed) course from Teachers’ Training Colleges. But college teachers have hardly any scope to take a long term leave for training because of shortage of English teachers in colleges. It is a very strange fact that they usually find the scope to attend daylong workshop only to understand and adopt new methodology, for example to shift from Grammar Translation Method to Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLTA).
Even fourteen years after the first Education Commission Report, another report on a baseline survey understand by National Curriculum and Textbook Board in 1990 proves that no improvement was made so far: …… In non-government rural schools where over 95% students at class 6 and 8 are failing to reach the expected standard of proficiency…..over 70% of these students at class 6 and 80% at class 8 have a command of language which is close to non-existent (ibid: 16).

Despite the status of Bangla in national constitution as the only official language of the country, Bangladesh Government announced The Bangla Introduction Law in 1983 and Bangla Procholon Ain ( Bangla Implementation Act) in 1987 to make the use of Bangla compulsory at everywhere except foreign missions and defense sector. Thus English lost its previous status as a second language and came to be treated as a foreign language (Rahman 2006: 24). The drastic fall of the standard of command of English of university graduates. This forced the Government of Bangladesh to introduce English as a compulsory subject at Degree (pass course) level.

The Education Commission 2003 ( Maniruzzaman Miah Education Commission) states: This may sound odd to know that even after 30 years of independence, Bangladesh government failed to form a ‘National Language Policy’, except various Education Commission recommended few suggestions on language policy. Because of this reason, we do not have any particular ‘uniform language policy’ in the country…..it was found that even in Dhaka University, different departments under same faculties were following different language policies in language issues (ibid:104).

Now English is a compulsory subject from Primary level (class 1 to V) to Degree level (non-honors) including Secondary (VI to X) and Higher Secondary (XI to XII) levels. The EFL learners show poor level of motivational intensity mainly due to scarcity of skilled teachers and inappropriate syllabus-design, which have a direct negative effect on their proficiency in it. Bangladesh Educational Statistical Book 1995 shows that about 90% examinees failed in English in the two public examinations, SSC & HSC (Begum 1999: 215).

Because of unstable and inappropriate national language policy and ineffective steps there is a mass English-phobia among common EFL learners of all ages. The two facts, whether English should be a compulsory subject and at what level it should be initiated, have been reviewed and changed several times. Again, the adoption of an appropriate methodology and a suitable syllabus has been changed several times within a decade in enough to frustrate the English teachers. Though the teachers are instructed to follow CLTA in classroom, the findings of a researcher conducted by Rahman (1999) shows, 73% of the interviewers put grammar as the first priority for learning a language and 69% mentioned that the students expected them to teach seriously, and not have fun. Even 85% of respondents claimed that their teachers still followed Grammar Translation Methlod (Rahman 2006:231).

However, with the increasing pace of globalization, English in given more importance in educational, commercial and other official activities in the country nowadays. More initiatives are being taken to produce both English teachers trainers and trained teachers. Motivation of EFL learners has been changed to some extent with their more positive attitude to English. The government and non-government institutions including private universities pay much attention to heighten the standard of EFL teaching and learning now.

1.3 Statement of the problem:

Bangladesh has a long period of academic history o f English language teaching and learning. Against such background, it is generally agreed that the standard of competency of our learners in English is not satisfactory in comparison to the time they expend in learning the language.

Over the years there have been much debate on and frequent changes in the syllabus of English for HSC level in Bangladesh. The earlier syllabuses and methods proved failure as they were age old and did not seem to produce the desired results. However many researchers and policy makers have put their valuable efforts to design the present syllabus of English at the HSC level. The new syllabus is said to be based on communicative Language Teaching and Learning Approach. Around seven years have passed since the new syllabus was introduced but the proficiency of our students is not that much satisfactory as it was thought to be.
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While this general case and condition of English language teaching and learning in Bangladesh, it is very important to identify the factors that are responsible for such a state. Among a several factors lack of trained teachers, lack of motivation among students, examination system, the issues concerning appropriate language teaching methodology, socio-economic background of the learners, issues concerning syllabus are mostly cited. So it can be said that to improve English teaching-learning situation in Bangladesh in general and in particular at HSC level, much work is needed to be done, which this study is particularly concerned with.

1.4 Purpose of the Study;

The purpose of the study is to examine how far the syllabus of English at HSC level is effective, suitable and how successful the teaching methodology related to the syllabus is implemented presently in Bangladesh classroom at higher secondary level. The study also tries to examine the factors closely related to language teaching, such as- how and to what extent the EFL learners at HSC level are motivated to learn English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Bangladesh, primarily is a comparative study between the types of motivation of the EFL learners at the colleges of Higher Secondary level in rural and urban areas in the country. It seeks to find out correlation between socio-economic background of the learners and the types of their motivation- integrative, instrumental or resentful. And test and test measurement system are also linked to success in overall teaching- learning situations.

1.5 Research Questions:

a) What are the teachers’ qualification? And how much needed the training of the teachers to achieve the desired result of the new syllabus?
b) What are the teachers’ responses about the prevalent textbook and examination system?
c) What are the teachers’ responses about the classroom language teaching methodology?
d) What are the students’ attitude for the learning English and responses to the prevalent textbook and examination system?
e) What are the students’ responses to classroom language teaching methodology?
f) What is the comparison between the responses of the teachers and students to classroom language teaching methodology?
g) What is the major type of motivational orientation of the EFL learners at Higher Secondary level in urban areas?
h) What is the major type of motivational orientation of the EFL learners at Higher Secondary level in rural areas?
i) Do the learners find their teachers to be motivating enough?
j) Is the EFL course motivating enough to the learners?
k) Are the learners in rural areas equally motivated to those living in urban areas to learn English?
l) Does economic condition of the family of an individual EFL learner influence his/her motivational intensity?
m) Is the relation between educational qualification of family members of the learners and their motivational intensity significant and positive/
n) Can the teachers follow CLTA in language classroom?
o) Is the marking system in board examination (SSC/HSC) too flexible being directed by concerned authority?

1.6: Justification of the Research Questions:
Over 24 million children learn English as a second/foreign language in primary and secondary schools in Bangladesh. These children start learning the language as a required subject in Grade 1 and continue learning it (if they don’t drop out) until Grade 12, and later at the tertiary level. Officially, they are taught English communicatively using Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology, as it was envisaged that CLT would develop learners’ ‘communicative competence’, and thereby strengthen the human resource development efforts of the Government of Bangladesh (NCTB, 2003) may help develop some understanding of the role that CLT plays in enhancing learner competence in English (Hamid, in preparation). Over the years there have been much debate on and frequent changes in the syllabus of English for HSC level in Bangladesh. Around seven years have passed since the new syllabus was introduced but the proficiency level of our is not that much satisfactory as it was though to be. while this is the general case and condition of English language teaching and learning in Bangladesh, it is very important to identify the factors that are responsible for such a state. We want to justify the suitability of HSC syllabus and doing that we raise some questions about the teacher’s and student’s responses to the prevalent syllabus of English and testing system, to the teaching methodology and especially different motivational orientation between the students of rural and urban areas because of socio-economic background and educational qualification of the family members.

1.7: Limitation of the study:

The study certainly has some limitations which are the following:

a) Only non-government colleges were selected for data collection because more than 85% of all schools and colleges are non-government in Bangladesh.

b) In all selected colleges, Bangladesh is the only medium of instruction at HSC level. No English medium college was included in the study in order to concentrate on a specific area.

c) Only six colleges were taken under this study due to shortage of time and money.

d) The researcher only could expect and guess but not ensure the correctness of the answers from the respondents even after much precaution about it.

e) It is hard to justify original competency and performance of learners and teachers exactly through classroom observations.

f) The study was meant to provide the phenomena of English language teaching-learning situation at HSC level, which will be applicable to Bangladesh in general. But the data have been collected only from six colleges located in Savar, Ashulia and Dhamrai thanas under the district of Dhaka.

g) The number of teacher and student sampled covered in the study 10 and 120 respectively. This number could be increased to attain a better external validity of the study.