Failure of Exploiting Literature in English for Today for Developing Language Skills at the Secondary and Higher Secondary Levels of Education in Bangladesh: Exploring Reasons (original) (raw)
Literature is a productive and viable medium in the language classroom. The English for Today textbooks at the secondary and higher secondary levels of education in Bangladesh have significant number of literary works for being used for achieving linguistic skills. But unfortunately, things in the real ELT classroom are utterly frustrating. Both teachers and students try to avoid the literary contents included in the textbooks. Thus, both of them are being deprived of the pleasure and possibility of exploiting literature for acquiring language skills. Again, most of the researches carried out in this field in our context have avoided this issue and have gone through the possibility of using literature in ELT class, not considering the practicality. This study has shed light on the practical ELT field and tried to find out the causes of avoiding the literary contents included in the textbooks and suggest the language policy planners of Bangladesh in this respect. Introduction In the English language classroom English for Today is the much used coursebook prescribed for the primary, secondary and higher secondary levels of education in Bangladesh. This text is continuously modified to suit the current realities in respect of both national and global concerns in the arena of the English language. The government of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh has appointed an efficient body of ELT experts for the development of curriculum, syllabus and textbooks. No doubt, the experts have tried their best to make English for Today suited to and useful for the English language learners in Bangladesh considering their (learners') needs, level of proficiency, socio-cultural contexts etc. The English for Today textbooks at the secondary and higher secondary levels of education include some literary contents for developing various language skills. Literature is a feasible medium of developing language skills. It can help both the teachers and the learners enhance their linguistic competence. It can be utilized to attain all the linguistic skills since it provides the learners with the scope of authentic materials-a significant requirement of the much talked about and widely used the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach. Sadly, the present classroom scenario reveals that both teachers and students do not take the literary contents in English for Today seriously. They rather try to avoid them. The present study will deal with these issues and discuss the reasons behind avoiding the literature part.
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