Feature

Bangladesh needs a bulk of English teaching experts and practitioners. To be an expert requires years of hard work, a strong mentality to take new challenges and most importantly continuous learning and training. The omniscient mentality of the teachers will result in their own fossilization or stagnation (unfortunately some may think that “Teacher” is a God gifted thing and they do not need to learn new ways). We don't want to be fossilized. We need to find ways to learn new skills utilizing the existing teaching resources and conduct research. A teacher of any subject should know how to manage a large class, how to deal with a mixed ability class, how to design teaching materials according to students' levels, and so on. They must know the techniques involved in time management, classroom assessment and testing. The Department of English at Presidency University is a gateway for all teachers and trainers to explore and enjoy the latest developments and trends in the field of ELT.

To fulfill the demands of the market, Presidency University is focusing on programs that will produce qualified teachers with appropriate academic background. Its English Department is now offering MA in ELT, Diploma in ELT and Certificate in ELT. They are internationally valued teaching programs. The curriculum is based on requirements of Education and TESOL (Teaching of English to speakers of other languages) and is allied with similar programs found in the USA and the UK. Now the English Department also has an updated BA in English program with an opportunity to do a major in English Language Teaching. Besides these regular programs, the department encourages research in ELT. Dr Patrick Dougherty, instructor of Creative Writing, is conducting a research on the effectiveness of literature in English language teaching. ELT programs at Presidency have been generating a lot of interest among teachers around the country and abroad in the last few years.

Some of students in the ELT program at Presidency University are actually veterans in this field but most of them are new and the rest are preparing to enter field of teaching. Here is what some of them said about the ELT program at Presidency:

Rozana Hasan (Sunnydale School)
ELT courses have deepened my understanding of teaching. Through the ELT program, I have learnt how to present teaching materials in an interesting and enjoyable way. As unbelievable as it often seems, we need to undergo organized training for teaching like any other profession. Particularly if we intend to build a strong foundation for our students in English, we need to know how to impart that knowledge.

The courses in this program were well geared to show us how to teach a language in an organized way. Some of the courses were: Phonetics, Syllabus and material design, Teaching literature, Sociolinguistics, Teaching language skills, Testing, Dissertation, ELT management and practicum. I have enjoyed Practicum the most. Through Practicum, I not only explored and shared my own teaching skills and methods but also got to know about the teaching styles of my peers. This peer-based learning was quite effective in furthering my insights in my field. Overall, I feel that this program fulfills our career objectives ultimately benefiting our students.

Rumi Ahmed (Playpen School)
Of all the courses I have done so far, I can't help mentioning the Practicum course particularly as it has given me a new avenue to help my students with the best of my knowledge. I realized that every student in the class has a different way of interacting with the teacher. I found out the ways to make classes more interesting by using modern technologies, pictures, different techniques and materials. Practicum courses not only taught me how to deal with my students, it also showed me ways to communicate easily with my colleagues or fellow classmates.

We were given the opportunities to observe other classes. I was impressed with this, because it gave me practical solutions to deal with the problems of my own class. I had the least idea that observing others could help me so much to improve my own ways of teaching, which I thought I had experienced so well in all those 22 years of my teaching life. I wish I had joined this course at an early stage of my teaching. Now it is clear to me that no teacher should come to teaching without a proper training if s/he wishes to be successful.

Rokshana Afroze (Southpoint School and College)
I am lucky enough to be a neighbor of Presidency University. I heard about the MA in ELT and without much thinking joined the program.

Second language acquisition... It dealt with different elements of the acquisition process; for example, motivation, anxiety, age and gender, socio-economic and socio-psychological factors. We teachers hardly think about these factors!

Teaching the Language Skills…It equipped me to teach young learners. From this course I learned how to use music, poem in the class, how to use body language to make the students understand something. It also showed me the proper use of materials, pictures and flash cards in the classrooms.

Language Testing and Evaluation is a very helpful course for the teachers. Teachers should know the proper ways of evaluation and testing. Teachers should be professional and perfect in case of assigning grades to the students.

Teaching Practicum is totally a different type of course! This is a century of new methods. It is time to move away from a fixed method and to look at teaching in our own terms. This course encouraged to look back at our own teaching methods and evaluate them. The most interesting but difficult job was to take a class where my supervisor and other six observers were present. The post-observation comments of my supervisor and peer observers helped me to re-think about my methods, mark my weaknesses and thereby adapt to positive changes. We kept portfolios to keep all those documents of our observation.

Dissertation was the most difficult course. We had to submit a thesis paper. Without it nobody would get the MA degree but the Diploma students do not need the dissertation.

Besides courses, the English Department regularly arranges various workshops where foreign experts share their knowledge and supports BELTA (Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association) with many Teacher Training activities.

Shirley C. Momen (Sunbeams School)
I have been teaching English to young learners for nearly fifteen years, but for a few years, I had been planning to shift to teaching adult learners. Presidency University gave me this opportunity when they offered MA in ELT program. Each course was well designed and effectively taught by highly qualified teachers like Dr. Arifa Rahman and Dr. Rubina Khan. The ELT program equipped me with adequate teaching skills to become successful in a job market that is growing at a very fast pace. The program was reasonably priced and the schedule was flexible enough to fit my generally busy life.

(Lecturer, Department of English)