Analysis of English Language Needs for Higher Education in Bangladesh

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to analyze English language needs at the tertiary level of education in Bangladesh. The main purpose of this study is to find out the amount and level of listening, reading, speaking and writing skills of English needed for a meaningful tertiary education in Bangladesh and also students' present level of proficiency when they are admitted into a programme of study at a university. The study seeks to find out if there is a lack or gap between students' required level and their present level of proficiency in English. After identifying the lack or gap between students' required level and their present level of proficiency of any, a communicative Needs-based curriculum is recommended to fill up the gaps for a meaningful higher education in Bangladesh. Now it is necessary to point out what each chapter of the study deals with in a pedagogical way. Chapter 1 introduces the research problem and establishes the topic focus through primary literature survey. It mentions the objectives, significance of the study, scope of the study, and the methodology to be used in the study. Limitations of the study and definitions of the key terms used in the thesis are also presented in this chapter. Chapter II defines higher education and discusses its dimensions and characteristics, and the concepts of different types of higher educational institutions of the country as conceived in this study. The status of knowledge of higher education, different fields, strengths and weaknesses, goals, and needs of English in higher education have also been discussed in this chapter. The chapter gives an overall picture of higher education and the needs of English for it in Bangladesh. In Chapter III, the concepts of needs analysis, its theoretical and historical backgrounds, types of needs analysis, purposes and functions, goals and objectives and different approaches to and ways of needs analysis research have been discussed in some detail. This theoretical framework provides the basis for the empirical survey in this study. Chapter IV discusses the methodology employed for this particular study. The methods employed for empirical investigation in this study were: (1) students' questionnaire survey, (2) students' interview, (3) teachers' questionnaire survey, (4) teachers' interview, (5) librarians' questionnaire survey (6) seminar librarians' questionnaire survey, (7) classroom observation, (8) examining answer-scripts of admission tests (9) syllabus analysis (of different subjects), and (10) analysis of text/ reference books and journals used at the tertiary level of education. This chapter mentions the basic principles followed for processing and analyzing data. The chapter also discusses the design of the instruments, sampling design for the study and administration of the study. Chapter V presents the results after a systematic analysis of the data obtained by all the methods of data collection discussed in chapter four. Some of the results are presented in terms of Means and Standard Deviations, some others, like document/ text analysis, have been analyzed in terms of range and complexity of vocabulary, sentence construction, and concepts, and according to the level of the complexity of English, levels of English in textbooks have been classified into elementary, lower intermediate, intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced. Chapter VI discusses the results, presented in chapter V. The skills have been graded into three different categories i.e. (a) high priority, (b) medium priority, and (c) low Priority according to the students' lacks. The higher the lack, the higher is the priority of the needs. So, the ranks of lack were considered important areas to be addressed in the course recommended. Chapter VII discusses different kinds of syllabuses i.e. product-oriented syllabuses and process-oriented syllabuses, and their sub categories such as analytic and synthetic, grammatical or structural, functional-notional, procedural, task-based, content, situational, topic, skills and so on. The chapter also examines the present English curriculum from classes I to XII to find out its strengths and weaknesses with special references to lacks, if any. This chapter shows that though the curricula up to class XII have been based on the communicative approach, there lie some drawbacks. Finally, the chapter recommends a Needs-based curriculum to cater for the lacks in the four skills as found in this study. Chapter VIII is 'summary and conclusions'. It includes a summary of the findings, implications of the findings, and recommendations for a change in materials, methods and testing for an effective higher education in the country. Finally, the study also recommends further research of this type to constantly monitor the changes of language needs and adjust curriculum materials, and tests of English to suit the needs of the country with the passage of time.