Oral language assessment in Bangladeshi secondary schools

Assessment plays a very significant role in the development of students' English language. In Bangladesh, there is a big gap between the curriculum guidelines and that of assessment practices in the schools. This is why most students fail to achieve the expected standard even after passing secondary schools.
The Curriculum and Syllabus Report - 1996 and 2012, has emphasised that at the end of secondary level, students will be able to speak and debate in English confidently; read for understanding; write correct sentences; and develop a good command of English. Though the curriculum guidelines emphasise the need to practise four language skills through different activities, most teachers find it challenging to implement them. For assessing reading skills teachers sometimes use reading comprehension in the class test. Students are asked to read the text and complete the given questions, which is followed by the teacher feedback to the students' work. Additionally, there is a lack of teaching aid such as computers, OHPs etc needed to engage students. A baseline survey of secondary schools in Bangladesh reported on the poor quality of the teaching environment in the classrooms. The study also indicated that insufficient resources and lack of teacher effectiveness were the reasons behind the poor quality of teaching.
For assessing writing, there are some guided writing and some free writing exercises in the text prescribed by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). Before writing, the teacher needs to engage the students in many writing exercises. Students first discuss, then write, then check grammar and vocabulary followed by editing and then the final draft is completed.
Sometimes teachers cannot engage the students in creative writing exercises because of their workload, large class, and duration of the class etc. Besides this, the traditional public examinations offer little or no scope for assessment of creative writing and most students try to write the answers from their power of memorisation.
I think, both the teachers and the students just follow the prescribed textbook but have limited opportunities to practise reading. The Curriculum   and Syllabus Report (NCTB, 2012)  has allotted 40 marks for seen comprehension and 40 marks for unseen comprehension out of 200 marks in English in the secondary level (IX-X). The examination questions are set from a text and sometimes guidebooks which students have already read, which does not allow for further reading, that can develop creativity of the students. It is noted that traditional approaches also dominate in the assessment of writing. In particular, the letter/composition section, which students most often memorise, allows for little or no creativity.
There are significant drawbacks of current assessment of listening and speaking in the secondary schools in Bangladesh. Although 'The Curriculum and Syllabus Report' (NCTB, 1996 and 2012) mentioned that 'English is not a content-based subject rather it is a skill-based subject' and emphasise  assessment of the four language skills, examinations are based on two skills - reading and writing. In my recent study (research) both   teachers and students  agreed that  they pay less attention to assess listening and speaking skills and they have emphasised more students engagement for developing these two skills. These teachers also claimed that lack of confidence of the teachers, insufficient practice in the classroom resulted in the poor standard of CLT approaches in the secondary schools in Bangladesh. They also agreed that most teachers tried to avoid testing oral skills as they think it is time consuming and they found it difficult in the large class.
 In Bangladesh, speaking skills are a critical part of language learning and the teaching process and it is extremely difficult for students to master the English language in terms of speaking and listening as these are not currently assessed formally for the examination. Additionally, in most of the schools, classrooms are not well designed or furnished for assessing these skills. Besides this, they have no audio/video and other resources. Although most teachers themselves lack proficiency in spoken English, they have the requisite level of proficiency in grammar, reading and writing. In most cases teachers appear to avoid oral assessment as it is time consuming and needs lots of preparation and physical support.
There is a need for teachers to develop an awareness of how to connect the topics in the prescribed text to what students already know in terms of their language skills, personal lives, and real world situations. In my view and given the current restraints, Bangladeshi English language teachers are not yet well enough prepared to face the current challenges. If the education authority included the testing of listening and speaking skills in the assessment process for both internal and public examinations, it would be easier for the teachers to motivate the students to practise these two skills in the classroom.
As a consequence, teachers need to improve their teaching competence, including testing and evaluation in order to take responsibility for the development of oral language and devising strategies to help their learners. For this to happen, new policy guidelines for the more effective implementation of ELT programmes in Bangladesh are essential.
To incorporate listening and speaking skills in the assessment system some marks should be allocated for both, in the internal and in the public examinations. The government should recruit effective teachers and arrange training programmes for the teachers. Every school should develop a language laboratory and collect necessary materials such as audio/recording devices and other supporting materials. In every week there should be at least one class focusing on listening and speaking. And in leisure time, students can practice listening in the laboratory. The teacher must speak English in the classroom and he/she must create an English speaking environment and encourage the students to speak English.
For examination reform, language teachers should be given training at least for a month to give them better exposure to the techniques of testing different language skills and three to seven days training to construct their ideas of how to develop more reliable and valid test items for testing different language skills.
I think that some marks should be allocated by the authority for the assessment of these two skills in the public examination. These examinations could be held in the examination centre and should be assessed by some external teachers appointed by the authority.  To include these two skills in the final assessment first the teacher needs to be well trained. He/she needs dedication, effort and creativity to prepare listening texts. I think teachers need to ensure that there is enough practice in the classroom. Marks should be allocated for each skill. Different types of listening and speaking materials could be delivered. This will help us to assess our students' listening and speaking skills more successfully.
The writer is an Associate Professor of English, DSHE, MoE & PhD Research Fellow at Department of English, Jahangirnagar University. E-mail: [email protected]