A Webinar of the Department of English

The Department of English arranged a Webinar on ‘The Challenges of Teaching English at the Tertiary Level in Bangladesh’ on October 31, 2020, using BdREN. The welcome address was given by Prof. Syed Anwarul Huq, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, BUBT. He pointed out the inability of tertiary level students to produce correct sentences for which they cannot be awarded a good grade. This is a challenge for both the teachers and students. Prof. Dr. Muhammed Fayyaz Khan, Vice Chancellor of BUBT, graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. He also talked about the students’ lack of proficiency at the tertiary level. He expressed his hope that the webinar would be helpful for both the faculty members and students of the Department of English and that suggestions would come up for improving the communication skills of the students.

The Guest of Honour of the event was Professor Md. Abu Saleh, member, BUBT Trust and Advisor, BUBT. The Keynote Speaker was Dr. Tazin Aziz Chowdhury, Professor, Department of English, University of Dhaka. The other paper presenters were Rasheda Naznin, Assistant Professor of English, and Fahmida Akhter, Assistant Professor of English.

Dr. Aziz focused on the necessity of teachers’ adaptability to the context, use of real-life oriented materials and activities considering students’ needs and requirements. She also introduced the idea of team teaching to teach English. Ms. Naznin and Ms. Akhter pointed out that challenges of teachers at the tertiary level are teaching methodologies, students’ incompetence, and lack of infrastructure. They made some effective suggestions, such as, ensuring task motivation, giving portfolio assignment, providing appropriate and positive feedback, teaching with fun, ensuring resources for students’ listening and speaking practice, training for teachers, maintaining appropriate teacher-student ratio and proper sitting arrangements, taking diagnostic tests, etc.

The discussants were Prof. Syed Anwarul Huq, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, BUBT, Mohammad Shawkat Ali, Chairman, Department of English, and Md. Sabbir Ahmed, Assistant Professor of English. They held that large classrooms and students’ lack of proficiency and motivation are the major challenges for the teachers. They suggested that teachers should be serious, sincere, and devoted, so that they can make the students’ ready and motivated to learn English in the class. They also agreed that the effective suggestions made by the speakers should be implemented immediately. The speakers also answered the questions raised by the discussants and other faculty members.

Professor Dr. Syed Masud Husain, Dean, Faculty of Business also made some remarks about the webinar. He opined that besides the English teachers, other teachers in a department should teach English in their classes to make the teaching of English successful. The webinar was hosted by Tarin Binte Enam, Lecturer in English. The program ended with the concluding remarks by the Chairman of the department.