Classroom practices of primary and secondary school teachers participating in English in Action (Study 2a2)

Abstract

The purpose of this study (Study 2a2) was to ascertain whether changes in the classroom practice of teachers and students participating in English in Action (EIA) had been sustained over the period of the pilot school interventions. As far as possible, the results of this study were compared to: (i) those observed in a baseline study of a sample of schools prior to the interventions (Baseline Study 3, EIA 2009 a & b), as well as (ii) Study 2a (EIA 2011a) on the classroom practices of primary and secondary school teachers participating in EIA, undertaken in June 2010, four months after the launch of the interventions. Like Study 2a, this follow-up investigation was a large-scale quantitative observation of teaching and language practices among teachers and students participating in the EIA primary and secondary programmes. A feature of any improved English language teaching is an increase in the amount of student talk in lessons, as well as an increase in the use of the target language by both teachers and students. Thus, this study focused upon the use of English by teachers and students, the extent of teacher and student talk time, the nature of the teacher talk, as well as the nature of the activities that students took part in. A total of 324 teachers were observed for this repeat study: 195 primary and 129 secondary teachers. Overall findings: Taken together, and in comparison with Baseline Study 3 (EIA 2009a & b), the 2010 Study 2a and the 2011 Study 2a2 indicate significant and sustained changes in classroom practices of both primary and secondary teachers as well as in the amount of English language used. In Baseline Study 3 (EIA 2009a & b), teachers were observed to be primarily reading from the textbook, rarely involving students in activities, and in two-thirds of the lessons speaking English less than Bangla. Furthermore, the students spoke in English during a lesson or had opportunities to participate actively in discussion or to answer questions in only a small proportion of lessons observed. There are some differences in the findings of the 2010 and 2011 studies. Most significantly, there was an increase in teacher presenting in 2011, with a decrease in giving feedback. There was also a decrease in the number of activities that involved pair and group work in 2011, with an increase in students speaking in chorus and in pairs