Speaking Assessment at Secondary and Higher Secondary Levels and Students’ Deficiency in Speaking Skill: A Study to Find Interdependence

For a comprehensive development of students’ communication skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking are equally important to be emphasized. At the learning process, assessment is the final step where the learners get feedback of what they have been taught and how much they have learned. The study aims to show the current approach of assessing students’ English speaking skill (the most important medium of communication) at the Secondary and Higher Secondary levels, and how far this approach helps students develop language skills. Finally, the study intends to find out the reason of students’ reluctance in improving English speaking skill and evaluate their sufferings at the tertiary level. A survey was conducted among one hundred students of three private universities. Majority of them have come from Bangla medium institutions. The syllabuses (2008), text books and question papers (2006 to 2010) are used as reference for this study. The research was exploratory and three private universities of Dhaka city were selected as study area. Irrespective of the discipline of the study, 100 students were interviewed through a structured questionnaire. The academic practice of the students in secondary and higher secondary levels was portrayed retrospectively and the obstacles they were facing at the tertiary level were analysed according to the objective of the study. This is also a finding which shows a rift between the objective of introducing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the assessment technique followed by National Curriculum and Text Books Board. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14476 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 234-251

Teaching Speaking Through Public Speaking Course

In Bangladesh, English is taught as a foreign language. The English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) introduced commutative textbooks in between 1992 to 2001 from class three to the higher secondary level. The main aim of ELTIP is to facilitate the teaching and learning of English with a methodology that will encourage students to acquire communicative competence in English through regular practice of these skills. Each of the books contains many tasks on speaking, but unfortunately in reality there is no practice and reflection of this skill. The speaking skill is never examined in S.S.C. and H.S.C. exam though in the English medium schools the scenario is totally opposite. Now the students who get admitted in the private universities having a very poor competency in speaking face great problems from the very beginning because English is the medium of instruction in these universities and general English courses are compulsory for all students. Very few students are capable of understanding lectures given in English. So conducting the class in English becomes a great challenge for all teachers. In my paper, I intend to analyse some factors that are closely related with teaching speaking. Then I will try to evaluate how Public Speaking course at Stamford University Bangladesh plays a vital role in teaching speaking, and our teachers’ and learners’ opinions regarding this course. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14473 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 183-203

Effectiveness of role play in enhancing the speaking skills of the learners in a large classroom: An investigation of tertiary level students

This investigation looks at enhancement in learners’ speaking skills through role play in groups in a large classroom and this study also examines the teacher’s assessment of students for further development of their speaking skills. About one-hundred twenty students of the department of English, Stamford University Bangladesh were involved in this investigation process from January 2012 until April 2012 in the speaking classes. For the research, qualitative data were collected in the form of questionnaires, group interviews, classroom observation, and students’ performance evaluation result. The result from class room observations of students’ performance has been presented in the form of graphic analysis. The result shows learners’ improvement in speaking skills through role play and how the positive attitudes of teachers help to further their speaking skills. From the response of the student’s questionnaire it has become obvious that role play has been enthusiastically accepted by the students as it challenges their creativity and ability to think critically, which enables them to speak more logically and confidently in the classroom. The result of the group interview shows the advantages and disadvantages of students’ performance while doing the role play in groups inside the classroom and it also helps students to overcome inhibition when it comes to speaking in front of others. Through classroom observation the teacher identifies students’ ability to adapt with the situational factors and also measures their fluency and use of accurate language by recording their performances. The teacher also records the gradual progress of students for further development of their speaking skills and ascertains how beneficial it is to do role play in a large classroom. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14475 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 218-233

Bangla to English Code Switching in Bangladeshi Commercial Cinema

The language of media, especially language of cinema is relatively an unexplored area in the field of academic research. In Bangladeshi commercial cinema, it is often noticed that actors switch their codes from Bangla to English while speaking. However, it should not be thought that in cinema code switching is done without any reason; rather code switching in the dialogues is designed to convey the intended meaning. Therefore, it is important to investigate the phenomenon of code switching in Bangladeshi commercial cinema from an academic point of view. This research is descriptive and qualitative in nature. Its purpose is to find out the reasons and types of code switching which are found in the commercial films of Bangladesh. For this research, data are collected from commercial Bangladeshi films and interviews have been conducted with experts from linguistics and film background. After collecting the data, they are transcribed, tabulated and analyzed in terms of the research objectives. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14479 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 263-285

The Labyrinth of ‘The Liberator’: Márquez’s Historical Character in Freudian Light

not available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14480 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 286-295

The Sources of Magic Realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

not available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14477 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 252-262

Influence of Doraemon on Bangladeshi Children: A CDA perspective

Cartoon series are basically for the children’s entertainment. Sometimes not only the children but also the adults enjoy cartoon series. According to Waiming (2002), Doraemon is now a popular culture in Japan. It is so much popular that Disney channel is telecasting this series in Hindi language. This paper is a critical discourse analysis of how a Japanese anime of Hindi language is embedding Hindi language into the Bangladeshi children of age 3 to 8 years. This paper discusses the reasons for the exercise of Hindi language by the Bangladeshi children and the use of Hindi language instead of English after watching Doraemon. These little children are using Hindi words with Bangla language. This sort of use of Hindi language is actually a way of dominating Bangla language, and a reason for linguistic imperialism. This paper also discusses how Doraemon has cultural effects in Bangladesh. For data collection, 500 children and 100 families were interviewed from the urban area of Bangladesh. Theoretical framework is done on Saussure’s Semiotics theory, and Phillipson’s (1992) language and cultural imperialism theory. From this data, it is found out that the children of Bangladesh are using Hindi Language mostly. They prefer to talk in Hindi than English language. Parents are facing social problems also DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14474 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 204-217

Kim and A Passage to India: A Binary of Colonial Attitude

In modern linguistics binary distinctions are fundamental and many social and cultural phenomena are based on binary oppositions. Even many stereotypes of culture get formulated on the basis of binary oppositions: “If you are not with me you are against me” (Hawthorn 29) is a cultural imposition of a binary opposition upon variations of attitude. Looking down upon the natives of the Subcontinent as a people, devoid of civilization, colonial authors produced the stereotypes of attitude which remained unchanged, fortified by prejudices and cultural biases. Reading of colonial texts which are based on Indian setting, reveals these stereotypes. Rudyard Kipling’s Kim and E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India pictured colonial India from European perspective, degrading it to the level of a land of mystery, muddle, inactivity and lethargy. Both the texts depicted India as a binary opposition of Europe, formulated with cultural biases and prejudices emerging out of the boastfulness of the colonizers as the light givers of civilization to the rest of the globe. But it is true that every reading is a re-creation of the identity of the author and this axiom has inspired this paper to explore the basis of binary oppositions of the colonial attitude of Rudyard Kipling and E. M. Forster. This paper is also inspired by the perception that literary and cultural phenomena are based upon binary oppositions and in the days of postcolonial theory binary oppositions have become fundamental to many recent literary works. Keeping this in mind, this paper seeks to explore Kipling’s Kim and E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India in colonial perspective and present binary distinctions of their attitude towards India. Both the authors have chosen India as setting of their above mentioned novels and their observation of the East and the West produced binary distinctions between Europe and the Subcontinent. This paper has made a deconstructionist analysis of these stereotypes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14469 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 129-144

Learning from Mistakes: Using Correction Code to Improve Student’s Writing Skill in English Composition Class

Selecting a right way to provide students with error feedback in their writing has proved to be a complex task for researchers in language pedagogy. Although a lot of studies have been conducted to examine this issue, the teachers are still following their own way of error feed back. So the researchers feel that there is a need to conduct different sort of studies to find out an effective way of error feedback. The present study with 20 participants in second trimester university level proves that students prefer coded feedback more as in this process of error feedback teachers show the error and its type by using a certain code or symbol. This study also shows that the students benefit more from having coded feedback over non-coded feedback. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14463 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 62-86

Desdemona’s Handkerchief: Its Symbolic Significance

not available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14471 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 159-168