An Exploratory Study on the Integration of Speaking Activities in EAP course book (English for Today, Class 8) in Bengali medium schools: Expectations and Reality

Abstract

This study investigates on the effectiveness of speaking activities given in the textbook ‘English for Today’ for class 8 Bengali medium students designed by following Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach by National Curriculum and Textbook Board and Ministry of Education Bangladesh. Speaking skill is one of the most important part of language learning and as English is a global language, speaking English helps to create identity of an individual which became mandatory for everyone not only to communicate but in every aspect of life. This study also pays attention on the learners’ expectation and the reality of the textbook. The purpose of this research paper is to seek out if the textbook ‘English for Today’ has adequate speaking activities for class 8 students and the researcher endeavor to discover if those speaking activities fulfilled the need and expectations of the learners. This mixed method research surveyed on 90 participants from different age group and different region of Bangladesh and 6 graduate participants who have more experience and can do their need analysis were interviewed for this research. Besides, this exploratory study is supposed to give a clear understanding on the learners’ experience on the textbook learning and how learners from different age group face challenges, their English speaking capability at that level and henceforth despite reading the textbook ‘English for Today’. The outcome of this study shows that the textbook ‘English for Today’ for class 8 contains inadequate speaking activities and the book has significantly failed to accomplish its target and learners need although to some extent the textbook has reached its target. Additionally, some suggestion on the speaking activities collected from the experienced learners to update the textbook according to their need, interest and expectation.