




































American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research 

 Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

ISSN 2641-7987   E-ISSN 2641-7995 

Published by American Center of Science and Education, USA 

 

19 

 

TESTING COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) 

THROUGH ENGLISH FOR TODAY (EFT) IN BANGLADESH: 

CHALLENGES FACED BY TERTIARY STUDENTS INITIALLY 
 

 

C. M. Julker Nayeen 

Independent Researcher 

Dhaka, Bangladesh 

E-mail: husain.martuza@gmail.com 

 

K. M. Anwarul Islam 

Associate Professor 

Department of Business Administration 

The Millennium University, Dhaka, Bangladesh 

PhD Candidate 

University of Selangor, Malaysia 

E-mail: ai419bankingdu@gmail.com 

 

Fatema Nusrat Chowdhury 

Assistant professor 

Department of Real Estate 

Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship 

Daffodil International University, Bangladesh 

E-mail: nusrat.bba@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd 

 

Nurul Mohammad Zayed 

Assistant Professor and Head 

Department of Real Estate 

Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh 

E-mail: Zayed.bba@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd 

 

ABSTRACT 

The idea of using language as a tool of communication is the main principle of the 

communicative language teaching (CLT) approach. English for today (EFT) as a textbook was 

designed to develop the overall English language competence at a higher secondary level. This 

paper aims at justifying the suitability of EFT for implementing communicative language 

teaching in Bangladesh. This study shows English for today is not effective for creating 

communicative competence among its learners. Moreover, the tertiary students initially face 

challenges while enrolling in undergraduate programs under the medium of instruction is 

English. Data have been collected through classroom observation, interviews with teachers, 

students, and experts. Structured questionnaires for students, teachers, and experts have been 

used as tools for data collection. Finally, the paper concludes that revised abbreviations may be 

suitably adaptable to impose a communicative language teaching approach by overcoming the 

challenges in the large classrooms in Bangladesh. 

mailto:husain.martuza@gmail.com
mailto:ai419bankingdu@gmail.com
mailto:nusrat.bba@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd
mailto:Zayed.bba@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd


www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr          American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research            Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

 

20 

 

Keywords: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Grammar-translation Method (GTM), 

English for Today (EFT), Four Language Skills, Tertiary Students, Challenges. 

 

INTRODUCTION 

Since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, there have been many policy changes regarding 

the teaching and learning of English. The English textbooks also underwent a lot of changes and 

revisions. The existing English for Today (EFT) was designed and introduced as a textbook 

among the students of higher secondary level in 2001 to introduce Communicative language 

teaching (CLT) replacing the earlier method known as Grammar Translation Method (GTM). At 

first, CLT was introduced in 1997 in-class Seven, in 1998 in-class Eight, in 1999 in class nine, 

and in 2001 at Higher Secondary level. Despite all these changes, no remarkable improvement 

has been found in the overall English competence of students in Bangladesh. According to the 

preface, this book is based on the principle of learning a language by practicing it. This practice 

covers four skills- listening, speaking, reading, and writing to facilitate students to use English 

appropriately for practical purposes in different situations. But in reality, only two skills- reading 

and writing are evaluated with the other two skills not tested in the final examination. This leads 

to neglecting the development of listening and speaking skills. Every lesson of each unit of the 

textbook contains one or two passages that do not sometimes meet the purpose of the students’ 

learning. Some of the units contain backdated and irrelevant content in the passage. As a result, 

when the learners of higher secondary level passed and enrolled in an English based 

undergraduate program, they face failing in communicative competence initially. Thus the CLT 

cannot justify the proper communication buildup strategy from the root level.  

 

LITERATURE REVIEW 

In 1972, Hymes coined the term communicative competence and emphasized not only the 

knowledge of the language but also the ability how to use the language in communication to 

contrast a communicative view of language.  

In 1981 Littlewood stated CLT is that it advocates going beyond teaching grammatical 

rules of the target language and recommended that by using the target language in a meaningful 

way, learners will develop communicative competence.  

In 1986, Richards and Rodgers agreed with Hymes’s law and figured out CLT is the 

modification of the British language teaching convention dating from the late 1960s. They 

emphasized the basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities in the CLT approach. 

In 2000, Larsen- Freeman said the communicative approach in language learning and teaching 

considers that the primary focus of language learning is to build up communicative competence 

and to be able to use the language appropriately in a given social context.  

In 2006, Richards defined Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as a set of 

principles about the objectives of language teaching, the types of classroom activities that 

effectively promote learning, and the responsibility of teachers and learners in the classroom. But 

in 2007 Savignon argued CLT as a teaching method rather, CLT is an approach that understands 

the language to be inseparable from individual identity and social behavior. But in 2014 Shurovi 

and in 2015 Rahman and  Karim agree the goal of CLT is improving learners' communicative 

competence. Later in 2019, Ahmed added the conversation capability should be ensured by 

enduring the efficiency of self-driven exercise for students. 



www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr          American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research            Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

 

21 

 

In 1997, NCTB guidelines uphold in the secondary and higher secondary level, public 

examinations in Bangladesh should test English language skills rather than students’ ability to 

memorize and copy without understanding matching with the principle of the CLT approach.  

 

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 

The main objective of the study is to explore how far the book English for today for classes XI-

XII is suitable for creating communicative competence among its learners. To achieve this 

objective, the study determines the following specific objectives-teachers’ evaluation of the 

textbook, teaching methods-techniques in the classroom by teachers, the system of education 

prevailing in the country, and tools used by the teachers and students in the classroom. 

 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 

Multiple triangulation approaches that include classroom observation, interviews, and 

questionnaires have been followed to generate data to answer the research questions. This study 

has involved subjects of 3 categories: experts knowing syllabus design and evaluation, teachers 

teaching EFT at the higher secondary level and Students reading this book as their textbook. All 

the subjects have been interviewed with 3 different structured questionnaires- questionnaires for 

experts, questionnaires for teachers, and questionnaires for students. Subjected are from both 

urban and rural areas of Bangladeshi living in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Sylhet.  

The data have been collected from higher secondary classes that follow the national curriculum. 

The target group of this study was the students of classes XI-XII, teachers, and experts of 

different colleges and universities. The participants are 30 teachers from five colleges, 50 

students from each college in five separate districts, and 5 experts from three universities in 

Dhaka and Chittagong. The collected data have been analyzed by simple count and percentage 

and shown in the form of tables according to the nature of the information.  

 

DISCUSSION 

Application of CLT through EFT in Bangladesh 

The textbook EFT for higher secondary classes prescribed by the NCTM was designed focused 

focusing on the communicative functions of language. The syllabus based on the principles of 

the CLT was designed to serve the purpose of making the learners competent in both receptive 

and gives importance to functional aspects of language learning. The textbook aims at providing 

ample opportunities for learners to use English for a variety of purposes in different situations. 

Some of the lessons of every unit of this book contain a range of tasks and an activity framed to 

enable learners to practice four basic skills both individually and in pairs or groups but the 

scenario throughout the country regarding the implementation of these communicative functions 

of language is sorrowful. The reality is that in classroom activities life pair work, group work, 

role play, etc for creating meaningful communication. Moreover, teachers do not use  

Target language as a medium of communication in the classroom and they also never 

encourage the learners to speak in the target language. The untrained teachers of Bangladesh do 

not have a clear idea about the CLT approach. They simply read out the passages of the lessons 

and translate them into Bangla. They try to make the students understand everything in Bangla 

avoiding the target language. Besides, the textbook lacks proper exercises that can help learners 

for meaningful communication in an interactive way. The textbook prescribes various classroom 

activities at the end of some lessons to develop learners four basic skills- listening, speaking, 

reading, and writing but practically teachers of this country emphasize reading and writing skills 



www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr          American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research            Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

 

22 

 

ignoring the other two major skills which are vitally essential for meaningful communication. On 

the other hand, many educational institutions do not have the requisite number of well-trained 

teachers and so they have to manage a very large classroom where class activities suggested by 

CLT are impossible. Besides, educational institutions can do not provide enough logistic support 

to motivate them and make their language learning interesting. The large size of the classroom, 

lack of well-trained teachers, lack of logistic support, lack of motivation among the learners, 

faulty examination system, poor infrastructure, etc hurdle to the success of the CLT approach in 

achieving communicative competence among the learners of higher secondary level in 

Bangladesh. 

 

Assessment of Experts’ View 

From the table 1, of the five experts, two say the book EFT for classes XI-XII is written on CLT 

pattern. The other two opine that the book maintains CLT. The rest one views the book is written 

partly in CLT pattern. Of the five experts, three think the book is not enough to create 

communicative competence among its learners and the rest are positive in view. All the experts 

believe that without listening and speaking skills, the book cannot create communicative 

competence. So they suggest the inclusion of these skills. Three experts opine that students do 

not fee; interested in reading this book and rest one says they do and another expert partially 

agrees on this point. As a weakness of the book, they mention the exclusion of listening skills 

and literary pieces. They, therefore, suggest their inclusion and exclusion of irrelevant and 

unnecessary lesson contents. 

 

Table 1. Experts’ view from experts as respondents 

 

1. Did EFT write in CLT pattern? Yes: 2 No: 2 Partially: 1 

2. In the textbook effective for 

creating communicative 

competence? 

Yes: 2 No: 3  

3. Listening and speaking skills 

should be included in EFT? 

Yes: 5 No: 0  

4. Is the textbook effective without 

evaluating listening and speaking 

skills in the final exam? 

Yes: 0 No: 5  

5 Are students interested in reading 

the textbook? 

Yes: 1  No: 3 Partially: 1 

6 The weakness of the book Ignoring listening speaking skills, exclusion of literary 

pieces, introducing backdated, irrelevant, and uninteresting 

lessons, the gap between the textbook contents and the test 

contents. 

7 Suggestions for standardizing the 

book 

Reducing the book in size and content, the inclusion of 

literary pieces, having language materials with exercises, 

exclusion of irrelevant, unnecessary, and uninteresting 

lessons 

8 Strength of the book Having some materials relevant to present globalized 

situation, life, culture, education, etc. 

Source: Survey Report 

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=08321b7a-ea28-4b23-b8e7-c37736b9c443%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#toc


www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr          American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research            Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

 

23 

 

Assessment of Teachers’ View 

From the table 2, of the teachers interviewed, 37% have an additional degree and 63% do not. 

37% of teachers have received training on how to teach English following CLT, and the rest 63% 

do not have. In the classroom, 3% use English always, 7% sometimes, 80% most of the time, 5% 

seldom, and 5% never. 95% of teachers speak more than students do in the class. 63% of 

teachers let their students do pair/group work and the rest 37% do not. They generally use a 

textbook, grammar book, board, chalk, duster, and marker. 56% of teachers say students do not 

feel interested to read this book and the rest say they (students) do. 76% of teachers feel 

interested to teach books and 24% do not. 24 % of teachers do not let their students relate their 

personal experience and 76% do. 73% of teachers opine that the book is not enough to create 

communicative competence among its learners and the rest 27% think it to be enough. To 

comment on the strength of the book, the teachers say that it is written on the communicative 

method. It teaches students how to write letters, reports, and paragraphs. It is good for pair/group 

work. It has some lessons on ideas related to culture, environment, life, etc. To comment on the 

weakness, the teachers say the book excludes literary pieces. It ignored listening and speaking 

skills. So, it is an incomplete book which should include listening and speaking skills to the 

question of rearrangement to be excluded. Lessons are to be selected to interest the students. 

 

Table 2. Teachers’ view from teachers as respondents 

 

1 Having any additional degrees 

in language teaching? 

Yes: 

37% 

No: 63%    

2 Receiving training on how to 

teach English?  

Yes: 

37%  

No: 63%    

3 Making students participate in 

pair work or group work? 

Yes: 

63% 

No: 37%    

4  Is EFT effective in creating 

communicative competence? 

Yes: 

27%  

No: 73%    

5 Are teachers interested in 

teaching the book? 

Yes: 

76% 

No: 24%    

6 Teachers’ using English in the 

classroom 

Always: 

3% 

Often: 

80% 

Sometimes: 

7% 

Seldom: 

5%  

Never: 5% 

7 Strength of the book Written on the communicative approach, teaching culture, how 

to write reports, letters, paragraphs, etc. some lesions on an 

idea related to life, culture, and environments. 

8  the weakness of the book Excludes literary pieces, ignores listening and speaking skills, 

contents fail to satisfy learners’ needs. Lengthy and boring text 

lacking good materials, having impractical passages without 

effective exercises for students’ practice. 

9  Suggestions to improve the 

textbook 

Listening and speaking skills to be evaluated, question item 

rearrangement to be excluded, lessons to be selected based on 

students’ need and interest, dialogues for the real-life situation 

to be included, irrelevant and unnecessary passages to be 

excluded, and effective exercises to be introduced after every 

lesson for students’ practice. 

Source: Survey Report 

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=08321b7a-ea28-4b23-b8e7-c37736b9c443%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#toc


www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr          American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research            Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

 

24 

 

Assessment from Students View 

From table 3, of the 50 students interviewed, only 3% speak English always, 5% most of the time 

and 7%sometimes, 5% seldom and 80% never. 3% of students always participate in pair work or 

group work, 10% usually, 7% sometimes and 80% never. Again 85% of students get never 

interactive classes, 5% always get and 10% sometimes get. 60% of the student feel interested to 

read the book and the rest do not. 50% of students are satisfied with the book and the rest 50% 

are not satisfied. 75% of students say that the book is not enough to create communicative 

competence and 25% say it is enough. To comment on the weakness of the book, the students 

say the book does not have literary pieces. Grammar is ignored in it. The lessons presented in it 

are boring. The book does not have the material needed for communication. So, it is not a 

standard book for class XI-XII. To comment on the strength of the book, the students say the 

book gives its readers cultural information. It follows communicative methods. It reflects their 

culture. It also reflects a global concern. It gives ideas about gender discrimination, world 

heritage sites, and some famous personalities home and abroad. Some students suggest the 

inclusion of good content, authentic materials, and effective exercises according to their needs 

and interests for developing their speaking and listening skills. 

 

Table 3. Students view from students as respondents 

 

1 Using English in the 

classroom 

Always: 3% Most of the time: 

5% 

Sometimes: 

7% 

Seldom: 

5%  

Never: 5% 

2 Students engaged in pair 

work, group work, or 

discussion: 

Always: 3% Usually 10%  Sometimes: 

7% 

Never: 

80% 

 

3 Having interactive 

classes 

Always: 5% Sometimes: 10%  Never: 

85% 

  

4 Students interested in 

reading the textbook 

Yes: 60% No: 40%    

5 Book effective enough to 

help learners 

communicate in English 

Yes: 30% No: 70%    

6 Strength of the book Providing cultural information, following communicative methods, 

having good vocabularies, reflecting our culture, global concern, ideas 

about various aspects, etc. 

8  the weakness of the book Having no literary piece, ignoring grammar, boring lessons not 

effective for communication, in many lessons difficult language. 

9 Language activities are 

done in the classroom 

Reading the textual passage, translating the passage into Bangla, 

practicing grammatical rules, vocabulary, various question items, and 

free handwriting. 

10  Suggestions to improve 

the textbook 

The inclusion of literary pieces by native writers, listening and 

speaking skills to be evaluated, rearrangement to be excluded, question 

patterns to be changed, selection of good contents according to 

learners’ needs and interests, having topics on a real-life situation. 

Source: Survey Report 

 

 



www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr          American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research            Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

 

25 

 

Limitations of tertiary students in Bangladeshi Context  

In Bangladesh, English is taught from grade one to grade twelve as a compulsory subject. 

However, many students in Bangladesh cannot develop the ability to use English appropriately in 

real-life communication even after completing twelve years of education. After the Higher 

secondary level, the vast size of the student gets admitted in the undergraduate programs taught 

in English. But they lack communicative competencies which were the main concern of the CLT 

approach. Fifteen years have passed since CLT was introduced in Bangladesh, and still many 

students in Bangladesh do not have the expected level of communicative competence in English. 

Therefore, it is important to look into the factors that hinder the successful implementation of 

CLT in Bangladesh. Based on the previous research, shows that large class sizes, mismatches 

between curriculum and assessment, cultural inappropriateness, lack of training, and poor 

socioeconomic conditions are the major challenges to implementing CLT in Bangladesh. 

Furthermore, teachers’ evaluation, teaching methods, and techniques, the system of education, 

and tools used for teaching and learning have been focused on this study. 

 

FINDINGS 

The textbook EFT for higher secondary classes proves itself a failure to meet the objectives of 

the CLT approach. It was found to be unsuitable and inadaptable for the students in the 

Bangladeshi context. The large size of the classroom, lack of well-trained teachers, lack of 

logistic support from the government and institutions, lack of motivation among the learners, 

faulty examination system, poor infrastructure, and learning atmosphere, the textbook without 

good contents and curriculum, etc. altogether hurdle the suitability and adaptability of the 

textbook in applying CLT to achieve communicative competence among the learners of higher 

secondary level of Bangladesh. 

 

RECOMMENDATION 

In the Context of CLT 

Though CLT has been used for many years in Bangladesh for teaching and learning the English 

language, it still has not been adequately used to develop critical thinking. CLT is based on 

learning by doing approach and focuses on participatory processes where every student can get 

equal opportunity and learn accordingly even in a classroom with a large number of students. 

However, CLT is only exercised to get fluency in communication. The data of this study support 

this. Students were found to be doing better in written skills comparing oral skills. However, 

functional communicative competence in English in itself is not enough to fulfill the aspiration 

of preparing Bangladeshi students to become global citizens. Our students need not only 

improved communication strategies but also strategies to examine and critique received ideas to 

live and negotiate one’s position in terms of international influences and to understand, and 

balance, power status in this age of internationalism. CLT could be utilized using appropriate 

themes in classrooms to facilitate students thinking about others and evaluating positions in this 

world. So my suggestion is that our Bangladesh curriculum needs a mix of critical literary topics 

in the textbooks, use of student responsive pedagogy, and a positive attitudinal change towards 

learning English as a language. Such change could extend language learning into developing 

critical awareness about global needs, possibilities, and limitations. 

 

 

 



www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr          American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research            Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

 

26 

 

 In the Context of EFT 

To get the expected outcomes from the communicative language teaching approach, the 

following suggestions are proposed for EFT. First of all, listening and speaking skills ignored in 

EFT are to be included. The book must be taught and read as suggested in it. Instructors are to be 

trained to teach the book. The size of the class must be smaller. It should consist of 25-30 

students to ensure their active and equal participation in classroom activities. Therefore, English 

teachers have to be properly trained to teach the English language according to the 

communicative language teaching approach. However, if the examination system is not properly 

taken care of to prevent the students from memorization, no measure will work for the 

improvement of the English language skills of the movement. 

Finally, for implementing all these measures, proper coordination is needed among all the 

factors influencing English education in Bangladesh. The realization that brought about the 

changes in the national curriculum by introducing compulsory English for all levels of education 

will go in vain without a concerted effort in the total procedure of policy-making to make the 

policies successful and sustainable. 

 

CONCLUSION 

The textbook EFT for higher secondary level, to a great extent, fails to create communicative 

competence among its learners making them able to communicate with others in different 

situations. Although the textbook EFT is designed on the principles of CLT, the lack of proper 

coordination among the factors of the CLT approach has brought about its failure in Bangladesh. 

These discrepancies among the factors are so-called teaching methods (GTM), faulty 

examination systems, untrained teachers, unusually large classrooms, lack of proper learning 

atmosphere, lack of logistic supports, de-motivated students, etc. If the teachers are well-trained 

in the CLT approach and if the teachers and learners play their proper roles imposed by the CLT 

curriculum, the concept of the CLT approach will be successfully implemented. Finally, the book 

EFT is an attempt to introduce communicative English. As an introducer, it has initiated some 

loopholes. It is edited and revised; it may be a good book that will keep pace with the demand of 

the day. 

 

REFERENCES 

Ahmed, P. (2019). English learning with CLT. Times Review of Literate: English, 4 (1), 70-78. 

Hymes, D. H. (1972). On Communicative Competence. In J. B. Pride, & J. Holmes (Eds.), 

Sociolinguistics: Selected Readings (pp. 269-293). Harmondsworth: Penguin 

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and principles in language teaching (Second ed.). (R. 

N. Campbell, & W. E. Rutherford, Eds.) New York: Oxford Univeristy Press. 

Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching: an Introduction. Cambridge: 

Cambridge University Press. 

Rahman, M. S., & Karim, S. (2015). Problems of CLT in Bangladesh: Ways to improve. 

International Journal of Education, Learning and Development, 3 (3), 75-87. 

Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (1986). Approaches and methods in language teaching: A 

description and analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Richards, J. C. (2006). Communicative language teaching today. New York: Cambridge  

University Press 

Savignon, S. J. (2007). Beyond communicative language teaching: Waht's ahead. Journal of 

Pragmatics, 39, 207-220.  



www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr          American International Journal of Education and Linguistics Research            Vol. 3, No. 2; 2020 

 

27 

 

Shurovi, M. (2014). CLT and ELT in Bangladesh: Practice and prospect of speaking and 

listening. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 5(6), 1263-1268. 

 
 

Copyrights  

Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the 

journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative 

Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 


