AMIN RAHMAN (ZAMOSC)

TEACHING SPOKEN ENGLISH TO LEARNERS IN REMOTE AREAS OF BANGLADESH VIA ZOOM : SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

In Bangladesh, English is taught as a compulsory subject from grade I to grade 12, It is the language of instruction and examination in private universities for tertiary study. But as students are not taught in spoken English, even those who have obtained masters in English, have difficulty communicating in English. In this presentation, it will be demonstrated how it was possible to teach spoken English to rural learners in remote areas of Bangladesh, using simple and very effective techniques via Zoom. The techniques employed help learners to first overcome English phobia and, then slowly but surely, gain confidence to become fluent English speakers with the capability to speak on any topic, both in a group setting and on one-on-one basis, with intelligible pronunciation, which all, both Native English speakers, as well as, non-Native English speakers, who are not Bangladeshis, can easily understand. The Zoom speaking sessions are free and live streamed on Face Book. Learners, from anywhere in the world, are able to watch them at their leisure to learn from the videos. They may use similar techniques, either in the same form or modify them to suit their local environment, to teach other learners, either within their community or remotely to people in other regions. Finally, as the videos are available on FB, researchers on SLA and Language Education may find answers to some of their research questions by taking data from these videos and analysing them.

Amin is a freelance applied linguist from Bangladesh researching on English Pronunciation in Asia. He has presented at international conferences and published books, and papers in journals, on this subject. He is also involved in teaching spoken English in English Boot camps and remotely via Zoom.