| Introduction | | | | speaking learner due to the differences between the |
| Foreign language learning occurs in the formal situation | | | | L1 and the L2, and the ineffective teaching as well. |
| of a classroom, and the learner has hardly any access | | | | Seventhly, the use of prepositions, particularly after |
| to the target language beyond the classroom door | | | | nouns, e.g. complaint against, confidence in, interest in, |
| (Brown 2001). And in this formal situation, he/she | | | | exception to, doubt about, etc, after verbs, e.g. aim at, |
| receives instruction and practises in the items entirely | | | | believe in, arrive at/in, congratulate on, conform to, etc |
| related to the basic skills of the target language– | | | | and after adjectives, e.g. angry with/at, afraid of, |
| listening, speaking, reading and writing. That is, the items | | | | confident of, proud of, related to, deprived of, |
| taught and learned are linguistically related to and | | | | dependent on/upon/for, etc is a great problem to the |
| considered at different levels– phonetics, phonology, | | | | Bengali speaking learner since he/she simply gets them |
| morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. While | | | | by heart and hardly practises in authentic situations. |
| learning the foreign language, the learner usually | | | | Eighthly, the Bengali speaking EFL learner suffers a lot |
| encounters varied linguistic problems that evidently | | | | of problems with subject-verb agreement, for |
| handicap and hamper his/her learning and eventually | | | | example, in ‘Shoilee as well as her parents is/(are) |
| negatively affect his/her general proficiency as well. | | | | going to London to spend the vacation.’ which |
| This phenomenon is also found in the learning of | | | | receives inadequate treatment in the teaching. |
| English as a foreign language (EFL) by the Bengali | | | | Ninthly, the formation and use of passive sentences, |
| speaking learner. | | | | e.g. ‘My pen is lost.’ and reported speeches |
| Both as a learner and a teacher-researcher of EFL, I | | | | ‘She said she would learn Bengali’ are difficult to |
| have had first-hand experience and the opportunity to | | | | the Bengali speaking learner as he/she is neither |
| observe that the Bengali speaking learner confronts | | | | adequately and properly exposed to the rules nor |
| difficulty in learning English pronunciation including | | | | offered opportunity of taking practice in some |
| sounds, stress and intonation related to the phonetic | | | | authentic situations. |
| and phonological level. He/she often finds English word | | | | To be brief, the learner confronts problems with almost |
| formation and sentence construction, respectively | | | | all the grammatical categories of the English language |
| concerned with the morphological and syntactic level, | | | | since he/she is actually taught about the items, but not |
| quite problematic. Moreover, the learner suffers | | | | the items themselves (Richards and Rodgers 1986) in |
| problems in learning vocabulary items and to convey | | | | the way these are used in real life situations. Moreover, |
| meanings through and/or receive meanings of words, | | | | the difficulty of English sentence structures to Bengali |
| phrases, clauses, sentences/utterances, discourse, and | | | | speaking EFL learners can also considerably be |
| so forth related to the semantic and pragmatic level. | | | | attributed to the differences between the L1 and the |
| Such problems obviously seriously retard the learning | | | | L2. |
| of EFL by the Bengali speaking learner. | | | | Semantic and pragmatic problems |
| Therefore, it seems reasonable to take account of | | | | To perceive meanings of and to produce meanings by |
| and identify what linguistic problems the Bengali | | | | using English words/phrases and utterances |
| speaking EFL learner encounters and why. The | | | | sentences in isolation or with reference to the context |
| consideration and interpretation of the issue in question | | | | of situation often pose serious problems to the Bengali |
| are completely based on my practical experience as a | | | | speaking EFL learner since he/she has to mostly |
| learner and on my observation as a | | | | depend on his/her mechanical memorization of |
| teacher-researcher of EFL. Finally, a number of | | | | meanings of isolated words as they are mainly |
| suggestions have been made so as to address and | | | | non-contextually and unscientifically designed in the |
| lessen the problems, on the one hand, and ensure the | | | | lesson and presented by the teacher in the classroom. |
| smooth and optimal learning of EFL on the other. | | | | In other words, the learner evidently encounters |
| Phonetic and phonological problems | | | | semantic and pragmatic difficulty in learning vocabulary |
| Since English is a non-phonetic language and there is | | | | items and using them for effective communication in |
| no one-to-one correspondence between the | | | | the real life situation. In the Bangladeshi classroom, the |
| graphemes (the letters of the alphabet) and the | | | | learner is usually instructed to learn English words |
| sounds actually produced and realized, at the phonetic | | | | phrases including synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, |
| and phonological level, the Bengali speaking EFL learner | | | | homonyms, etc and their meanings mainly through |
| usually faces difficulties in, firstly, ‘speech | | | | non-contextualized ways, such as memorizing isolated |
| production’ encompassing which articulator(s) to | | | | words/phrases and their meanings, translating from the |
| use how to pronounce which speech sound and how | | | | mother tongue to the target language, and vice versa. |
| to pattern speech sounds to convey meaning and, | | | | As a result, his/her stock of words/phrases is very |
| secondly, in ‘speech perception’ covering how | | | | limited, on the one hand, and on the other, he/she |
| to receive which speech sound(s) to perceive | | | | cannot effectively and efficiently use even the limited |
| meaning. It is commonly found in the elementary | | | | number of words/phrases that he/she retains in his/her |
| learner that he/she endeavours to learn pronunciations | | | | day-to-day life communication. |
| of words by looking at their spellings, and consequently | | | | Moreover, English phrasal verbs being constituted of |
| learns mispronunciations of many of them, for | | | | ‘verb plus particle’, e.g. carryout, get into, lay by, |
| example, adjective, adjustment, future, knee, | | | | look up, make up with, put up, set forth, take after, etc |
| knowledge, lamb, comb, lieutenant, calm, palm, | | | | and idiomatic expressions, e.g. by the by, on the whole, |
| pneumonia, psychology, Wednesday, etc. This mainly | | | | cats and dogs, blue blood, a storm in a tea pot, etc |
| happens due to faults in teaching, indifference of the | | | | having special meanings and functions often pose |
| teacher to how the learner learns pronunciations of | | | | serious problems to the learner and substantially |
| difficult words/expressions and the teacher’s lack | | | | hamper his/her learning. In this connection, Roza (2005: |
| of training. Let us now identify the problems that the | | | | 95) maintains - |
| Bengali speaking EFL learner confronts at the phonetic | | | | Words that are different in form and represent |
| and phonological level and explain the causes of the | | | | meanings that are ‘strange’ to speakers of a |
| problems under some sub-headings. | | | | particular native language, that is, meanings that |
| Monophthongs and diphthongs | | | | represent a different grasp of reality, are classified as |
| The Bengali speaking EFL learner generally finds the | | | | difficult. In English, ‘first floor’ is different in form |
| five long monophthongs /¡: u: a: ?: ?/ of the English | | | | from Bengali ‘prothom tala’ because European |
| language seriously problematic since these simple | | | | houses have an extra floor in the ground. |
| vowels are not available in his/her mother tongue and | | | | The difficulty in learning and using these items can be |
| he/she is not accustomed to differentiating between | | | | mainly attributed to their characteristic peculiarities as |
| short and long monophthongs. To emphasize a point or | | | | well as the learner’s entire dependence on his/her |
| express various emotional effects, Bengali vowels are | | | | memorization and the non-contextualized reproduction. |
| lengthened to some degree. But vowel length in the | | | | Besides, the consideration of literal meanings of these |
| Bengali language is phonetic, not phonological. Besides, | | | | items may cause confusion and misunderstanding. For |
| the Bengali speaker cannot easily and authentically | | | | example, if an office peon is ordered to ‘put up’ |
| pronounce schwa /?/ since this phoneme is absent | | | | (meaning ‘display’) a notice and he/she |
| from their first language. Moreover, he/she can hardly | | | | considers the literal meaning of ‘put and up’, he |
| differentiate between /e/ and /æ/ as in ‘men’ | | | | she will simply put the notice in a higher position where |
| and ‘man’ respectively because this | | | | others cannot easily reach and see the notice. |
| differentiation is not that much exercised in Bengali. In | | | | In short, semantic and pragmatic problems seriously |
| addition, the Bengali speaking learner is used to | | | | hamper the learning of the target language by Bengali |
| nasalization of vowels without any nasal consonant in | | | | speaking EFL learner since he/she is exposed to a |
| his/her mother tongue, for instance, the first vowel in | | | | limited number of isolated words/phrases and |
| the word ‘kada’ /k?nð?/(weeping) or the only | | | | utterances/sentences and not made accustomed to |
| vowel in the word ‘chad’ /??nd/ (moon) being | | | | using them in performing actual speech acts in real life |
| clearly nasalized. This factor occasionally affects his | | | | situations. |
| her pronunciation of English vowels devoid of | | | | Conclusions and possible solutions |
| nasalization. | | | | The foregoing explication, exemplification, analysis and |
| The learner also suffers difficulty in pronouncing English | | | | interpretation have made it clear that the Bengali |
| diphthongs due to his/her mother tongue interference. | | | | speaking EFL learner encounters phonetic, phonological, |
| The English language has eight diphthongs, each of | | | | morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic |
| which is a combination of two monophthongs one | | | | problems due to two fundamental causes? one |
| gliding into the other and naturally longer than a pure | | | | resulting from the differences between the mother |
| vowel. On the other hand, the Bengali language | | | | tongue and the target language and the other from the |
| possesses eighteen regular diphthongs which are | | | | teaching process basically constituted of the syllabus, |
| characteristically different from and shorter than | | | | the teacher, the teaching method, material, equipment |
| English ones. As a consequence, the Bengali speaking | | | | and testing. To address and lessen the problems, on |
| learner pronounces only the first part of a diphthong | | | | the one hand, and to ensure the smooth and optimal |
| and makes it identical with a monophthong, for | | | | learning of EFL on the other, proper measures have to |
| example, ‘late’ being pronounced like ‘let’. | | | | be taken to reduce the causes to a substantial extent. |
| Hasan (2000: 66) rightly holds - | | | | The difficulties created by the differences between |
| They mispronounce most of the English diphthongs; | | | | the first language and the target language and/or by |
| they fail to give these sounds their due length as they | | | | the mother tongue interference are natural and can be |
| often pronounce only the first element of the sound | | | | mitigated by only appropriately treating them in the |
| and pay no heed to the second, thus the English | | | | teaching process which explicitly deals with linguistic |
| diphthongs cease to be gliding sounds in their | | | | elements. The learner’s needs and wants therefore |
| pronunciation, e.g. for English /e?/ and /?U/, they | | | | have a conspicuously direct relation to syllabus |
| generally use the Bangla pure vowels /e/ and /?/ | | | | construction, the teacher’s qualification and training, |
| respectively. | | | | materials development, use of equipment and the |
| This type of replacement of phonemes in the English | | | | testing instrument as Haque and Maniruzzaman (1994: |
| language certainly results in huge confusion and | | | | 79) contend - |
| misunderstanding. | | | | ...the learners’ needs and wants tremendously |
| The problems that the Bengali speaking EFL learner | | | | control the whole package of teaching materials, aids |
| confronts in the pronunciation of English monophthongs | | | | and equipment and the application of teaching |
| and diphthongs evidently affect his/her auditory and | | | | techniques and strategies, the employment of |
| perceptive ability and hence reduce his/her capability | | | | classroom activities and most importantly, the method |
| of listening. | | | | of teaching and the construction of the syllabus. |
| Consonant phonemes | | | | That is, the teaching process has to take into account |
| As the Bengali speaking learner is naturally trained to | | | | of what linguistic items the learner needs to learn when |
| articulate Bengali consonants and as there are a lot of | | | | and why, how he/she can easily learn what he/she |
| differences between Bengali and English consonants, | | | | wants to learn, and how he/she can be used to using |
| he/she finds the pronunciations of a number of English | | | | what he/she has learned in his/her real life situations. |
| consonants difficult in both production and perception. | | | | It is inevitable that the syllabus has to contain the |
| Firstly, while the Bengali language has as many as | | | | linguistic items the learner lacks and wants in the |
| twenty plosives, the English language possesses six /p | | | | sequence in which he/she will best learn and internalize |
| b t d k g/. The Bengali speaking learner is used to using | | | | them in order to use them correctly, appropriately and |
| both aspirated and unaspirated sounds in his/her | | | | spontaneously in his/her real life communication. Corder |
| mother tongue as it has separate aspirated and | | | | (1973: 296) postulates - |
| unaspirated phonemes producing meaning difference. | | | | A finished syllabus is the overall plan for the learning |
| Unlike Bengali, the English language has no | | | | process. It, too, must specify what components, or |
| corresponding aspirated plosives, and the voiceless | | | | learning items, must be available, or learned by a |
| plosives /p t k/are aspirated in the initial position of the | | | | certain time; what is the most efficient sequence in |
| stressed syllable but unaspirated in other positions. As | | | | which they are learned; what items can be learned |
| a result, the Bengali speaking learner cannot exactly | | | | “simultaneously”; what items are available from |
| pronounce the aspirated allophones of English | | | | stock, i.e. already known; and the whole process is |
| voiceless plosives /p t k/. | | | | determined by considerations of how long it takes to |
| Secondly, the Bengali speaking EFL learner cannot | | | | produce or learn a component or item. The process is |
| exactly articulate and even perceive English | | | | under continual scrutiny by means of stock checks, or |
| inter-dental fricatives /? ð/ since there is no | | | | tests and examinations. |
| inter-dental fricatives in the Bengali language. Rather, he | | | | In other words, the syllabus first specifies the linguistic |
| she uses Bengali dental stops instead of English | | | | items according to the learner’s needs and wants. |
| inter-dental fricatives. Likewise, he/she generally uses | | | | It then orders the items as per their difficulty level and |
| Bengali aspirated bilabial stops /ph/ and /bh/ in place of | | | | priorities in communication. It is specially recommended |
| English labio-dental fricatives /f/ and /v/ respectively | | | | that the items which pose serious problems to the |
| because the Bengali language lacks labio-dental | | | | learner should be given more emphasis and sufficient |
| fricatives. | | | | treatment in the syllabus. |
| Thirdly, the learner is usually unable to differentiate | | | | The learner him/herself cannot automatically take the |
| between English voiced alveolar fricative /z/, voiced | | | | responsibility of the learning task. The teacher is then |
| palato-alveolar affricate /d? / and voiced | | | | the right person to equip the learner with the capability |
| palato-alveolar fricative /? / since these sounds are | | | | of taking the responsibility of his/her own learning. And |
| not available in the Bengali language. Consequently, on | | | | to do that, the teacher has to have adequate |
| the one hand, his/her pronunciation appears to be | | | | qualification coupled with proper and perfect training. |
| non-English, and on the other, he/she often fails to | | | | More specifically, the teacher has to have a thorough |
| understand a speaker producing the sounds correctly. | | | | knowledge of the linguistic elements and a solid |
| Fourthly, the Bengali speaking learner is generally found | | | | command of all the skills of the target language, on the |
| to pronounce Bengali alveolar retroflex stops in place | | | | one hand, and adequate expertise in and experience |
| of English alveolar plosives /t /and /d/. This happens | | | | of contrastive analysis, needs analysis, syllabus design, |
| owing to the absence of alveolar plosives like English /t | | | | material construction, adaptation and adoption, teaching |
| /and /d/in his/her first language. | | | | methods, use of equipment and testing on the other. |
| Fifthly, the English approximants /w/ and /j / are | | | | To specify the teacher’s competence and role, |
| problematic to the Bengali speaking EFL learner. He | | | | Maniruzzaman (1998: 98) propounds - |
| she cannot correctly articulate them as they are not | | | | Therefore, the teacher has to be appropriately and |
| present in his/her first language. | | | | adequately trained in psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, |
| Thus the English consonants which are absent from | | | | pedagogy and the target language in order to meet |
| the Bengali language are difficult to the Bengali | | | | what the individual learner demands in the classroom. |
| speaking learner and substantially negatively affect his | | | | Thus the teacher has to have sufficient knowledge of |
| her pronunciation as well as perception. | | | | his/her area as well as the learner’s psychological, |
| Stress and intonation | | | | socio-cultural and pragmatic factors and act as a |
| Stress and intonation are two essential aspects of the | | | | facilitator of learning through his/her skills, methods, |
| pronunciation of English words and utterances. Stress | | | | instruction, strategies, materials, equipment, and so on. |
| means prominence in pronunciation usually resulting | | | | The materials to be constructed, adapted and/or |
| from four factors? loudness, length, pitch and quality | | | | adopted so as to teach the necessary and |
| operating individually or in combination (Roach 2000). | | | | problematic aspects of EFL have to conform to the |
| English words in isolation or in connected speech | | | | learner’s level, needs and interest. Firstly, they |
| receive stress that results in intonation. Intonation is | | | | should be relevant and useful, and help the learner to |
| used to carry information over and above that which | | | | feel at ease and develop confidence. Secondly, they |
| is expressed by the words in the utterance. Hence, | | | | should be friendly and related to the learner’s |
| English is a stress-timed language possessing a | | | | culture and real life activities. Thirdly, they should |
| speech rhythm in which the stressed syllables recur at | | | | achieve impact through novelty of topics, illustrations |
| equal intervals of time (Richards et al. 1985). On the | | | | and activities, variety of activities and sources, |
| contrary, the Bengali language is a syllable-timed | | | | attractive presentation and appealing content, and thus |
| language having a speech rhythm in which all the | | | | have a noticeable effect on the learner (Tomlinson |
| syllables recur at equal intervals of time. This | | | | 1998). Fourthly, they should consider the learner’s |
| difference between the two languages causes many | | | | individual factors, such as age, aptitude, attitude, |
| a problem to the Bengali speaking EFL learner. | | | | motivation, personality, learning style, intelligence, and so |
| The Bengali speaking learner faces difficulties in the | | | | forth. Fifthly, they should maximize learning potential by |
| stress placement in English words because, on the one | | | | encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and emotional |
| hand, English stress placement varies according to | | | | involvement that stimulates both right and left brain |
| grammatical categories, for example, ‘abstract, | | | | activities. Sixthly, they should require and facilitate |
| conduct, contract, contrast, import, incline, insult, perfect, | | | | learner self-investment, and provide the learner with |
| present, produce, rebel, etc’ as verbs receiving | | | | opportunities to use the target language to achieve |
| stress on the second syllables and as nouns on the | | | | communicative purposes. And the learner should be |
| first, and on the other, he/she is used to assigning | | | | provided with and exposed to the materials by |
| stress almost invariably on the first syllable of every | | | | exploiting attractive and useful means and equipment, |
| word in his/her first language. | | | | such as well-written books, colourful posters, charts |
| Unlike the Bengali language, the English language has | | | | and handouts, audio-visual aids, OHP, and the like in a |
| strong and weak forms, such as articles, pronouns, | | | | congenial and democratic classroom atmosphere. |
| auxiliaries, prepositions, etc which are usually | | | | The learner should be taught in the manner in which he |
| unstressed in connected speech. The Bengali speaking | | | | she best learns what he/she has to learn. Hence is the |
| learner can hardly use them appropriately because he | | | | importance of choosing and employing the right |
| she is not accustomed to the practice in his/her | | | | teaching method encompassing relevant materials, |
| mother tongue. | | | | proper teaching techniques and exciting classroom |
| Intonation basically resulting from the rising and falling of | | | | activities. Having come to the realization that each |
| the tone accompanied by relatively greater degree of | | | | learner has his/her own style, personality, needs, and |
| loudness and length plays varied unavoidable functions | | | | so forth, it follows that a single teaching method might |
| in the English language, such as attitudinal, accentual, | | | | not be appropriate and adequate for all the learners in |
| grammatical and discourse functions which have limited | | | | the classroom. As a consequence, the recent |
| importance in the Bengali language. Due to mother | | | | tendency has been towards eclecticism, choosing |
| tongue interference and inadequate training, the Bengali | | | | materials, techniques and classroom activities from |
| speaking learner of EFL can hardly master English | | | | various sources (Maniruzzaman 1998). |
| intonation, and his/her speech therefore sounds | | | | With a view to achieving the end, both controlled |
| unnatural and even unintelligible. | | | | practice and communicative practice as being |
| Morphological and syntactic problems | | | | complementary (Maniruzzaman 2004) can be |
| An English word may consist of one or more | | | | exploited in the classroom. To conduct controlled |
| morphemes, each of which is defined as the smallest, | | | | practice in teaching the linguistic elements, such as |
| meaningful and indivisible syntactic unit (of a given | | | | phonemes, word formation, sentence construction, etc, |
| language) and bears no partial phonetic-semantic | | | | activities can be organized rulewise and implemented in |
| resemblance to any other form (Palmer 1983). On the | | | | a process possessing different stages. For example, |
| other hand, an English sentence, the basic syntactic | | | | to teach some particular phonemes, first of all, we |
| unit, is composed of one or more words belonging to | | | | have to exhibit the phonemes and explain how are |
| different parts of speech, such as nouns, pronouns, | | | | articulated by which speech organs. To give the |
| adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions | | | | explanation up to the learner’s satisfaction, we can |
| and interjections, and governed by varied grammatical | | | | even judiciously use the learner’s mother tongue |
| categories/rules, such as tenses, aspects, persons, | | | | (Maniruzzaman 2003) as Tang (2002: 41) puts forward |
| numbers, voice, mood, and so on. However, Bengali | | | | - |
| speaking learners generally face problems with | | | | ... that limited and judicious use of the mother tongue in |
| different types of morpheme, especially grammatical | | | | the English classroom does not reduce students’ |
| morphemes, inflectional morphemes and derivational | | | | exposure to English, but rather can assist in the |
| morphemes in forming words to be used as well as | | | | teaching and learning processes. |
| with different grammatical categories and rules | | | | Afterwards, interesting and appropriate drills (as in |
| needed to frame sentences/utterances. | | | | Baker 1981) can be exploited for helping the learner |
| The Bengali speaking EFL learner, particularly one at | | | | take sufficient practice. However, as controlled |
| elementary and intermediate level finds affixation, | | | | practice having mechanical drills may sometimes be |
| especially the addition of prefixes and suffixes | | | | boring and as this type of practice cannot ensure the |
| problematic, and this hampers his/her learning to a | | | | learner’s communicative ability, we should involve |
| considerable extent. Firstly, he/she struggles to learn | | | | the learner in some meaningful, purposive and |
| the use of prefixes which are affixed before stems, | | | | communicative activities, such as role-play, pair work, |
| for example, whether to affix ‘in’- or ‘un-’ | | | | group work, etc to make learning interesting and |
| before the stem ‘complete’, ‘in-’, | | | | motivating. |
| ‘un-’ or ‘im-’ before ‘perfect’ to | | | | Different aspects of the language teaching |
| make adjectives with a negative property. Secondly, | | | | programme including the learner’s level and |
| the derivational suffixes, such as ‘-ment’, | | | | progress, the teacher’s efficiency, the |
| ‘-able’, ‘-less’, ‘-ful’, and so forth | | | | effectiveness of the material and method, etc are |
| that allow further affixation cause a lot of difficulties to | | | | assessed and determined by employing testing tools |
| the learners. Thirdly, the inflectional suffixes, such as | | | | possessing reliability, validity and practicality. This is why, |
| ‘-s’, ‘-es’, ‘-er’, ‘-est’, and | | | | the testing instrument has to be constructed and |
| others which are terminal and do not allow further | | | | employed in such a way that the learner will neither |
| affixation are also difficult to the learners. For example, | | | | lose motivation nor suffer any phobia, and the purpose |
| to pluralize nouns, the learner often gets confused | | | | will be served satisfactorily. Before the |
| about whether to add ‘-s’ or ‘-es’ to the | | | | commencement of the EFL teaching programme, a |
| end of nouns. Though the Bengali speaking learner is | | | | placement test can be given to sort out and put the |
| naturally used to using such morphemes in his/her | | | | learners into some homogeneous groups, or to place |
| mother tongue, he/she has to consciously learn the | | | | them at the stage of the teaching programme most |
| uses of English morphemes in the classroom situation. | | | | appropriate to their abilities (Hughes 1989). Then |
| But inappropriate treatment of and inadequate | | | | achievement tests can be administered to accumulate |
| emphasis on the functions and uses of the | | | | evidence during, or at the end of, the programme in |
| morphemes in the teaching result in problems to the | | | | order to determine whether and where progress has |
| learner and thus hinder his/her learning. | | | | been made in terms of the goals of learning |
| Likewise, English syntax causes serious difficulty to the | | | | (McNamara 2000). In addition, diagnostic tests can be |
| Bengali speaking EFL learner due to two major | | | | used during the programme so as to review the |
| factors? (a) differences between the L1 and the L2, | | | | progress of learning, efficiency of teaching and |
| and (b) problems in teaching material, method and | | | | effectiveness of the materials and equipment, and |
| syllabus, and consequently negatively affects his/her | | | | hence to identify their strengths and weaknesses and |
| learning. | | | | bring modification to them if needed. Finally, a general |
| Firstly, while the basic sentence structure in the English | | | | proficiency test has to be given to ascertain how far |
| language is ‘subject plus verb plus object’ | | | | the learner is able to use what he/she has learned to |
| (SVO), for example, ‘I learn English.’, that in the | | | | communicate in his/her real life situations. |
| Bengali language is ‘subject plus object plus | | | | Last but not least, syllabus designers, materials |
| verb’ (SOV), for example, ‘Aami ingregi | | | | developers and test constructors play a vital role in the |
| shikhi.’. This difference between the basic sentence | | | | successful implementation of a second/foreign |
| structures creates problems for the Bengali speaking | | | | language teaching programme. Notwithstanding, to |
| learner, especially the beginner because of his/her | | | | teach EFL especially at the primary, secondary and |
| mother tongue interference. That is, the learner often | | | | higher secondary levels in our country, foreign experts |
| thinks of things and forms ideas in his/her mother | | | | are often invited and appointed as syllabus designers, |
| tongue, and then translates the ideas into the target | | | | materials developers, and the like, but the outcome is |
| language words sometimes arranged according to the | | | | usually disappointing for the policy makers, the |
| structures in his/her first language. Further, literal | | | | teachers, the students and for the nation as a whole. |
| translations do not always help convey or receive the | | | | This is because the experts have little experience of |
| intended information. | | | | the learner’s needs, psychological factors, |
| Secondly, the Bengali speaking learner faces difficulty | | | | socio-economic condition and cultural aspects; and, as |
| with the forms, functions and uses of different parts of | | | | a result, while designing the syllabus, developing the |
| speech and their interchange according to the demand | | | | material or constructing the test, they fail to meet the |
| of the sentence, for instance, where to use an adverb | | | | learner’s needs as well as the national demand. |
| or an adjective why in a sentence, how to change a | | | | Therefore, it would be better to appoint local experts, |
| noun into an adjective, and the like. Besides, an English | | | | members of the learner’s speech community and |
| word can function as different parts of speech in | | | | culture, as syllabus designers, materials developers and |
| different positions in the sentence according to the | | | | test constructors. |
| context. For example, the word ‘round’ | | | | Acknowledgements |
| functions as five different parts of speech? adjective, | | | | I am profoundly grateful to Professor Abu Taher |
| adverb, preposition, noun and verb in five environments | | | | Mojumder, my learned colleague and Chairman of the |
| ( Hornby 2000); the stray word ‘university’ | | | | Department of English at BUBT, who gave generously |
| functions as a noun but in the sentence ‘She is a | | | | of his time, experience and expertise whenever I |
| university student.’ as an adjective; the adjective | | | | needed. He proved again to me how helpful it is for a |
| ‘loud’ has two adverbs? ‘loud’ and | | | | writer to have friends who listen, read, and give |
| ‘loudly’, and so on. Moreover, the Bengali | | | | suggestions. |
| speaking learner is used to using normally one word | | | | References |
| for one meaning, whereas in the English language a | | | | Baker, A. 1981. Ship or Sheep?: An Intermediate |
| word can give more than one meaning, for instance, | | | | Pronunciation Course. Cambridge: Cambridge |
| the word ‘father’ meaning a male parent, a | | | | University Press. |
| person’s ancestor, the first person to introduce a | | | | Brown, E. 2001. Teaching by Principles. New York: |
| new way of thinking about/doing something, God to | | | | Longman. |
| Christians, to become the father of a child by making | | | | Corder, S. P. 1973. Introducing Applied Linguistics. |
| its mother pregnant, or to create new ideas/ a new | | | | Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin. |
| way of doing something, the word ‘sun’ | | | | Haque, S. M. F. and M. Maniruzzaman. 1994. ‘Needs |
| meaning the star that shines in the sky during the day | | | | analysis: problems and consideration’. Harvest: |
| and gives the earth heat and light, the light and heat | | | | Jahangirnagar Studies in Literature, 12: 79-88. |
| from the sun, any star around which planets move, or | | | | Hasan, A. D. 2000. ‘Problems of teaching English |
| to lie or sit in a place where the sun shines, and the like | | | | sound system’. ELT: Directions and Orientations. |
| ( Hornby 2000). These problems evidently result from | | | | Rajshahi University: Department of English: 63 - 69. |
| the differences between the L1 and the L2 as well as | | | | Hornby, A. S. 2000.Oxford Advanced Learner’s |
| the syllabus, and the teaching method and material | | | | Dictionary of Current English. Sixth edition by Sally |
| which hardly consider what the learner lacks and | | | | Wehmeier. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
| needs, how he/she will better receive and/or react to | | | | Hughes, A. 1989. Testing for Language Teachers. |
| what is taught how, and so forth. | | | | Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
| Thirdly, the construction of wh-questions, e.g. ‘Why | | | | McNamara, T. 2000. Language Testing. Oxford: |
| do you learn English?’ and compound and complex | | | | Oxford University Press. |
| sentences, e. g. ‘He needs to learn English, but does | | | | Maniruzzaman, M. 1998. ‘The SL/FL classroom and |
| not learn.’ and ‘Though he needs to learn | | | | the individual learner ’. Harvest: Jahangirnagar |
| English, he does not learn.’ respectively poses | | | | Studies in Literature, 14: 87-102. |
| difficulty and retards EFL learning by the Bengali | | | | Maniruzzaman, M. 2003. ‘The use of the mother |
| speaking learner because these structures are neither | | | | tongue in the EFL classroom: learners’ reaction |
| the same in the learner’s mother tongue nor taught | | | | ’. Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Literature, 18: |
| in the manner suitable and useful for the learner. | | | | 43-58. |
| Fourthly, the uses and functions of English determiners, | | | | Maniruzzaman, M. 2004. ‘Teaching stress |
| particularly fractions? two-thirds, one-fifth, multipliers? | | | | placement within the English word ’. Harvest: |
| double, two times, articles? a, an the, demonstratives? | | | | Jahangirnagar Studies in Literature, 19: 55-65. |
| this, these, that, those, genitives? Rafit’s, girls’ | | | | Palmer, F. 1983. Grammar. Harmodsworth, Middlesex, |
| Socrates’, quantifiers? any, some, few, little, either, | | | | England: Penguin. |
| neither, much, several, and general ordinals? next, | | | | Richards, J. C. and T. Rodgers. 1986. Approaches and |
| further, etc are difficult to the learner and certainly | | | | Methods in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge |
| hamper his/her learning since these items are not | | | | University press. |
| properly taken into consideration in the appropriate and | | | | Richards, J., J. Platt and H. Weber. 1985. Longman |
| effective teaching material, method and classroom | | | | Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. England: Longman |
| activity. | | | | Group Limited. |
| Fifthly, the functions and uses of English modals? shall, | | | | Roach, P. 2000. English Phonetics and Phonology. |
| will, may, might, must, can, could, should, ought to, would, | | | | Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
| need, dare, have to, be to, etc in different tenses and | | | | Roza, G. M. 2005. ‘Problems of learners’ |
| different situations often pose difficulty to the Bengali | | | | difficulties in acquisition of Bengali as a foreign |
| speaking EFL learner as the learner’s mother | | | | language’. The Bangla Academy Journal 2-1: 90 - |
| tongue does not possess them and the teaching is not | | | | 104. |
| optimally helpful. | | | | Tang, J. 2002. ‘Using L1 in the English classroom’. |
| Sixthly, different types of verbs, such as transitive, | | | | English Teaching Forum, 40, 1: 36-43. |
| intransitive, causative, linking, dynamic, state, etc as well | | | | Tomlinson, B. 1998. Materials Development in Language |
| as the tenses are often problematic to the Bengali | | | | Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |