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The achievement of curriculum goals and objectives, to a large extent, depends on how assessment methods are designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated. English language learning in Bangladesh has miserably failed, and ineffective assessment methods may be largely attributed to this failure. This paper attempts to address various aspects and issues of English language assessment in Bangladesh in relation to English language learning as a curricular reform and the education policy of the country. The analysis revealed that there was always a gap between the principles of assessment embedded into the curriculum and the actual assessment practices. Furthermore, heavily hard hit by the high-stakes testing, the curriculum, the learners, and the instructors need to be liberated from this vicious policy. The review concluded with a recommendation that teachers need to develop assessment literacy through teacher education programs that are essential to helping teachers to acquire knowledge, skills, professionalism, and assessment expertise.

BackgroundIn 2013, an estimated 2.8 million newborns died and 2.7 million were stillborn. A much greater number suffer from long term impairment associated with preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction, congenital anomalies, and perinatal or infectious causes. With the approaching deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, there was a need to set the new research priorities on newborns and stillbirth with a focus not only on survival but also on health, growth and development. We therefore carried out a systematic exercise to set newborn health research priorities for 2013-2025.MethodsWe used adapted Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) methods for this prioritization exercise. We identified and approached the 200 most productive researchers and 400 program experts, and 132 of them submitted research questions online. These were collated into a set of 205 research questions, sent for scoring to the 600 identified experts, and were assessed and scored by 91 experts.ResultsNine out of top ten identified priorities were in the domain of research on improving delivery of known interventions, with simplified neonatal resuscitation program and clinical algorithms and improved skills of community health workers leading the list. The top 10 priorities in the domain of development were led by ideas on improved Kangaroo Mother Care at community level, how to improve the accuracy of diagnosis by community health workers, and perinatal audits. The 10 leading priorities for discovery research focused on stable surfactant with novel modes of administration for preterm babies, ability to diagnose fetal distress and novel tocolytic agents to delay or stop preterm labour.ConclusionThese findings will assist both donors and researchers in supporting and conducting research to close the knowledge gaps for reducing neonatal mortality, morbidity and long term impairment. WHO, SNL and other partners will work to generate interest among key national stakeholders, governments, NGOs, and research institutes in these priorities, while encouraging research funders to support them. We will track research funding, relevant requests for proposals and trial registers to monitor if the priorities identified by this exercise are being addressed.

BackgroundIn 2013, an estimated 2.8 million newborns died and 2.7 million were stillborn. A much greater number suffer from long term impairment associated with preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction, congenital anomalies, and perinatal or infectious causes. With the approaching deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, there was a need to set the new research priorities on newborns and stillbirth with a focus not only on survival but also on health, growth and development. We therefore carried out a systematic exercise to set newborn health research priorities for 2013-2025.MethodsWe used adapted Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) methods for this prioritization exercise. We identified and approached the 200 most productive researchers and 400 program experts, and 132 of them submitted research questions online. These were collated into a set of 205 research questions, sent for scoring to the 600 identified experts, and were assessed and scored by 91 experts.ResultsNine out of top ten identified priorities were in the domain of research on improving delivery of known interventions, with simplified neonatal resuscitation program and clinical algorithms and improved skills of community health workers leading the list. The top 10 priorities in the domain of development were led by ideas on improved Kangaroo Mother Care at community level, how to improve the accuracy of diagnosis by community health workers, and perinatal audits. The 10 leading priorities for discovery research focused on stable surfactant with novel modes of administration for preterm babies, ability to diagnose fetal distress and novel tocolytic agents to delay or stop preterm labour.ConclusionThese findings will assist both donors and researchers in supporting and conducting research to close the knowledge gaps for reducing neonatal mortality, morbidity and long term impairment. WHO, SNL and other partners will work to generate interest among key national stakeholders, governments, NGOs, and research institutes in these priorities, while encouraging research funders to support them. We will track research funding, relevant requests for proposals and trial registers to monitor if the priorities identified by this exercise are being addressed.

English Medium Instruction (EMI) is a commonly observed phenomenon in higher education (HE) in the countries where English is mandated as a second or foreign language. The globally conducted studies reported the prospect, practice, problems, and eventualities of EMI in HE. Numbering around 105, private universities in Bangladesh also adopted EMI. Being guided by Cooper (1989) and Spolsky (2009), this phenomenological study explored the language ideology of lecturers and students regarding the benefits of EMI, their remarks about the language management to achieve compatibility for adopting EMI, and their opinion concerning the implementation (language practice) of EMI in the classrooms of private universities in Bangladesh. We collected from eight participants (four students and four lecturers) who responded to the semistructured interviews and classroom observations. The findings of the study suggested EMI does not observe full-fledged practice in the classrooms, as lecturers and students struggle to impart and receive knowledge due to their limited proficiency in the English language, although they did not deny the benefit of EMI to produce globally efficient workforces empowered with English language proficiency. This paper suggested the implementation of a bilingual curriculum in which instruction is delivered in English and Bangla to imparting a great deal of knowledge to the students. In the national languagein-education policy, Cognitive Communicative Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) should be prioritized over Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) to enrich knowledge acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bias and unfairness of test items in language proficiency tests have been an issue of scholarly investigation. Unfair test items and cultural biases in international English language proficiency tests such as TOEFL and IELTS have received considerable attention. However, such unfairness and biases in proficiency tests conducted at the national level such as Bangladesh Civil Service examination (henceforth referred to as BCS) have not been investigated. This paper attempts to examine item biases and inconsistencies in English language testing of BCS preliminary examination. Qualitative data has been collected from stakeholders using a semi-structured interview technique. A detailed content analysis of the English section of the BCS examination is conducted. Most test items have been found to be biased towards testing knowledge of English literature which is inconsistent with validity constructs of the language proficiency test. Stakeholders have been found to perceive the test as ineffective in measuring their English language proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global literacy skills, namely proficiency in English and technology, have affected globalization, which has profoundly impacted the political, socio-economic and cultural dimensions of our society. In response to changes brought about by globalization, all countries are attempting to ensure the adequate equipment of global literacy skills. Nowadays, English has become the de facto lingua franca of international communication and a much sought-after commodity. In Bangladesh, English is the language of the educated elite and not commonly used in daily interactions. Now, Bangladesh is faced with the grim reality of lagging behind neighbouring countries which are moving ahead in terms of access to the world market. This study aims to address the current understanding of English language education policy and scenario in Bangladesh. The findings reveal that though CLT based English language curriculum has been operating in the secondary level in Bangladesh in 1996 and revised again in 2012, most teachers are not familiar with CLT guidelines and CLT related activities. Besides this, there are some crucial factors which demand great attention in order to change the current scenario. As a result, there are inconsistencies between the stated objectives of Teaching English and the actual teaching techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widespread recognition that writing is a process which involves several steps in creating a piece of writing. According to Silva (1990, p. 15), the process-oriented approach needs step by step developments. As far as the researchers have concerned that reading and writing have a mutual relationship. Reading builds the diverse kinds of knowledge to write on; writing reinforces knowledge in a way that builds schemata to read with. Reading and writing interact with each other, possibly making use of same cognitive structure to create a text world (Kucer, 1985, p. 106). Many writing classes begin with the reading text, analyzing them, looking at them as models for writing as using them as a piece of communication to response. Reading plays a decisive role in the development of writing ability. So, reading appears to be as an essential precondition to produce a good writing. This study is a try to investigate that, Steve Peha's 'readlike- a-writer' approach may be essential for the Bangladeshi learners to teach integrated reading and writing courses. This study is based on original data regarding students' essay writings and the common problems in writing have been obtained by using document analysis and questionnaire responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This interpretive phenomenological study reports the effects of reflecting on reflections concerning Critical Incidents (CIs) on the pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) professional development and conceptualization of their identity as TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers. The study involved nine PSTs who were specializing in TESOL and doing their teaching practicum. The main instrument of the study was reflective writing, which required the PSTs to report CIs, write reflections, and share these for receiving peers’ reflections to further reflect on self-reflection and reflection of peers. The process enabled the participants to pursue professional development and conceive identity as TESOL teachers. This seemingly engaging, thought-provoking and meaningful reflective practice can be additive to the existing reflective practices, which have been questioned and debated in the literature. In pursuit of professional development and teacher identity, PSTs can be assigned to reflect on reflections with diverse elements of focus alongside CIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]