Teaching “English for Life”: beliefs and attitudes of secondary school English teachers in rural Bangladesh

In rural Bangladesh, most people speak English with a regional accent generally not intelligible to Non-Native Bengali Speakers (NBS). Although NBS understand each other, this type of pronunciation creates problems for many Bangladeshis, like handicapping students studying abroad, professionals migrating to Anglophone countries, tourists and businessmen, government officials and diplomats, communicating with their foreign counterparts, at home and abroad.
This investigation was undertaken with a view to bringing this serious problem to the attention of relevant stakeholders of English education in Bangladesh such as teachers, researchers, course planners and policy makers. One of the key aims was to find out if secondary school teachers would accept English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and intelligible pronunciation and be prepared to learn and teach their students simplified versions of English pronunciation and spoken English, which would be not just easy to learn and teach, but also a cost-effective and engaging approach.
The study leads to the conclusion that the ultimate goal should be to teach Englishfor- life instead of the current approach taken by teachers which is English-for- exam pedagogy.