A comparative study on the current and previous 'English book' for grade six: NCTB curriculum context

Abstract

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) idealises students' contribution to the national educational setting while preparing them for the competitive world. The present curriculum of Bangladesh, particularly in the lower secondary section (classes 6 & 7), offers a new approach that reflects extensive academic experiences, purpose, content, technological advancement, collaborations of learning alignment, assessment, etc. This qualitative research aims to identify the efficacy of the new curriculum irrespective of the divergent activities of class six English textbooks compared with the previous one. A qualitative context provides a glimpse of the different factors, for example, teachers’ and learners’ prior and present knowledge of the curriculum, subject knowledge, teaching learning approach suggested in the curriculum, and a textual analysis of the textbooks, while incorporating Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theory (1962), Task-Based Language Teaching (1987) and connecting it to Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis (1980), Input Hypothesis Framework (1980), and finally David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (1984). By analysing data from three government school teachers, four students, one teacher trained under the new curriculum, two textbook writers of class 6, the textual analysis has been facilitated to determine how the academic developments align with the new curriculum's holistic approaches, ensuring academic English language skills, emphasising the SDG & 21st-century experiential learning considering and incorporating specific scaffolding strategies, this comparative study between the previous and current NCTB curricula has finally offered some recommendations for further curriculum development in Bangladesh by shedding lights on the significant findings from textual analysis and interview so far the EFL practice in Bangladesh is concerned.