To enhance the economic and social prospects of people in Bangladesh through improving their communicative English, English in Action uses both school and media based interventions. To assure the effectiveness of these interventions extensive research and evaluation programs are embedded in their activities.
 
But the studies conducted so far have examined each intervention in isolation. As a result, little is known about how and to what extent the outputs from both school and media based activities interact and influence English language learning. To fill this gap in our knowledge, EIA is conducting a ‘Community Study’ with its pilot phase teachers which will enable an investigation of learning, use and effect of English language learning at the community level.
 
As part of this study, English in Action team from both the schools component and the media and adult learning component recently visited two communities in Kapasia, Gazipur. Though the findings of this study are in the process of development, we however got  good feedback from the communities and schools regarding the EIA project.

The teachers were very positive regarding EIA materials in their English classes and one particularly encouraging story caught our attention during the data collection. One of the secondary teachers in our sample was a mathematics teacher teaching English in his school. He mentioned how he started using EIA materials to teach better in the class. He uses the iPod (iPod was provided for pilot teachers) and speaker so students can learn English rhymes and pronunciation of words. He also used BBC Janala (the Media and Adult learning component of EIA) materials to teach his kids at home. Other teachers also had a very positive attitude towards the EIA approaches.

We are currently looking forward to the next phase of these Community Studies to commence and are very positive that more change related stories will emerge.