Research findings across EIA schools and adult learning component (BBC Janala) demonstrated strong evidence of change when compared to the baseline in 2010. The large scale quantitative studies of phase III published recently proves it.
The research and evaluation programme for schools in phase III (2011–14) involved large-scale quantitative studies of:
1. English language (EL) competence;
2. teacher and student perceptions of teaching and learning English;
3. changes in classroom practices.
The purpose of the studies was to investigate the EIA’s cohort of teachers and students (who started in 2012), by assessing student and teacher EL competence and their perceptions of EIA (of teaching and learning English) and to observe the nature of EIA classrooms.
All the measures of EL competence, perceptions and classroom practice were compared to the pilot pre-intervention (baseline) and post-intervention results, carried out in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
The samples used in these three studies in 2013 were selected to enable comparisons to be made with the corresponding samples in the pilot.
Findings across Primary Secondary Schools
Teachers feel more confident:
• Over 95% of teachers report that EIA helps them to improve their own English;
• Over 90% of teachers report that EIA has an impact on the way they teach.
And teachers change their practice and students experience the difference:
• From near zero, students now talk for over 25% of their lesson time; and
• From near zero, over 90% of their talk is now in English.
Researchers from Trinity College, London, also tested students English Language proficiency, against a standard international framework. The number of primary students passing this assessment almost doubled after EIA, rising from 36% to 70%. Whilst 39% of the secondary students achieved higher levels of proficiency after EIA, than in the baseline study.
With all the changes, over 97% teachers said that they felt the EIA materials where very fruitful and helping them to improve their classes.
The recent findings suggests the large-scale, more localised and decentralised School Based Teacher Develppment (SBTD) programme was almost as effective in improving secondary student learning outcomes, and substantially better in improving primary student learning outcomes, compared with the smaller scale pilot programme.
Findings across BBC Janala
BBC Janala research finding demonstrates huge increase in reach compared to the baseline:
• 28 million people in Bangladesh are using BBC Janala which is a 16% increase since 2011
• More importantly, 10.25 million people are highly exposed – which means they have used BBC Janala repeatedly to learn English. This is 50% higher than 2011.
• For the first time, more women are engaging with BBC Janala than men - 54% of our highly exposed users are women.
• 60% of BBC Janala users say they are more motivated and/or more confident about learning English.
The new evidence across the project complements the work which is being taken forward by over 12,500 teachers across Bangladesh. With adults, the opportunities to access to English easily through BBC Janala remains a great opportunity to learn English from anywhere.
