ABSTRACT
The teaching and learning of English in Bengal began with the arrival of the East India Company in the early 17th century. From a mere teaching of word lists to locals who wanted to trade with English merchants to the teaching of English for communicative purposes in Bangladesh today, methodological changes have occurred within a span of nearly three centuries. Language and language teaching theories that evolved in the West flowed up the Ganges and have tried to find roots in this soil. It is a journey that started with the Grammar Translation Method during the Raj accommodated alternative methodologies proposed by scholars like Dr Michael West in the 1920s. Next, the structural-situational approach was initiated by The Alternative Syllabus prepared by Ronald Mackin in the 1950s and was culminated in the propagation of the Communicative Approach in newly independent Bangladesh in the 1990s. The needs for learning English in Bangladesh today are quite different from those in Bengal in the colonial days. However, the influences of different language teaching theories have eventually converged in this land to shape what exist now as curricula, teaching materials, and pedagogical practices. The paper aims to study theoretical principles behind methodological changes in the teaching of English in Bangladesh, their implications, and how teachers and learners of English have coped with the changes.
