BELTA Conference Begins
English accelerates human development
Say speakers
Dr Mohammed Farashuddin, former governor of Bangladesh Bank, speaks at an inauguration ceremony of 5th Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA) International Conference 2011 at city's BIAM Foundation yesterday, jointly organised by BELTA and English in Action.Photo: STAR
English no longer remains merely a language, it is a technology that helps accelerate and sustain the human development process, said speakers at an inauguration ceremony of 5th Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA) International Conference 2011. English has become the international lingua franca of global business, they said, stressing on the need to put everyone's concerted efforts in improving knowledge on English language and its application to face global challenges. BELTA and English in Action (EIA) jointly organised the three-day conference at city's BIAM Foundation. The theme of this year's conference is “English in a changing world: Global perspective and local context”. Funded by UKaid, the programme's event partners are British Council and The Daily Star while Channel i and Radio Aamar are media partners. Around 550 teachers, researchers and experts from 10 countries attended the conference to share experiences, research findings and opinions on ways to improve learning and teaching English. An array of papers and workshops by national experts and professionals will be presented at the conference. Speaking as the chief guest, Dr Mohammed Farashuddin, former governor of Bangladesh Bank, said proficiency in English is a necessity for the nation to acquire to achieve the goal of a society without poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy and indignity. "In Bangladesh, we are in a process of realising the long cherished dream of building a peaceful, prosperous, democratic, non-communal, equitable and sustainable digitally sonar Bangladesh… “…and English language is amongst the most critically important ingredients in ensuring that the dream comes true," he said. Farashuddin, also founder vice chancellor of East West University, called upon the government and development partners to intensify efforts in improving English language proficiency of the country's students. Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education, stressed on the need to connect with the hard to reach population, particularly the underprivileged groups of society. Most of the programmes and initiatives are apparently meant for formal institutions, she said, urging all to focus more on those who could not make it to schools. David Graddol, managing director of The English Company (UK) Ltd and a visiting professor in English Department of City University, gave a keynote lecture. BELTA President Dr Rubina Khan, EIA Team Leader Marc van der Stouwer, Senior Programme Manager of DFID Bangladesh Daniel Davis, and British Council Director Charles Nuttal OBE also spoke.
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