Who's afraid of English?
Najma Khan is into nuances and meanings
This book was written to propound a new approach to addressing the problems faced by Bangladeshis in communicating in the English language. The author in his book has redefined English sentence structure in detail, naming it as "Parts of Sentence" and made a comparison with that of Bengali language to make our mother language the basis for learning English. Categorizing the "Parts of Speech" in three distinct groups, the author shows how each part of speech works in each part of sentence, thereby opening a new world of thoughts in English learning approach. The author has claimed it as a "single structure bi-lingual learning approach" as against multi-structure in the traditional approach to learning English and suggested a Concept-Application-Drill sequence in applying his approach. He tries to justify his new approach in such a way that it incorporates a concept of comparative bi-lingual structure and a structural relation between Bengali and English. He uses "Bengali Sound Stress" technique to identify "Tense" and emphasizes using the auxiliary verb corresponding to the last sound of a Bengali sentence as an alternative to thinking on Tense. The concept of "two syllable verb detection" has been introduced to easily separate auxiliary verb sound from the main verb sound contained in the Bangla last sound. A chart for converting Bengali auxiliary verb sound (last sound) to English auxiliary verb was devised to ease the conversion process and named as 'Bangla to English Auxiliary Sound Conversion Chart (BEASCon Chart).' In the BEASCon Chart, the relation between auxiliary verb and main verb is also made clear. The simple structure is explained in a single format that is intended to reduce the burden of memorizing too many structures and suggested step by step structure building. A concept of "Predicate Reversing" focuses on an easier approach for translation that may be helpful for all levels from the students up to professional learners. The author's concept building process through the "bi-lingual Parts of Sentence" is an excellent learning technique and a sequential reading of his published book "HAQEL" may bring a radical change in English teaching methodology. The book needs further revisions to make it more understandable and capable to self study. However, the Author deserves a good commendation for this excellent basic research. This book becomes difficult for those who have a preconception on traditionally used learning approach that conflicts in thinking and setting apart the long-rooted traditional ideas might be rather difficult. The technique so propounded although doubtful of completing in 42 hours (3 weeks) as claimed, however, seems to be an effective technique for all levels of learners and deserve recognition for application in both formal and non-formal education. Bangladesh is in a crisis position in communicative English and as a result, we are suffering badly in global communication. Many authors have so far been trying for years to solve this problem. They devised techniques and applied but outcome is insignificant against the requirements. This new approach may be applied to train up our school teachers to give a strong foundation to academic English learning. Our government should come up with priority to test all these innovations and give necessary support to meet up this national burning crisis. I welcome comments on this book by the readers who have already gone through this book.
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