Orientation of MA in TESOL program organized by BIL, BRAC University
BRAC Institute of Languages (BIL) hosted the orientation for the Spring 2024 intake of M.A. in the TESOL program on January 14th, 2024 at their new campus in Merul Badda, Dhaka.
The event was organized by the BRAC Institute of Languages (BIL) to welcome its new students and was attended by the current students, alumni representatives, adjunct faculty, and BIL faculty members to foster a sense of community with the graduate program.
The program began with Lady Syeda Sarwat Abed, Founder and Senior Director at BIL, welcoming the new students to the new BRAC University campus. Professor Dr. Shaila Sultana, Director of BIL, gave an insightful speech on the importance of teacher education and shared the institute's future goals. In an elaborate presentation, Ms. Hasna Khanom, Senior Lecturer at BIL, highlighted the mission and vision of BRAC University, explained the range of activities, projects, and programs BIL undertakes, and gave an orientation to the MA in TESOL program with specific focus on its key strengths. This orientation event aimed to familiarize MA in TESOL students with the courses, policies, and academic and professional development facilities and encourage them to explore diverse career-development opportunities offered by the institute and BRAC University for increased employability of its graduates.
The orientation was followed by students’ advising, a meet-and-greet with faculty members, and a tour of the state-of-the-art campus of BRAC University. Dr. M. Moninoor Rashid, Professor, Institute of Education and Research (IER), University of Dhaka, Mr. Harunur Rashid Khan, Associate Professor and former Chair of the English Department, South-East University, Dr. Abdur Rouf, Associate Professor, Department of English, Jagannath University, and Dr. Qumrul Hasan Chowdhury, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Dhaka were the special guests at the event. Ms. Hasna Khanom, Senior Lecturer at BIL, anchored and coordinated the orientation program.
BIL Faculty Members Published Research Papers
BIL faculty members Ms. Nafisa Moquit and Ms. Tanzima Baten co-authored two research papers that were published in Scopus indexed journals. One of the papers, titled “Enhancing L2 writing skills in Tertiary EFL Learners: An Investigation into Teacher-provided written corrective feedback in Bangladesh University”, was published in Boletin de Literatura Oral - The Literary Journal. The second article, “COVID-19 and online learning: Challenges, benefits, and intrinsic motivation of Bangladeshi private university students”, was published in International Journal of Education and Practice.
BIL Director Published Book Chapter
"English-medium instruction in higher education in Bangladesh" by Professor Shaila Sultana, PhD, Director of BIL, co-authored with M. Obaid Hamid, was published as a chapter in the book The Routledge Handbook of English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education. The chapter aims to critically analyze the policies and practices of using English as a medium of instruction in the higher education institutions of Bangladesh using historical, social, sociolinguistic, and educational perspectives.
BIL arranges a workshop on the “OBE Curriculum”
Professor Syed Shahrier Rahman, PhD, the Additional Director of IQAC-DU from the University of Dhaka, provided a special training session at BIL, which focused on 'Outcome-Based Education.' He discussed in detail the significance of following the appropriate steps to develop an OBE curriculum for active learning. He further illustrated the objectives, outcomes, and assessment and evaluation techniques following the OBE Framework. Dr. Rahman suggested that the best way to fix the Vision and Mission, Program Educational Objectives (PEO), Program Learning Outcomes (PLO), Course Learning Outcomes (CLO), and Assessment and Evaluation of different levels of a course was to base them on the feedback of the stakeholders. He further shed light on the five principles of the learner-centred approach by Weimer (2002) and various learning activities from the simple to the complex level. The importance of distributing class time for active learning and critical thinking was also addressed. Dr. Rahman then focused on the four learning outcome domains and provided a sample of creating domain-specific PEOs. He related this to the significance of Bloom's Taxonomy and provided examples of a plethora of action verbs for different domains. At this point, Dr. Rahman discussed the differences between learning outcomes and learning objectives and how to develop intelligent learning outcomes. Finally, he elaborated on the importance of creating a course outline, keeping question papers, performance measurement rubrics, and activities in mind and showed various standard examples.
The faculty members of BIL celebrated the ‘Pitha Utshob’ on 25 January 2024.
‘Pitha Utshob’ was arranged on Thursday, 25 January, 2024. It is a Bangladeshi traditional food festival where everyone prepares and enjoys traditional sweets. The Senior Director of BIL, Syeda Sarwat Abed, arranged the event where traditional sweet delicacies were served to the faculty members and staff of BRAC Institute of Languages. The festival celebrating winter's culinary delights filled the office environment with warmth and joy.
The Pre-University students of BIL attended a workshop on mental well-being and shared their thoughts on various psycho-social issues through case studies
During Fall 2023, Pre-university students attended a workshop on “Mental Wellbeing” conducted by BRAC University Counselling Unit which was part of their Enhancement lesson Case Study- Psycho-social Issue. During this session, students learned about living a healthy lifestyle and simultaneously, shared their thoughts on issues related to mental health. The primary objectives of this workshop were to make these students aware of several types of mental health issues like stress, depression, and anxiety and to prepare them to cope with such mental distresses. This workshop was aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good health and well-being), which emphasizes promoting mental health and well-being (3.4). Based on this workshop, students presented a few cases that dealt with mental health-related problems by identifying, studying, and finally providing solutions from their perspectives. The Problem-Based Learning (PBL), including the workshop and presentation, has enlightened their understanding of the significance of mental well being.