Effects of Showing Movies in a Speaking Skills class in the context of Bangladesh

Language planners’ inconsistent attitudes towards teaching English in Bangladesh have made the standard of English really poor. ‘Whether or not it is from such inconsistent language planning, the standard of the students’ proficiency in English has been going down steadily over the years’ (Quader 1998:57). In the context of Bangladesh, with large classrooms and emphasis on examinations, the majority of intermediate L2 learners lack competency in speaking. Most have difficulties in pronunciation. Their limited vocabulary makes it difficult for them to continue conversation. Again, lack of knowledge of syntax and structures makes learners unable to produce a conversation. Their goals for learning L2 are only to face the examinations. Memorizing certain given L2 items makes it even more difficult for them to use English in a real world. This paper aims at dealing with an Action Research to find out the effects of showing movies in speaking classes. Some learning theories will be presented to show the significance of using movies in teaching speaking. The paper also tries to prove that movies can be as important a tool as to motivate learners to learn the target language. It is hoped that this paper will be an eye opener to ESL practitioners.