The English language dominates almost all aspects of our daily life, not only in third-world countries like Bangladesh but throughout the world to meet the various needs of communication. Bangladesh uses English for other purposes as well, but in general, to enrol in universities, to migrate overseas for jobs, to study abroad and to work and continue business internationally. Moreover, the ability to communicate effectively in English is also considered an important quality in many job sectors, especially in corporate settings. The ability to communicate in English provides individuals with more opportunities to achieve a suitable position in the job market with an acceptable salary, contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction and achieving sustainable goals in a broader sense (Roshid, 2018).
Different strategies have been taken by the government of Bangladesh to implement standardized English language education in the country, including the revision of the curriculum several times. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was introduced for the first time in 1995 with the hope to improve communicative competence of learners. During the implementation process, a significant gap is observed between the policy aspiration and the resources due to a shortage of teachers with competency in English and teaching skills. To address the situation, government took different strategies and arranged training programs for the in-service teachers to implement CLT successfully in classroom practice and achieve its goal with the support from different Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and foreign donor agencies.
Despite different initiatives, teachers failed to demonstrate significant improvements in classroom practice after completing the training (Huda, 2015). Thus, students who complete their secondary education are likely to enter higher education, outside and inside the country, with a smattering of English language skills. Therefore, students in Bangladeshi universities are still facing difficulties in both speaking and listening to regular class activities despite studying English as a compulsory subject from Grade 1 to Grade 12. It is because of the lack of speaking and listening practices at school and college levels (Shurovi, 2014). The competence in both listening and speaking skills is challenging for students studying at overseas universities, seeking a better job, and networking for social survival (Roshid & Chowdhury, 2013).
In this study, the challenges and gaps in effective training for oral skills from the perspectives of policymakers and teachers were identified to address implementation barriers to help learners proficient in oral skills of English. Finally, it concludes by proposing a conceptual framework for minimizing gaps between the policy and practice to enable more effective implementation of curriculum for oral skills in the future. The present study addresses the following research question:
RQ: How do curriculum policy and practice on oral skills affect English language education at the secondary level in Bangladesh?
The theoretical framework of this study is a “grounded” one as the contextual phenomenon was "grounded" in data, which can provide a better explanation than a theory borrowed "off the shelf" (Creswell, 2012). It does not limit the role of the research in the process-making but gives choices to make categories of interpretation, connect questions to the data, and interweave personal values and experiences (Creswell & Poth, 2018).

This study is a qualitative one aiming to provide a detailed understanding of issues that underlie current practices (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2018). The analysed data investigates the curriculum policy and classroom practice of oral skills and reports critically. Therefore, policymakers and practicing teachers were interviewed to understand the perception of the curriculum of oral skills in policy and practice. The interview data were analysed using the Thematic Analysis (TA) method based on one of the approaches called – the semantic approach – coding and theme development reflect the explicit content of the data. After transcribing the data, the patterns of the data were identified through a rigorous process of data familiarisation, data coding, and theme development and revision. This study used Thematic Analysis (TA) method to interpret the data because it is a popular method for analysing qualitative data in many disciplines including ‘Education’. In the field of education, procedures for using TA as a qualitative technique only began to be published in the 1990s (Cohen et al., 2018). The purpose of TA is to identify patterns of meaning across a dataset that provide an answer to the research question being addressed. This method also gives flexibility according to the practical need of analysis of what was required to answer the specific research questions (Denzin, & Lincoln, 2011). This means it can be used within different frameworks, to answer quite different types of research questions. Therefore, in this research, TA suits to answer the relevant research question related to curriculum policy and practice of oral skills at the secondary level in Bangladesh. As the policymakers are major players in the planning and head teachers and secondary teachers are the practitioners of English language education, they are the interview participants in this study. The ‘purposive’ selection procedure has been applied to conduct the interviews. Eight participants were interviewed in total. The participants were selected based on mainly three criteria: (1) relevant expertise; (2) experience; and (3) willingness to participate. Pseudonyms are used for each of them. The participants were provided with the information necessary about the study through emails and their written consent was obtained back through emails before data collection. Due to the participants’ preferences, interviews were conducted in Bangla and were recorded using an audio recorder. Later on, the recorded interviews were transliterated into Roman Bangla and then translated into English.

Researchers often conclude their discussion after conducting a study with the hope that policymakers will benefit from their findings. It is also common to hear the voice of the stakeholders involved in the practice, but policymakers' voices are rarely heard. This study allows us to bring together perspectives from both policymakers and practitioners in order to identify the challenges that are preventing English oral skills implementation in rural and urban classroom settings. This will allow us to achieve two kinds of results. First, it will examine the existing practice to identify the gap between policy and practice, which requires a revision of the English curriculum and training strategies to ensure contextual diversity. In Bangladesh, the national English curriculum and the process of implementing it are centralised, and it does not address rural-urban differences, classroom settings, teacher quality, or the training needs of teachers. As a result, it has been always challenging to implement oral skills in classroom settings. Finally, the paper will propose a conceptual framework for curriculum revision according to diversified contextual needs and preparation of its best possible ways of implementation. In the European context, Alexander & Weekes-Bernard (2017) also found the challenges of implementing diverse curricula effectively in classroom teaching after conducting two studies in England and Wales. Moreover, this paper has a connection with the conference theme of this year "The Value of Diversity in Education and Educational Research".

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