Nostalgic I feel !
We all know that the old team of NELTA Choutari is on the way to departure and a new team of promising ELters is to join the board from the New Year on wards. At this moment, I feel a bit nostalgic about everything we had and we did being associated with Choutari. This moment reminds me of my early days in NELTA Choutari. The story is long and I do not have room enough to tell you all but I still remember how my journey in NELTA Choutari began and how I collaborated with such brilliant minds in order to help transform Nepalese ELT. I have never seen Shyam Sharma(the key architect of Choutari) in person, yet we are so close and at one by both heart and mind in shaping the profession. I have had very a few meetings with Balkrishna Sharma but the intimacy has grown so strong that we do care for each other not only personally but also professionally. And Prem Phyak is always close to my heart. What I would like to say is it is Choutari that has at times cemented and strengthened our relation. We have been together for a single cause and that is transformation of Nepalese ELT and Choutari has been a common umbrella for us and for you.
At this moment, I am not and should not be evaluating the Choutari activities: I leave them upon the newcomers and others but this departure does make me a bit more emotional than I had ever thought I would feel. While I am writing this editorial, I am not in position to believe that I am quitting Choutari from January onwards. On the one hand, it makes me a bit gloomy that I will be, in a way, missing the wonderful company I have had for the last four years; I will no longer be compiling articles, contacting possible contributors and writing editorials. These are the things that gave me utter satisfaction in my academic life. On the other hand I am happy that the responsibility now on has gone to the shoulders of a very effervescent team who have already shown their utmost commitment and efficiency to maintain the legacy that began four years back. I still remember myself talking to Shyam, Prem, and Balkrishana for longer hours on messenger, Google chat and Skype, learning technology, requesting professors for interview, encouraging young ELTers to read the contents and share their comments, publicizing things in conferences and so forth. I believe my association with NELTA Choutari has fetched me more than I gave it.
All this makes me so wistful and also lets me nearly utter: “Team, I do not want to quit”. But there has to be a system of entry and exit in all associations and projects. And it is time for me to say “Good Bye”. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that it does not in any way curtail my presence from Choutari completely in the days to come. I will be ever happy to contribute NELTA Choutari whatever way possible. With this commitment and also wishing the new team good luck in their endeavor to initiate new but worthwhile discourses in Nepalese ELT, I would like to give a stop to this editorial.
Last but not least
December, the last month of the Gregorian calendar, has turned the last month of my association with NELTA Choutari as a co- editor but I am very much aware that I should not let it become the least in any sense. The issue of NELTA Choutari brings you with some new personalized ELT experiences having typical Nepalese flavor. To begin with, the interview with Vishnu Singh Rai (my guru) on considerably a new venture that Asian English Teachers Creative Writing Group sheds light on a new philosophy of producing poems and stories for use in Asian EFL/ESL classrooms. The discourse with him is insightful and will have a considerable space in Nepalese ELT in the days to come. The next two entries again reflect on prevalent fallacies in Nepalese ELT. Whereas Maheshwor Rijal, in his write up, shares his individual reflections on teaching and learning of vocabulary during his school days, Binod Kumar Yadav highlights the need of rapport between teacher and students, the lack of which has considerably affected Nepalese ELT making it virtually a one way traffic. Similarly, Dipesh Sah, in his tiny entry, shares his own strategies of motivating students in EFL classrooms in rural Sindhuli and finally Bharat Babu Khanal measures the effectiveness of a US sponsored Micro-scholarship Access Program implemented by NELTA.
- ‘Creative writing brings fresh air in the classroom’: An Interview with Vishnu Singh Rai
- Revisiting Vocabulary Teaching/Learning: My Reflections by Maheshwor Rijal
- Significance of Rapport in English Language Teaching and Learning by Binod Kumar Yadav
- Motivation in ESL/EFL Learning: Who’s Responsible? by Dipesh Kumar Sah
- The Impact of Access Program in Nepal by Bharat Babu Khanal
Acknowledgement:
I would like to sincerely acknowledge Madhav Kafle’s support in compiling and editing articles for this issue as an intern. His sincere efforts have shown that he will make a good editor. I wish him all the best.
Sajan Kumar
Editor
NELTA Choutari
