Category Archives: Scholarly Article

Speaking a Foreign Language Makes You Less Intelligent

Critical Outlook, Teacher's Experience/anecdotes

 Luke Lindemann*

Speaking a foreign language makes you less intelligent. This is a fundamental truth about speaking a foreign language, but it is often forgotten. And forgetting this truth can have profoundly negative consequences for the classroom.

I do not mean that the practice of learning a language is harmful to intelligence. What I mean is that when we express ourselves in a language that is not our mother tongue, we must simplify our thoughts. To give a personal example, I have been conversationally fluent in Nepali for almost two years, but even today when I speak Nepali I feel less intelligent. I know fewer vocabulary  and the words I do know are simpler than those of my Nepali friends. It takes me longer to parse sentences and longer to respond. I forget words and mix others up and am often laughed at for some amusing mistake (my students were quite confused when I told them that their homework assignment was due ‘pharsi’ – I had meant ‘parsi’). For me, thinking in Nepali is just harder to do. It takes longer and it is exhausting.

When our students speak or write to us in the English language, they are the same students as when they speak Nepali to us outside of class, but the outward manifestation of their personalities can be very different. They may be bolder or they may be more shy, depending upon how they face the challenge and potential humiliation of being forced to express themselves in a less intelligent (and oftentimes laughably simplistic) way. This is the discomfort and terror of learning a language, and also its exhilarating challenge.

As teachers who have long since mastered the English language, we sometimes forget this. We teach language as if it were a simple skill like long division, and not a fundamental means of expressing ourselves. We scold our students for not speaking out in class, for being timid and quiet when their names are called and they must stand up and speak out in front of their friends. But when we do this, we are forgetting the terror and frustration that we experienced when we were students. We are inhibiting their learning.

By teaching only in this way, we make speaking English a terrifying ordeal for the less confident students. And it is almost impossible to develop communicative competence, in which students are able to hold a spontaneous conversation. Without communicative competence, the students may be able to pass the SLC but they will never be able to speak English fluently.

We must also take language into account when considering the medium of instruction for other classroom subjects like science and social studies. Most of the students where I worked spoke Tamang as a first language, Nepali as a second language, and English as a third language. The decision for medium of instruction is a very important decision in a country like Nepal that has such vibrant language diversity. In choosing to include instruction in the medium of English, Nepali, or a regional language, a school must respond to the desires of the community, the pressures of competition with other schools private and public, the resources available, and the strengths and limitations of the government curricula and examinations.

Ideally, students should be given the opportunity to learn in the language with which they are most comfortable. Speaking a foreign language makes you less intelligent. When students learn history or science in a language that is not their own, their grasp of the subject matter is unavoidably simpler. The depth of their questions and their creative capacity are diminished. They do not learn as well.

Unfortunately, in many places throughout Nepal today this is something of a necessary evil. A good command of the English language is considered one of the most useful skills, and English medium instruction is held to be one of the best ways to develop that skill. Schools must compete with each other by offering quality instruction in the areas that foster high SLC scores and attract students. Schools in poorer areas can also be hampered by a lack of materials and staff.

But regardless of resources or medium of instruction, in every single classroom in Nepal there needs to be the realization that language study is less about memorizing words and more about learning to communicate. Language study is difficult, often scary, and (when mastered) extremely satisfying and valuable. Speaking a foreign language will make you feel less intelligent, especially at first, but mastering a foreign language will make you brilliant.

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* Luke Lindemann was a 2010-2011 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Shree Udaya Kharka Secondary School in Chapagaon VDC, Lalitpur. Before receiving this grant, he worked as an English teacher for Bhutanese refugees in the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from Pomona College, and his primary interests are language issues and education. 

An Interview with Professor Khaniya

Interview, Native Perspective

Mr. Test Writer,

Does your test really test what it should test?

It is all apparent that testing in general and language testing in particular in Nepal have been plagued with a bundle of issues. Some of the blazing issues that call for immediate intervention include memory and content based (English language) tests, slipshod marking system, lack of post result analysis, derogatory influence of exams on education, guess paper based exams, abolishment of entrance exams, issue of remarking papers, escalating cheating and so forth. Unfortunately, exam authorities have turned deaf ear to the issues. I put a few questions before Professor Tirth Raj Khaniya, a well known expert on the subject of testing if his visionary perspectives and long gained expertise could offer some guidelines to trim them down. Here are his insights and observations in his own words.

Please also feel free to put your comments, no matter you like or you feel difficult to digest the views expressed in the interview.


1.   Professor Khaniya, you have been involved in testing and evaluation for a long time. We do acknowledge your contribution in exam reforms in Nepal. However, if you look at the current trends in testing in Nepal, are you satisfied with what and how we have been testing?

Your question reminds me of the time when, after completing my PH. D. from University of Edinburgh, I was flying back to Kathmandu from London in the then RNAC flight thinking of how I would be working on bringing about reforms in the SLC Examination in particular (my area of investigation) and examination system of Nepal in general. As a matter of fact, I was able to influence some authorities involved in the management of the SLC exam to initiate some reform activities. I must say that there have been several changes in the SLC exam since then. However, I should also confess that I have not been effective in bringing about the reforms I wanted to bring about in the SLC Exam. What it is that I wanted the SLC to be is both an exit exam, as it is now (administrative), as well as a research process (academic) to bring about reform in the whole school sector of education. What it means is using the SLC exam as evidence of school performance and post analysis of the exam would give us sufficient information about what kind of intervention is needed in the school sector reform so as to make the system better. Doing this every year would obviously build the system better. It is mainly because of our failure in utilizing useful information available from the post analysis of the academic aspect of the SLC exam, even after spending a lot of money on school education, accomplishment is very little.

In response to your query, I must say that my academic pursuit forces me to work on making examinations as powerful instruments for causing learning, which is possible only when we produce good exams, but the situation in which I and we have been working leads me/us to be with the community that understand(s) exam only as an administrative tool. In that sense I have not been able to accomplish my mission so far. I will continue working towards this direction. The new generation is very positive about such changes. I am optimistic about it.

2.   When we look at the tests made in Nepal-whether be them for the English language or for other subjects/disciplines, we find most of the questions can be answered only if students have committed the contents well. Are we supposed to test that at all?

You have rightly touched on the main problem of testing in Nepal. As a matter of fact, we do not care what questions we ask, what answer our questions will stimulate the learners to produce, how to develop a question, how a learner will answer our question, etc. Especially in language testing, asking a question is more difficult than answering it if we really appreciate the art of questioning.

In response to your concern, I would say that the whole lot of the people involved in testing in the present set up does not have adequate orientation to testing. Their main source of knowledge about testing is that they took exams during their study period. But in modern education, testing has become an independent discipline and thus people who want to work in the field of testing need training on it.  Without training they cannot appreciate that a question cannot be a question simply because of its structure and a question mark, rather the one who asks a question needs to know what he is asking for (i.e. the expected answer or response or performance). On most occasions, I have seen people setting questions in such a way that there is no way for creative and innovative answers. To give you an example, in most question papers on the top, you find the statement saying “Candidates are required to give their answers in their own words as far as practicable” whereas you do not find even a single question in the paper not asked in the previous exams. How can the teacher expect original answers from students when he has not used even a single word in the whole set of question paper on his own? The argument is that in order to stimulate students to produce creative and innovative answers, you need to ask such questions and this is possible if testing procedures (e.g. specification) are truly followed.

3.   You have written a book entitled ‘Exams for Enhanced Learning’.  Contradictorily, tests are criticized for exerting deleterious influence on education and for not being able to assess the actual competence of a person. If so, why should test exist at all? Do not we have any alternative to it?

In my views, what we test, if done professionally, represents what we want our learners to learn. It makes the learner clear what they should strive for. In addition, testing is associated with intrinsic and extrinsic values which make the learner work hard. The combination of all these has a lot to do with how teachers prepare students for testing, how students prepare for it and how parents support them for getting through it. Then if we have good tests, working for such tests will enhance students’ learning. By the same token, if it happens to be a bad test, students are bound to suffer from its derogatory influence. The argument is that derogatory influence of an exam is not inherent, it depends upon whether the test is good or bad. A good test allows students to deal with what they are supposed to learn, and through testing their learning becomes powerful.

The main crux is what we ask students to produce and how we want them to demonstrate. Since a human brain is intelligent, and can tell a lie, as you said, it may be difficult to test real competence. However, a good test can lead a learner to truly perform tasks which can be accepted as an indicator of the learner’s competence.

My argument about exams is that at least for a foreseeable future, exams are likely to survive because even the advanced technology could not find a substitute for an exam. If so, why not prepare for using the power of exams which leads towards better learning, and it is possible if we design good tests

4.   Many allege that exams in Nepal have virtually remained guess-paper based? Why is it so? How can we check it?

As I said above, students’ behavior in an exam is shaped up by the questions we ask. When we ask questions borrowed from previous exam papers, commercial notes and guide books, we are forcing the students to be guess paper based. We can change the situation only when we make our students know that questions will not be based on market materials, and marking will be done on the basis of a marking scheme not on the basis of the answers copied from different sources.

5.   Specifically, what are English language testing issues in Nepal? What efforts are to be made in order to check them?

There are several issues in language testing in Nepal. One of the major issues, for example, is that we need to be clear about what we want to test- language or content. For me it is language not content.  If we want to test language we should not put a pressure on the students about contents. Content in language is merely a way of eliciting language. Lack of knowledge about this concept makes the whole process of testing complicated. We do not understand the difference between asking Nepalese students to write on Pashupatinath and The White House. When students do not write, we do not know whether it is because of lack of knowledge or language. In language testing we need to make sure that when students do not give us proper answer it is because of language not because of content.

6.   Particularly what tips or suggestions do you provide to test writers so that they unveil creative and critical abilities of the students?

What we need to understand is testing should not be treated as an isolated activity; rather it is a comprehensive activity. What I mean by this is that testing cannot be improved only by changing tests. Before we produce a changed test in an exam hall, we need to present it to the classroom in the beginning of the academic year so that the teachers and students understand what they are expected of; be it creative or innovative or practical or something they need to demonstrate. Once students and teachers know what they need to demonstrate in the exam, they will work for that and when what we want them to learn and what they need to demonstrate in order to pass an exam become the same, then we can concentrate on strengthening creative and critical abilities of the students through and for the exam.

7.   Language Testing has been established as a separate discipline elsewhere and that has systematized the evaluation of language learning from perspectives to practices. What about ours? Do not you think we need to make it more organized here in Nepal?

Everywhere language testing is emerging as an independent discipline.  In a short period of time, let’s say, after 1960s, it has grown in such a way that it is like any other disciplines which have long history and rich literature. Nepal’s case is the same. When we were students in Nepal, there was no concept of language testing. We were trained through measurement and evaluation concepts under pure education courses. Now we have a 50 marks’ course for language testing. I agree with you that we need to do more like forming language testing groups, publishing language testing journals, organizing special activities for training and sharing focusing on language testing, etc. The increasing popularity of language testing is creating sufficient spaces for doing what you are proposing.

8.   Often fingers are lifted on the marking system in Tribhuvan University and elsewhere. Many departments have been set on fire alleging subjective and careless examination of the papers? What do you have to say on this?

You are right. Our department was set on fire two times during my headship. I see problems not only in marking, but in the whole process of enrolling students for teaching and testing. Recalling that time, I think the students who were serious and regular in the class were not the ones who damaged the department. Those who led the vandalism were guest students but strong enough to exploit the situation. Saying so, I also agree with you that our testing involves subjectivity and carelessness. We need to provide some sort of professional development courses to all who are involved in teaching and testing about language testing. We happen to wrongly believe that good teachers are good testers. Once questions are developed professionally, many anomalies can be sorted out

9.   Students of TU and Higher Secondary Board have expressed their disgruntlement over the marking system time and again. Universities in the world do have the provision of remarking system. Do not you think TU should introduce this system at least for the students’ satisfaction and also to show the fairness of exams?

Many universities have a provision for an appeal when students do not accept results for any reason. In order to satisfy them, the provision for remarking is a way to give them justice. There is another advantage of remarking, that is, making teachers feel responsible for what they do. When teachers know that they are not the final authority for marking, when they know that the answer sheet may be examined again, they would to be more serious and do the job sensibly.

10. Tribhuvan University abolished entrance exams in some disciplines? How justified was the decision? Is there any university in the world which holds open admission?

It is unfortunate that the TU abolished entrance exam in some disciplines. As a matter of fact, it comes under university’s autonomy- a university making decisions on who to be allowed for admission and who not- my argument is, it is a matter of deciding on the quality of students for enrollment. When a university has no say over what kind of students it wants to invite and select, how can it talk about the quality of its product? Our student leaders also feel proud being able to allow those who do not merit for admission. They do not understand how it damages university’s credibility. In my view, this decision should be revisited.

11.    Last but far from the least, cheating has been rampant in Nepal-whether be it SLC or Higher Secondary or even exams of university? It has become a matter of headache for one and all. Why do you think has it happened? What do you think could be the best solution to check it? Can anything be done on the part of test writers to check cheating?

I am of the opinion that cheating is a byproduct. Students go for cheating because cheating is possible in the exam, they have seen their friends passing exams by cheating, questions are asked based on previous exam papers and published materials available in the market, etc. If we do not ask cheatable questions, if we effectively communicate to them that cheating cannot lead them to pass an exam, if we ask them questions answers of which cannot be supplied through cheating, and if we make them that cheated answers would not be awarded marks, I think they would not cheat.

Yes, you are right, we can stop cheating by improving how questions are asked and how answers are expected. But this has to be clearly communicated to teachers and students and classroom teaching has to be improved.

Thank you so much for illuminating us with your viewpoints.


 About Professor Khaniya 

Tirth Raj Khaniya is a familiar name in the arena of Nepalese education and ELT both. A Ph. D. in Language Testing from University of Edinburgh, UK.  Dr. Khaniya led several examination and education reform taskforces. Currently, a Professor of English Education, he teaches language testing in the Department of English Education, TU.  To his credit, he has a number of books and articles published in national and international journals on Nepalese education and ELT. New Horizons in Education in Nepal (2007) and Examination for Enhanced Learning (2005) are his highly acclaimed works. 

Examination as an Agent of Educational Reform: Re-iterating some issues of debate

Critical Outlook, Scholarly Article


         Ram Ashish Giri, PhD

EIL, Monash University, Melbourne

Introduction

As the Nepalese politics remains entangled in developing a process of political reform, the academia has embarked upon reforming the education sector in order to meet the changing socio-political and educational aspirations of the people. They are looking into the ways of reforming the curricula, existing teaching force, infrastructure and recourses. However, one area of education which does not receive as much attention is examination, in particular the national examination. Examination as a measure of achieved competencies, developed abilities and acquired educational proficiency plays a crucial role in shaping up the very educational system.  In developing contexts like Nepal, reforming examination may be the cheapest, most viable and most effective way of reforming education. In this article, I take English language education (ELE) as a case study and present an argument for examination as an agent of educational reform. My purpose in this article is to open an argument for discussion to all ELE practitioners, including NELTA Choutari readers.

The debate of reforming education, in particular ELE in Nepal is not new. Several attempts have been made in this respect in the past (for a detailed discussion of this, see Giri 2005) to improve the educational system in order to meet the changing requirements of the school graduates in the globalised world. However, the outcomes of these attempts have been severely scanty and limited. One reason for this could be the fact that no serious attempts have been made to reform the examination system. No significant debate about ameliorating the current examination practices seems to occur in the Nepalese academia.  Despite repeated recommendations from researchers on the SLC examination, for example (see Khaniya 1990, C. Giri 1995 and R. Giri 2005), no resolute initiatives have  been made in order to reform the examination. The constitution of a Study Team in 2005 to study student performances in the SLC may be regarded as an important government initiative in this direction (Mathema and Bista 2005).   There were, however, a number of inconsistencies in the formation as well in the findings/recommendations of the Study Team. Firstly, the study was anything but about student performances. The study report did put in the report a few tables of statistics from the Office of the Controllers of Examinations (OCE). However, it failed to report why certain students performed well while others did not, what were the attributes of their performances and what factors contributed to it.  Secondly, most of the members of the study team had neither the right qualifications nor right training to study student performances. Thirdly, as a result of the first two, some of the findings and recommendations are contradictory and do not fit well for the very context for which the Study Team was created. To cite just a few of the numerous examples of these, the team does recognise the role of examination in educational reform:

The SLC provides both a yardstick for measuring student performance and an instrument for holding schools and teachers accountable for higher performance. It encourages schools to do better, forces teachers to cover course contents, ensures alignment between instruction and curriculum, motivates students to learn more, creates competitive environment between and/or among schools, helps to ensure that all schools maintain the same standards, provides a means for measuring the impact of school reform initiatives, selects students for further education, and provides a basis for certification. In a nutshell, the SLC can potentially be used as a driver of improving the quality of education (Mathema and Bista 2005, p. 70).

However, the report recommends that the examination papers in SLC be limited on Grade 10 curriculum materials only because ‘historically, SLC examinations were limited to Grade 10 syllabus and question papers were set from the texts taught in Grade 10’. The report goes on to elaborate that SLC examinations are ‘meant for testing the learning achievement of children and that there is no particular pedagogical position as to what should be tested through a level-end public examination such as the SLC’ (p.77). There is no justification provided in the report as to how limiting of question papers to Grade 10 helps improve the quality of education. The report fails to acknowledge that there are numerous studies carried out elsewhere (discussed below) showing that limiting the coverage of question in this way usually has adverse effects on the quality of education system. One another instance of their inadequacy of knowledge of the field can be seen in their justification that the scope and coverage of the tests, therefore, depend on the intent which is essentially a political rather than a pedagogical decision (Mathema and Bista 2005, p. 77). Thus, it is not hard to decipher that the solution they recommended to an educational problem is rather a political one.

Through this article, I would like to open a forum to the Chautari readers to express their opinions about the government handling of the educational problems as far as the educational reforms are concerned. Several Master and PhD level research projects may be encouraged to address such issues as:

  1. If and to what extent, limiting the papers to Grade 10 curriculum and text materials has helped address the issue of ‘cheating’ in the examination;
  2. How and to what extent limiting the papers to Grade 10 curriculum and text materials has lessened the burden on the part of students, teachers, parents and other stakeholders;
  3. What effects the limiting the papers to Grade 10 curriculum and text materials has had on the quality of education in general and teaching and learning practices in particular;
  4. If and to what extent, the SLC results reflects the required abilities and proficiencies of the SLC graduates;
  5. If and to what extent the SLC examination should be developed on the prescribed text materials.

Now I will take on the English language education and the SLC test of English with a view to providing a context for the forum I mentioned above. So far as language education in Nepal is concerned, most of the debate centres on the local ethnic languages and mother-tongue education. If there is any sporadic debate on ELE, it is mainly limited to curricular and pedagogic matters and distribution of ELE facilities. The ELE policy and its examination are rarely publicly debated. The non-existence of the debate on ELE at the policy and examination fronts may be because (a) there is reluctance on the part of the people to explicitly talk about politically sensitive issues such as the language issues in the present volatile political climate. Debating the sensitive and somewhat controversial ELE issue is likely to ignite a whole range of socio-political and educational issues for which Nepal is not politically ready, not at the present any way; (b) ELE is not a part of the overall consciousness of the average people. People are unaware of the fact that the lack of a consistent policy regarding the status, role and teaching English is doing more harm than good to the existing linguistic fabrics of Nepal; and finally, (c) the people see an undeniable, incontestable and uncontroversial role of English, and therefore, do not see the relevance of debating about it (Giri 2009). 

There is no doubt that English today has established itself as a language of power but more importantly, it has become the language of all economic and educational success. Whether it is a simple housemaid’s work or tourist guide’s, or whether it is teaching in a private school or establishing own business, English is an indispensable aid without which, as an academics says below, success is only an illusion:

“People who know English are more exposed, more knowledgeable and therefore, more successful in life than those who don’t. Without English, there is no academic or occupational future” (a professor during interview in Giri 2009).

The Context of ELE reform

English is taught throughout Nepal for academic as well as communicative purposes from primary to higher secondary levels in both the private and public school systems through a centralised system of education with a centrally prepared curriculum. However, due to inadequate resources, under-qualified or inappropriately trained teachers, lack of facilities and widespread poverty in the country regions, the outcomes of school English teaching have not been satisfactory. The SLC results between 1981 and 2009 demonstrate that between 69% and 80% of all students who participated in the SLC failed due to students failing in English (Ministry of Education/ Controller of Examinations {MOE/OCE, 2010}, See also Bhattarai 2004).

The new English curriculum revised in the mid 1990s acknowledges the shortcomings of the previous ELE practices which were based on the knowledge approach and recommends that teaching English is about developing language proficiency for higher education, and acquisition of communicative skills. The new curriculum scrapped the old aims and formulated a new set of aims of developing study skills in students and enabling them to communicate with people of any nationality who speak or write English by exposing them to a variety of texts of spoken and written English.  The two new secondary level courses (one each for grade 9 and 10) claim to be of practical nature with ‘functions’ as the core of the curriculum; and grammatical structures and vocabulary as tools to express the functions. However, the pedagogic as well as examination systems are still traditional in their approach and emphasise testing the knowledge of language.  Instructional schemes, for example, continue to rely on the traditional approach to education in which emphasis is laid on accurate memory and memorisation of information; and rote learning is unduly encouraged. Comprehension questions test the skills of locating information in the text and of answering factual questions.  The ‘old’ SLC English test is still in use despite extensive critiques as to its validity, reliability and theoretical adequacy. Clearly, there is a ‘wash-back’ effect from the old test with a number inconsistencies and discrepancies in the test developing process that is impacting on the potential of the new curriculum to actually make a difference to the way English is being taught (Bhattarai 2004; Giri 2005).

What is not recognised is the fact that the very wash-back effects of the SLC may play a potential change agent for the improvement of the entire ELE process, and as a basis for instructional innovation and amelioration of the teacher preparation processes. An appropriate SLC test may in fact create a ‘positive washback effect’ and hence contribute to change the very ELE process.

The School Leaving Certificate Examination

About 400,000 school graduates from public and private schools sit the SLC held in March-April each year. As a gatekeeper for entry into the higher education and employment, it is implemented after a school level qualifying test known as the ‘send-up’ test. The ‘send up’ test is administered by the District Education Offices (DEOs) for the public schools, and clusters of schools for the private schools.

Like any other external or national examinations, the SLC defines common standards of performance required to demonstrate adequate completion of a syllabus. It has a status in the wider community, and is supposed to provide an objective assessment of a student’s performance.

The current SLC is a 3 hour long test in each subject area which like any other standardised test, covers a limited part of the course syllabus, and can, therefore, capture only a small sample of a student’s performance even on the topics tested within the period of time allotted. According to Marsh (1999) a national examination like the SLC is usually biased against students who do not perform well under examination pressures, encourages a concentration of teaching only those aspects of a course which are most readily assessed, and encourages didactic teaching and rote learning (2005). However, the SLC is deeply rooted in Nepali educational tradition and is here to stay at least for the foreseeable future. In the near future, it is proposed to be given at the end of 10+2 (Year 12). It is, therefore, imperative that the problematic areas of the SLC are exposed and solutions to the problems found. 

The High Stake Nature of the SLC and its Stakeholders

The SLC is a high stake examination, and consequently, it is accorded a great importance in the Nepalese society. It plays a crucial role in the lives of most, even all individuals involved in it.  It has become a major landmark in an individual’s life in the Nepalese society. It provides the ladder for one to get on to higher education and also opens up to vista of making his/her own career development. Success in the SLC examination plays a decisive role in getting entrance to a campus, making the choice of subjects in higher education, taking part in scholarship competition and job competition and opting for a particular vocation.

Whether it is societal frontiers, admission to higher education, employment or personal achievement, the SLC results become a basis for decision making carrying a serious consequence on an individual’s life. The SLC results are seen as the final arbiter of student’s ability and dictate the student’s future.  Failure in the SLC is not only a matter of personal shame on the part of students; it also means the loss of an opportunity for a job or admission to higher education.  The SLC graduates with high grades are eligible to apply for a place at prestigious institutes and faculties like Medicine, Engineering, and Science.  Those who pass with an average mark seek admission in less popular disciplines.

The SLC affects the lives of teachers too. Failure to get students through the examination sees claims of incompetence, neglect of duty and sometimes means the loss of a job.  Teachers with a high success rate in the SLC are given certificates of appreciation or monetary benefits.

Parents, who can afford it, make special efforts to get their children through the SLC by sending them to private tuition classes, getting them extra help during the examination period and sending them for private lessons with teachers who are potential examiners. The SLC holds the key to any walk of life in the Nepali society, so parents endeavour to get their children through the examination no matter what. They adopt any means in order to do so, because failure in the SLC means a great loss of family resources and prestige. A public school’s performance is judged in terms of the success rate of its students in the SLC. Schools securing high pass rate are considered to be ‘prestigious’ and are awarded prizes by the Ministry of Education (MOE). Failure to secure good results is regarded as demonstrating inefficiency, poor management, and incompetence.  Such schools are penalised by withdrawing the grants-in-aid.

In the case of private schools, the rate of enrolment depends on the success record in the SLC. A lower pass rate results in students/parents being less likely to enrol or continue in a school. Loss of students means loss in income for school entrepreneurs. School administrators, therefore, are mainly concerned about training the students with exam tactics and equipping them with well-prepared model answers in order to get the maximum pass rate.  Numerous newspaper reports in the past (for example, Spotlight, 2001; Kantipur, 30 May 2001; TKP, various issues) alleged that some well-off schools administrators have exercised power pressure tactics or even provide monetary incentives to examiners or examination administrators to secure a higher pass rate (TKP, various issues). One example of such an irregularity was the scheme of publishing the top-ten achievers of the SLC Board. This was abolished in 2000 because some schools used unethical practices to secure a position in the top-ten list.

To sum up this section, because of the high stake of the SLC, students develop a ‘must pass’ attitude and use whatever means they can to do so as performance in the SLC is critically important to the students and the school. This anxiety is shared by the parents, family and community in an equal degree. For all these reasons, getting success by hook and crook has become a norm or even motivational principle for many.

There is a long-felt need to ameliorate the English language examination in Nepal which is largely old-fashioned, product based and unproductive. The current English language education (ELE) is in a bad shape. It suffers from a lack of a trained teaching force, mismanagement, under-development of basic infrastructure and inadequate resources and above all it lacks an adequate state policy.  The English language test of the SLC is outmoded, poorly conceived and badly developed. It perpetuates the memorisation-based learning. Furthermore, it does not produce credible and consistent results. More importantly, it does not reveal the actual language proficiency of a candidate. The test exerts negative washback effects on teaching and learning of English at the SLC level (see Khaniya 1990, C. Giri 1995, Awasthi 1995, R. Giri 2005).

The new testing scheme should aim at producing a new and improved SLC test, while at the same time modelling a process for developing such a test. More specifically it should investigate how an English language test can be revised for the changing English language teaching (ELT) context of Nepal and according to the best language testing knowledge available. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the ELT context of Nepal, current theories of language testing, and English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) testing practices in some of the developed and developing nations, a language testing adaptation process can then be modelled and a new test package developed.

There is, therefore, a two-fold challenge: firstly, to adapt, on the basis of an analysis of some of the existing models or approaches to ESL/EFL testing, a language testing model which is theoretically justifiable and functionally appropriate for ELE context of Nepal; and secondly to design a process to use the testing scheme as a basis for educational change.

Role of the SLC English test in Reforming Existing ELE Practices

The role that examination plays in educational reform has led to the ‘examination-improvement approach’ to educational reform (Kellaghan 2000; 1992:102). According to this approach, examination plays a major role in raising educational standards and provides justifications to bring about educational reform (Noah and Eckstein 1992b). It also influences educational processes such as setting up learning goals, determining the teaching syllabus, selecting course materials and organising classroom processes (Taylor 2004).

In a country like Nepal where education is constrained by severe resource limitations, an examination can be a low cost means to improvement. Emphasising the importance of examination in an under-developed country, Heyneman and Ransom (1992) write:

Especially in the context of scarce resources with declining educational standards and the ever increasing demands for better qualified manpower, education officials are looking for low-cost ways to improve their education system…examination can be powerful, low cost means of influencing the quality of what teachers teach and what students learn in school (Heyneman and Ransom 1992:109).

So, where should reform commence? Davies (1985) suggests that examination is the most sensitive, most controllable and most certain change-producing factor in the total educational innovation process. So, if one has to choose an agent of educational change, to begin with, one should always choose examination first because ‘creative and innovative testing … successfully attracts to a syllabus change or a new syllabus’ (Davies 1985:8). I illustrate this point further with a few examples.

Davies (1985), reporting a Malaysian case of ELT reform, describes the problem it can create when examination is not given its due consideration. The Malaysian CDC introduced a new communicative syllabus into the secondary education aimed at developing in school graduates the ability to communicate in English. The lack of coordination between the CDC and the examination syndicate, a separate government agency with responsibility to conduct national examinations, led the examination to be incongruent with the syllabus resulting in a fiasco. The main reason for this disaster was, as Davies pointed out, the mismatch between the syllabus goals and the examination.

After an evaluation of the situation, a further reform package was introduced in Malaysia in the mid 1990s which considered examination as one of the primary components of the reform process, and because of this consideration, the ELT practice made tremendous progress towards the desired goals (Ahmed 1997).

The Alderson Report (1986) on the National Certificate of English of Sri Lanka provides another example of how a national examination can exert a positive effect on classroom practices. The national examination in Sri Lanka was changed along with other sister elements such as the course objectives, text materials and teaching methods. All support materials such as teacher’s guide, test materials, learning materials were prepared on the basis of the skills, sub-skills and activities as specified in the test specifications. The underlying principle of this practice was, as Alderson indicates in his report, classroom practices developed the language skills and abilities, which the course objectives targeted, and which were assessed in the examination. Alderson further points out that tests had a strong impact on teaching and learning. Thus, whether the effect of a test is negative or positive depends on the ‘nature, ingredients and use’ of the test (Alderson 1986:104).

Lee (2000), who studied the effect of testing on freshmen in Canada, found that testing method results in a significant change in the students’ performance in the target language.

The closest example, however, comes from the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago. Essay writing, despite being a part of the school curriculum for so long, had not been taught simply because it was not tested in the national examination. However, with its inclusion in the Common Entrance Examination (CEE), the national examination in Trinidad and Tobago, the change in the school instructional practice was sudden, immediate and direct. As London (1997) writes:

Government policy to include essay writing in the Common Entrance Examination in Trinidad and Tobago has changed the content of teaching. How to write an essay is now deliberately taught, and both teachers and government officials believe that the change in the test represented an improvement in the primary school curriculum (London, 1997:144).

London further argues that the reform in the CEE, a high-stake examination in Trinidad and Tobago, benefited the country’s education system in several ways. Firstly, the reform impacted on the instructional practices. Essay writing, previously marginalized, surged into prominence as soon as it was included in the national test. Secondly, the reform enhanced school education. Signs of students using language creatively began to appear. Thirdly, the reform boosted the credibility of the examination. The reform was viewed as a refinement and modernisation of the traditional examination. Fourthly, the reform also raised public awareness about the national examination, which served as a basis to secure popular support for the intended curriculum reform. The most important gain of the reform, however, was the change in the teachers and the classroom practices where teachers, as the most direct agents, designed, planned and implemented the instructional programmes and evaluated student progress.

Kellaghan (1992) expresses a similar view:

If the quality of examination is changed, then because of high stakes associated with examination in terms of student opportunities and teacher accountability, the educational experience of students will also change (Kellaghan 1992:102)

Khaniya (1990), who researched the washback effects of the SLC, also found that:

if the people responsible for the design of the exam can make explicit what exactly the students are expected to have achieved and if the ingredients [of the examination] are in accordance with purpose of the whole teaching programmes, the teachers and students can work towards achieving that (Khaniya 1990:327)

In summary, examination reform may facilitate more general reform in education. Change in education can effectively be implemented through examination. However, change in other elements of the educational process does not necessarily change the examination process. A good examination does not only monitor learning, but, as Heyneman and Ransom (1992) observe below, it also provides directions for reforms:

A well designed examination system can monitor and measure achievement and occasionally aptitude, provide performance feedback to individuals, districts, schools and students, inform education officials about the overall strengths and weaknesses of their educational system and suggests directions for change and improvement (Heyneman and Ransom 1992:108).

Conclusion

The article documents a number of studies, which focus on the role of a national examination, and demonstrate to what extent and in what way a test can become a basis for improving instructional practices. As I indicated earlier, examination is a powerful instrument and strong catalyst for change. In the process model of educational reform, the content is relatively less important than the process and the purpose. The goals of instruction in this model are derived from current theories of the discipline. However tests and examinations shape the nature and ingredients of goals, content and process of instruction. In turn, the test or examination is shaped by the above factors in a dialectical process. The effect of a test on modes of instruction is, thus, inevitable. How it affects the instruction, however, depends on its nature, and the skills and levels of training of teachers.

The article also reports on the advantage of using a high stake, national examination as a change agent, and suggests that the SLC could be used as a basis for instructional amelioration in Nepal.

Clearly, the new SLC test has potential to reform and improve ELE in Nepal. It specifies language skills and abilities to be tested, outlines the procedures for testing them, and reflects a required level of proficiency.  In order to meet the requirements of the test, the teachers would be expected to change their teaching strategies in ways which would improve English language instruction.

In Nepal where education is constrained by severe resource limitations, examination can be a low cost means to improvement. As Heyneman and Ransom (1992) writes:

Especially in the context of scarce resources with declining educational standards and the ever increasing demands for better qualified manpower, education officials are looking for low-cost ways to improve their education system…examination can be powerful, low cost means of influencing the quality of what teachers teach and what students learn in school (Heyneman and Ransom 1992:109).

[If you would like to contribute to the discussion by posting your opinion, please click Leave a Comment and write your comments in the box that appears]

References

Ahmed, H. H. (1997). Assessment of Student Learning: The Malaysian Experience. Re-engineering Education for Change: Educational Innovation for Development. UNESCO. Bangkok, Thailand, UNESCO – ACEID.

Alderson, J. C. (1986). Innovations in Language Testing. Innovations in Language Testing. M. Portal. London, Nelson: 93-105.

Awasthi, J. R. (1995) A Linguistic Analysis of error committed by Nepali Learners of English. Unpublished PhD thesis. Department of Linguistics, University of Hyderabad

Bhattarai, G. R. (2004) An Overview of Test Materials of ELC English. Journal of NELTA 9(1): 1-7

Davies, A. (1985). Follow My Leader: Is that What Language Tests do? New Directions in Language Testing. Y. P. Lee, C. Fok, R. Lord and G. Low. Oxford, Pergamon Press: 3-14.

Giri, C. (1995). A Survey of People’s Attitude towards the Existing SLC Examination in Nepal. Department of English Language Education, Tribhuvan University

Giri, R.A (2010) Cultural anarchism: The consequences of privileging languages in Nepal. Journal of Multilingualism and Multilingualism Development. 31(1). 87-100.

Giri, R.A. (2005) The adaptation of language testing models to national testing of school graduates in Nepal: Processes, problems and emerging issues. Ph.D. Thesis. Melbourne: Victoria University.

Giri, R.A. (2007). The power and price of English. In Farrell, L. And Fenwick, T. (eds.) Educating the Global Workforce: Knowledge, Knowledge work and Knowledge Workers. London: Routledge

Giri, R.A. (2009). The politics of unplanning of languages in Nepal. Journal of NELTA 14(1-2).32-44

Heyneman, S. P. and A. Ransom (1992). Using Examinations and Testing to Improve Educational Quality. Examinations: Comparative and International Studies. M. Eckstein and H. Noah. Oxford, Pergamon Press.

Kantipur (2002). [Incomplete Courses and its Impact on the SLC Students]. Kantipur, 13 March 2002. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

Kantipur (2004). [Recommendation for Making Educational Standard Equal for rural and Urban Schools]. Kantipur, 30 May 2004. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

Kellaghan, T. (2000) Using Assessment to Improve the Quality of education. Dublin: Education Research Centre.

Kellaghan, T. (1992). Examination Systems in Africa: Between Internationalisation and Indigenisation. Examinations: Comparative and International Studies. M. Eckstein and H. Noah. Oxford, Pergamon Press.

Khaniya, T. R. (1990). Examinations as instruments for educational change: Investigating the washback effect of the Nepalese English examination . PhD thesis. Department of Applied Linguistics. Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh.

Lee, J. J. (2000). Language Testing as a Technique to Enhance EFL Teaching Effects on Vocabulary Acquisition at the Intermediate Level. Faculty of Education. Philadelphia, The Pensylvania State University.

London, N. A. (1997). A National Strategy for Systemwide Curriculum Improvement in Trinidad and Tobago. From Planning to Action: Government Initiative for Improving School level Practice. D. Chapman, L. Mahlck and A. Smulders. London, Pergamon Press.

Marsh, C. (1999). Perspectives: Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum. London, Falmer Press.

Mathema, K. B. and Bista, M. B. (2005) Study on Student Performance in SLC. Kathmandu: Ministry of Education and Sports, Government of Nepal.

MOE (2010). Nepal: The country context. Kathmandu, Ministry of Education and Sports, Government of Nepal.

Noah, H. and M. Eckstein (1992a). Comparing National Systems of Secondary School Leaving Examinations. Examinations: Comparative and International Studies. M. Eckstein and H. Noah. Oxford, Pergamon Press.

Noah, H. and M. Eckstein (1992b). The Two faces of Examinations: A Comparative and International Perspective. Examinations: Comparative and International Studies. M. Eckstein and H. Noah. Oxford, Pergamon Press.

Spotlight (2001). SLC Results: Low Pass Rate. Spotlight: The National Newsmagazine. 20.

Taylor, L. (2004). “Current Issues in English Language Testing.” TESOL Quarterly 39(1): 141-146.

TKP (2000). SLC Papers not to be Checked at Home. The Kathmandu Post, 14 November 2000. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001a). Non-elite Students Fare Well. The Kathmandu Post. 17 July 2001. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001b). New Curriculum Blamed for Dismal Results. The Kathmandu Post, 17 July 2001. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001c). Budget for Education Sector Inadequate. The Kathmandu Post, 11 July 2001. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001d). SLC: A Test of Cheating Skills. The Kathmandu Post, 22 April 2001.Avaliable: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001e). Our Teacher has Become Lazy. The Kathmandu Post, 8 February 2001. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001f). Education: Who is to Blame? The Kathmandu Post, 8 July 2001. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001g). Uncertainty Shrouds SLC Results. The Kathmandu Post, 26 June 2001. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001h). Parsa Bags Better Results in SLC Examinations. The Kathmandu Post, 23 July 2001. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2001i). SLC Signals. The Kathmandu Post, 17 July 2001. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2002). Changing curriculum. The Kathmandu Post, 15 march 2002. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2002a). There is a Dire Need of Administrative Reform. The Kathmandu Post, 22 April 2002. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2002b). Changing Curriculum. The Kathmandu Post, 15 march 2002. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TKP (2004). Nepal’s Primary School Drop Out Rate 40 Percent. The Kathmandu Post, 10 February 2004. Available: http://www.kantipuronline.com/. Kathmandu.

TESTING:WHAT?

Miscellaneous, Scholarly Article

Welcome Note!

Hello!

All of you invaluable readers are heartily welcome to some of my words that I have attempted to express hereby on the ground of my experiences as a student, as a guardian, as a language facilitator and as a member of the society where I have directly and indirectly observed and felt the tests of diversities. Since it is based on my perceptions, it is more particular than general, though I have tried my level best to bring some academically supported related facts and trends in some different way. I am hopeful for your making me grateful to you by dropping some comments to help me extend the horizons of vision!

Thank you!

What is testing?

Test! As the word echoes in the ears of the concerned, they feel different kinds of sensations; they get several varied feelings and ideas hovering over their heads, on how to manage, how to tackle, how to get through and many more. Let me place the three ways how people have understood a test. Here they are:

-It is a kind of tension and trauma to most of the fellows

-It is tricks and the acts of teasing to several

-It is of course a great trip to few

Such statistics attached to my experience shows that most of the fellows hate having to face it or recklessly dare to surpass the lines of moral acts, i.e. helplessly breaking the norms and values set for an IDEAL test. Why so? Why does a test sound so horrible to most of the test takers? Is a test really so terrifying? We can confer with the sufferers and disclose that they have always found themselves in odd situations, confused at how to get through with the limited tools available and uncertain supports which they are supposed to get certainly.

Secondly, several of the people who are holding the revelantly responsible posts administratively feel they neither have to do anything with the outcome of test nor need at least to take some moral responsibility for being indifferent to the future of the testees and do something justifiable either by taking firm steps challenging the hindrances like the outgoing Chief Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha or by resigning the post as a bold step like the former finance secretary Rameshwore Khanal. Wow! Let’s give a give hand to them, shall we?

Thirdly, test is simply a great trip to few fellows who have been equipped with most of the advanced educational tools at their own expense, who have made timely preparation without looking to the concerned bodies and considered it as an opportunity to find out how far and how smoothly they have come so far and what would be the fruit of their journey like on getting to the destination set.

“Dear fellows, you have to have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth in this country to be lucky enough to taste a test in the third way!”

Now, shall we have an open tête-à-tête on testing?

Do you agree TESTING refers to the way of carrying out a test? It signals HOW, whereas test indicates WHAT! Are we all, irrespective of designations, satisfied with the way or ways of carrying out a test or tests in our localities except at some institutions? NO will get overwhelming majority, as a landslide victory over YES. Have we ever tried to detect WHY? Have we ever made an attempt to pick holes on our own part? Perhaps, NO! Or, perhaps, YES in words, but NO in action!! Let’s not worry, because it is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS! I am, by God, not making any satire or ironical expression! To your contentment that I am not CHEATING, let’s enter the next episode below, shall we?

Test: in search of identity

I wish I could have named this part Clash of The Titans but my mind found the same more justifiable, since we are not going to watch a Hollywood film though we can get visible Clashes, i.e. disagreements, among Titans, i.e. scholarly heroes, over the identification of test in this part.

According to Jacobovits (1970:75), what it is to know a language is not well understood so the language proficiency tests that are now available and universally used are inadequate because they attempt to measure something that has not been well defined. It means language is a complex human-specific system and it is a brain-racking job what aspect of it is to be tested. Anyway, we are not sure what exactly we are to measure, yet we are to measure! What a puzzle!

Hughes (1989:1) roars shedding light on the imprecision of most of the tests that result in the failure. Simply, test is next to failure. But, for your kind information, he doesn’t advocate for failure to replace tests with. What he has brought to light is that in most of the cases or situations tests have failed to measure what exactly they are administered to. So, they have often served horrible tastes to teaching and learning, perhaps a nightmare for those who make efforts sleeplessly. But, sorrowfully, testing has not been worth disposing till the date. Moreover, they are growing in different shapes and sizes. Aren’t testees getting more bewildered?

Davies (1968:1-2) – Davies seems to have somewhat clear idea about language testing that he opines as the tendency to follow the teaching methodology. That is testing how proficient someone is in the second language is shaped by teaching methodologies. It means the methodologies can possibly introduce the modes of tests so as to measure the second language proficiency.

Farhady(1983:311) – Farhady has his own experience in connection with methods. To be frank, as I have understood Farhady’s, we devise a method today to be thrown away tomorrow as something worthless, just like a knock-out boxing championship, in which a new champion appears knocking out the former one questioning the validity of his competence and performance. It conveys succeeding methods are obliged to come down on preceding ones directly questioning their validity. That may be why today’s methodologists have refrained from such bitter knock-out trends and joined hands and declared post-method era. Simply, it illustrates that no methods are superior to the other ones; methods of any sort having feasibility to help learners get ahead are adoptable whether they are from renowned methodologists or locally developed.

Anyway, some scholars have addressed language ability as a target of test. But, to our amazement, there seems to have surfaced another episode of the clash over what language ability is. A new type of test it is, isn’t it?

Bachman(1990) advocates for a clear-cut definition of the ability to try to find out the ground of consensus. Lado(1961) placed his definition of language ability ;and, it had to face a bitter challenge from Oller(1979) who himself failed to explain to  the  advocates of communicative language testing. It indicates what is to be tested is still unclear. Yet, we are having to give and take a test, as a journey on which we can’t exactly decide what our destination is. Although it is widely acceptable that testing has focused on different aspects of language in different eras, yet it is criticized for failing to zero in on the exact target. To put in different words, it is dynamic; it is changing with the change in the way of viewing the aspects of language as demanded by time.

To speak my mind as a summed-up view in this regard, test itself is incomplete. It has created a big non-ending dispute on the international arena, perplexing even highly renowned scholars, much more Nepalese scholars, and much much more Nepalese testees –  poor fellows. It is just like entering a labyrinth to get out to the desired career somewhere on the other side. So, it is natural that the students, the poor fellows, who have been left helpless at the crossroads, demand enough looseness in course of battling tests, and moreover in the republican system! And, it is solely up to the responsible how justifiably they maintain the balance between the LOOSENESS and TIGHTNESS during the tests with a broad vision. Shall we step further below to enjoy the history (or MYSTERY?) of the balance?

Tests of TU: toddling to the balancing act!

TU, in the sight of many more students and teachers, is still holding high dignity as an iconic figure but its ever/never-changing conditions have long been the matter of concern to the true concerned people. Just as political changes that have occurred in Nepal, similarly to many more students and guardians, the exam systems of TU seem to have had  radical changes just from despotic through democratic to republican. In the past I can still remember the teaching and testing used to hold some reasonable balance. Almost all the subjects used to be complete in time. The teachers were so much worried about how they could satisfy the students, and so were the students’ union as well as the administration. I still recall the extra classes  given by our physics teacher Jagadish Mandal on Saturday. Almost all the students attended the classes. And, the exams were too tight to have even a side-talk! We all felt justice at that time. In today’ version of perception, that was the despotic reign of TU; and no doubt we still feel proud of having gone through the ordeals for our own achievement. Later on, the system got democratized. That is there appeared different unions including those of teachers and administrative staff growing their influences in favor of their interests. As a result, haphazard tug-of-war pulled the established system out of its shape. Sorrowfully, teaching and cheating were seen to have come to the point of agreement compromising the quality students were supposed to have had as their fundamental right. And, cheating started to find logical space during the exams – a democratic slogan: Everything has right to exercise power for its existence and enhancement! By and large, directly or indirectly, TU itself seemed to have given half consent to what had begun as a new practice, i.e. cheating is the new arrangement of the fundamentals of teaching (anyone can get excited to learn that on rearranging the letters of TEACHING we can get a word CHEATING – what a coincidence or a morphological plan the English made for the Nepalese education to suit!). Now we are exercising republican system. We can see countless fragmented groups demanding the security of their own diversified interests no matter what, where and when. All the organs of the system are fighting for their more significant approaches and prominent positions such as teaching department, administrative department, and examination department and so on. And, why can’t the students, the symbol of young blood, the tsunami of changes in any sector, stand in the lead amongst the multiple clashes? Of course, they must have reasonable interference in any field, much more in the exam halls.

Nepal is a wonderland of many more existences. We can get countless mind-boggling phenomena and happenings here. Not to speak of Nepalese even foreign scholars from developed countries can’t help but start scratching their heads in wonders over the dual educational scenario in our country – too flexible and too inflexible. What is too flexible to retain an understandable shape is that today’s exam halls in most of the centers are equipped with the highly sophisticated scientific technologies, such as using cell phones for easy access to questions and answers – exercising human right of unimpeded access to information! And, what is too inflexible to understand is that almost all the systems from teaching to testing in our country are bizarrely outdated in the present context, yet we are still sticking to them and surviving anyhow!

So the tests of TU refer not only to the tests set by TU for the students to go through but also those TU itself is having to undergo. The students are managing anyhow to go through them, but poor TU seems to have failed each and every test it has set itself for itself! The balancing act is at risk, isn’t it?

Silence is now full consent!

There is a common saying “Silence is half consent”, but it dramatically shifts to a novel saying “Silence is full consent”. Just a few days ago, I read a piece of news on the rift appearing slowly in a political party in our soil. That was the state of deadlock the leaders on two sides were in. One leader explained that they were in a great dilemma in the ongoing transitional phase. What he added was ‘The circumstance says: Don’t kill any living creature; don’t bring the flesh of a dead body; and, don’t come back empty-handed’. Now in our educational context in relation to tests, the dialogue might go like this: We can’t say “Do cheating at the exams”, and we can give you neither enough time to prepare nicely enough nor duly guidance! So directly or indirectly cheating is gaining stronger moral ground these days, isn’t it?

It has been my own bitter experience so far. I do feel like adding a lot here, but I do respect your reading patience so I am clarifying in short why so.

It is an open secret to you all what kinds of facilities students are enjoying to pursue their higher studies – libraries with no or insufficient related books, no (updated) teaching calendar, uncertainty of examination dates, course completion in time as a far cry, too great a delay in publishing exam results, no time for re-totaling, the lack of enough time to prepare properly for the papers the examinees have failed in. what could we expect from the students in such adverse situations, if not cheating or something else similar to that? How could the concerned bodies find themselves comfortable to give moral lessons? I can’t at all say I am just advocating for cheating. I am just trying to express that there must be more powerful options for the students to  get allured out of the compulsion of or inclination to CHEATING. What could be the master plan? Isn’t it high time the responsibility holders devised it?

Testing or getting tested

As most of the scholars have undertaken test as a two-way traffic, since it not only tests how far students have got ahead in the line of their competence growth but also measures how successful the teachers have been in selecting the right directions in the line of duty. In fact, it is more crucial on the part of teachers, not students, in relation to how learner-oriented the teaching has been made. And, it also goes without saying scholarly arguments over what exactly tests are aimed at have posed a challenge to the efficacy of tests. In general, tests are meant to measure whether students’ command on the language skills is up to standard or not. And, quality tests are considered to be balanced on the tripod of validity, reliability and practicality, of which validity has held the highest value till today and practicality the lowest. Such an old-established concept and clarification must be open to fresh discussions to evaluate them afresh, as we have found a growing number of teachers, educationists, and experts advocating for deconstructionism. If you let me speak my mind, we must follow the reverse order, that is practicality matters the most and validity the least. If what we are inclined to achieve or have achieved fails to have practicality, it is outdated in the world of technologies and deserves a trash can. Simply, you have spent your time and money on something but it doesn’t make any sense in practice or you cannot use it practicably. Would you like to bear any more tension holding it on any longer? If what we have attained supports us effectively in almost all the related moves of ours, I hope nobody can cast a doubt over its sustainable consistency and it does have high reliability. And, if something is practicably reliable, it is automatically valid, isn’t it? I believe that is the way we now need to be in action – a novel test to be tested, since we may have been exhausted with our countless attempts to make the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language fruitful on the whole. Only then teaching will no longer get eclipsed by cheating. And, the certificate will no longer remain simply a piece of paper but hard-earned bread! And, the exams will no longer remain tilted to the written modes of communication but balanced on written (reading and writing) and oral (listening and speaking) ones. And, it would be wise to commence with what is to be tested and in what ways in consonance with our soil and soul.

Let’s be hopeful for the RISE!

References

Doff, A. (1988). Teach English- A training course for teachers (Trainers’ Handbook and Teachers’ Book). Cambridge: CUP.

Khaniya, T. R. (2005). Examination for enhanced Learning. Kathmandu: Kishore Khaniya.

Sharma, B. K. & P. B. Phyak. (2008). Teaching English language. Kathmandu: Sunlight Publication.

Exams, Academic Writing, and Nepalese ELT

Critical Outlook

Related to the issue of testing vis-a-vis its role and justification in education, I would like to share in this brief post a few thoughts about the other side of testing: engaging students in academic writing that allows them to express their ideas more freely and creatively.

I recently attended a pre-conference full day workshop at the Annual Convention of the college chapter of US National Council of Teachers of English (the CCC) in Atlanta City, Georgia. This workshop, which brought together scholars of English and Writing Studies from different countries, focused on the need to understand how academic writing is done in different parts of the world. It is traditionally assumed that academic writing is only taught as a separate subject in schools and colleges in the United States; it is believed that academic systems in other places (like our own) only use writing as a testing tool. Increasing amount of research and scholarly conversation is showing that that is not always the case: writing may not be taught as a separate subject in other countries but schools and teachers do find ways to use writing to fulfill more than the purpose of testing students’ knowledge on the subject matter of another course. For instance, when listening to a French professor of writing, I felt that there are much more complex epistemological functions that writing serves between the simple distinctions between writing to learn and writing to be tested on the knowledge gained. However, the workshop made me feel very strongly that the Nepalese education system does not integrate writing as a form of learning nearly as well as many other countries around the world seem to do.

In Nepal, we have not yet developed curricular and pedagogical practices that foster epistemological agency in our students. That is, we do not let students write in order to generate their own new ideas. Students write to demonstrate knowledge, not to create it. This is not a matter of distinction between us/east and the west, but in Nepal (and more generally in South Asian societies) teachers and curriculum developers seem to be still stuck in the classical idea that knowledge is out there, that new knowledge is the domain of the few “jannes,” (the knowers) that the teachers’ job is to transmit immutable truths from the real jannes up/out there to the students down there, and that it is good enough for students to just learn and regurgitate what we teach them. We do not yet see that it is only by generating new ideas as part of their learning process that learners become capable of succeeding in the knowledge economy of today’s world. Our students don’t solve problems, they just understand problems identified by others and solutions found out by others. Like Sajan has said in the editorial, our academic institutions produce owners of certificates, not producers of new knowledge.  We don’t prepare our students to respond to novel situations in life and work with new ideas. We teach theories, they go solve practical problems, rarely making any connections between the theories and the real problems. We never encourage students to question the books, rarely ask them to respond to thula manchhes’ (big people’s) ideas with their own, and we do not instill in them the respect for and confidence in their own ideas. I sometimes mentally visualize our education system as a bizarre place where books written in distant places/times are hanging from the ceiling of a room, with teachers trying to read and explain the  content of the books to the students who are sitting on the floor, passively listening to the teacher. What the books say is not only out of reach and question of the students, it is also out of the teacher’s own ability and desire to critically assess and understand.

But to me more optimistic, let me segue from that bizarre image to how some new and better developments are also taking place in the sphere of literacy and education in our society as well. At the CCC conference after the workshop, I presented a paper that was based on a book chapter that Balkrishna and I wrote recently. Based on our observation and interviews about popular culture and literacy practices of Nepalese youth online, I talked about the ways in which alternative learning spaces on the web are now beginning to provide young people in traditional societies like Nepal some powerful motivations to adopt/adapt knowledge and popular culture practices  from other societies, to create and share new knowledge among themselves, and to subvert the hierarchical knowledge structure that is sustained by hierarchical socio-political structure of our traditional society.

the real jannes and the child

The issue that connects this reflection with my point in the paper is this: educational systems reflect social structures that allow certain groups to “know,”  and and they also reflect social worldviews that legitimize and make respectable some people’s knowledge and not others’.  For example, when people my age or older grew up (and to a lesser extent even today), younger people were/are constantly reminded  NOT to be “janne” in front of the adults: “Janne na ho hai phuchche!” An implicit social norm only allows a few groups of people like the ascetic, the shaman, old men, those with feudal/political power, and recently professional teachers to behave like they know something, to use their knowledge in society. Not kids. In our society, kids can’t act like they know, even if they do know something. And that implicit understanding that only the knowledge of those who wield social and political power should be considered legitimate and meaningful pervades our thinking about education; that understanding shapes the educational structure and prevents new models to enter or thrive. In other words, it is unfortunate but the underlying reason why exams and certificates fundamentally define education itself in our society is because we continue to accept the conventional social structure where knowledge is considered to be the exclusive domain of the few “jannes.” The current model of mass education that lays too much emphasis on examination/testing came from the colonial and Industrial Revolution era of Europe when class and power structured education, not the other way around; but we in South Asia adopted it long ago (from the colonial education in the south) and we are not yet ready to move from there to something more democratic, more learner-centered, an educational mechanism that is more attuned to the knowledge economy of the present century. We don’t want the kids to steal the fire, and that is why we don’t feel the need to ask them to voice their opinions, challenge old ideas develop new ones, and use writing to create and share new knowledge that matters to them. We either don’t know or don’t care how much this old worldview will hurt our future generations’ opportunities and ability to compete in the increasingly globalized knowledge economy.

The strength of a society’s desire for something, or lack thereof, is determined by its worldview. Our educational systems are the manifestations of our lack of desire to help students to create new knowledge; they are designed to make students tell us back what we tell them. In my paper, I talked about how the socio-epistemological structure of traditional societies are changing as a result of the new wave of new technologies, connection to popular culture activities online, and access to information. For example, the fact that Nepalese youngsters now can find more information online–more interesting and more relevant to them–than their school provides them has greatly increased the chances of them sharing their own ideas with others without the inhibition of the janne adults. But unfortunately, while alternative affinity spaces like social networking and media sharing sites online have created such new possibilities, our students have to ultimately depend on our accreditation of their learning with formal certificates, which in turn come from regurgitating what we or the textbooks told them and not from creating and sharing new knowledge.

In my talk, I invoked the idea of the “choutari,” which reminds us that even in the hierarchical social and knowledge structure of our traditional society, there were indigenous spaces where people came together to share ideas, solve problems, and let the younger generations gradually take over the conversation. So it is not that we the easterners had it all wrong in terms of democratic ownership and use of knowledge; indeed, it is our adoption of the “modern” model of formal education that ironically replaced several organic knowledge structures that existed in the society.  The modern model of “western” education is actually what came out of the industrial model that has outrun its purpose and utility for a new knowledge economy in a globalized world.

What we need to do, then, is to seriously think about how we may be able to mitigate the stifling effects of turning education into testing machines, adopt and adapt models of education that make space for learners to engage in creating ans sharing new knowledge, and where possible find out what local knowledge structures are worth drawing on towards enhancing the epistemological agency of our students. The advancement of academic writing as a part of learning is one of the practical solutions to the problem of stultifying education with exams and tests. It is time that we look at other societies and their educational systems for better uses of writing than for administering exams. In the west, hypercapitalism’s invasion of the educational sphere has put the cart of testing before the horses of education; we in Nepal seem to be obsessed with testing because it gives us a false sense of security by disallowing the kids to threaten our power and positions by questioning our knowledge or trying to replace/improve it with their own.

We have taken just enough exams since the establishment of “modern” education: it’s time to really modernize our education by giving our students real opportunities to create and share knowledge–through writing as knowledge-making.

Presidential Address: Sixteenth NELTA International Conference

Native Perspective

– Mr. Laxman Gnawali

Honourable Member of National Planning Commission and Founding President of NELTA Prof. Tirth Raj Khaniya,

Past President, Current

Advisor and Chief Editor of NELTA Journal Prof. Jai Raj Awasthi,

Prof. Abhi Subedi sir,

British Council Country Director Robert Monroe, and British Council Country Exams Manager Ewan Davies

RELO Kathmandu Fife McDuff, RELO New Delhi Joelle Uzarski, Colleagues from the US Embassy,

Mr. Anil Kedia, Chairman, DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati Higher Secondary School

Distinguished Guests on the dais,

Key speakers, participants from home and abroad, publishers, NELTA colleagues, media persons, ladies and gentlemen,

I feel truly delighted and honoured and privileged to welcome you here to this 16th conference of NELTA. Your gracious presence in this august gathering has added to our belief that networking works in teacher professional development.

At this moment, I would like to begin with my sincere appreciation to those who initiated NELTA and also those who nurtured it. NELTA that now operates through its over 30 branches spread all over the country, has over 1700 life members and several hundred general members and a sizable number of institutional members.  NELTA that encompasses teachers, learners and enthusiasts of English of every kind, from schools to universities, public and private, from every walk of like. NELTA that is looked up to by ELT colleagues and other professionals of home and abroad. NELTA that does not market for membership but its size grows every year.  NELTA where we learn and let learn.

This is not just eulogizing. This phenomenon has a theory behind it.

In Sanskrit, there is a saying ‘Sanghe shaktih kalau yuge‘ which means organization holds the key to strength in modern times. Here the word organisation means association and network. Being on a network makes a crucial difference in one’s career and professional attitude. With the help of network, one not only develops and rises, but also snowballs strength to help others to move on. The members help the network to grow. This is true to NELTA. At NELTA, there has been a literal give and take. NELTA is what Emilie Durkheim calls organic bonding which acts as a tool to help the individuals grow in the profession, self-actualise and be recognized in a broader circle. It helps them realise their full potentials. NELTA provides its members with opportunities to realise their potentials and with those realised potentials, the members explore newer avenues for NELTA to grow into a bigger platform. Mike Solly rightly put at the end of his presentation in an ELTeCS meeting in Srilanka a few years ago:

Tell me and I will… Forget

Show me and I will. …Remember

Involve me and I will…Understand

Network me and I will. …Grow (and help others to grow)

This is not just a theory now. It is a reality.

How is this possible? This is possible because NELTA’s foundation is built on three ships S-H-I-P-S: membership, partnership and relationship.

First the membership: Our strength is our members who bring with them ideas and aspirations, hopes and dedications, they give and they take as I said earlier. They put pressure on the leadership and bear the pressure of the tasks assigned to them. They are the backbone.

Second this partnership, without partners we would not be where we are today. Together with the partners, we run the conferences, training programmes, English language courses, radio programmes, surveys and other research studies, disseminate the ideas, make interventions into where English is important. Together with the partners, we think and act.

Third is the relationship. We build relationship with the individuals and organizations home and abroad. We share our experiences, best practices, learn and let learn. We network with other networks.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Now I would like to highlight some of the recent achievements which are also listed in the programme that you in you in hand.

We have made progress in the ELT survey in which NELTA works with the National Planning Commission, Ministry of Education, British Council and the US Embassy.  Our survey design including the tools is almost ready to be implemented.  Now time to put together funds.

NELTA and the US Embassy have just started a two year Access Micro-scholarship program in which we teach English to the non-elite youths in Kathmandu , Gorkha and Bhairahawa.

NELTA has collaborated with Radio Sagarmatha in the English by Radio program supported by the US Embassy and it is very popular. Also, the US embassy has been very kind to supply the ELT Forum magazine to all the life members of all the NELTA branches.

Another support from the US is that we now have Senior English Language Fellow Dr. Barbara Law, who is travelling with NELTA trainers to different branches and reaching the unreached.

NELTA now manages the six ETAs in Lalitpur under the Fulbright Commission ETA program and we have planned to have six ETAs to work with NELTA next year.

We partnered with British Council to implement the English for Teaching and Teaching for English (ETTE) project at the branch level.

A cadre of NELTA trainers have received training from the British Council. They will cascade it in different parts of the country.

The NELTA participants of the British Council’s Learning Centre training now receive joint certificates signed by the NELTA and the British Council.

The British Council and NELTA are now working out how we can collaborate in teacher and learner support activities such as the Global products.

Capacity building of the NELTA leaders and members is our priority. With the support from the British Council and the US embassy, NELTA members have participated in different international courses and events, TESOL USA and IATEFL, UK. With their kind support eight NELTA speakers represented the ELT of Nepal in the first teacher educators’ conference in Hyderabad India recently. We are very pleased to share with you that the selection for the Hornby Scholarship to do a Master course in the UK is underway. This has been possible with the fresh initiatives taken by the British Council Nepal and the Uzbekistan office. The announcements will be made soon for the Bell Centre the UK’s scholarship to attend trainer’s development course in the UK. This is special arrangement between NELTA, Bell Centre and the British Council. Altogether six trainers completed a trainers’ course from EFLU India in the last three years, RELO India and the US Embassy collaborated with the EFLU on this. The TEFL International provides scholarships for the NELTA recommended individuals  to do Certificate and diploma courses.

As a decentralisation process, we have started organizing a regional chapter of the NELTA conference. Last year was in Birgunj and this year we are travelling to Pokhara.  This also shows that the branches have built up their capacity to organize the evens of this level.  NELTA Dhangadhi branch has acquired land and funds are being sought for the constructing the office building

The NELTA journal is peer reviewed and has the ISSN number. The credit for this goes to the highly dedicated editorial team led by Prof. Awasthi.  NELTAchautari is a different versions of NELTA forum; Prem Phyak, Ghanshyam Sharma, Bal Krishna Sharma, Sajan Karna, Kamal Poudel and Hem Raj Kafle work to make it resourceful and user-friendly coordinating from places of varying clock times.   The yahoogroup has been an excellent forum for our members to connect themselves with the global ELT. Please log on to these sites, learn and let learn.

We cannot sit back and rest because achievements have been made, there lie newer avenues with newer challenges.  On the one hand, NELTA has to continue the projects already initiated, on the other it has to look for un-trodden paths for newer achievements. This calls for the collaboration and coordination with stakeholders in more effective ways.  While we need a strong and leading Centre, without stronger branches we will not step ahead. The implementation of the ELT survey project still remains a plan and will need to be realized into concrete actions. Whatever the plans and ambitions, without the active participation and cooperation from all the sectors including the government, nothing will happen. I hope we will stand united in every effort NELTA makes.

This conference is richer than before with more than 150 speakers from more than 17 countries. I would like to welcome the two key speakers Prof. Adrian Holliday and Prof. John Fanselow, plenary Brian Tomlinson, Sheilagh Nelson speakers and the presenters including the representatives of our neighbouring ELT organisations like SPELT, BELTA, SLELTA, ELTAI and all the participants from home and abroad. I would like welcome you all to this Himalayan nation and to express my gratitude to you all for accepting our invitation. I wish all the participants and speakers to have a memorable time. I also wish the foreign and out of valley participants a pleasant stay in Kathmandu. Please bear with us for any discomforts you may suffer.

Finally, I take this opportunity to thank DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati Higher Secondary School who have made such a contribution by providing the venue and facilities including human resource that we remain thankful to them. Thank you DAV team. My sincere thanks go to our sponsors, supporters and exhibitors the British Council, the US Embassy, the Cambridge University Press, the Oxford University press, the Routledge India, the Ekta Books, the Brikuti Books. I can speak here today because for the last few months, NELTA colleagues worked tirelessly day and night. I would like to document their voluntary and sincere contributions to make this event a grand success.

Thank you very much indeed.

Laxman Gnawali

Acting President, NELTA

18 February 2011

Teaching English in multicultural contexts: more challenges and even more opportunities

English as a Global Language

Prem Phyak

English is no longer the language of only so-called native speakers of English (e.g. Americans, British, Australians, and so on) because the number of native speakers is already outnumbered by non-native speakers of English. It has already become a global language which is not only a means of disseminating new knowledge in any field throughout the world but also a means for intercultural communication. English has already become an inevitable part of the education in Nepal though there are many challenges to make its teaching more effective. Those challenges include techniques of teaching to macro-level educational language planning in Nepal. One of the major challenges is how teaching of English can be made appropriate in the multilingual and multicultural context of Nepal. Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA) organized its 16th international conference in Kathmandu (18-20 February) and Pokhara (22-23 February) where more than 500 and 400 participants in the former and the latter respectively discussed challenges and opportunities of teaching English in multilingual and cross-cultural context of Nepal. There were more than 200 papers and plenary speeches of different scholars, researchers and English teachers from home and abroad. Professor Adrian Holliday from Canterbury Christ Church University, UK and Professor Emeritus John F. Fanselow, Columbia University, USA delivered key speeches on the theme of the conference ‘English in multilingual and cross-cultural contexts: exploring opportunities and meeting challenges’.

Despite the fact that indigenous languages are on the verge of extinction, there is a craze of learning English among students and parents also aspire to educate their children in English medium schools. This aspiration has been already reflected in the educational language policy of the Ministry of Education (MoE) to introduce English from Grade One in community schools. In the same way, the MoE has already given the authority to management committees of the community managed public schools to shift themselves from Nepali to English medium of instruction. The number of schools switching to English medium is increasing every year. On the other hand, English is both subject and medium of instruction from pre-primary level in private schools. However, there are many challenges to teach English to students who come from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds. One of the challenges is that whether or not students get chance to utilize their own cultural and linguistic knowledge in schools while learning English. Some questions pertinent to the theme of the conference were: how our socio-cultural background can shape teaching and learning of English? How can we teach English while addressing linguistic and cultural diversity of Nepal? How can we foster critical and creative thinking skills? There were discussions on how learners’ prior linguistic and cultural knowledge helps in learning English. The papers presented in the conference provided a great implication that students’ cultural knowledge can be a resource for teaching and learning English.

Professor Holliday argued that the English language can foster intercultural communication among the children from diverse cultural as well as linguistic backgrounds. Focusing on the importance of children’s prior knowledge, he reiterated that teachers of English should capitalize multicultural experiences that children bring into the classroom while teaching English. He also put a significant point that teaching of English should be contextual and we need to educate children about the nature of English in relation to society. This clearly indicates that to address the expectations and experiences of children from diverse cultural backgrounds, teachers’ role as a passive-technician is not enough rather they have to be a transformative intellectual. Teachers should understand that classroom is socially constructed and historically situated and they should create such an environment where students from various backgrounds can get opportunities to utilise their prior knowledge. In general, English teachers are not simply in-charges of classroom but also agents for social change. They can also contribute to foster democracy and critical thinking skill by creative inclusive learning environment where students can exercise their values, assumptions and identities shaped by local, national and global socio-cultural settings and expectations. In the same line, Professor John F. Fanselow, another key speaker in the conference, focused on how students can be taught creatively so that they get more opportunities to use English. Breaking rules of traditional teaching, he discussed that teachers have to arouse curiosity of students to resolve various puzzles themselves rather than showing their fault while they make mistakes. Emphasising the importance of thinking process, he stated that students should be given enough time to think while teaching English. He also presented the idea of recording and transcribing learners’ classroom language which can be an abundant source for teaching English. This clearly indicates that we need to rethink the way we are teaching English in Nepal. Some crucial questions that may help us to further our debates are: How often do we give students chance to think critically? Are we aware of their socio-cultural backgrounds? Have we tried doing something new or beating the same old drum? Professor Fanslow’s presentations were all about deconstructing the old rules of teaching English and reconstructing alternative ones to engage students in doing things.

Professor Abhi Subedi, critically assessed the consequences of detaching teaching English from cross-cultural context in Nepal. Analyzing the socio-political and historical discourses, he strongly condemned that our practices of teaching English have not been able to address socio-cultural realties. He argued that ‘methods [of teaching] … failed to suture the diverse experiences of English teachers in this country’ and is critical about teachers’ resistance towards change. He showed his concern about the fact that teaching and learning of English has been confined within the classroom. This clearly indicates that there is a huge gap between socio-cultural reality and teaching of English in Nepal. He appealed that we can design syllabuses and can develop viable methods of teaching by considering our own multilingual and multicultural realities. He also mentioned that now there is no point in following British or American Standard English to teach English in Nepal. In the same way, focusing on the importance of English, Professor Jai Raj Awasthi presented that three language policy (mother tongue, Nepali and English) can be a pragmatic policy for placing English in multilingual and multicultural context of Nepal.

The reflection of the only mega event of its kind in Nepal points out some crucial issues regarding teaching of English. First, there is an urgent need of taking the ownership of English rather than considering it as a ‘foreign’ language (in literal sense, not in pedagogical and political sense). Since there is a craze of learning English even in rural areas of the country, we have to closely observe how English is being produced (Spoken and Written) to indentify our own variety of English. Second, we have to work hard on designing syllabuses, writing textbooks and producing learning materials which address expectations of Nepalese children from multilingual and multicultural backgrounds. Third, we have to explore more opportunities and should try developing alternative ways of teaching to foster students’ creative and critical thinking skills. Overall, we have to deconstruct the tradition that confines English in the classroom, break the rules that make students produce only minimal language (formulaic speech), smash the hierarchy between teachers and students to foster two-way communication, demolish monolithic and mono-cultural world view to advance intercultural communication and forget prescriptions of any method to instill critical thinking skills for independent learning in students.


English, multilingualism and cross-culturality

English as a Global Language

In his presentation, Proessor Holliday discusses the role of English in this heterogeneous world from multilingual and cross-cultural perspectives. Click the links below to download the pdf versions of his presentation PowerPoints.

 

English in multilingual and cross-cultural context


The complexity of culture

Causes and consequences of the loss of Native language among Paharis at Khopasi:Sociocultural and Linguistic perspectives

Native Perspective

Madhav P. Timalsina

This article is a synopsis of a thesis submitted in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. It will be helpful for the students of sociology and those who attempt to prepare thesis in partial fulfillment of Master’s Degree. This study was carried out at Panauti Municipality ward no.12 Khopasi. Only fifty respondents from Pahari community were chosen. The respondents were of different age groups i.e. from twelve years of age to over sixty.They were interviewed duly through structured-interview and ten people from different sphere of life and well known to Paharis and their state of affairs were taken as key informants and they were also interviewed. Apart from interview, observation was also made and the findings were considerably justified with sociological and linguistic theories.

A Brief History of Paharis at Khopasi
Khopasi was named as ‘Kuru Pasak’ during Kirat regime and it is said that Kuru Pasak later becomes Khopasi. The first people ever lived in this place were the Pahari(Sapkota,Rabin 2006).It is said that their traditional profession was to carve stone and make stone grinding mill and water-turbine. It is said that they were the first people who fished in Roshi and Salandu khola. Later Brahmins came over there from Kuntabsi, Newars from Dapcha and Bhaktapur and Paharis living at Khopasi scattered to other places like Lele,Dolakha etc. They had unique culture in marriage, funeral, feast and festivals. They claim that their ancestors were Newar and their language matches with Newar. Moreover, they also employ Napit (the one whose traditional profession is to cut nails of Newars) as Newars do. There were 11505 Paharis in Nepal according to census report 2001B.S. and only 319 Paharis were there in Khopasi. Now approximately 4oo Paharis are living there. No new generation speaks Pahari language and we do not observe any influence of Newari tongue while talking with them. A research work was done about the reason why Paharis living there do not speak their mother tongue and what will be the consequences of the loss. Interview with key informants, interview with the locals and observation were used as the tool of research and was submitted to the department of Sociology/Anthropology,Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus,Ghantaghar. The synopsis of the study is presented below;
During the interview of Paharis and key informants, the causes of the loss of the native language of Paharis were identified as follows on the basis of their responses:
I. School education
II. Lacking interest
III. Assimilation
IV. Acculturation
V. Linguistic policy of the government
VI. gradual loss of culture
VII. Speakers socio-economic status and attitudes
VIII. Literature and script
IX. Social distance
X. theories of language death
XI. Sociological theories
• Conflict theory
• World system theory
• Sociobiology
Most interviewees told that school education in Nepali language is the main cause of their loss of native language. As they did not get chance to use their language in education, they were compelled to learn Nepali language for academic purposes. It helped them to lessen the charm of using their own language. Other causes of the loss of native language of Paharis are described below:
1. Assimilation
Assimilation is a process in which a group gradually gives up its own language, culture and system of values and takes on those of another group with a different language, culture and system of value through a period of interaction (Crystal, 1991) Paharis at Khopasi came to unending interaction with Brahmins and Chhetris and they needed to use Nepali language while talking to Newars and Tamangs. They assimilated the language first then their culture gradually. As a result, they lost their language.
In Nepalese society, we mostly observe linguistic assimilation, the process of interaction between different group of behavior of the majority. Despite being a multi-lingual nation. Nepali language has been given power, recognition while the remains minority languages and their communities are impoverished and marginalized. As a result linguistic minorities have remained socially excluded from harnessing national benefits in fields such as politics, economy, education, employment and so on. promotion of one language, one religion, one dress and mono-cultural nationalism by the state not only hurt the culture of these people but it effectively marginalized them in economic political and social realms(Bhattachan, 1995)
2. Acculturation
It is a process in which changes in language, culture and system of value of a group happen through interaction with a different language, culture and system of values.(Crystal, 1991) Paharis at Khopasi acculturate Brahmins language and culture. They called Brahmin purohit to perform rites and rituals that changed their cultural values and system. It led them to abandon their native language.
3. Social distance
The feeling a person has that his or her social position is relatively similar to or relatively different from the social position of someone else. The social distant between two different group or communities influence communication between them and may affect the way one group learns the language of another(for example, an immigrant group learning the language of the dominant group in a country). Social distance may depend on such factors as differences in the size, ethnic orgin, political status, social status of two groups (Crystal, 1991). For the case of Pahari they found themselves far from their own language as they were surrounded by Nepali native speakers. They could not use their own language in interaction and gradually they forgot their own language.
4. Linguistic and cultural hegemony
Linguistic hegemony is achieved when dominant groups create a consensus by convincing others to accept their language norms and usage as standard or model. hegemony is ensured when they can convince those who fail to meet those standards to view their own language. School have been the principle instruments in promoting a consensus regarding the alleged superiority of standardized language(Wiley, in Mckay and Hornberger, 2007, p.113)
Similarly cultural hegemony is a philosophic and sociological concept, originated by the Marxist philosopher Antonia Gramsci, that a culturally diverse society can be ruled or dominated by one of its social classes. It is the dominance of one social group over another e.g. The ruling class over all other classes. The ideas of the ruling class to be seen as the norm, they are seen as universal ideologies, perceived to benefit everyone whilst only really benefiting the ruling class. (wikipedia.com). For the case of Paharis, they failed to meet the standards to view their own language and school going children found/realized the superiority of Nepali language in the past. As a result, they abandoned their native language. Nepali, as national language and dominance of Hindu culture gave them way out to abandon their culture as well. As a result, they lost their native language.
5. World system theory
World system model and Neo-Marxist divides the world into three parts viz core, semi-periphery and periphery. Standard variety i.e. Nepali lies in core and other ethnic language lies in semi-periphery and language of minorities lies in periphery. Pahari people at Khopasi were in minority and their language was dominated by Nepali language. A.G. Frank’s bi-polar division as Metropolis and Satellite also matches in the case. Pahari language was in Satellite and standard variety i.e. Nepali was in Metropolis.
6. Sociobiology (Reproductive fitness)
According to sociobiology when one loses its reproductive fitness it ultimately dies out. Similarly, Pahari language lost its reproductive fitness and the speakers gradually abandoned the language. Those Paharis who could speak Pahari language felt that they could not express them full with the help of their own language and they might have adopted words from Nepali language. During the study, old people speaking Pahari told that they did not have many words to address nature and happenings. It shows that this language lost its productive fitness and its speakers felt disadvantaged. So they did not practice it and gradually lost their own language.
2. Consequences of the loss of the native language
During the interview, the interviewees gave various responses regarding the consequences of the loss of their native language. The consequences they have perceived after the loss of native language are as follows:
1. They are how worried to loss their identity
2. They think that loss of language may cause them to assimilate with other communities
3. They think that they will no longer be people of minorities Apart from these consequences, the following things can be traced :
2.1. Collapse of culture
They no longer use their language in rites and rituals and their culture is in verge of extinction. They started calling Brahmin Purohitas to perform religious rites and rituals and they no longer celebrated their own festivals on their own. With the loss of language, they lost their own culture and 80% Paharis do not know their culture.
2.2. The Pahari language as moribund language
Krauss defines language as moribund language if children are not speaking them now, endangered if children will probably not speaking the in 100 years. (wikipedia.com) Pahari language in the study area is going to be moribund language as Pahari children do not have any interest in learning their language and even the Paharis over 50 years of age can not speak Pahari language. Krauss has suggested three main criteria that can be used to identify language as endangered. They are :
i. The number of speakers currently living
ii. The mean age of native and/or fluent speakers
iii. The percentage of the youngest generation acquiring fluency with the language in question
In the study area the researcher found only 6% Pahari who could speak Pahari language and they were found to have low and moderate proficiency. People below 48 years could not speak Phari language and the youngest generations do not speak the language at all. It shows that Pahari language in the study area is moribund language.
2.3. Language death
Language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of language variety is decreased, eventually resulting no native or fluent speakers.
Similarly the most common process leading to language death is one in which a community of speakers of one language becomes bilingual in another language and gradually shifts allegiance language the second language until they cause to use their original(heritage) language. This is a process of assimilation which may be voluntary or may be forced upon a population. Speakers of some languages particularly regional or minority languages may decide to abandon them based on economic or utilitarian grounds, in favor of language regarded as having greater utility or prestige.
A language is often declared to dead even before the last native speakers of the language die. If there are only a few elderly speakers of a language remains and they no longer use that language for communication then the language is effectively dead. For the case of this study 6% pahari people living in the study area of the age of more than 50 and it seems obvious that even before their death, young generation is completely distant from their native language and their language in the study area will certainly die with the death of elder members.
2.4. Blockage for privileges due to loss of linguistic identity
They are not speaking their language and it has been a half-century since they abandoned their culture. They have changed their surname also. If they speak their language, it will be their ethnic identity but they are now unknown to their own language. As a result, special provision announced by the government for minorities’ will be blocked for them. Sudden setback to Pahari from Harisharan and Shrestha in the last six or seven months have shown that they wanted to get the privilege but remarkably they are still hesitating to revitalize their own culture and language. For them surname may help to deserve the privileges announced by the government.
3. Summary of findings
The main objective of this study was to find out why Paharis living at Khopasi lack interest in speaking their own language i.e. native Pahari and causes and consequences of the loss of their language. Among 396 Pahari living as Khopasi 50 people were duly interviewed to collect data and 10 people sharing different profession and social designation were also interviewed as key informants. Before preparing structured interview for the sampled population, key informants ideas were paraphrased as possible and valid option of the questions to selected Pahari respondents. Linguistic as well as socio-cultural theories were taken into consideration while analyzing and interpreting the data preliminary information’s of the respondents were also analysed and concluded.
The findings of the present study obtained from the analysis and interpretation of the data are summarized as follows:
 Respondents from the age of 12 to 60 plus were duly interviewed with structured. Interview. As other people from different communities Paharis of different age group were found to be involving in different walks of life.
 On the part of education, Paharis were not found exceptional i.e. literacy percentage of Paharis was found to be similar to other communities.
 On the part of religion, they were found to be Hindu dominated though Christianity was found to be growing In other words, 90% of Paharis were found to be the follower of Hinduism.
 They were found to be increasing their landholding capacity as they were involving in trade and business and other jobs. No Paharis were found to be landless.
 Regarding the linguistic figure of Paharis only 12% of the respondents from the age over 48 were found to have low and moderate proficiency of Pahari language. People below 48 years of age were not found to be known to their language. Schools and collages going children were found completely unknown to their language. As Krauss defines Pahari language has been ‘Moribund’ ;
 Only 8% of the respondents aged over sixty were found to be well-known to their own culture and 12% respondents knew very little about their unique culture. Remaining 80% of the respondents did not know their own culture. So, not only the language they were found to be abandoning their culture as well.
 Regarding the reasons for lacking interest in Pahari language various ideas were given by them. Mainly parents who did know Pahari language well did not use it for their children and today’s children never heard anyone talking in Pahari language in their surrounding. 88% of the respondents did not find the utility of this language in other walks of life and 80% of them had fear of being pushed back to traditional conservative life if they learned or used. Very remarkably 68% of the respondents agreed that inter-casts marriage among Paharis (marrying with Magars, Chhetris, Brahmins, Ghartis etc.) was the reason. According to them marrying with non-Paharis brought Nepali, language as dowry and children caught up mothers language ignoring father’s one. For academic purpose, they gave up their own language.
 Among the respondents, 80% did not want to revitalize their language and most remarkably all respondents below 36 years rejected to revitalize their language. It means revitalization of Pahari language was found to be difficult and would be unwanted in Khopasi.
 Regarding the cause of the loss of Pahari language, mainly schooling assimilation and acculturation, speaker’s negative attitude and lacking interest, unavailability of Pahari literature and script and linguistic hegemony were found as the causes.
 Regarding the consequences of the loss of Pahari language collapse of the culture, linguistic identity, moribund to the death of language and blockade in privileges provided by the government were found to be prominent.
3.2 Conclusion
Main objective of the study was to carry out the reasons behind lacking interest of learning native language among Paharis residing as Khopasi and to find out cause and consequences of the loss of their native language. The study was based on interview and observation. The nature and universe of the population was 396 Paharis out of which 50 people from different age-group and Gender were selected with purposive random sampling and 10 people from different walks of life but quite close to Paharis were taken as key informants. Regarding education, landholding and religion, Paharis at Khopasi were not found to be exceptional to other ethnic groups. Regarding the linguistic-identity and cultural understanding Paharis were not found to be Pahari in its unique sense. Only 12% people have moderate and low proficiency in Pahari language and they no longer use it in daily life. Due to not having intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and exposure, Paharis are lacking interest in learning native language. They did not find any use of Pahari language. Similarly social distance, assimilation, acculturation, linguistic and cultural hegemony; socio-political aspects of language planning, negative attitudes towards the language were identified as the causes of the loss of native language. 100% Paharis living in Khopasi are found fluent in Nepali and no influence of their mother-tongue could be noticed while they used Nepali language. It can be said that it has been more than half a century since they gave up their language and culture. Consequences of the loss of native language seemed to have collapse of culture, ethnic identity moribund of the language that ultimately leads to the extinction of language. Due to the loss of native language they lost their ethnic identity and changed their surname quite like Newars. Recently the government has provided special privilege for marginalized group and Pahari are included in this group. The growing trend of going back to Pahari from ‘Harisharan’, ‘Nagarkoti’ ‘Udas’ and Shrestha is a bit remarkable. Still, they are not ready to accept language as identity. Not only Pahari language but also some other languages like Newari and Magar around the study area have the same fate.
Malla (1989 ; 452 ) observed that despite the distinct decline in the percentage of Maithili, Bhojpuri, Avadi and Tharu speakers in the Terai zones, ‘the mother tongues of the majority of the population of these zones still continue to be non-Nepali.
As Nepal is a multilingual country and in a multilingual situation, vernacular language (or ethnic language) may decline in terms of prestige, speakers, areas of uses etc. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered, moribund or extinct. In recent times only, more than 750 languages have already become extinct around the world. Stoll others have only a few known speakers: these languages are called endangered language. The UN estimates that more than half of the languages spoken today have fewer than 10,000 speakers and that a quarter have fewer than 1,000 speakers and that unless there are some efforts to maintain them over the next hundred years, must of these will became extinct(Pokhrel, 2009. p.118)
More commonly language dies through cultural change and language replacement, by assimilation to a dominant culture and language. This process is broad and complex but one major factor is negative attitude to a language, both in government policy and local communities (yee, 2000). Young generation of Paharis at Khopasi has negative attitude to their own language.
Crystal (2000) suggests six key themes in language revitalization. He postulates that an endangered language will progress if its speakers:
i. Increase their prestige within the dominant community
ii. Increase their wealth
iii. Increase their legitimate power in the eyes of the dominant community
iv. Have a strong presence in the education system
v. Can write down the language
vi. Can make use of electronic technology
In the study area, Paharis lack the suggestion mentioned by Crystal (2000) to revitalize their own language. For them, it is quite impossible to use their own language. It assists that Pahari language in the study area is a dead language like Sanskrit.
This study was done for academic purpose and it covers the area of Khopasi and may be applicable to generalize the status of languages of minorities like Magars and some Newars living in other villages of Kavre.


BRANCH SPECIAL, January 2011

Native Perspective, Nelta branch and members

Namaste!

We dedicate this issue to the colleagues from NELTA branches across the country, with special thanks to colleagues from Birgunj, Gorkha, Palpa, and Surkhet. There is no doubt that our readers will be glad and grateful to you if you can continue to publish news updates about training or other professional development events, success stories of individual teachers or schools that take new initiatives in ELT, personal anecdotes, annual summaries of ELT activities in your branch… anything you can share with the rest of the NELTA community and readers around the world. To repeat what we said in the main editorial, our vision is to make this a professional discussion forum where teachers at the grassroots level ARE the ELT scholars and researchers. We don’t need to remind any fellow teacher that the best types of ELT resources are pedagogical solutions that evolve from problems overcome by individual teachers, classroom/action research, teaching tips shared among teachers who are in similar material and institutional situations, and reflections and theorizing done by teacher-scholars in the geo-political contexts of Nepal and the local settings around the country. Simpy, this forum is yours, and you should contribute what you know, what you have, what you are interested in. The discussions of scholars at the center or in different types of professional academic settings around the world are also important, but those postings and discussions will also become more meaningful if they are based on the situations, challenges, innovations that you face at the classroom and local levels.

Here is a special set of materials from NELTA branches from across Nepal. Enjoy the local flavor and promote the conversation!

  1. NELTA Palpa Conference Vibrated the Teachers in the Area (an article by Gopal Bashyal, NELTA Palpa)
  2. NELTA = Novel ELT Activities (an event update and article by Gopal Bashyal, NELTA Palpa)
  3. NELTA Surkhet in 2010 (a branch update from Surkhet, by Mukunda Giri, NELTA Surkhet)
  4. “Teaching English with a Difference” (a report from Birgunj on a recent Training Program, by Suresh Shrestha*)
  5. English Access Microscholarship Program in Nepal (an article about a new ELT initiative in NELTA branches, by Shyam Pandey)
    (also linked from main editorial)

Please remember to leave a comment to these posts and promote updates and discussions from NELTA branches across the country. Please subscribe to Choutari so you will be alerted when there is a new post.

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Towards Local Literacy: Globalization and Nepalese ELT

Critical Pedagogy, Native Perspective, Scholarly Article

Prem Phyak

Introduction

Anything that is ‘local’ is generally better in terms of quality and permanence. Let me give some examples: local chicken is tasty, local fruit is hygienic, local vegetable is fresh, and local people make a big difference in your life. What about local literacy? In this short article, I highlight the importance of local literacy in relation to ELT in Nepal. I will also briefly discuss how local literacy in ELT can be promoted in the classroom. Let me start with some perspectives on globalization as the basis of this discussion.

Globalization and Local literacy: What?

We all know that English has become a part of our social and individual lives: it is not only in our education and professions but also in our homes, through television, internet, mobile phones, and other information and communication technologies. Through social networking and new media in particular, English is continuing to work as one of the most powerful means of globalization (See related article in May 2009 issue of NeltaChoutari). We cannot consider the trends of globalization and the spread of English as neutral without being extremely naïve. As Bourdieu (2001) tells us that

“Globalization” serves as a password, a watchword, while in effect it is the legitimatory mask of a policy aiming to universalize particular interests and the particular tradition of the economically and politically dominant powers…It aims to extend to the entire world the economic and cultural model that favours these powers most, while simultaneously presenting it as a norm, a requirement, and a fatality, a universal destiny, in such a manner as to obtain adherence or, at the least, universal resignation. (as cited in Phillipson, 2004)

The term ‘globalization’ has now become a buzz word in every field, and it has very important implications in ELT because the English language is the most influential means of “universalizing particular interests and particular tradition of the economically and politically dominant powers” as Bourdieu argues. To say that we are simply “using” a “common” language for “communicating” across linguistic borders is both absolutely correct but absolutely ludicrous if we don’t “also” recognize/admit that languages belong to societies that wield cultural, social, and political powers through their languages: as language teachers, we must not limit our understanding and scholarship to dictionary definition of “language” because we must also know that the relative difference of the power that different language communities makes huge difference in both material and intellectual terms for people and societies. So, it is important to understand what role English plays in globalization of ideas and practices of dominant cultures. English is considered a ‘global’ language (Graddol, 1997; Crystal, 1997), and the number of researches on the role of English in globalization has increased in the last decade. Recent scholarship in this area helps us understand why and how the role of English as a global language should be assessed critically. The views about the role of globalization in language teaching are, however, more divergent. In their groundbreaking edited book ‘Globalization and Language Teaching,” Block and Cameron (2002) summarize following major views regarding globalization:

  • Hegemonically Western, and above all extension of American imperialism
  • Extreme of standardization and uniformity
  • Synergetic relationship between the global and the local- globalization

We see that the first view takes Gramsci’s ‘hegemony’ and Phillipson’s ‘linguistic imperialism’ about globalization considering it as a means to disseminate the Western and American economic, cultural, political and educational ideologies. In this sense, globalization is another face of Westernization and Americanization. This view is concerned more with the political and ideological discussion which, as I see, does not make more sense in ELT. But the second and third views have a great impact on ELT.

We can relate two major issues – native speakerism and imported method – regarding the ‘standardization’ and ‘uniformity’ in ELT respectively. Standardization here means many things. The most obvious point related to ELT is that in order to maintain standard we have to follow ‘native’ English representing maybe CNN and BBC English. The uniformity can be interpreted as ‘adoption’ of the same textbook, method of teaching and learning material all over the world without considering the ‘local’ socio-cultural context.

The third view – glocalization – is the negotiation between the global and the local in which we find the mixture of the both. At present, this cocktail idea has come to the fore to soothe the criticisms against globalization on the ground of ‘hegemonic’ and ‘imperialistic’ ideology. With this view, we can argue that globalization has its presence at local level as well. We can also say that it is the continuum which has greater impact at the global context but have less impact at the local context. This degree also differs in terms of power, economy and technological advancement. It is obvious that the societies which are poor, powerless and technologically underdeveloped have less impact of the globalization. In this regard, Block (2008) claims

Globalization is framed as the ongoing process of the increasing and intensifying interconnectedness of communications, events, activities and relationships taking place at the local, national or international level. (p.31)

Although it is accepted that ‘local’ components can also be incorporated in the ‘globalization’, questions which have been ignored are: To what extent we have recognized the value of ‘local’ in ELT literacy practice? Which one (the global or the local) is dominant?  How can we bring the ‘local’ into ELT pedagogy? In the remainder of this article, I discuss these issues with reference to ELT in Nepal.

Local literacy and local society

Going through various literature and studies regarding literacy (e.g. Wallace, 1999, 2002), we find three major interpretations of local literacy. First interpretation takes local literacy as teaching through local languages. This is concerned more with the anti-linguistic imperialistic discussion pioneered by Phillipson (1992). Second interpretation is grounded on the use of language for daily communication. Teaching of English, in this regard, is considered as a planned and systematic academic endeavor to help ‘local children’ [Nepalese] use English in informal communications outside the classroom. But to what extent, Nepalese children, studying at Grades 1, 2, 3 in rural areas have to speak English while shopping, for example? Does such a projection of the English language as a means to achieve commodity help children achieve true essence of education? These issues are often ignored in academic discussion especially in the global ELT discourse. At the same time, as Cameron (2002) claims, ‘The dissemination of ‘global’ communicative norms and genres, like the dissemination of international languages, involves a one-way flow of expert knowledge from dominant to subaltern cultures” (p. 70).

The third view, which I want to focus in this article, is concerned with the contextual sensitivity of any language literacy including ELT. According to this view, ELT should be in consonance with the socio-cultural and politico-economic realities of particular context where literacy in English takes place. Moreover, this view believes that English language learning is a ‘situated practice’ which happens with the ‘bottom-up’ fashion rather than ‘top-down’ and through so-called expertise-delivered-knowledge. To be more specific, let me ask some questions (although there are many) regarding teaching English in Nepal;

  • Do the methods we are adopting while teaching English address our children’s values, beliefs and expectations?
  • Are the textbooks that we use for teaching the English language appropriate to our local socio-cultural and politico-economic realities?

We cannot answer these questions in a ‘yes/no’ manner. However, we can be realistic while discussing these issues. Elsewhere, Canagarajah (2002) vehemently argues that the global methods of teaching (e.g. communicative language teaching) have created inequalities in the global pedagogical village. Following a single method with ‘fits-in-all-context’ assumption does not really address learning needs and expectations of local children. Moreover, such an assumption does not empower children rather it marginalizes them psychologically and cognitively as well. This clearly indicates that we need to think about exploring our own practices of teaching English which is relevant to our own soil and people. At the same time, I am not claiming that we should not be aware of the global practices. We should be well informed with them but we should critically scrutinize those practices keeping our realities in view. I think I can discuss much about this when I come to textbook issue in the following paragraph.

In many parts of the world like in Nepal, textbooks are sole source of teaching and learning English. In that sense, textbooks are the most important component of ELT pedagogy in Nepal. However, it is not bizarre to say that, writing and production of textbooks is the most neglected agenda in Nepal. Let me start with the textbooks prescribed by the government. The textbooks in many cases include ‘foreign culture’ as reading texts and situations for conversation, which are difficult to conceptualize for children, are also foreign in some cases. In a way, such situations and texts take children away from their own context. If our goal is to develop reading skills of children, why don’t we bring the texts which deal with local issues, cultures, realities and challenges? Let us research which text (related to local or global text) is effective for enhancing reading skill of Nepalese learners of English.

The textbooks in private schools are more frustrating in terms of local literacy. The global textbooks like Headway/New Headway which are considered to be the global textbooks are prescribed in private schools without any approval from the government. Such global textbooks seem to promote more European and American culture, and project an affluent commodified life style (Gray, 2002). Through the texts like how much Bill Gates earn (New Headway/Upper-Intermediate, 1998) and going on holidays in London, New York, Paris and other expensive cities of the world, the global textbooks are projecting pleasure in life but they are ignoring pain of how a farmer in rural villages works hard to earn and feed his family. Why don’t we have reading texts on holidaying in Jomsom, paragliding from Sarangkot, trekking in Karnali and so on? Can’t we think about including the texts related to Maruni, Kauda, Dhan-nach, Deuda, Goura, Maha-puja, and so on? Are they not useful in teaching English? Of course, YES.  On one hand, such texts promote interconnectedness between society and classroom teaching/learning and on the other hand, they help to address precious linguistic and cultural diversity we have. However, we, teachers of English, should always be ready to take the role of ‘transformative intellectuals’ (Kumarivadivelu, 2003) by going beyond our traditional role – teachers as a passive technician in the classroom – to accepting the extended role to show our concern in social reflection and situated practice of teaching English.

Future Directions: Critical Literacy and Postmethod Pedagogy

The above discussion implies that the so-called global textbooks and methods of ELT do not seem to be inclusive and appropriate in diverse world contexts. ELT in Nepal has the same problem. The fundamental reason behind this is that ELT policies we have made are so far shaped by the traditional notion i.e. ELT means teaching about the English language only. But this notion is already obsolete because ‘methods’,  ‘textbooks’ and ‘assumptions’ which work better do not fit in other contexts. Moreover, ELT is more than ‘teaching about English’ it is a part of education which is heavily loaded with culture, identity and ideology which need to be scrutinized in relation to local contexts.

How we can promote local literacy is another crucial question we need to discuss. I am not expert at prescribing ideas which work better. But I think, Critical literacy and Postmethod Pedagogy are two major approaches which are helpful to promote ‘local literacy’ practices in Nepal.

The basis of critical literacy is Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) in which he criticises the transmission or ‘banking’ model of education (teachers are depositors and learners are depositories) and advocates for ‘dialogic’ model  in which learners are not passive recipient but  an active ‘agent’ of whole learning process. We have already discussed this issue in a January 2009 article of NeltaChoutari.

One major issue that critical literacy addresses is inequalities that persist in ELT. It focuses on bringing social issues and controversies into the classroom. Moreover, this approach involves students in a continuous process of thinking critically through a dialogic process in which students are provided opportunities to discuss the issues which have relevance in local socio-cultural context. Thus students clearly see the relevance of learning English in their life which, moreover, promotes local literacy.  In this regard, Norton and Toohey (2004) claim

Advocates of critical approaches to second language teaching are interested in relationships between language learning and social change. From this perspective, language is not simply a means of expression or communication; rather, it is a practice that constructs, and is constructed by, the ways language learners understand themselves, their social surroundings, their histories, and their possibilities for the future” (p. 1).

The Postmethod Pedagogy (Kumaravadivelu, 2001) is another approach which may be helpful in promoting local literacy in ELT.  The three parameters of the postmethod pedagogy include particularity, practicality and possibility. According to the pedagogy of particularity, “Language pedagogy…must be sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learners pursuing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular sociocultural milieu” (p. 538). Similarly, the pedagogy of practicality “does not pertain merely to the everyday practice of classroom teaching. It pertains to a much larger issue that has a direct impact on the practice of classroom teaching, namely, the relationship between theory and practice” (p. 540). Finally, the pedagogy of possibility is concerned with “participants’ experience which draws ideas not only from the classroom episodes but also from border social, political and economic environment in which they grew up” (p. 542). We can see that ‘local realities’ and ‘experiences’ of participants (teachers, and students) are core of ELT in every world context. This indicates that we need to share our experiences to generate more local knowledge which can be a treasure for the whole ELT community of practice. To this end, we have initiated NeltaChoutari as a voluntary work to tell Nepalese ELT stories to the rest of the world. We hope this sharing through monthly publication in future will provide a basis for producing local materials for ELT in Nepal.

Conclusion

The looming trend of banishing ‘local practices’ due to acceptance of ‘global practices’ as a granted is one of the serious global issues in ELT around the globe. The notion of uniformity and standardization do not seem to be appropriate in linguistically and culturally diverse world contexts. At the same time, the expectations, values and beliefs of learners should be addressed through all kinds of pedagogy including ELT. In this regard, we should think about the use of locally produced materials and be fully informed with the process of adapting ‘creative and critical instructional practices in order to develop pedagogies suitable for their [our] community’ (Canagarajah 1999 p.122). Moreover, as Holliday (2005) has argued, we should discuss whether methodological prescriptions generated in BANA contexts (British, Australia, and North America) have ‘currency’ in our contexts, whether they are locally validated or appropriated. In this sense, whole idea of local literacy in ELT is concerned with the idea of (re)generating locally appropriate methods of teaching, (re)producing local materials using local resources and incorporating local issues and identities and accommodating learners’ experiences through a dialogical process in the classroom.

I am not saying that the ideas discussed in this article address all dimensions of local literacy nor I am saying that we should not be aware of global issues. What I am saying is our full dependence on global methods, norms and textbooks in ELT may not help to promote and sustain our identities and treasure of local knowledge.  What I am saying is that we have wonderful ELT practices that we are not able to share with the people from other parts of the world which we need to do urgently. Let me give some example: we have very precious linguistic and cultural diversity in which English is being taught as a foreign language. We have been teaching under the shade of tree and sometimes in the open sky. We have been teaching more than 100 students in the same classroom even without chalk, duster and blackboard. We are teaching students who come from various linguistic, ethnic, religious, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Don’t you think that such realities and experiences are important source for teaching English? Of course, they are. We need to document these experiences so that other members of ELT community of practice will benefit a lot. Why don’t we take initiation of using local cultural texts (in addition to the texts given in the textbooks), for example, to teach reading and writing skills and see how it works? Can’t we bring stories of child labor, gender discrimination, inequality, poverty and so on to teaching English in the classroom? Of course, YES. But we need to work hard to achieve this end. We cannot make changes overnight but if we collaborative through different means like NeltaChoutari we can accomplish so many things for better ELT in Nepal.

Finally, the future of ELT in Nepal will be even better if we don’t consider teaching of English not simply as teaching about the English language but also as part of education that aims to empower children and to bring some positive transformation in the knowledge-based society. I argue that English teachers are not merely ‘classroom teachers’, we are ‘agent of change’. This is possible only when have a strong foundation at local level. We can access global means only with the strong ‘local foundation’.  I would say that the best ELT practice is the practice which accommodates local realities and helps learners to link them with global ones. For this, we need to be aware of maintaining balance between local and global.

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References

Block, D. & Cameron, D. (2002). Globalization and language teaching. London: Routledge.

Block, D. (2008). Globalization and language education. In S. May and N. H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 1: Language Policy and Political Issues in Education, 31–43. Springer Science+Business Media LLC.

Bourdieu, P. (2001). Contre-feux 2. Paris: Raisons d’agir.

Cameron, D. (2002). Globalization and the teaching of ‘communication skills’. In Block, D. & Cameron, D. (eds.) Globalization and language teaching. London: Routledge.

Canagarajah, A.S. (1999). Resisting linguistic imperialism in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Canagarajah, A.S. (2002). Globalization, methods and practice in periphery classrooms. In Block, D. & Cameron, D. (eds.) Globalization and language teaching. London: Routledge.

Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Graddol, D. (1997). The future of English? London: The British Council.

Gray, J. (2002). The global coursebook in English language teaching. In Block, D. & Cameron, D. (eds.) Globalization and language teaching. London: Routledge.

Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2001). Toward a postmethod pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 35/4, 537-560.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Beyond method: Macrostrategies for language teaching. NewHaven, CO. Yale University Press.

Norton, B. & Toohey, K. (Eds.) (1997).Critical pedagogies and language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Phillipson, R. (2004). Review article: English in globalization: Three approaches. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 3:1, 73 — 84.

Wallace, C. (1999). Critical language awareness: key principles for a course in critical reading. Language Awareness 8, 2:98-110.

Wallace, C. (2002). Local literacies and global literacy. . In Block, D. & Cameron, D. (eds.) Globalization and language teaching. London: Routledge.

NELTAChoutari, Networking and Nepalese Teachers

Native Perspective, Nelta Networking

Kamal Poudel

Until about two decades ago, information technologies that were widely available in the world outside were either out of reach for us in Nepal, or we lacked the basic skills needed for using what was available. Even teachers did not have access to teaching materials on the Internet, not to mention the possibility of using it in their classrooms. But in the last ten or so years, there has been a quantum leap in the availability, access, and popularity of information technologies in Nepalese education.

Students directly benefit from the access to knowledge and professional development opportunities that their teachers have, and in the long run the society benefits from those resources and opportunities. From that perspective, teachers are the vanguard of social change. The incredible development in the information technology field has brought all of us quite close that we can find our entire sporadically scattered friends within our room. The new discovery of science and technology have always some pros and cons, and it will be the job of teachers to select the texts appropriately, and use them to maximally benefit the students. The dark sides of the new technology should be left in the dark world itself, and encourage the students to move towards the world of self-enhancement. The development in the societies always gives birth to new cultures, and to my belief, cultures are as dynamic as language, and thus they are prone to change all the time. The new generation people (in this context: present day students) are quite likely to adopt and adapt the new cultures as they are truly native to them. In this context, although the elder generation people (in this context: present day teachers) are immigrant to the newly developed culture, they are required to acclimatize themselves to the new climate or say the cultures developed by the IT. Not only this, they also need to enhance their pace so as to meet the students and be able to lead them. No modern teachers now can escape any student’s problem or question simply saying, ‘well, I am not quite aware of technology things….’ The students are very likely to feel underprivileged to be taught by these types of teachers as they do not get the sufficient learning materials and resources from their teachers. Their expectation is marked with newness and fast pace. The newness can be in the field of using language, for example, as the new culture leads the people to change their linguistic behavior as well. We can refer to this as a kind of paradigm shift in teaching and learning. Along with the pace of modern life, the pace of learning has naturally had the quantum leap.

Public media like BBC concentrates on the value of IT and spells that fame in the modern world can be doubled or easily be enhanced by means of the use of technology. A newly published book or article can be read by millions of readers immediately after the click on ‘upload’, which makes it easier for the the contributors to be attracted by those readers. This positively encourages the beginners to upgrade and update themselves, and thus will always be in such a world where they cannot stop browsing, uploading, collecting materials and be connected in the wider world.

Considering this as significant factor to change the life-style of teachers and the dire-need of the present day world, we have been encouraging our readers, teachers to come to the world of information technology, and thus be connected with the rest of the world. We have the principle of ‘learn and let learn’.  With the motive of empowering Nepalese teachers (ourselves), NELTA is committed to create the new ways of teaching and learning. For this, would like to invite you all English teachers and be the part of NELTAChoutari, and help the Choutari finally in order to help yourselves and thus transform yourselves. Cheers NELTAChoutari anniversary!!!


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Educated but Illiterate

Scholarly Article

Sajan Kumar Karn,
Department of English Education,
T. R. M. Campus, Birgunj

 

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder (Wales, 2004)

We are now in the process of connecting all of the knowledge pools in the world together.

Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat (Friedman, 2005).

The above statements are not merely informative but they trigger some immediate illocutionary actions on the part of academia. Education in many parts of the world has already responded to digital intervention and has consequently leaped forward. What about ours? Are we literate enough to exploit the tools available online?  Can we sustain and grow ignoring this boom in education? What needs to be done urgently to address this new literacy issue?  What are loopholes in our instruction that digital tools can trim down? I share some reflections about these burning issues in Nepalese education in this article.

They but We

There should be no doubt to the fact that the advent and explosion of technology has altered the customary definition of literacy. Conventionally, one needs to be able to read and write in order to be called literate. Of course, those core abilities are still vital to learning, but they are no longer adequate to ensure comprehensive understanding of the present day world. Today we live in a digitally networked atmosphere where a large number of things happen online and envisioning academic endurance and growth in paucity of access to and knowhow of digital tools will be nothing but an utter innocence. The enormous use of technology in education around the globe has raised a serious question mark over the literacy of majority of Nepalese academicians and professionals including teachers (This may apply to other parts of the world). To be frank enough, most of our teachers seem to be unaware of the boom fetched by digital tools in teaching and learning, let alone their applications and efficacy in classroom.  Nearly all observations illustrate teachers practicing conventional trends in classroom. Please, do not take it otherwise, but committing and vomiting seems to be most common practice in schools and colleges of Nepal if we exclude some updated ones in urban areas. This is very unfortunate that we have not been able to take a departure from the narrative model of instruction yet. Most of us still consider ourselves to be the knowledge providers when knowledge is just a click away at google.com and wikipedia. com. Google is currently attempting to scan and digitize more than 50 million books from five of the largest research libraries from around the world. Wikipedia is another online encyclopedia where knowledge is open and free. This is the website where anyone can edit anything anytime they want (Richardson, 2009).

The role of teachers as depositors of knowledge as critiqued by Paulo Freire (1967) creates hierarchical relation between teachers and students and this  is never going to bring to the fore inherent potentiality of students, which, however, should be the first and foremost goal of education.  The indifferent attitude towards the fact that all learners are innovative and it is on the part of teachers to unwrap and tend those veiled talents has virtually paralyzed our teaching and learning activities. Who cares for autonomy of learners? It is tremendously paradoxical that we practice most undemocratic teaching in a fully democratic country. Most of us do not take a heed of the reality that teaching and learning have grown much more horizontal and collaborative undertaking around the globe and it feels reasonable for us as well. Sadly, most of us are still in illusion that knowledge comes from abroad or from a few counted experts while the fact is that Knowledge is shaped and acquired through social process and we can practice it in classrooms. Very few of us seem to agree that there is need to build local knowledge to address local teaching and learning issues. Very few of us seem to accept that teaching is not a lecture but has become a conversation and ideas are presented as the starting point of the dialogue as Geroge Siemens (2002) argue, not the ending point. These are some of the gaps in Nepalese Education required to be bridged at the earliest.

Touching the moon

Yes, we should have bigger target as Devkota said. Let us imagine we have a classroom described as follows.

If you walk into some classrooms around the world, you will see fixed data projectors, interactive whiteboards (IWBs), built- in speakers for audio material that is delivered directly from a computer hard disk, and computers with round –the –clock internet access. Whenever teachers want their students to find anything out, they can get them to use a search engine like Google and the result can be shown the whole class on the IWB (Harmer, 2002, p.175).

Such a classroom may be beyond our imagination for some time. But it is high time we and the concerned realized that this is the need of the hour. Ignoring this boom means falling back and remaining in dark, continuing to be oppressed, accepting hegemony and literary colonialism and practicing the age old methods.

Varsity teachers we are!

We are in our well dry-cleaned suits and ties, shiningly polished shoes, helmets on our heads and mobile phones in our hands and we introduce ourselves as university teachers. We complain about the lack of technological resources or internet connection in our departments, but we also not have an email account, nor a Facebook or Skype account, nor have we used or contributed to flickr, posted a message on Twitter, nor learnt how to download teaching materials from educational websites, not to mention whether our universities have free access to academic journal databases–for free–and we are not able to prepare for a class or a presentation by using a simple PowerPoint slide, we do not have personal blogs to share ideas, we do not know how to download from and upload videos on media sharing sites like YouTube and we do not have any idea about wikis and we cannot create web documents like Google Docs and collaboratively draft anything with others. All these and many others skills are beyond our capabilities–actually, they are beyond our interest or sense of need–but still, don’t worry, we are university professors, associate professors and assistant professors of education, science and management. It’s not what we do, what new skill we learn, whether and how well we update… you got it, it’s about who we ARE.

Tools but Fools

What are we if not fools in front of digital tools? Web tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, video, screencasting, live streaming and many others have brought ground breaking changes in teaching and learning. Researches and experiences have already revealed that technologies have many advantages. For instance, weblogs promotes creativity, critical analogical and analytical thinking of both students and teachers. They increase access and exposure to quality information (Richardson, 2009:20). Further, other digital tools make learning networks more interactive and practical. They connect teachers and students to global conversations and collaborations and allow students to work individually at their own pace according to their own needs. They offer open content, provides a platform for discussion and collaboration, a space for cultivation of creativity.  Nevertheless, this feels merely like playing a flute before buffaloes.

Revolution required

Handicapped we are and we have been left. A revolution is required, a true revolution in education, unlike fake ones fought by political parties in Nepal if we want to go ahead, if we want to do realistic education, if want to compete with the world, if we want to practice democracy in classroom, if we want to address local academic issues. And it is technology that can function as a powerful instrument for this revolution. Yes, technology will work as sharp sword to deconstruct the insensible conventional practices we have been suffering from.  I do not agree with Jill and Charles Hadfield (2003) who argue passionately that we can do a lot with minimal or even no resources. Claims as such only make us chauvinists. Effectiveness of technology based teaching is far above the one without technology.

A final plea

Digitalize Nepalese education and re-literate the educators because the educated do not want to be called illiterate, the educated do not want to be called illiterate.

(back to editorial/contents)

References

Fredman, T. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty first century. New York: Farr, Strauss and Giroux.

Frieri, P. (1967). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.

Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. London: Pearson Longman.

Karn, S.K. (2009). Bridge the digital divide. Contemporary Issues in ELT, journal of NELTA Birgunj.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. California: Corwin Press.

Nepalese English Language Education in New Era

Critical Outlook

Nepalese English Language Education in New Era:  An Interview with Professor  Jai Raj Awasthi

by  Sajan Kumar Karn

Of late, English Language Education in Nepal has undergone a radical change via revision of the Tribhuvan University’s courses for B. Ed. and M. Ed., degrees for prospective teachers of English at secondary, higher secondary and university level. The current socio-political, cultural and philosophical changes home and abroad have been a stimulating factor behind the amendment. Unlike in the past, this time, the course revision process has been bottom up to some extent.  Further, this is the first time in the history of syllabus designing in Nepal that teachers involved in the instruction of the different courses were invited and were sought for their inputs upon the different roughly sketched first drafts. A foreign scholar from Unviersity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Professor Numa Markee contributed significantly to the making of the courses through his expertise.  Different teams of experienced teachers have been involved in writing of the textbooks for B. Ed. and M. Ed.

A number of other striking changes can be noticed in the newly prepared courses, such as a slight diversion towards interdisciplinary approach to language teaching, recognition of nativised varieties of English, divorce of Nepalese ELE from the mainstream. This is truly a paradigm shift in making of syllabuses in Nepalese ELE. The products are in the hands of teachers teaching at different constituent and affiliated campuses of Tribhuvan University.

Though teachers seem to have mixed reactions on the revision, majority have admired the strenuous efforts.  In this connection, I called upon Professor Jai Raj Awasthi, Chairman of English and Other Foreign Languages Education Subject Committee, Tribhuvan University under whose leadership such a change could happen, for his personal and departmental observations.

Here are a few questions and the answers, Professor Awasthi supplied, in his own words:

1. Professor Awasthi, this is truly a far-reaching change that has happened under your vibrant leadership. The reactions from every corner seem to be appreciative. How do you take this success?

Designing or revising curricula is a very tiring but truly an intellectual and challenging work. It requires inputs from various scholars and practitioners working in the field. I have a strong belief that such a kind of academic work is an outcome of the collaborative efforts of many colleagues. There are many people from home and abroad who contributed significantly to this academic pursuit.  In the history of Nepalese English Language Education and particularly in course of revising the curricula of B.Ed and M.Ed (English), so many heads worked together. I can claim that there was direct and indirect involvement of over hundred people to bring the curricula in the present status. I am really grateful to all the contributors, too many names to record here, whose genuine efforts made it happen including Dr Numa  Markee from University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, USA. I really acknowledge the American Embassy here in Nepal for sponsoring Dr Makee’s trip to Nepal.  In the whole process, I simply worked as a facilitator.

I am receiving mixed reactions from the stakeholders. Some people think that it is a big departure while others think that it is timely. Such reactions are, I presume, very common when we start a new venture. However, I am satisfied with the present accomplishment. The credit of this success goes to all the contributors.

2. How did you feel when the challenge of course making came upon your shoulder? You know, working with many heads is always very challenging? How could you become successful in integrating the giants of Nepalese ELT at one?

My predecessors Prof. Sarada Bhadra, and Prof. Shishir K. Sthapit had trained me as a very young practitioner in the matter of curriculum designing. I was one of the members of the curriculum revision teams in the 1980s and 1990s. In course of time, I gained experience in this sector. I am frank in my nature and consider myself a life time learner; as such I feel pleasure in learning, both from my juniors and seniors. During the course of curricula revision, my request was never turned down by any of my colleagues. All the colleagues thought it  to be a life time work. So, I feel so fortunate to get support from all quarters to accomplish this project.

3. How contented you are when all the courses are with teachers and they are doing the courses? You might have received some reactions from the teachers? What is your personal observation?

I am, of course, very satisfied. I think we could make our courses in par with the courses on ELT/TESL/TEFL/TESOL worldwide. I have received mixed reactions from the stakeholders. Some people think that the courses are difficult as they require a lot of reading but a majority of them have shown their satisfaction that they are to their expectations. I believe that our students need to read a lot and read internationally recognized textbooks. The dissatisfaction may have come from some students as well as teachers because they rely solely on plagiarized bazaar notes compiled by non-academic and non-ethical compilers. Reading is a challenging job for both kinds of such people. But I am fully  satisfied with the work.

4.  Textbook compilation has been immensely democratic and inclusive this time.  Involving a number of heads-experienced and new but promising ones- in preparation of the textbooks such as New Generation English, Expanding Horizons in English and others is commendable.

Thanks a lot for the compliments. Text book writing, compiling and editing are very challenging jobs. I think working with many heads and brains yields a better result. We have many capable faculties who can contribute to this field. Many people working collaboratively can bring standard materials. Therefore, I thought, all of us working together can learn from each other and bring something fruitful. This collaborative work has to be expanded to the extent that all our colleagues will, one day, be able to create all the learning materials needed by our students based on their real needs and eventually be able to replace the international authors. We have started this venture in a very humble way including as many enthusiastic academicians as possible. This work will be furthered in case our colleagues think it good for them. I think the meeting of minds is crucial in this venture. So all seniors and juniors can contribute equally and go hand in hand learning from each other.

5.  At a time when English is being nativised in the countries where it is used, incorporating the texts in different varieties is worth appreciating? What could be the justification against the long established tradition of inclination towards British English officially?

You are right when you say that English has no longer been the property of formerly known as English native speakers. It is the property of those who use it and spend money on its promotion.  It is evident that all the countries of the world spend a significant amount of money in its teaching and learning. It is in this context, we realized that our students need to know not only the so called British English variety but also other Englishes prevalent in the world including our own. We all know that varieties emerge in course of time due to various reasons. The British English also underwent several varieties such as American, Australian, etc. which are now termed as American English, Australian English etc. We thought that our graduates need to know all these emerging varieties of English so that they can survive wherever they go and work. We have not undermined the established tradition but have extended it making it richer than before.

6. This is the first time; interdisciplinary approach of language teaching has been followed in the courses prepared by Department of English Education? Is not it like emulating Department of English under the faculty of Humanities? Has there been a realization that language based approach has not fetched much and therefore, let us try out something different?

We have not followed the tradition of Humanities and Social Sciences at all. We have ever been ahead of them in every aspect. We introduced ‘Reading Writing and Critical Thinking’ before they did it in humanities and social sciences.  Some other reading and writing courses we have included in the curricula are continuation of this spirit. Thus, we have more English and ELT courses in B.ED compared to BA. However, we thought that our students need more reading along with the pedagogical knowhow. After completing these courses our graduates will be hot- cake in the global market if the courses are followed in true spirit making the students read all the prescribed textbooks.

7. In M. Ed. Second year, all courses carry 50 marks only. What could the rationale behind such fragmentation? Do we want our prospective teachers to be jack of all and master of none?

The reason behind breaking the courses into 50 marks is to offer wide varieties of courses to our M.Ed students so that there is nothing left unlearned for them, if they compare themselves with the comparable degree holders in ELT/TESOL/TEFL of any universities of the world. This was not possible in the existing curricula structures of our Faculty where our students are bound to study the courses that do not have pragmatic value when they go to the work force.

They will, thus, become experts of their area of studies but not ‘jack of all trades.’

8. How do you justify the course at B. Ed. English for Business Communication for the prospective teacher s of English?

We presume that our graduates can take any profession in future. It is true that we intend to prepare them as future ELT teachers; however they can opt for business as well. The courses on mass and business communication are elective ones, therefore the people who want to go for mass media or business can opt for them. Many so called language institutes in Nepal are doing business without leaning as to how to speak in business English. Therefore, our graduates can establish such institutes and be media persons as well after they take these courses, if they wish so.

9. Particularly the course Expanding Horizons in English has been a hot cake. Even the people from other departments talk about the nature and coverage of the course? This is the whole universe from Humanities, social sciences, human rights education and language teaching globalization east and west etc. This has been felt too demanding on the part of teachers and students? What tips do you give to teachers particularly who find it very troublesome?

Expanding horizons is definitely designed to broaden the linguistic as well as thematic horizons of students through a variety of reading materials. Some of the stakeholders have felt uneasy as they are not used to read new materials. I have received hundreds of calls from both teachers and students. Many of the teachers made their students call me to enquire as to why so many difficult passages are kept in the course as their teachers are also unable to teach them. But I told them that the book is for the students and they are the ones to read it several times and comprehend the themes so that they can go beyond the texts and critically review them. I think, the course is , though demanding and we have introduced  critical thinking and creative writing for the first time in the curricula. It is not different but it is a continuation of the previous course ‘ Reading, writing and critical thinking’ that the students have studied in the first year.

The teachers teaching this course have to read the texts themselves in detail to set the tasks. They also need to know about the authors and the themes on which the texts are designed. They are all authentic texts and contain the themes from a variety of disciplines.

The teachers have to follow three stages of reading: pre-, while- and post- reading. For the background study, they can refer to the manual compiled and edited by Prof.  G.R Bhattarai. A detailed glossary can be prepared by the students in groups. Each group takes five- ten texts and prepares the glossary using appropriate monolingual dictionary, such as Cambridge or Oxford. All the group works can be compiled distributed. The teachers have to set tasks for pre-while and post- reading stages and students read and re-read the tasks to complete them. They can use the exercises given in the texts as well. In addition, for the tasks beyond the texts, the teachers have to follow the process writing approach conducting  brainstorming in the class to facilitate the students create their own piece of writing semi-creatively.

If the teachers use the traditional approach of teaching reading, they can not finish the course in a stipulated time. Hence they need to update their methodological knowhow before they venture to handle the course.

10. Very often teachers complain of lack of level of competency and understanding on the part of students to grasp the course, let alone critical interpretation of the text? How far do you agree with this? How would you defend?

I do not agree this statement. I am proud of our graduates. They proved themselves in the whole world. I t is a lame excuse to say that our students have low level of competence and understanding. They are the ones who have created the people who have gone to Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge, Stanford, Michigan, Tokyo, and similar ranking universities of the world. I believe that we have never exploited their potentialities. We have never made them the collaborators of learning and teaching. We have never practiced autonomous leaning and made them autonomous learners. Thus, I can say that the prejudice against our graduates will ultimately be null and void if the teachers teach them properly using proper strategies.

11. Here are teachers who still paraphrase the texts, give one way lectures and dictate answers to the questions in the class and complain of not finishing the courses such as New Generation English and Expanding Horizons in English? What tips of teaching would you like to suggest them?

Reading and paraphrasing the texts by the teachers do not help the students at all to learn English. The textbooks are meant for the students and the reading texts given in the text books are also ultimately meant for the students. Therefore, the teachers need to design such tasks that require the students to read the texts several times to accomplish them and have full understanding of the themes of the texts they read. Teachers’ duty is to facilitate the learners in their understanding and enhancing their language skills. If they follow the procedures mentioned above, they can finish the course in time with full satisfaction. I request all the teachers to change their traditional spoon-feeding methodology and adopt a student-centered one.

12 .There has been a growing demand of a manual for tackling the courses prepared in accordance with post method trends. Would you like to make any commitments to them?

I am not in a position to commit it from where I am now.  This does not mean that I am negative to it. I believe that manuals are required. As you know, the subject committees under our faculty do not have their own offices, budget and things like that. In case the Dean’s office becomes positive in it, we will rather be more than happy to accomplish this task also.

13. Readings in English for M. Ed. second year seems to be the continuation of the Expanding Horizons for B. Ed.? Is it so?

It is a very advanced reading course. You may take it a continuation of the B.Ed course as well. However, this course is not a compulsory one and as such the students have other options to choose from. Those who still think to take a challenge of reading diversified texts from different themes and disciplines can opt for it.

14. When it is obvious that ELT practicum in most cases has been reduced to a ritual and nothing else. However this continues to exist. How do you defend it?

I agree that practicum has become a ritual now though it is a main and very crucial component of teacher education. There are various reasons behind this practice. One of  the crucial reasons is the rapid increase in the number of the colleges affiliated to TU. In addition to it, we lack the manpower to supervise practicum. We had proposed that we can conduct a year-long micro teaching so that our students can develop the anticipated skills in them but our orthodox system is resistant to any positive change to this respect.

15. At the time when method is said to be dead and ELT is deemed to be in post method era, what do the titles such as ELT methods…..and Advanced ELT methodology indicate? Could the terms like methods or methodology be omitted?

The notion is forwarded by a few ELT practitioners only in order to give freedom to the classroom teachers to make use of their own imagination as how to teach English. This concept was also developed against the tradition of prescribing the methods claiming them to be universal.

I take the term Methdology as the concept and philosophy of teaching and it can not die because the teachers build their teaching strategies on it where as the term Method can be made individual by individual teachers as per their needs. However, a discussion on these two terms in a broader perspective can be made further.

16. What could be the rationale behind introducing the course English Teacher Development in M.Ed. second year?

We are teacher producing institution. Hence, we should not forget to let our students know as to what they need to do after their graduation from our institution to remain updated in their field.  Through this course we have tried to make them feel that the certificate they hold is not enough for their life-long career. Therefore, keeping in view the notion of ‘learning as a life long process’,  we came to the conclusion that the prospective teachers need to realise that they have to practice several things in order to keep themselves updated or else they may not be  able to cope up with the emerging changes brought out in the fields of teaching and learning. This course enables the students with the skills and knowledge they require to play various roles in their life. The contents of the course enable them to be a/n teacher, trainer, and expert as well in ELT.

17. Advanced academic reading and writing is alternative to thesis writing. Some question if they are equal in terms of challenge?

It largely depends upon how we approach them. In case, thesis writing, as has been mentioned below, becomes a ritual and mechanical process only, we do not anticipate much from our students. But if the ‘Advanced reading and writing’ course is taught in its true spirit, the students can get maximum benefit out of it.

18. There has been a voice from some corner that our thesis writing has remained more mechanical and less academic? Do you agree with it? What are we required to do in order to improve the existing scenario?

Thesis writing is a special skill that requires the students to be creative and produce a piece of original work. I agree that this has not been taken seriously by both the supervisors and researchers. I think, the researchers need to show their linguistic, analytical and interpretative skills in thesis writing and supervisors should take it as a learning opportunity, too. I believe that we learn from each other. This activity should be taken as a collaborative one. Many supervisors are found not to have written thesis themselves but they are prompted to supervise the students for their personal benefit. There is much plagiarism in students’ writing. Supervisors seem to ignore them. Students do not have reading habit in them, nor are they prompted to do so.

In order to make thesis writing a creative piece of work both researchers and their supervisors have to take this task very seriously.

19. Often it is heard that learning materials are being prepared? Where are we in the preparation?

We were really busy revising the courses so far. It took us a year and half to complete it. Now we have to think to produce learning materials. The bazaar is flooded with cheap quality notes either the plagiarized ones or written by inexperienced teachers. Now the time has come to team up and do a substantial work.  We need to team up ourselves and prepare the learning materials suitable for our learners. New Generation English and Expanding horizons in English in the students’ hand are the beginning of this venture. There are a couple of them in preparation, which will come out soon. I request all the colleagues to team up and start a new beginning. I am ready to give my support to them in this venture.

20. You have been the leader of ELT survey team too. Where are we in the surveying now? How long will it take to accomplish it? Is the survey too ambitious?

We have developed the proposal and the survey tools so far. I have heard that our new ELF Dr Law has reviewed the tools for piloting them. Since it is NELTA undertaking, I am tirelessly waiting for a go ahead signal. NELTA is exploring the possible financers to see it keep going.

21. How consonant are we with the wave of change in ELE around the globe?  Post modern wave is blowing swiftly and it must have moved us. How do you feel?

We have tried to catch and consolidate the global ELT perspectives in our curricula. We are definitely along with the wave of post-modern world but have not forgotten our own realities. I hope that our colleagues will materialize the spirit laid down in the curricula in their hands.

22. What directions do you think Nepalese ELE should take in the days ahead? What efforts are needed? What challenges do you face ahead?

ELT in Nepal cannot remain aloof from the other parts of the world. It has to change its course, but not forgetting the ground realities we have to work in. We have to set in mind that we are producing human resource capable of working in any part of the world. The ELT survey, if conducted in future, will tell us the ground realities of ELT in Nepal to make future plans for its improvement. The challenges ahead are enormous. We need resource allocations, attitudinal changes, human resource development etc. to go in par with the world ELT perspectives.

Thank you very much for your time and contribution.

Post Modern Paradigm in Nepalese ELT

Native Perspective

A Great Paradigm is Knocking at the Door:That is Postmodernism

Dr. Govinda Raj Bhattarai

Professor of English

Department of English Education

Tribhuvan University

Every teacher needs to be familiar with the issues that I am going to address in this essay: every teacher, educator, and every institution from primary to university levels of education and academic centers of all sorts.

The central motive for writing this paper is to draw from ‘postmodern’ philosophy and seek its application to English language teaching in the context of Nepal. It is high time we incorporated new values in our curriculums, especially in those of English Language teaching, ELT.  English language, and so literature, is soaked in ‘contemporary world values’. We need to experience and feel the pace of these contemporary values and walk in consonance with them because time has changed dramatically and cyberspace has ‘flattened’ the world, to quote Friedman’s term, and global values have seeped into local cultures all over the world. Porous culture of the present day has permeated everywhere to horizons earlier unknown. All these phenomena are the characteristics of the postmodern period that has followed the post II war period of some five decades ago.

I am not going to quote definitions of postmodernism from “Grammatology”, or from “The Postmodern Condition: A Report of Knowledge” or from “The Postmodern Reader” or from “The  Encyclopedia of Postmodernism” itself. In a brief article like this there is no room for pedantic ramblings on a subject that has already built a tremendous archive; it is so wide and diverse that sometimes it sounds unfathomable. Despite this, those of us concerned with ELT and more broadly, language teaching, should no longer remain ignorant of this all pervading paradigm shift, should look into the new values and find out if any aspects of postmodernism are applicable to our field, out of this all sweeping dimensions, and try to improve our career and profession by including these aspects. With this in mind, I would like to put my pen into paper by just referring to some major features and achievements of postmodernism that are relevant to teaching (which may apply to all teaching activities irrespective of subjects).

Before this let me relate my topic to the origin of this ‘philosophy’, to fields it has permeated and some distinctive marks that help us define the term. It was Jacques Derrida ( 1930 ­– 2004)  whose seminal article  “Structure, Sign  and Play:  In the Discourse of the Human Sciences”  (1967) attracted scholars’ attention towards a deep gap lying unnoticed between the structuralist tradition established by Saussurean school and the post II war situation that saw many changes in the existing values. This inspired and encouraged scholars to revisit the common philosophy of academics based on structuralism. This came to be known as postmodern move which challenged modernism, modernist principles and beliefs, which eventually gave way against the force of postmodern onslaught. Gradually scholars and thinkers of late twentieth century shifted their attention towards a new philosophy, a new paradigm in their respective fields. There are different angles of interpretation, standpoints or conditions of postmodern trend or. For instance, Jacques Derrida takes a philosophical standpoint. There are others, like Michel  Brown, Jean Baudrillard, Rolland Barthes, Thomas Kuhn, Charles Jenks to name a few among hundreds of forerunners, who discuss psychoanalysis, political philosophy, literary theory, philosophy of science, and  architecture, respectively. There are other great names people remember for their vigor and enthusiasm in interpreting music and dance, art and culture, anthropology, history and geography from postmodern perspectives. Ihab Hasan rightly thinks that this has formed a new movement, paradigm, or school: postmodernism.

I would like to refer to Hasan’s The Postmodern Turn (1987) to provide the readers a feel of how it has become all pervasive.  Postmodernism attacked deep foundations of meaning, truth, its finality, classifications of objects and concepts and showed that a continuum of enigmatic existence may go on till the last moment, so one always fails to claim finality, all perfection. One should keep on experimenting with what exists and look for novelty and innovation. Such points may have deep impact on an innovative teacher.  Not without good reasons have some claimed ‘death’ of many things and ideas such as history including the death of discourse (see, Collins and Skover). The term death has been used everywhere only to show a kind of departure and a sudden rupture felt in the existing practice and thought.  It is not in the literal sense they say so, it is to indicate the suddenness of a great shift towards a new present almost disconnected to its rootedness or the past.  So it was introduced as an anti foundational movement that has given a message that every foundation, even that of science, ever requires some kind of restructuring, remaking, rebuilding, and rethinking from age to age, and more so in a world controlled by machines like ours  today. The inventions and innovations that occur today are beyond our imagination, and will continue to be so. Philosophical principles too are always reinventing and reshaping themselves, like the inventions in science. Values are changing fastest of all. Peoples’ interests, demands, aspirations and lifestyle have changed accordingly.

Naturally, Derridean philosophy stands against stagnant ideas and dogmatic principles. However I am not going to sound obscure by referring to Jacques Derrida the mastermind himself, nor great thinkers like Michael Foucault, Gilles Deleuz, Frederic Jameson, Luce Irigary, Zygmunt Bauman, Jean Baudrillard, Gayatri Spivack or more such philosophers who have helped in defining the scope of this new philosophy with zeal and fervor until the dawn of the 21st century.  However “No jargons please” my heart speaks, and mind says no to a maze of debates. Those who are dead against pluralistic values and multiple perspectives on objects and truths and things are very adamant and even wish to denounce it as a new fangled thing that destroys the old values and leads us to nowhere.  They don’t know that old things decay soon of their own accord, and progress demands a rapid pace for everything: reshaping and rebuilding, by deconstructing the old ones. ‘Deconstruction’ has therefore been considered as a central point that brings change in our perspectives.

Postmodernism has stood on the principle of journey to infinite, incompleteness and this is the stand it has taken for more than three decades. But I am going to put my pen into paper also to recount my experience of being with it and in it for the last two decades. However, mine has remained a different world of literature. I noticed the concept enter into Nepali literature in the last twenty-five years, though vaguely and hazily in the beginning. At present though, there are more than two dozen books published on theory and practice of it and many more are in making, some to defend it and others to denounce. Denouncing it is equated with an act of challenging time that does not go back nor does it remain stagnant. That is why, as Derrida thought, if you cannot get the final meaning, if it ever gets deferred and is different every moment, what is the point of sticking to a particular time or value that is claimed to be final and universal and will save humanity? We believe in transitory nature and transience, we believe in the new and ever changing experience and experiment, fragmentary nature of truth, we believe in relativity of truth, because no absolute truth does exist, it is in the eyes of the beholders that truth takes shape whether it be in the field of philosophy or chemistry or astronomy or child care, adult education or teaching and learning, or the production of learning materials from everyday and common matters to universal matters.

It is difficult to define the concept of postmodern, as it encompasses everything– from art to culture, and from feminism to curriculum. Different fields of knowledge and areas of study such as history, geography, literature, sports and music have postmodern features which are distinct from those with modernist perspectives. It is change in perspectives, a change of perspectives. The whole of perspectives of looking at truth and the world has changed today. It may sound sometimes too intricate to drive this point home, but I would like to show how our total perspectives need to be revised. I would like to refer to Hasan again from whose work I quoted above. He shows how what ‘modern’ world  thought of as distance needs to be perceived as participation, purpose as play, signified as signifier, genre as text.  Each of these moves requires serious discussion, interpretation and exemplification. When one goes deep into such abstract philosophical niceties, one is most likely to get lost. Therefore I like to suggest the readers to start at the beginning, go on building their knowledge, contemplate and try to find application accordingly.

The seminal ideas of postmodernism entered the mainstream with Jacques Derrida’s principles of deconstruction which got associated with post-structuralism and gradually to postmodernism in the field of philosophy. Likewise, in literature, John Barth proposed that the conventional modes of literary representation had been “used up,” which means  everything has been exhausted before so he expounded these ideas in a seminal essay called  “The Literature of Exhaustion” and in it Barth opined that Modern values had an ultimate goal and a final point, but postmodern stretches beyond confinement. Old rules, symbols, figures, devices have completely been exhausted so we need newer images, combinations, symbols, tools, perspectives and everything.  In the field of architecture, ‘Jenkins’s architectural design’ is considered postmodern. If we look at music or painting or film or other sectors such as health, we can find pioneers who introduce postmodernism into these fields. It gives a sense of eternity, plurality or pluralism of objects ideas, and things, which is at the core of its principle. It rejects structural school of thought and language and classification. So looking at the world with postmodern perspective means looking at it as a centre less embodiment of multiplicity.  The multiplicity exists, whether or not one accepts it, so in the words of Foucault, it is an all pervading condition of the world.

Postmodernism stands for pluralism– many ideas and opinions, many practices and tolerance among them. It naturally has many centers. How it forms knowledge is still in suspense and doubt. Postmodernism asks you not to trust the practices that you are following. Some truth may be lying hidden so the concept of absence is more important than presence. All inventions were absent until they were discovered to the state of presence. Postmodernism calls for a change in concept and behavior. It is a philosophy of alternatives from no choice. From binary classification, it has reached a state of multiple options.

How can we make use of postmodernist theory in an ELT class? Firstly, it says all knowledge is constructed not just given; all knowledge is invented or “constructed” in the minds of people, they say. This belief requires student centered teaching, student autonomy and more freedom.

It promotes and nurtures multiplicity so it applies for multicultural setting of the learner and equal respect and attention to all.

It explores new centers and therefore every student has equal opportunity to be honored– the handicapped, disable, deprived, backward and marginal and excluded. The teacher treats them equally on grounds of humanity. Students that form diverse picture in the class are assets to him or her.

Cyber culture is part of our life so technology will create virtual worlds and learning modes are changed abruptly and totally. Teacher education is incomplete without resorting to the use of technology (radio, Edusat, mobiles, ICT) etc. The electronic media has erased the geographical distance and historic time so the modes of teaching and ways of learning are tat tally different from what they used to be before. An English Language Teacher, like any other should be equipped with this Knowledge.

01 Nov 2010

tu.govinda@gmail.com

Methods to Principles in Langauge Teaching

Native Perspective

 

                          Methods to Principles in Language Teaching

     Dr. Bal Mukunda Bhandari

Associate Professor

Departement of English Education

Tribhuvan University

Background

Twentieth century remained a century of methods and approaches in the field of language teaching. The applied linguists and language teaching experts in the name of reform in language pedagogy propounded new methods and approaches one after another pointing out the drawbacks of the existing methods and highlighting the merits of newly proposed ones. When English and other modern languages developed in Europe, people started studying them as second or foreign languages, the methods appeared in a “cyclical pattern in which a new paradigm of teaching methodology emerged about every quarter of a century with each new method breaking from the old but at the same time taking with it some of the positive aspects of the previous one” (Brown, 1994).

Methods Debate

Before the nineteenth century, formal language learners used to be scholars who studied foreign language consulting list of words in dictionaries. In the nineteenth century languages came into school curriculum and therefore something more was needed. This gave rise to grammar translation method (Harmer, 2008). This method as its name suggests made grammar rules as starting point followed by exercises involving translation into and out of the mother tongue. At the juncture of the twentieth century a reform movement came (Brown, 1994). This reform movement was the basis for the direct method which remained popular throughout the world in the last half of the 19th century and the quarter of the twentieth century. This method gave priority to oral skills. Writing was delayed and it rejected explicit grammar teaching (Thornbury, 1994:21). As Albert Marckwardt (Brown a99:14) sees this “changing winds and shifting sands”, the grammar was revived dropping out the translation from it. A method based on behaviorism in psychology and structuralism in linguistics was developed in the United States. (A similar method was developed in Britain at the same time which was popularly known as Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching). This method bought grammar from Grammar Translation method and the philosophy that of the primacy o oral skills from the Direct method. The Audio-lingual method adopted drills,  and sought context for grammar teaching. It rejected translation particularly because it was not possible to use translation in the class where there were students from different linguistic background and because it was not possible to teach English by English native speakers unless they learnt students’ native language and again it was not possible to learn each student’s mother tongue by the teacher. Translation is still popularly used in countries where English is taught by nonnative English speakers.

The 1980s experienced an anti-grammar movement primarily influenced by Krashen’s idea that language can be naturally acquired from meaningful inputs and opportunities to interact in the classroom. Grammatical competence can develop in a fluency oriented environment without conscious focus on form (Hedge, 2000:144). In addition, Chomsky’s criticism on structuralism, Hymes proposal of communicative competence, notional syllabus by Wilkins, task- based syllabus by Prabhu, interactional syllabus by Widdowson, functional syllabus by Jupp and Hodlin (Richards and Rodges, 2000) gave rise to communicative Language Teaching which was later developed into communicative method. This method uses language through communicative activities. It teaches to communicate in English by communicating purposefully with authentic materials put in groupwork, pair work and role-play. At the end of the 20th century a good number of methods based on the principle of communicativeness appeared each claiming to be more communicative.

Principles

An approach as Anthony (1963 in Smolinski 1993) writes is a description of the nature of the subject matter to be taught. It states a point of view or a philosophy. The method  is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material. It is neither ‘approach’ nor ‘method’ which makes successful or unsuccessful teaching. No methods will work there. In such situation the teacher has to bear the principles of language teaching. IPA (International Phonetic Association) which was founded in 1886 declared following principles of L2 teaching (Stern, 1991:88).

  1. Foreign language study should begin with the spoken language of everyday life and not with the relatively archaic language of literature.
  2. The teacher’s first aim should be to thoroughly familiarize his pupils with the sounds of the foreign language.
  3. The teacher’s second aim should be to introduce his/her pupils the most common sentences and idiomatic expressions of the foreign language. The students should study dialogues, descriptions, and narratives which should as easy, natural and interesting as possible.
  4. In the early stages grammar should be taught inductively complementing and generalizing language facts observed during reading. A more systematic study of grammar should be postponed to the advanced stages of the course.
  5. As far as possible expressions in the foreign language should be related by the teacher directly to ideas and other expressions in the language, and not to the native language. The teacher should take every opportunity to replace translation by reference to read objects or pictures or by explanations given in the foreign language.
  6. At a later stage, when writing is introduced, such written work should be arranged in the following sequence: first reproduction of thoroughly familiar reading texts. Second: reproduction of narratives orally presented by the teacher; and third, free composition. Written translation from and into the foreign language are considered to be appropriate only at the most advanced stage of the course.
  7. At a later stage, when writing is introduced, such written work should be arranged in the following sequence: first reproduction of thoroughly familiar reading texts. Second: reproduction of narratives orally presented by the teacher; and third, free composition. Written translation from and into the foreign language are considered to be appropriate only at the most advanced stage of the course

Bailey (1996 in Richards and Rodgers, 2006) suggests the following principles for teaching a language.

–          Engage all learners in the lesson.

–          Make learners, and not the teacher, the focus of the lesson.

–          Provide maximum opportunities for the student participation.

–          Develop learner responsibility.

–          Be tolerant of learners’ confidence.

–          Teach learning strategies.

–          Respond to learners’ difficulties and build on them.

–          Use a maximum amount of student-to-student activities.

–          Promote both accuracy and fluency.

–          Address learners’ needs and interests.

 In addition to the above ones, some more principles are discussed below.

  1. Speech before writing: Language is primarily speech. Writing is imitation in some conventional symbols for the purpose preserving the language for later. In natural set up people use speech to communicate each other, and the natural fact is that every child acquires speech and only if taught children learn writing after they have acquired speech. Therefore the teaching of a foreign language should start with speech. It means that describing written materials without knowing the speech of the language is incomplete, imperfect and inefficient. The students once they recognize the script can do reading and writing themselves but they need to imitate the teacher to speak (Lado in Smolinski,1993).
  2. Focus on teaching: In L2 setting students learn language through reading. They get very little chance to listen to the target language. Their source is the textbook. They have to learn vocabulary, writing and even listening and speaking through reading. Therefore, a foreign language teacher’s due focus should be on reading.
  3. Basic sentence in conversation: The students need to learn basic sentences as a lexical unit because. Such sentences don’t give sense when each word is taught and try to derive the meaning in the ……………. For example.

A: How are you?

B: I’m fine. Thank you

A: How old are you?

B: I’m ten years old.

A: Where are you from?

B: I’m from Gulmi.

A: Are you a student?

B: Yes. I’m.

  1. Integration of language forms and skills: Language forms and skills cannot be separated though it has been suggested in ELT manuals. Studying a text, for instance, automatically involves all language skills and aspect. The students need to listen to the model, they need to know how a particular word is pronounced and what it means, their understanding is evaluated with what they respond orally and in writing. Thus all skills and aspects of language involve in teaching.
  2. Consideration of E-factor: The E (efficiency) factor includes economy, ease and efficiency. Language teaching has to be done as efficiently as possible. It should be economic in instruction, planning and resources. The technique which does not require much material is preferred to others. The efficacy of teaching can be measured in the degree of attention it arouses and the learning that the learners achieve (Thornbury, 1999).
  3. Consideration of A-factor: Appropriacy is one of the requirements of language teaching. An activity that is to one group of learners may not be the same for another. Various factors such as the age of the learners, their level and needs; the size of the group and its composition (e.g. monolingual or multilingual); the available materials and resources; and the educational context e.g. private school or public school or language institute (Thornbury, 1999).

Conclusion

There was showering of methods and approaches in the twentieth century. It was thought that the problems in language learning were caused by ‘methods’ and therefore the commonest solution to language teaching was to adopt a new teaching method or approach (Richards and Rodgers, 2006:244). Methods were adopted one after another but the problems remained in different manifestation. In fact methods become successful with the appropriate application of principles.

References

Bygate, m et al. (Ed) 1994. Grammar and the Language teacher. New York: prentice hall

Harmer, J. 2009. The practice of English Language Teaching. London. Longman

Harmer, J. 1992.  Teaching and learning Grammar. London. Longman

Thornbury, S. 1999. How to Teach Grammar. London. Longman

Stern. H.H. 1991. Fundamental concepts of Language Teaching. Oxford. OUP

Richards, J.C and Theodore S. Rodgers. 2006. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge. CUP

Smolinski, F. 1993. Landmarks of American Languages. Washington: United States Information Agency.

Hedge,T. Teaching and Learning in the Classroom.Oxford:OUP.

Bhandari, B.M. 2009. On Teaching Grammar: A paper presented at NELTA conference.

Cowan, R. 2009. The Teacher’s Grammar of English. Cambridge. CUP.

Brown, D. 1991. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Eaglewood cliffs : prentice hall regents.

The Post Modern Langauge Teacher

Global thought

The postmodern language teacher: The future of task-based teaching

Andrew Edward Finch, Ph.D.

Kyungpook National University

Republic of Korea

Introduction

“We are living in a time of rapid social change. … such change will inevitably affect the nature of those disciplines that both reflect our society and help to shape it. … Modes and categories inherited from the past no longer seem to fit the reality experienced by a new generation” (Hawkes, general editor’s preface, in Hutcheon, 1989, p. vii).

We live in an environment that is continually changing. It seems that rapid change is our only constant. We are faced with an entirely new situation in which the goal of education, if we are to survive, is the facilitation of change and learning. … The only person who is educated is the person who has learned how to learn; the person who has learned how to adapt and change; the person who has realized that no knowledge is secure, that only the process of seeking knowledge gives a basis for security.” (Rogers, 1969, pp. 151-152).

“… education is itself going through profound change in terms of purposes, content and methods … [education] is both a symptom of and a contributor to the socio-cultural condition of postmodernity” (Edwards & Usher, 1994, p. 3).

Changing definitions

“Indeed, many would argue that this very lack of agreement is in itself one of the distinguishing features of the ‘postmodern’” (O’Farrell, 1999, p. 11).

“Postmodernism is a phenomenon whose mode is resolutely contradictory as well as unavoidably political” (Hutcheon, 1989, p. 1)

“… sense of fluidity and open-endedness” which “resists being conveniently summarized in easy ‘soundbites’ and refuses to lend itself to any single cut and dried definition” (Ward, 2003, p. 1).

Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to say that the postmodern’s initial concern is to de-naturalize some of the dominant features of our way of life; to point out that those entities that we unthinkingly experience as ‘natural’ (they might even include capitalism, patriarchy, liberal humanism), are in fact ‘cultural’; made by us, not given to us. Even nature, postmodernism might point out, doesn’t grow on trees. (Hutcheon, 1989, pp. 1-2)

Ward (2003) suggests that postmodernism can be seen (among other things) as: i) an actual state of affairs in society; and ii) the set of ideas which tries to define or explain this state of affairs (2003, p. 5). From this point of view, postmodernism is a set of concepts and debates about what it means to live in our present times. These debates have a number of common themes:

  1. They propose that society, culture and lifestyle are today significantly different from what they were 100, 50 or even 30 years ago.
  2. They are concerned with concrete subjects like the developments in mass media, the consumer society and information technology.
  3. They suggest that these kinds of development have an impact on our understanding of more abstract matters, like meaning, identity and even reality.
  4. They claim that old styles of analysis are no longer useful, and that new approaches and new vocabularies need to be created in order to understand the present. (Ward, 2003, p. 6)

Postmodern categories include:

  1. Crossing of borders (breaking down of barriers)
  2. De-colonization (diversification and regionalism)
  3. Decentralization (lateral, rather than hierarchical decision-making)
  4. Deconstruction (questioning traditional assumptions about certainty, identity, and truth)
  5. Eclecticism (the borrowing and mixing of features from different systems and fields)
  6. Pastiche (imitating the previous works of others, often with satirical intent)
  7. Relativism (conceptions of time, space, truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them)
  8. Self-contradiction (duplicity; the conscious making of self-undermining statements)
  9. Self-reference and self-reflexiveness (use of meta-language and self-constructing forms)

 

Changing sciences

‘Metanarratives’ of the ‘modern’ Age of Reason included i) progress; ii) optimism; iii) rationality; iv) the search for absolute knowledge in science, technology, society and politics; and v) the idea that gaining knowledge of the true self was the only foundation for all other knowledge (Ward, 2003, p. 9).

Science (which replaced religion in the ‘modern’ era in terms of being the subject of unquestioning faith) was seen from this standpoint as: i) progressive (moving towards a state of ‘complete knowledge’); ii) unified (all sub-disciplines shared the same goal); iii) universal (aiming at total truths which would benefit all of human life); and iv) self-justifying (since it was obviously intent on the betterment of the ‘human race’).

These were theoretical warnings about the demise of the modern project, and the onset of a relativistic postmodernism, but the warnings soon received reinforcement, when the myth of benign, philanthropic scientific enquiry was found to be practically inadequate, or even inaccurate. This collapse of faith can be traced to a number of reasons:

  1. the contribution of science to ecological disasters (e.g. pollution, greenhouse gases, acid rain) and mass killing (nuclear, chemical and biological weapons);
  2. the commercialization of science (e.g. the withholding of permission by pharmaceutical corporations in the US to make cheaper, generic versions of their life-saving drugs in underdeveloped countries – an issue recently addressed by the WTO Doha declaration [World Trade Organisation, 2001]);
  3. the loss of faith in the ability to measure reality (due to findings in the sciences of complexity, ‘chaos theory’, quantum mechanics, etc.); and
  4. the division of science into a mass of specialisms (a multitude of disciplines and sub-disciplines now follow their own agendas and speak their own languages).

Was a devastated natural environment the only outcome of the scientific search to improve our physical living conditions? Clearly there was something very wrong indeed with the whole idea that unaided Reason and rationality could save us. (O’Farrell, 1999, p. 14)

Changing worlds

Socia upheavals as evidenced in:

  • an erosion of conventional distinctions between high and low culture;
  • fascination with how our lives seem increasingly dominated by visual media;
  • a questioning of ideas about meaning and communication, and about how signs refer to the world; and
  • a sense that definitions of human identity are changing, or ought to change. (Ward, 2003, p. 11).

Postmodernism (in addition to rejecting the logical/rational foundation stones of the Enlightenment), chips away at the three main cornerstones of modern politics: i) nation; ii) class; and iii) belief in the wholesale transformation of the world (Ward, 2003, p. 173).

Changing educations

A schooling system which promised social equality and enlightenment for all has done little more than reinforce social division and entrench new forms of conformity, ignorance and exclusion. Was this the happiness and social harmony promised by the Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and nineteenth century economist Karl Marx? (O’Farrell, 1999, p. 13)

Hutcheon situates the postmodern “squarely within both economic capitalism and cultural humanism – two of the major dominants of much of the western world” (1989, p.13), and education in the postmodern world has accordingly been made accountable to capitalist market forces.

“In short, knowledge is no longer assessed in terms of its truth or falsity or its promotion of justice, but in terms of its efficiency at making money” (Lyotard, 1984, p.51).

In the Korean context, the excessive attention paid to high-stakes testing has produced a particular variant of this phenomenon. Rather than asking the extrinsic “Will this English lesson help me to learn English for use in the global village?”, the reflexive “Will this English lesson help me learn how to learn English?”, or even the intrinsic “Will this English lesson help me to maximize my love of language and show me the beauty inherent in language learning and cultural exchange per se?”, high school students in Korea typically ask (and are supported by their parents in doing so) “Will this information be on the CSAT?”[1] If the answer is not “Yes,” then there is (in their perception) no reason for acquiring the information, and students turn their attention to more obviously instrumental learning texts, such as the Educational Broadcasting Service (EBS) CSAT Preparation books, which form the unofficial syllabus of most 3rd-year high school English classes in Korea (cf. Finch, 2004a).

A further example of the commercialization of education in Korea can be found in the proliferation of private language institutes. These institutes exist to help students pass the CSAT,  TOEFL,[2] TOEIC, TEPS[3] and even high-school-entrance tests. In the words of Kim See-bong, the owner of such an institute,

“Children from nursery school to high school go to five or six hakwons [private institutions] a week. Some take in as many as nine. When they come back home, they still have to prepare for the schoolwork” (Kim, 2005).

Seven out of 10 students are receiving tutoring, with private education expenses taking up an average of 12.7 percent of the household expenditure” (Korean Educational Development Institute, Soh, 2004).

It is evident, therefore, that education in the postmodern era can no longer see itself as independent of historical, economic and cultural contexts, and that schools (especially the many private secondary schools in Korea) must instead attract ‘clients’ and money through persuasive images (simulacra) in brochures, prospectuses and websites

  1. Education should be more diverse in terms of goals and processes and consequently in terms of organisational[4] structures, curricula, methods and participants.
  2. Education should no longer function as a means of reproducing society or as an instrument in large-scale social engineering. It [should] become limitless both in time and space.
  3. Any attempt to place education into a straitjacket of uniform provision, standardised [sic]curricula, technicised teaching methods, and bearer of universal ‘messages’ of rationality or morality would be difficult to impose.
  4. Education in the postmodern, cannot help but construct itself in a form which would better enable greater participation in a diversity of ways by culturally diverse learners.
  5. Education in the postmodern is likely to be marked both by a general decentring and a general loosening of boundaries. (Adapted from Edwards & Usher, 1994, pp. 211-212)

Changing Englishes

TABLE 1: Contrasting modern and postmodern educational concepts

Modern metanarratives Postmodern metanarratives
High-stakes, standardized testing (Absolute measurement; focus on the product of learning) Classroom-Based Assessment using portfolios, journals, formative self- and peer-assessment (Relativistic focus on process; deconstruction of the standardized testing paradigm)
Competition (aggression, competitive individualization, survival of the fittest, first-past-the-post) Collaboration (Social learning, teamwork) balanced by a new form of individualization – autonomous learning and self-access learning
Studying English through its ‘highest achievements’ i.e. elitist English literature (Strict boundaries; restrictions of genre) Learning English through pop-culture, comics, the internet, etc. (Plurality of genres; crossing boundaries; eclecticism)
Linguistic imperialism (Colonialism)The English ‘native-speaker’ Postcolonialism (Use of diverse Englishes as variants of a lingua franca, providing a means of expressing local cultures; death of the ‘native speaker’)
Structural syllabi (Totalization) Process syllabi, task-based and project-based learning (Deconstruction of propositional language learning concepts)
Quantitative, experimental, ‘objective’ research (Absolute measurement of rigorously isolated and independently observed ‘truths’) Qualitative, subjective, action research (Relativistic description of perceptions; systems analysis of group learning environments)
Behaviorist view of learning as predictable and independent of emotions Recognition of affective and social filters (language learning as social, cultural, emotional and unpredictable)
Standardized, Western English (Totalization) Regional Englishes, dialects and pronunciations (Decentralization, Regionalization, Diversification)
Linear, sequential learning, language as code (Absolute, grammatical ‘truths’) Self-reflexive use of meta-language and learning strategies in a non-linear learning format
Teacher-centered learning (Centralization) Student-centered learning (Decentralization)
Teacher-controlled learning (Totalization) Student autonomy, self-directed learning (Decentralization, regionalism)
Studying the culture of the target language (Centralization, colonialism) Studying regional and global cultures through the target language (Regionalism and globalism).

 

The learning task provides a framework for meaningful interaction to take place, using “purposeful” (or meaningful) situations which refine cognition, perception and affect (Breen & Candlin, 1980, p. 91)

It is a tribute to the efficacy of task-based instruction (TBI) that this method has become the one of choice in the best government programs. Since the 1980s, nearly all government institutions have used TBI in their foreign language programs. (Leaver & Willis, 2004, p. 47).

Tasks can be seen as tools for constructing collaborative acts. (Ellis, 2003, 178)

These tasks can cater for learning by providing opportunities for learners:

  • to use new language structures and items through collaboration with others;
  • to subsequently engage in more independent use of the structures they have internalized in relatively undemanding tasks;
  • to finally use the structures in cognitively more complex tasks. (Ellis, 2003, p. 178)

Tasks thus combine (or encourage) many of the postmodern features of TEFL theory and practice: collaboration, autonomy, student-centeredness, and negotiation of meaning. Tasks involve the students in their learning, and in so doing, promote active decision-making, problem-solving, critical thinking, and responsibility of learning. Furthermore, they included formative self-assessment in this new approach to learning, by requiring learners to set goals, assess their achievements, and reflect on their needs.

When this approach is extended by letting tasks grow into projects, a form of TEFL emerges which can be said both to be a result of, and to contribute to, effective and meaningful language education in the postmodern era. Rather than expecting everyone to acquire the same language at the same time and at the same rate, and then giving everyone the same test (totalization), a project approach recognizes the diversity of learning needs, learning styles, language proficiencies, beliefs, attitudes and levels that exist in the typical EFL multilevel class, and allows students to study what they want, in the manner that they want. By putting students ‘in the driving seat’ (decentralization), the project syllabus fosters active communication skills (cooperation, discussion, negotiation, etc.) as well as problem-identification, goal setting, self-assessment and reflection (Legutke & Thomas, 1991, p. 160). The role of the teacher in this new situation is to facilitate learning by being a language resource and providing guidance (linguistic, emotional, cognitive and social) where appropriate.

… we can neither claim that learning is caused by environmental stimuli (the behaviorist position) nor that it is genetically determined (the innatist position). Rather, learning is the result of complex (and contingent) interactions between individual and environment. (Van Lier, 1996, p. 170)

The educational context, with the classroom at its center, is viewed as a complex system in which events do not occur in linear causal fashion, but in which a multitude of forces interact in complex, self-organizing ways, and create changes and patterns that are part predictable, part unpredictable. (Van Lier, 1996, p. 148)

In giving equal value to the self-reflexive and the historically grounded, “postmodernism ultimately manages to install and reinforce as much as to undermine and subvert the conventions and presuppositions it appears to challenge” (Hutcheon, 1989, p. 2), so it is interesting to note that the project approach focuses on holistic learning (education of the whole person), and develops autonomous (intrapersonal) and group (interpersonal) responsibility, while promoting critical, informed problem-solving and accountability – goals that the propositional paradigm and the ‘modern’ education movement ostensibly aimed at but subverted through centralization and totalization.

Conclusion

Postmodern TEFL theory presents English as a lingua franca with regional variations – a global language in which there are no native speakers, no standard pronunciations or grammars, and no target culture. Western-oriented practices (and politics) of language teaching are being reinterpreted in the light of indigenous learning needs and sociopolitical factors, and the mutually exclusive goals attainment (MEGA) ethic of classroom competition and high-stakes testing (Kohn, 1992) is being discredited by more effective and socially desirable collaborative studying models. ‘Learning to learn’ is being seen as a lifelong process, in which language is used as a means of learning language, and the mass media has successfully colonized the profession, bringing its global messages of financial accountability, consumerism, and the ‘image’ as reality.

In this situation, TEFL as a profession cannot make any modernist claims to be progressive, unified or universal in its approaches or practices, though it is a postmodern contradiction and ‘doubleness’ that various establishments and schools of thought (e.g. the “peace as a global language” movement) continue in this endeavor, and that postmodern approaches include both neo-liberal and neo-conservative views on education reform. Perching on this metaphoric border between order and chaos, and “to the extent to which any of us is clear about anything” (Postman, 1995, p. 87), the postmodern perspective does, however, hold out hope for the future as well as describing the disillusionment with the past. As O’Farrell concludes:

If education can be a machine for social conformity, it can also be a machine for the investigation of new horizons and new possibilities. The proliferation of ‘difference’ and uncertainty in the postmodern world, far from being a problem, is a constant invitation to imagine the unimaginable. (O’Farrell, 199, p. 17)

The postmodern TEFL situation can be seen as heralding a number of deaths; i) the death of the ‘native speaker’; ii) the death of structuralism; iii) the death of imperialism; and iv) the death of the ‘teacher.’ However, this presentation suggests that by shifting responsibility for learning and assessment to the learner, by focusing on the acquisition of learning skills and social skills in a group context, and by offering the opportunity to learn in self-directed learning projects, TBLT, and project learning in particular, can provide a feasible approach to language learning in the 21st century “through an awareness of how we use language, how language uses us, and what measures are available to clarify our knowledge of the world we make (Postman, p. 87).

References

Adams, D. (1995). The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. Columbia: Ballantine Books.

Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. A. (1991). Postmodern education: Politics, culture, and social criticism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991.

Barthes, R. (1977). Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, trans. Rochard Howard. New York: Hill & Wang.

Baudrillard, J. (1988). Selected writings. Stamford: Stanford University Press.

Benson, P. & Voller, P. (1997). Autonomy and independence in language learning. Harlow: Longman.

Bocock, R. (1986). Hegemony. Chichester and London: Ellis Horwood and Tavistock.

Breen, M.P. (1987). Contemporary paradigms in syllabus design, part I. Language Teaching, 20/2, 81-91.

Breen, M.P. & Candlin, C. (1980). The essentials of a communicative curriculum in language teaching. Applied Linguistics, 1/2, 89-112.

Canagarajah, S. (1999). Resisting linguistic imperialism in English teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Candlin, C. N. & Murphy, D. (Eds.). (1987). Language learning tasks. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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Crookes, G. & Gass, S. M. (Eds.). (1993). Tasks and language learning. Cleveland, UK: Multilingual Matters

Deleuze, D. (1994). Difference and repetition. New York: Columbia University Press.

Donald, J. (1992) Sentimental education, London: Verso.

Edwards, R. & Usher, R. (1994). Postmodernism and education. London: Routledge.

Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Finch, A. E. (2004a). An analysis os EBS materials for the CSAT, English section. English Teaching, 59(3), 307 – 331.

Finch, A. E. (2004b). Complexity and systems theory: Implications for the EFL teacher/researcher. The Journal of Asia TEFL. 1/2, 27 – 46. 

Harrison, B. (Ed.). (1990). Culture and the language classroom. ELT Documents 132. London: Macmillan. Modern English Publications and the British Council.

Heisenberg, W. (1927) ‘Ueber den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik and Mechanik’ Zeitschrift für Physik 43 172-198. English translation in Wheeler and Zurek, (1983), pp. 62-84.

Hofstadter, D. R. (1999). Gődel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid. New York: Basic Books.

Holly, D. (1990). The unspoken curriculum – or how language teaching carries cultural and ideological messages. In B. Harrison (Ed.). Culture and the language classroom. ELT documents 132. (pp. 11 – 19). London: Macmillan. Modern English Publications and the British Council.

Hutcheon, L. (1989). The politics of postmodernism. London: Routledge.

Kachru, B., & Nelson, C. (2001). World Englishes. In A. Burns and C. Coffin (Eds.), Analysing English in a global context: A reader (pp. 9-25). London/New York: Routledge.

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Nunan, D. (1992). Research methods in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

O’Farrell, C. (1999). Postmodernism for the initiated, in Meamore, D., Burnett, B., & O’Brien, P. (Eds.). Understanding education: Contexts and agendas for the new millennium. (pp. 11-17). Sydney: Prentice Hall.

Mockler, N. (2004). Transforming teachers: New professional learning and transformative teacher professionalism. Paper presented to the Australian Association for Educational Research Annual Conference, University of Melbourne.

Morley, D. & Robins, K. (1995). Spaces of identity: Global media, electronic landscapes and cultural boundaries. London: Routledge.

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Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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[1] CSAT: College Scholastic Aptitude Test – the national test for university entrance.

[2] TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language

[3] TEPS: Test of English Performance Skills

[4] The spelling in citations in this paper reproduces that of the original versions.

Parenting, Nepalese Private (Boarding) Schools, English, and Child-friendliness

Critical Outlook, Teacher's Experience/anecdotes

— Kashi Raj Pandey

Yes, teaching English in Nepal for more than a decade, from primary, secondary, and now in a university has compelled me to reflect myself with different hats; basically every day, now a days, I have been wearing two hats: first, a professional hat; second of a “good” parent. A born, dedicated teacher and a very finicky parent, as teaching professionals are the most difficult clients for “boarding schools” too.

Last weekend, with sufficient activities and monitoring at Kathmandu University’s Undergraduate classrooms, I returned home, tired. Good that our elder boy was already there with the small one and their mother waiting: I was the last to reach home that relieved me from worrying about others’ arrival as we all absent ourselves day time; one a hosteller, another day-scholar, and the couple both working in different sweat shops.

Our meeting was followed by a homely Dinner; and during dinner time, we talked as usual. My wife was an initiator. She said, “Look, I have something to say today”. I, with curiosity, gave my response, “Yes. Go ahead”. Then she proceeded, “Our children are doing good in studies. They score good marks. But, the bigger one had a request whether we could speak English in home so that he can confidently speak in English with his teachers”. He is a nine grader studying in one of the “finest” boarding schools. In Nepal, we love to make judgment about the standard of schools on the basis of the money they collect from parents; like how much, how often, and how early. This school is “good” because of the amount they charge, frequency of events they advocate for extra money, and reason they find for collection. From this year they claimed that they have also improved their quality by rescheduling the mid-term exam as early as possible. They said it is good because the children can have their result before Dashain (the major festival in Nepal with a long holiday), but I know the reason, and so do you, all intelligent readers.

By now you all can guess, as a teacher of English, one thing with intention, I failed was this – not speaking English at home. And, I kept quiet waiting to continue that issue in the next session. I nodded – “Yes, the dinner is delicious and how nice eating together after a week’s hard work!”

Next session continued, as very often we do this. Parents sitting together with children for sometimes, may be just talking and talking even with no issues, we believe strengthens compassion among. And, that time we had an issue. I asked the boy to tell me about him. He said, “Everything is good”. But my boy needed further counseling, I could imagine.  As we kept talking, many things started to unfold. I even remembered and recited the first stanza of a poem by W. B. Yeats, “Among School Children” with them:

“I walk through the long schoolroom questioning;
A kind old nun in a white hood replies;
The children learn to cipher and to sing,
To study reading-books and histories,
To cut and sew, be neat in everything
In the best modern way – the children’s eyes
In momentary wonder stare upon
A sixty-year-old smiling public man.” (ll 1-8)

Yes, after some moment, he revealed that if we spoke “English” in home, he could have excelled in everything and among everybody in the school. Then, I realized the problem, but I never took “English” and “only speaking English” that way.  That made me little emotional and thoughtful. I have seen many “good English speakers” not doing anything even in the Americas, seen a village-wo/man with a great heart doing a lot; s/he may be poor, unfortunate to attend so called “boarding schools” but also NOT devoid of humanity. I know more on what I have to make them unlearn than what they are learning in school.

Children are learning that they need to pay fee for the admit card so that they can sit down for the exam and go for unhealthy competition. I am saying this because I saw an innocent little girl crying in one of the good private schools on her result day because she could not hold the FIRST position among some 600 students while the “Block Incharge” was trying hard to convince the child and her parents saying, “You should try next time”. My goodness, isn’t scoring the SECOND position in this huge mass a fabulous job? I think yes, and for me it is always a “WELL DONE!” Do these schools worry about giving prizes in the same way as they are curious to collect fees before exams? Children (ALL) I have always seen happier coming home with the envelope (a receipt inside) than their exam results.

We make children to be disciplined. And they are disciplined in such a way that even at their Undergraduate levels, when we ask them to contribute in some way or express their views, first thing they do is “standing up”. It has become their habit; most of them do not worry on the issue but ask to repeat again after they stand up; they have become habitual this way. We are giving them the “wrong” message that only educated people are comfortable to survive in this world and the toppers are always “respected”. I agree, but what about the other parts? Don’t we have to enjoy life with children? Is our home NOT different than schools? Aren’t we also paying high to imprison their childhood?  Honestly, I have sent my boys to these private schools not because I really wanted them to but just to make ourselves “socially” comfortable and put myself under this “veiled prestige and power relationship”. Now, I do remember the lines from Daniel Goleman’s essay where he has inserted a dying patient’s reflection, he mourns past losses and wrongs he has committed, “he regretted that when his daughter was small and needed him, he was on the road making money to provide a good home. Now, that he was dying, but she was grown and had her own way of life”. He felt it was too late to play, talk, and even share a lot of things that were possible earlier and, most of the times, I find hard to see myself differently.

How have we motivated the children? John Holt says we still claim children go to school to learn as if learning is different than living and that the child hadn’t been learning before.  They are learning to hide the home works. They are learning countless strategies for prying “right” answers out of the teacher, for conning her/him into thinking s/he knows what s/he does not know. Children when suggested to change certain things that were not right, they fear whether they could write that way in exams too. Many parents also fear a good amount of project works during holidays. I have seen them working actively in many student projects, that to be submitted to teachers, for the sake of children’s happiness. At this point, I worry whether children go to school to learn for themselves or for others?

Next, is “ENGLISH” terror. As I have seen fine slogans painted or posted in many private school walls like; ENGLISH IS COMPULSORY. PAY Rs. 5 Or 10 FOR EVERY TIME YOU SPEAK NEPALI. Why do we advertise this way? Can’t we simply speak English in the schools, a “correct” English I mean which may come from different sources, may that be watching TV, reading novel or anything. Parents in Nepal would love to see their wards speaking English, no doubt. But, don’t we also have to cultivate reading habit or don’t we have to give our children the knowledge about the life style, culture, feast and festivals of the target language? Can’t we also take our children to several events like Cultural Programs, Book Exhibitions, or other Educational Fairs? Keeping these all in mind, I was comfortable when my boy agreed with me as we are doing all other activities at the maximum possibility, though English was not compulsory in HOME. And this is the beauty that children find a home more homely, different than “Boarding” schools in Nepal.

I worry who has time to look into these issues with due priority for these children’s childhood has been imprisoned unknowingly deceiving them in the name of discipline, competition, success, or what not.

Nepanglish: A Standardizing Variety of English

Scholarly Article

— H. C. Kamali (SaSi)

English has been so varied that when we talk of it, we have to be aware of the variety of being used, as there exist different varieties of English. So we have to accept the fact that “There is no such thing as the English Language” (Aarts and Aarts, 1982). This is all because English has been widely used around the world by people of different regions, cultures, languages, and so forth. Harmer (1999) argues in favour of this and maintains, ‘There is a multiplicity of varieties and this makes it difficult to describe English as any one thing’. So it is very natural to speak of varieties of English or world Englishes because there are several varieties of English identified, for example, British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English South African English, Nigeria English, Indian English, Sri-Lankan English and so on. This is not only the case of the countries in American, European, African and Australian continents; even the countries in Asian continent have been greatly influenced by English. As a result, many different varieties of English have been developed and some are still emerging.

Regarding the expansion of English in South Asia, Kansakar (1998), in the same vein, maintains, ‘In recent years, speakers of English in countries like India and Nepal have been influenced by American English through tourism , radio, television and other media of mass communication. This situation has given rise to a curious mixture of South Asian, British and American varieties of English, which are referred to generally as South Asian English.’ Here Kansakar generalizes the varieties of English used in the South Asian countries as ‘South Asian English’. But the fact is that English has many varieties even in South Asia because every nation that uses English as a second or foreign language, in question, is claiming the English used there to be of their own variety. In the context of Nepal too, English which has the status of foreign language is considered to be developing as a variety of its own, i.e., Nepalese English or ‘Nenglish’ (Rai, 2006) or ‘Nepanglish’ (as recommended through my research).

English used in Nepal is of its own type – neither is it like that of British nor American, nor anything else because when Nepalese speak English they can be easily identified as Nepalese, not as Englishmen or Americans. So it is rather a very high time to investigate on Nepalese English (Nepanglish) and develop it into an internationally-accepted variety of English because here English is losing its Englishness and getting highly influenced by Nepali language. In this regard, David Crystal has also mentioned in his Encyclopedia of the English language that ‘Nepalese variety of standardizing variety is emerging gradually’.

FULL ARTICLE

Practice Teaching: A Reflection

Scholarly Article

“Practice/Student Teaching” in I. ED. and B. ED.: A learning experience or a meaningless ritual?

Ganga Ram Gautam

This is a narrative drawn from my experience as a teacher educator at Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tahachal, Kathmandu.

Background

Practice teaching or student teaching is the obligatory requirement in the faculty of education under Tribhuvan University. In each level i.e. I. ED., B. ED. and M.ED. the students are required to carry out this assignment at the end of the course work. This is to give the students teachers a real classroom experience in teaching so that they can develop the required skills for their classroom teaching later after graduation. The duration is about 4 weeks for I. ED. and 6 weeks for B. ED and M. ED. In order to do this, schools and colleges located in the vicinity of the campuses are requested to provide their classes and the student teachers from the campuses are assigned to teach in them. Each student teacher has to teach at least one class a day with all the preparation and s/he is expected to practice the skills in his/her classroom that s/he learned in the courses. The internal supervisors are assigned to supervise their performance and provide them feed back and sharpen their teaching skills. The final evaluation is carried out by an external examiner at the end of the practice teaching. In addition to this teaching  the students are also expected to do some internship work in the department that includes the preparation of case study of a student and evaluation of the course materials.

As a teacher educator I wanted to see very briefly how the student teachers see this activity as a part of their course work. It is often heard that the practice teaching has now just been a ritual in Nepal and there are complaints from the concerning head teachers and respective teachers that the student teachers come to school just for formality and they do not take this practice very seriously. The teachers teaching in the campuses also say that the practice teaching has not been very useful for the student teachers as it is not being carried out as it should be. If this is true, this will have a very adverse affect not only in school teaching system but also have a negative impact in the life of the student teachers as it is mentioned by (Svincicki, 1996),  “If doctors make worst patients, teachers make the worst students”. I was just curious to find out the current state of student teaching so that the limitations/drawbacks could be found and the suggestions could be made to improve it.

In order to see this practical at a very micro level, I followed a kind of accidental sampling approach. I went to the campus in the morning and stayed in the department. Whoever the faculty members came there in order to sign their attendance I request them to be my respondents as the representatives of the faculty members. I also selected the students in the same manner in which I went to the classroom and told them what I was doing and requested the volunteers to participate in my survey. Since it was not the study for a scholarly work I must confess that I did not follow the standard research procedures in this. My purpose was just to find out how teachers and students see practice teaching and find out some of the immediate key issues related to practice teaching. I prepared a short questionnaire and requested the participants to fill in. Upon my request they did it on the spot and handed it to me immediately.

Key Findings

The Teacher trainers’ teaching experience: 5- 27 years. The students that I selected were B. ED. and M. ED. Students and all of them did their practice teaching in their previous years.  Some of the key highlights of my findings from this snap-shot study are listed below.

Preparation of the student teachers on-campus:

By preparation I mean how the student-teachers are prepared for teaching in the training classrooms in their campuses. This can be reflected in the approach of the teacher training classroom. If the teaching is more student-centred than the students have more room for practising skills where as they have very little practice if the training is lecture based or teacher centred.

Thus, while asking the trainers whether their training was student centred or teacher centred, there was no uniform answer. Among the 10 teachers only four of them (40%) said that their teaching was student-centred. While asking the same question to the students, 57% said that the class was student centred. Actually the students when they were asked to elaborate what they meant by student-centered, they had varied responses.

The method of teaching in the training classroom on-campus was predominantly the lecture for both the faculty and students.

Another question in the preparation was whether or not the student teachers practice the teaching skills in the training classroom in their campuses. While asking this question to the teachers 30% said that they did engage the their students in practice activities but 20% said that they just lectured while 50% said that they sometimes engaged the students in practice activities. Interestingly the students’ response was a bit different. Majority of the students i.e. 83% said that they did not practice the skills in the training classrooms. This clearly shows the lack of practice in the campus classrooms. One can say that the existing training situation seems to be a bit odd, as it does not involve the students in practising the skills in the training classroom.

I tried to dig out this a bit in detail and asked the students why they did not practice the skills in their training classroom and their responses recorded as follows:

  • Large classes in the campus did not allow room for practice
  • Majority of the students did not want to practice the skills in the campus
  • No appropriate environment was created in the campus. But when I asked them what they mean by appropriate environment is, they just could not answer.
  • The faculty and student teachers were not very active in doing things rather they felt comfortable to the usual lecture method
  • Carelessness and irregularity on the part of the students was also a main reason
  • Interestingly the faculty members confessed that they were not prepared enough to share the POWER in shifting their role from a teacher to facilitator could lead to an anarchy in the classroom.

Implementation of the ideas that the student teachers learned in the campus in schools

The success of training can be seen when the trainees are found using the training skills in the classroom practice. In the campus, they learn the skills in theory mainly through the lecture and discussion. I asked them how much of what they learned was actually implemented in the classroom in schools. Obviously, this was not an easy question to answer but I requested them to respond based on their experience. Majority of the faculty and students said that they transferred very little of what they learned. I also tried to find some of the reasons for not being able to transfer the training skills in the classroom. They said that most of the student-teachers did not take practice teaching seriously and there is a sheer negligence on the part of the student teachers.

Frequency of Supervision:

As mentioned earlier, the student teachers are supervised by the internal supervisors during their practice teaching. The supervision is to provide feed back to the teachers and sharpen their teaching skill. One of the objectives of teaching practices as Gower and Walter (1987) put it is, “to provide you with an opportunity to have your teaching evaluated and constructively criticised”. Thus, the frequency of supervision is very important. In this research the frequency of supervision was found very low. The internal supervisors are required to observe at least 3 classes during the practice teaching. While asking them they said that they did supervise 3 times. But while asking the student- teachers there was a different picture. Out of 35 student teachers only 10 of them (29%) agreed with the teachers’ response. Among the rest, 9 students (26%) reported that they were supervised only once and 13 of them (37%) were supervised only twice. Interestingly, 9% said that they were not internally supervised at all. Thus, the supervision system was found to be very weak.

Key issues and challenges of practice teaching:

I was anxious to identify the some of the key issues and challenges in practice teaching. The faculty members had the following observations:

  • Student teachers did not know how to prepare lesson plans: Maybe this is because they were not taught how to do it in the campus or they did not pay attention. The reason behind this was not observed in the response.
  • They had weak language proficiency (English teachers) and therefore could not teach English in schools properly.
  • The faculty members confessed that the Internal Supervisors were not honest in supervision. This shows the lack of sincerity on the part of the teachers.
  • Lack of uniformity among the internal supervisors was a major issue. They say that the supervisors did not give uniform instruction/suggestions to the student teachers which created several problems.
  • Large number of students in teacher training course was another big challenge. Due to this reason the student teachers could not practice the skills in the classrooms.
  • One supervisor had to observe many student teachers in schools located in different places and at the same time the teachers had to teach in the campus as well.
  • Student teachers did not take teaching practice seriously and they took it as a formality and they had a tendency of giving undue pressure to the teachers for giving more marks in their external supervision.
  • On campus teaching (micro-teaching) was not effective as this was also considered by the teachers as a formality.
  • Courses were not taught practically in the campus and the students did not practise the skills in the training situation.
  • Very little or no incentives for the internal supervisors which was also a major contributing factor for the frequency of supervision.
  • Halo effect in the evaluation was also mentioned. The students felt that obtaining marks in teaching practice is a mercy of the internal and external supervisors.

The students brought the following issues and challenges in the forefront:

  • Teaching practice had been used not as a learning experience but as a formality
  • The ideas they learn in the training classrooms were fantastic which are not implementational  in the real classrooms
  • Many students said that the internal supervisors did not supervise properly; they just sat in the class and disappeared after few minutes without giving any comments or feedback.
  • The internal supervisors just criticised what went wrong; they rarely encouraged how the students could build on their strengths.
  • School head-teachers/teachers did not treat the student teachers as they were practising teachers but they behaved them as if they came to schools just to pass their time.
  • Campus teaching was more of theoretical not practical.
  • Lack of enough incentives to the internal supervisors was also mentioned by the students.
  • The schools used the student teachers as the extra teachers and asked them to teach any class which is vacant.
  • Lack of good co-ordination between the schools and campuses made it difficult to handle the situation easily.
  • Schools were not very much co-operative to the student teachers.
  • Lack of classroom management skills in student teachers was yet another issue. Students said that they were not taught in the campus courses.
  • Fixed sitting arrangement in the class did not allow the movements in the class. Thus the teaching did not become student centred.
  • They also accepted that there was a great deal of carelessness among the student teachers.
  • Another serious problem they pointed out was that the Internal supervisors were biased.

Some suggestions for improvement:

Teachers’ Responses:

  • Rigorous training should be given to the student teachers in lesson plan preparation before they go to schools.
  • Uniform lesson plan formats be designed subject-wise and it should be practised well beforehand.
  • Internal supervisors should sincerely and honestly observe the assigned student teachers.
  • Remuneration of the internal supervisor should be reasonable and should be timely paid.
  • Orientation of the internal supervisors should be organised before the practice teaching and proper monitoring of the internal supervision has to be done.
  • Each internal supervisor should be assigned maximum 5 student teachers, if possible all in the same school.
  • Practical courses are to be taught practically.
  • Orientation to the school head-teachers and subject teachers should be held.
  • Refresher training/seminar on practice teaching for the internal supervisors should be organised.
  • Good leadership is ensured to handle this practice teaching business.
  • The campus teacher training should be made student centred as much as possible.

Students’ Responses:

  • Some financial support should be provided for student teachers for materials preparation.
  • Internal supervision has to be made more frequent and it should be made very effective.
  • Full class should be observed and enough feedback should be given to the student teachers by the internal supervisors.
  • Incentives should be made attractive for the internal supervisors.
  • On campus teaching practices should be made meaningful.
  • The government should provide teaching materials to schools so that the teachers in the respective schools also use them in the class so as not to make teaching practice artificial.
  • Demonstration teaching by the trainers could give the student teachers enough idea of how classes are to be carried out.
  • Language improvement course for the English student teachers to improve their own English.
  • Everyone should take this as a serious matter and everyone should sincerely do what they are supposed to do.
  • The evaluation should be done with jointly by internal supervisor and external examiner.
  • Systematic planning has to be made before sending the student teachers to the schools.
  • Harmonious relation between the campus and schools should be established; through orientation to the head teachers and respective teachers.
  • Course in the campus have to be taught practically.
  • Halo effect has to be avoided.
  • Student teachers have to be creative enough in the schools.

Conclusion:

My intention is NOT to put the gloomy picture of the practice teaching but to see it as it is observed by its key stakeholders and draw some implications in our teacher training system. I would like to request the readers to have their thoughts in this issue so that we can initiate some reform in this important area of teacher training. My  purpose is to make teaching practice MEANINGFUL and a RICH LEARNING EXPERIENCE.

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