From the very first issue of NeltaChoutari, we have been emphasizing that we as English teachers in Nepal are not only consuming knowledge and skills, we are also committed to produce teaching and training resources that are appropriate for our local contexts. We have also been arguing that in this fluidly changing global world, we cannot create a demarcation between global vs. local or national vs. international because we are connected to the global world via several mediums of information and communication. In such a changing global-local context, we can also see what is going around the world, what pedagogic practices have been successful or challenging and whether we can ‘appropriate’ them according to our own context. Similarly, if we produce some innovative or useful teaching practice or tips from our unique classroom context, we can share that with a larger audience both within and outside the nation.
As has already been explained in the main page of this Choutari issue, one of the goals of “NeltaNetworking” mission is to collect, build and develop ELT resources that are useful to our local context. The NeltaNetworking will be devoted to assemble resources that are useful to the English teachers in Nepal, provide links information of useful applied linguistics and English pedagogy websites, organizations, academic journals and blogs, and also encourage the Nepalese teachers to create, upload and share their teaching resources to a larger audience. This will largely be done via NELTA’s website and NeltaChoutari blog’s pages.
As an initiation to provide links to resources to our university researchers and ELT practitioners, I have created a separate page on the NeltaChoutari’s homepage. Please click the link (http://neltachoutari.wordpress.com/downloads-and-links/), find the resources and enjoy the premium access.
And please remember to leave a comment on this post, telling us what kinds of resources would be most useful for you (as well as what resources you know of). Thank you.
I agree with you Balkrishna that global/ local, national/ international dichotomies are replaced by the now sometimes confusingly interactive relationship between the former rivals and antitheses; and certainly “global network of information and communication” has significantly impacted this development. To add to what you have said, before ‘appropriating’, any foreign (of course this word foreign can be challenged according to our new premise of boundary less world) ideas, we need to identify what are the pedagogical goals of a certain country or region. For instance, Chinese education goals may still markedly differ from European and American and so on. We need to prioritize certain goals, perhaps contingent, to be able to participate in, share with and borrow from or lend our ideas to, the other pedagogical models. Briefly, I am interested in discussing what our goals can be, since these goals guide us towards our pedagogical framework. Such identification helps us to be able to see “what pedagogic practices have been successful or challenging and whether we can ‘appropriate’ them according to our own context.”
Yes, Dhruba, that’s one of the important points. I certainly agree that we need to find out ‘goals’ of language teaching, and set priorities to address the local needs. The points I have been reiterating are: doing and documenting situated research, need analysis of our teaching programs, reflecting on our practices as languages teachers, and sharing that with a larger audience through professional networkings and platforms.