Editorial 

Needless to mention, sharing the practitioners’ views on various issues related to particularly English Language Teaching (ELT), and language and education in general is part and parcel of publishing Choutari with a view to trigger further discussion inviting our audience to join the conversation every month. Once again, we have come up with another set of ELT khurak for April issue.

The April Issue deals with different areas of  ELT that covers author identity in academic writing and research, grammar, authentic source for language teaching, spoken English, medium of instruction and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). 

Author identity in academic writing and research among others has remained an everlasting issue that the trainers, mentors, and ELT practitioners have brought into the forefront in our context since very long ago. Acknowledging the authors and researchers is a well agreed intellectual honesty that everyone who makes use of them should consider wisely. But the well accepted referencing systems throughout the world have still left space for the argument on whether the systems we are following have honestly respected author identity. Especially, abbreviating the initial and the middle names of the authors and researchers in the reference list alone has raised the issue in the academia to the discussion. Emerging authors and researchers do not have to mention the initial and the middle names of the authors in the text during in-text citation, especially in American Psychological Association (APA) for example. When abbreviating publisher’s names is discouraged, how does it seem plausible to abbreviate the initial and the middle names of the authors has haunted the authors, researchers and potential audiences. Those standing for the argument opine that, abbreviated initial and middle names of the original authors may lead to many other names except the authors. It not genuinely addresses author identity, nor does it keep the honest readers at comfortable zone to identify the true authors.

Similarly, English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) that has been raised as an issue of discussion has evoked a couple of questions in front of teachers, trainers, instructors, and education analysts. In the context of problematic situation of teaching English language itself in English medium, how it can help learners to achieve the desired learning outcomes when the medium of instruction alone is shifted from learners’ mother tongue to the international language- English. Learners may understand the content better through their own mother tongues rather than from English medium, the so called driving tool for quality education. If the cognition of the subject matter itself cannot be assured by any other language medium as much as by the learners’ mother tongue why the government and NCED have started for this venture, has not made the issue crystal clear. Further, the English medium private schools nearby may have been densely populated and government aided public schools thinly populated in terms of number of students not only because of the medium of instruction alone but also by administrative chain of command and professional loyalty, punctuality, and effort of the teachers. Parents also visit the English medium private schools frequently because they have to pay a large amount of fee every month but many of them do not visit even twice an academic year because they do not feel it compulsory. Government aided schools should own the confidentiality of the parents in child caring and safety needs, their disciplinary needs, punctuality, and regular classes.

Here is the list of blog posts we have included for April issue;

1. Sharing Experiences Enhances Teaching and learning: An Interview with Bishnu Hari Timilsina
2. Call for Respecting Author Identity in Academic Writing and Research, by Binod Luitel
3. Is Grammar a Liberating Force or an Obstacle for Communication?, by Ramesh Prasad Ghimire
4. Literary Texts: Authentic Resources for English Language Learning, by Resham Bahadur Bist
5. English Medium Education: Hearsay and Reality, by Bishnu Kumar Khadka
6. Spoken English: Challenge for college students and graduates, by Durga Bahadur Pun
7. A teacher’s Anecdote, by Chandra Acharya
8. Attending an Online Course: My Experience, by Rajan Kumar Kandel

Finally, I would like to urge our valued readers and contributors to join the conversation through comments on the blog entries and sharing on social media (facebook, twitter, etc.).

Happy readings!