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Facilitating School Children at Post Earthquake Classroom

June 1, 2015EducationInEmergency#NepalEarthquake2015admin

I had to deal with small kids and it was comparatively easy in some ways. I played the music, gave them sports equipment, asked them to sing and tell jokes. They enjoyed, and did not make any mention of earthquakes meanwhile. So, that’s all we focused in initial days of school reopening. It diverted the minds of the students who cried while coming to school, and had smiles on their faces while returning back home. Slowly the number of students coming school started to increase.

Earthquakes and their effects

Earthquakes are movements of the earth’s surface, often as a result of a fault or fracture in the crust that can be violent enough to destroy major buildings and kill thousands of people. The severity of the shaking can range from barely felt to violent enough to toss people around. They happen more often in some parts of the world than others.

Literally, earthquakes and its devastating effects on the people is very complicated. Most people are affected by it and fear it yet there are few who are not at all sacred. The recent earthquake in Nepal has also killed thousands of people, and has resulted in psychological effects on people- perhaps more on children. If we consider the children of the age group (5-8), they also have different thoughts towards earthquakes. They actually do not know what exactly earthquake is and what all differences does it bring to one’s life. Therefore, they are more likely to make false assumptions and eventually bring more fear in themselves.

What I experienced in my classroom

Being a teacher of this age group, I was initially much tensed how I would be handling the students after this massive earthquake and how I was going to deal with my students. At the same time, I was curious as what all questions my students might raise to me. This had triggered a lot of interrogations in my head, and, as a result, I prepared a set of answers to the possible questions in my mind if I was asked. But to my surprise, my students didn’t even raise a single question. On the contrary, they were very much pleased and happy to meet their friends and teachers after a long gap. They had pleasing smiles on their faces. Yet, there were few who wear crying and scared when their parents dropped them to the school. It might have happened because of two reasons, either reporting to the school after a long time, or they had an awful experience during earthquakes. Generic assumptions can therefore not be made about the way children may respond to such disasters. It is very much individual situations. This has suggested me exploring and understanding each child in my classroom that is very challenging, but demanding.

Parents, in addition, can play a significant part in handling kids especially after such calamities. If parents keep themselves calm and strong- with shaken heart however- and handle situation wisely then children can also act accordingly. The stronger the parents are the more mentally stronger children become. Eventually because of those parents who handled their kids wisely we, teachers, didn’t face much difficulty in dealing with the children.

Yes- nevertheless, there are few children who are badly traumatized. The aftershocks, cracks in the wall, rumbling noises, destroyed buildings, smell of fire and smoke, the places where they experienced the earthquakes, seeing people with disabilities, funerals can get them traumatized again. These kind of students can be given time for counselling from the ones they get along with, from the ones they feel comfortable to talk to or love spending time with or the ones who can be a better counsellor.

While conversing with my students, I asked them a simple question what an earthquake is. One of them simply answered that moving of the ground is an earthquake, during which buildings come down, people die, we live outside our home, etc. Then, I asked a next question, “What should we do when an earthquake takes place? Almost everyone answered this question since they had been told by their parents about the earthquake and what one is meant to do while it occurs. This is an example of children from the capital city where the majority of parents are well educated. However, I would wonder this might be a different case in remote locations where parents are themselves not aware of the all these ideas. It would therefore require different concerned agencies to look at this issue.

What the school planned

Before the school actually started, we were called for a meeting where we discussed what we intended to do as far as classroom activities were concerned in terms of abating children’s fear and bring them to normal learning environment. We also focused on safety measures in order to keep the students outside on the ground level to avoid any accidents in case of any aftershocks. We were advised not to talk about earthquakes and not to ask experiences of students what they had. This was thought for building positive environment it, therefore children can get out of the trauma.

I had to deal with small kids and it was comparatively easy in some ways. I played the music, gave them sports equipment, asked them to sing and tell jokes. They enjoyed, and did not make any mention of earthquakes meanwhile. So, that’s all we focused in initial days of school reopening. It diverted the minds of the students who cried while coming to school, and had smiles on their faces while returning back home. Slowly the number of students coming school started to increase.

Conclusion

Finally, resuming the school after the earthquake was a very good decision; it was boon for the student as well as parents. We should, by no means, shop children from learning. We should rather create opportunities to continue learning even in emergencies, as stated, however with precautions. It was difficult for the parents to leave their kids at school but when they saw the children’s happy faces at home time, they thought of sending them to school is a wise decision. It is still challenging, but we are strong and careful for our lovely kids.

—
The author, a graduate in Business Studies, teaches in Ideal Model Higher Secondary School, Kathmandu.

Teacher’s Anecdote: Teaching Children at Post Earthquake Situation

June 1, 2015EducationInEmergency#NepalEarthquake2015admin

We tried our best to convince the students to share their personal experiences with us. We teachers involved in group activities and students stayed as audience. Some of us shared our bitter realities of the existing world such as moral disaster, earthquake, landslide, flood and their effects, the rest of the teachers shared our morality. We shared them that the earthquake treats millionaire and the beggar equally and they are on the equal status at the disaster. Hence, we told them to love people and feel pride to be a human being. We also made them aware of what should be done if the disaster re-occurs.

Chetan-Kumar-Timilsena — Chetan Kumar Timilsena

Following the devastating earthquake, it is challenging to resume schools and continue usual teaching in the affected areas like Kathmandu. People who survived in the earthquake feel that they have been granted with their rebirth. The recent earthquake has made thousands of people homeless, and they lost their family and relatives and properties. Thousands of public and private schools were collapsed and damaged. A large number of children became orphans, homeless and also schoolless. The earthquake has brought not only disastrous effects, but it also created many opportunities for us to rebuild better and quake resilient Nepal. We teachers, students, and concerned people have to actively involve in rebuilding process.

The school I teach ‘Shree Ratna Rajya Higher Secondary School, located at Mid-Baneshwor’, one of large public schools of Kathmandu valley has been heavily damaged in the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. Consequently, teaching students in the damage structure has been unsafe. However, the meeting of school management committee held on May 24 decided to follow the decisions of the government of Nepal and Ministry of Education. Thereafter, another meeting of the teachers and staff that was held immediately on May 26, discussed on different issues in terms of reopening the schools and continuing teaching. Following the meeting, some teachers of the school attended workshop on counseling classes for school children jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and the District Education Office, Kathmandu. Then, the teachers and staffs again held discussions on how to deal the quake affected students at post earthquake situation.

Finally, around one month and a half, schools were resumed from May 31. However, many challenges before us included how to start the classes, how to manage the classrooms, how to get rid of fear of the students, how to deal with the psychological aspects of the students, and so on. Both the teachers and the students seemed to be in a dilemma. They both were still in psychological trauma of the earthquake and aftershocks. Despite challenges, it was important for the teachers to seek solutions and strengthen themselves for continuing their daily routines. I planned to deal with the students by sharing some of my experiences and creating some fun and friendly situations. For this, I planned the activities as my habitual actions.

The first day, the school seemed to be a junction. Students were present in the school with their guardians. The teachers were in a dilemma, what to do in that situation, and how to deal with the students. The temporary classroom building process was continued. There were not enough classrooms to manage the students. There was a silence, but the crowd. I was feeling that the place and the situation was for meditation. One big building with 27 rooms had already cracked so that red sticker was placed in it. It was quite challenging job to manage all the classes from nursery to higher secondary level.

After a long silence and confusion, as an icebreaker, our teacher staffs were engaged in placing the students. First, we started from staff rooms. We placed all the chairs and tables of two rooms. Then we separated one class to one room by merging each four sections of each class. Out of 1500 students almost 400 students were present that day. We encouraged the students to share their experiences about the mega earthquake. At the very moment, almost all the students were so sad that they were not from the fear of such a natural disaster. Some of the students were not interested to share their panic experiences. Fortunately, we had no bad news of our school family. There was again a silence. To break the silence, we teachers shared our feelings and experiences with some motivating ideas. I also shared some of my experiences during rescue and relief process. I had involved in rescuing people in different places of Kathmandu valley such as at Madhyapur Thimi, Bhimsen tower, Gongabu bus park area, etc. After we shared our experiences, the students started sharing their experiences. The reason behind it could be the similarity between teacher and students’ experiences. However, they were sad that they were about to cry frequently.

We did not teach the students’ course books and nor did we talk about them. But we engaged the students in different activities such as telling stories, jokes, reciting poems, singing songs and different games. They were happier after these activities. We also conducted group teachings. Students were happier that multiple teachers were teaching in the same class at the same time. We ended our classes at 1 PM. Then, we had a staff meeting. We shared our experiences. We had a discussion on how to deal with the students the next day in such a panic situation. We decided to take classes with games and jokes being optimistic.

Second day, one of our main focuses was music. It was played for 10/12 minutes before school assembly. Some students added in the classes. The students were happier than the first day. Newcomers, after getting enrollment, were increasing. We involved the students not only in sharing their experiences, but we had asked them to write about it in a few sentences. We divided the classes into different groups engaged them in group activities. Newcomers, from the other different public and private schools, were more active than those of the same schools. That day, we could manage two/two sections to each classroom. We could also manage other classrooms. The lower classes were taught as a Multigrade teaching. The tents were hung so that we could manage Nursery, KG and class one together. We sat together with the students and involved in different group work activities which gave us much satisfaction and pleasure. That day, we found that the students were happier than the day before. With better preparation, we took classes with new ideas and experiences about how to face unforeseen problems. We also encouraged the students to share their new ideas and experiences; we encouraged them to participate in a game with much more entertainment.

We tried our best to convince the students to share their personal experiences with us. We teachers involved in group activities and students stayed as audience. Some of us shared our bitter realities of the existing world such as moral disaster, earthquake, landslide, flood and their effects, the rest of the teachers shared our morality. We shared them that the earthquake treats millionaire and the beggar equally and they are on the equal status at the disaster. Hence, we told them to love people and feel pride to be a human being. We also made them aware of what should be done if the disaster re-occurs.

We needed to know our students personally as they were traumatized by the disaster. We tried our best to know psychological effects on students and treat them accordingly as we found some students were still not feeling safe and comfortable. We involved them in personal counseling. As a positive response, upper classes, especially class 8, 9 and 10 were curious about their new courses in the very beginning of the academic session. We ended our classes at 2 pm. We had also a staff meeting that day. After sharing the new experiences, we discussed about new ideas regarding how to prepare students in the teaching-learning process psychologically. We did not have enough space to have school assembly and morning prayer. The temporary classrooms covered the ground. Then we made a decision to give short break time thrice, a 10 minute break after 2 each period. The long break was cut off then. We also decided to run class routine wise next day. However, teachers should have to teach with their own plans indirectly based on the curriculum.

The third day was happier and much more comfortable than the previous two classes. Most students were in a happy mood. We took classes routine wise. I had better planning and preparation about how to deal with the students in English language teaching practices. I had already planned to teach strip story. Therefore, I prepared the strips of papers and wrote something that needs to be done in the classroom. The class started with the national anthem and Morning Prayer. The school administration had better preparation for managing the classrooms. I had two classrooms when our sections were merged into two. Therefore, we two teachers took the 1st period. First, we started the class with a language game based on yes/no question. Then we engaged them in learning strip story. The activity was continued until the period ended.

Finally, I would like to conclude this blog entry sharing effects on school children following the earthquake and some suggestions to overcome the effects. Negative effects on school children include loss of concentration power, short sleep, fear of different objects, frequent change of mood, headache, lack of interests in sharing anything and studies, anger and short temperedness and feeling of loneliness. Likewise, following the earthquake, children have developed sense of help and cooperation with each other, curiosity to know about the natural calamities, awareness of the environment, natural disaster and its effects in daily lives, and frankly sharing their experiences.

We can help and facilitate the quake affected children in the following ways based on what we practiced at our school. I personally believe that these activities can play significant roles in healing the pain of the students affected by the earthquake.

Proper psycho-social counseling and motivation classes should be provided at a regular basis.
Teacher talking time should be short and simple while dealing with the problems.
Teachers should play the role of a good listener. A good listener can be a good counselor.
More demonstrative and participative activities should be prepared.
Encouragement to every classroom activities should be provided to the students.
Share real life experiences and contextualize it so that students can better learn the behavioural aspects.
Temporary classrooms should be managed as far as possible.

—-

The author teaches in Shree Ratna Rajya H. S. School, situated at Baneshwor, Kathmandu.

Rethinking our pedagogy in the aftermath of disaster

June 1, 2015EducationInEmergency#NepalEarthquake2015, art, contextual, creative, disaster, education, pedagogy, safety, therapy, TLCadmin

The monstrous earthquake has taught us many lessons and one of them could be to incorporate disaster education in our curriculum. However, instant revision of the curriculum may not be practical and possible. Therefore, teachers need to bring adjustment of the disaster in the existing content. In this emergency situation, we cannot expect our practices in a structured way. Therefore, we need to make adjustment in teaching methods and techniques too. We may not have sufficient classrooms and materials. In that context, we can go for multi-grade teaching.

The recent earthquake in Nepal has claimed over 8,500 lives and caused damage of infrastructures and properties worth billions. It has brought effects in different aspects of our lives i.e. physical aspect, psychological aspect and socio-economical aspect. The education sector could not remain apart from it. Educational institutions remained closed for more than one month. In 44 quake-affected districts, 5,429 schools, 14,752 classrooms, 1,809 toilets and 1,058 drinking water facilities have been damaged badly, shows the data updated by the Department of Education (DoE) till May 11. The final statistics is yet to arrive and authorities expect the figures to go up. The disaster has directly or indirectly affected the lives of many students and teachers. Our teaching learning environment has been completely disturbed. Students are psychologically disturbed and hence not ready to learn.

In this backdrop, it is very challenging to resume our educational institutions. However, we should not continue to close them. One of the best ways to handle this traumatic situation for the students is to resume schools and help them to cope with the existing psycho-social disturbances and provide education in emergencies.

We are now in the post disaster situation, and it is obvious that it may take several years to recover the loss. Now we need to focus to bring the situation under normalcy with our resources and capacities of availability. As the school buildings have been destroyed and damaged, we can start teaching the students at our Temporary Learning Center (TLC). After we set up TLC, we need to adjust our content and methods to teach the quake affected children.

The monstrous earthquake has taught us many lessons and one of them could be to incorporate disaster education in our curriculum. However, instant revision of the curriculum may not be practical and possible. Therefore, teachers need to bring adjustment of the disaster in the existing content. In this emergency situation, we cannot expect our practices in a structured way. Therefore, we need to make adjustment in teaching methods and techniques too. We may not have sufficient classrooms and materials. In that context, we can go for multigrade teaching.

Similarly, we can use thematic approach in our classroom. Earthquake can be a theme to teach multiple subjects like science, social, language, mathematics and so on. In the same way, we can maximize the use of co-curricular activities like quiz contest, debates, oratory, poetry, essays, drawing and paintings, music, games etc. linking with the curricular objectives. Curriculum is a compass for teachers. Based on the objectives of the curriculum, teachers can design any activities relevant to the present situation. It is not the time only to stick to the contents of the textbooks. Textbooks should not be considered as holy books or crutch. We can make necessary adjustment in them. We can assign pair work and teamwork now, which can promote teamwork in students. Project works and presentation can be assigned. Similarly, plays, panel discussion, interaction, debates can be organized to promote disaster education.

The disaster has led the usual life to unusual. Our day-to-day lifestyle has been changed. Students are compelled to live under tarps/tents. Living in such shelters has been challenging for them and they may be vulnerable to disease, risk and insecurity. Therefore, it is equally important to provide education on safety, security and sanitation as well. Instead of focusing on the existing contents, we, the teachers, need to stretch out the contents to relevant and practical in the post disaster context.

In the context of Nepal, disasters such as earthquake, flood, landslides, lightning and fire, are usual natural calamities. We cannot prevent them but we can take precautions to save our lives. Hence, our children should be given education about the precautions and preventive measures for escaping from the disasters. Preparedness, rescue, relief and rehabilitation before, during and after the disasters should be introduced in the curriculum, that can be useful for the children to save their lives. Such contents can be including in ELT as well. Language is said to be taught contextually and the contents related to the disaster can fantastically create context to use and practice language in classroom. These contents basically serve two functions: they help us to create context to use and practice language and the content knowledge itself is relevant and useful for our students.

Our teaching learning practices need to be flexible in this scenario. We should not have high expectations from students. As we are in the transition, we need to focus on the activities that can heal trauma of students. Therapists suggest using Creative Expression Therapy (CET) in our classroom in order to manage post traumatic stress in students. The CET uses creative process of making art as a safe way to represent the inner experiences and pain of the traumatized people, which helps to develop awareness and support personal change. It is not necessary to be a therapist to use this technique in our classroom. We can use different activities like painting, drawing, poetry, songs/rhymes, music, stories, role plays, plays etc in our classrooms in order to help students express creatively. Students freely choose any category they like and express their feeling, experiences and pain through these activities.

To conclude, our efforts to give continuity to teach students by conducting classes even in temporary shelters can help them cope with difficulties and stress, and speed up the process of the recovery from trauma. Our curriculum should include disaster education to prepare and prevent from natural disasters. On the other hand, we need to rethink and revise our educational methods and practices to address the issues related to disaster.

—

The author is a teacher trainer of English with REED Nepal, and one of the Choutari editors.

Welcome to April Issue of Choutari

April 1, 2015Editorialadmin

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;

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

Wish you a very Happy New Year 2072 in advance !

Happy readings!

Sharing Experiences Enhances Teaching and Learning: Bishnu Hari Timilsina

April 1, 2015Interviewadmin

Nepalese ELT field has owned many dedicated trainers, supervisors, and teachers helping hundreds of thousands of students, growing professionally and helping others grow professionally. They have been serving the nation by teaching English and contributing through the institutions they have been involved in.

Associate Professor, TU Prithvi Narayan Campus Pokhara — Associate Professor, TU
Prithvi Narayan Campus Pokhara

One of such personalities is Mr. Bishnu Hari Timilsina, Associate Professor of English Education at Prithvi Narayan Campus Pokhara, a constituent campus of Tribhuvan University. He has been teaching English for more than three and a half decades. He also served as Secondary School Supervisor for about seven years before he began his teaching career at the university. Rajan Kumar Kandel, Choutari editor and coordinator for April Issue had an interview with him regarding his professional journey and experiences in the field of ELT.

Please go through the interview and leave comments on the issues raised. Your words may provide a sense of gratitude to the dedicated teachers who have devoted their whole lives in the field of English language teaching and encourage the novice and potential professionals.

Rajan: Welcome to the April issue of ELT Choutari, Sir! First of all, I would like to ask you to highlight your ELT journey and your experiences of teaching English from school to college level.

Mr. Timilsina: Thank you Rajan Jee and the Choutari team for inviting me to the interview of ELT Choutari to share my experiences in EFL classroom. I am very happy to express my ideas through your popular web magazine. I taught in secondary schools for about 15 years and I have been teaching in campus level for more than 20 years.

You are the founding Chair of NELTA Surkhet and could you please share with us about your recent involvement with NELTA and such other ELT related professional organizations?

Yes, I was the founding chair of NELTA Surkhet in 1996. We tried our best to organize English teachers of Surkhet and develop them professionally during our tenure. I’m the Life Member of NELTA, and involved in NELTA activities here in Pokhara. I’m not holding any leading role of NELTA recently.

How do you evaluate the condition of English language teaching in Nepal now and then?

Now, the ELT situation has improved in Nepal. New approaches, methods, and techniques of language teaching have been developed and practiced. We can see its reflection in Nepalese ELT as well. As a whole, it is not frustrating though we have to improve many things.

Do you think that teaching and learning English are still not encouraged very much in Nepal?

No. I don’t think so. However, there are places in Nepal where learners are not getting enough opportunities. Most of the schools in Nepal are still not informed of the new teaching methods because of many problems. They are not equipped with ELT resources including sufficient and trained English teachers. The situation should be improved.

How could an experienced English teacher contribute empowering novice ELT practitioners throughout the country?

Obviously, experienced English teachers can contribute empowering novice ELT practitioners by bringing them into exposure through such professional networks. We can do it by integrative and intrinsic motivation and strategic investment to the novice learners. We can just show them to the vast storehouse of knowledge for professional development. They do rest of the things themselves.

Choutari team has used approaches, platforms, and talents of its members and ELT experts in pursuing professional development of ELT practitioners. Do you think such volunteer initiatives can contribute cooperative learning and sharing among ELT professionals?

Sure. Volunteer initiatives can contribute professional development and cooperative learning. We can share experiences and enhance our teaching and learning with the help of such platforms. ELT Choutari has contributed a lot to its readers to search the sources of knowledge and get acquainted with the activities, studies, and practices of the practitioners in the field.

What would you like to tell the readers of Choutari about how they can support this or similar volunteer initiative to develop oneself and let others develop professionally?

I think the learners should be active to develop their professionalism. They should initiate their journey of learning themselves. If we are doing something new, we should know what the other people are doing/saying on it. In this regard, Choutari can be a good platform on it.

Which Choutari article or interview that you have read in the past six years did you like most and why?

I like most of them as they had many interesting ideas and experiences. Mostly, I like those that have explored the current issues of ELT. So, I cannot be very much specific to select one or two. Many of them are useful to the ELT practitioners.

Please suggest any areas of professional conversation that Choutari is yet to pay attention to.

In spite of the fact that it is difficult to prepare a matter that fits to all, we can provide creative, learners friendly and academic subject matter in it. Choutari can also include the materials that are equally helpful to the teachers teaching the beginners as well as the advanced learners.

Finally, would you like to convey any message to Choutari readers?

Teaching and learning are give and take processes. So, give your experiences to Choutari and take some from it. Sharing experiences enhances both teaching and learning. Sharing is important in the field of English language teaching too. Platforms like Choutari can also be used for building rapport among the ELT practitioners experienced and novice, and home and abroad. It can build a professional network.

Call for Respecting Author Identity in Academic Writing and Research

April 1, 2015Writingadmin

Dr. Binod Luitel Associate Professor, CERID, TU — **Dr. Binod Luitel**
Associate Professor, CERID, TU

It has been well experienced that academic writers can rarely be “self-dependent” in discussing or explaining ideas in the course of developing some thesis in any field of inquiry. Instead, ideas or insights are generated and developed by making reference to the works (including research finding, theoretical proposition, or any sort of written description, etc.) of previous authors. In this connection, one can summarize the points stated by the previous author and carry out critical analysis, synthesize the propositions of some authors, identify the lacking/gaps therein, and then refine the proposition/s by adding new insights. Or, one can even come out with a different perspective to look into the existing phenomena so that new propositions are established.

While doing so, acknowledging the previously done works and the respective authors who had contributed therein is one of the common minimum academic cultures that everybody should maintain in doing research as well as writing academic papers. Accordingly, this tradition has been established in the world more or less everywhere – for academic as well as professional practices in universities and publication houses.

However, some differences are found in the style of reference citation in the written text and the way of writing the authors’ names in the reference list that is usually placed at the end of the text. In this post, I am particularly raising the issue of crisis in author identity that has been created as a consequence of a particular ‘style’ of work listing in the ‘reference’ section of academic papers, research articles, books and dissertations.

When someone writes and publishes any material with his/her name, we need to understand that the very name that appears in the paper is his/her identity. Needless to say, the author has the willingness to be identified publicly with the name as appeared in the print; and it is a matter of honesty on the part of the subsequent writer/s to regard the previous authors by their respective names and surnames without any sort of intention to misinform the readers and without causing injustice against the author to the extent of losing his/her identity.

In this connection, I would like to draw the attention of the respected audience towards a question which should be considered a genuine one in the academic world, which is: How can the authors’ identity be properly respected while recording their works in the subsequent academic writings (when the previously produced source is consulted for reference purpose)? We must answer this question before deciding the style of making a list of works cited in the text, because some of the formats that are in widespread use in the ‘academic market’ have not been able to do justice in favour of authors as regards their identity.

Usually, the key information about any work to be listed in the ‘Reference’ section of a research paper includes: author, year of publication, work title (book, article, journal, dissertation, or any other document), the place of publication and publisher. We can be in a very comfortable position to say that there should not be a problem in any of the styles followed in making the reference list if the list contains these key things in the entry. Despite this, it would be relevant to raise serious reservations regarding the ‘style’ which deliberately reduces (and thus disregards or even undermines) the identity of previous authors by ‘abbreviating’ their first (and middle) names – which is an unwanted action for the original authors, and even objectionable from the point of view of their identity.

In the past, when I prepared academic articles, my reference list had duly honoured the authors whose works were cited in the text by entering the words carrying their identity as appeared in the respective sources (i.e. full names and surnames if the author mentioned so, and ‘abbreviated’ names only if the source itself contained the author’s identity like that). After the articles were submitted for publication in different forums (journals in particular), many of them have been published without reducing the previous authors’ identity. But, in some of them, the editorial team has taken the ‘action’ of identity reduction by abbreviating the initial and middle names – in the name of following the APA format and maintaining uniformity in the style of all writers in the journal.

A reference entry of this kind, in addition to doing injustice against the identity of authors discussed above, has also caused confusion among the mass of readers in properly recognizing the author. For instance, when someone quotes a sentence or phrase from an article written by Ram Ashish Giri and writes ‘Giri, R. A.’ in the reference entry, there is no point to ensure that his/her readers will, without confusion, understand that ‘R. A.’ stands for ‘Ram Ashish’! Instead, ‘R. A.’ can be understood by readers as any name beginning with R and A in the case of the first and middle names respectively (e.g. Raj Ashish, Ram Anish, Raj Avatar, and so on). Such a style, in this way, has not only reduced the authors’ identity but also misguided the readers more or less intentionally.

Interestingly, although such a style (which is in widespread use) does not allow the authors’ full recognition in the reference list; it has clearly instructed the writers to mention the complete name of the publisher. In this connection, the attempt of giving full recognition to the publisher should be well appreciated, but there is no point in disallowing authors’ full recognition. And, there can be no reason why authors’ identity should always be hidden on one hand and the curious readers should be left in confusion on the other!

The essence underlying the discussion so far is that we must have author acknowledging and reader friendly attitude; otherwise we cannot create an encouraging environment for academic and professional prosperity, growth and development. In absence of the willingness to make correction in style (with the aim of preserving author identity), the culture of intellectual exploitation can sustain forever under the banner of academic works such as publication and research. The academia throughout the globe needs to be aware of such a practice – which is not simply a matter of style but essentially a sort of academic offence against intellectuals. Steps need to be taken towards stopping such wrong practices so that the environment of academic honour can prosper towards right direction.

Is Grammar a Liberating Force or an Obstacle for Communication?

April 1, 2015Critical Thinking, Teacher's Experience/anecdotesadmin

Instructor of English Educational Training Center, Surkhet — **Ramesh Prasad Ghimire** Instructor of English,
Educational Training Center, Surkhet

Initiation

In recent years some government schools of Nepal are slowly moving towards English medium instruction (EMI). Some schools have started teaching all the subjects except Nepali in English. This is happening mainly at primary level (grade 1 to 5). National Center for Educational Development (NCED) has made a decision to provide training for the school teachers who are interested in using English as a medium of instruction. NCED has made MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with British Council (BC) for conduction training for the school teachers.

The project has been given a name National Initiative to Improve Teaching in English (NIITE). It is a three years project. The project focuses on training the primary level teachers (grade 1 to 5) but the main focus of the training according to Jovan Illic, the head of Programmes at British Council, is on the teachers who are teaching in grade three, four and five.

The target area of the project is all the seventy five districts of Nepal. However, the three districts of Nepal Surkhet, Nawalparasi, and Jhapa have been selected as the piloting district for conducting training for this year. These districts have been selected as piloting districts because the demand of the teachers was high from these districts. In the first year, it is aimed at training 7000 primary level teachers.

My experience

As an English trainer, I was always worried about our primary level teachers’ English. Last year I conducted EMI training in ETC Surkhet for 50 primary level teachers. Most of the teachers’ English proficiency was very poor and my focus was on improving their English rather than equipping them with some skills and teaching techniques. I was so worried about their English. I was thinking how they could conduct English medium classes without having some proficiency in English. I even carried out an action research focusing on developing their English proficiency. I was not free from my worry throughout the year. This year too I have to train 150 primary level teachers in Educational Training Center (ETC), Surkhet. The tormenting question that strikes me all the time is “How can a teacher teach in English without being able to use some English for general communication?”. And I hope majority of the teachers who are using English as a medium of instruction at the basic level might be worried about their own language ability.

Fortunately, I attained EMI training this year. It was master training of trainers (MTOT) jointly organized by NCED and BC in Nepalgunj from 14 to 18 March. One of the key message that I got from the training is grammar is not a thing to be worried about in communication. Grammar is, in fact, not a liberating force but an obstacle in effective communication. If you know nouns and verbs you can communicate. For example, if you are thirsty and want to drink water, you can say “Give water.” instead of “Can I have a glass of water, please?” I already had got this idea in University but it was, I think, in my subconscious level of mind.

Some of you may be worried about grammar especially with written English. But one thing that we should not forget here is that in EMI classes, grammar is less important than fluency and communication of meaning. If you are able to communicate your intended message to your reader or listener then your language is okay even if it is grammatically incorrect. Grammar develops itself in course of time if language is used for communication. This is the key of current communicative approaches to language teaching as well. If you look at how children learn their first language, you will find that they use single word or simply two words for communication and their message is perfectly intelligible for the adults. Their grammatical system develops much later in life. But it is important to have a good store of vocabulary. The lexical approach to language teaching also focuses on the prime role of vocabulary in learning a language and communication. Some other lessons that I learned from this training are:

First fluency then accuracy
Make your instruction as short as possible
Use very few words and much demonstration
Do not speak much in the classroom, encourage students to speak much in which they use whatever language they can
Teaching is very easy; just go into the classroom and give students something to do so that they forget that they are in the classroom.
Use a lot of visual aids and actions for communication of meaning

My instance

I am not happy with this government policy, however. I do not think that teaching in English guarantees quality in education. In the name of using English in the classroom, the students should not be deprived from the basic understanding of the subject matter. Before making any new policy we need to look at our local ground realities and contexts. I personally think that we still need some years to make a jump to EMI in this county. I have observed some of the EMI classes in Surkhet and have some discussion with the teachers as well as students. I suggest dear teachers to use some Nepali or other mother tongues of the students to some extent in EMI classes. But one thing that impressed me was that the students said that they loved English classes much and they were more active smart and confident than the students who were in Nepali medium classes.

My plan

Now I am convinced that my trainee teachers who are participating in EMI training in ETC, Surkhet can handle EMI classes even if their language proficiency is not so advanced. My first action in this training will be to make my participants feel that English is not difficult and grammar is not so important in communication in this context. I am planning to make them feel this not by telling but by demonstrating.

Literary Texts: Authentic Resources for English Language Learning

April 1, 2015Teaching Tipsadmin

**Resham Bahadur Bist** Lecturer, Mid- Western University Surkhet, Nepal

In this post I discuss about the teaching and learning of English language and literature in higher education in Nepal, how it has been changed, and significance of English literature in English language teaching in my understanding.

Background

In the past, some ELT practitioners thought that there is no relation between English literature and English language teaching. They discovered no roles of literary texts for the comprehension of English language. They taught their students about language ignoring the literary texts in the language-teaching classrooms. On the other hand, facilitators of teaching literature thought that English education is only limited in how to teach English in classroom. They never looked for the syntactical and semantic significance of language used in the literary texts like poetry, essay, play, and story. There was a hot debate between them regarding the issues of language and literature in the canteen of colleges. They had had their own interpretation and understanding about the English literature and English education. Their main concern was to highlight their own subjects. There was a situation of rivalry between them.

I think the dichotomy between English education and English literature has created by the west that creates two hostile camps between its practitioners in our country. The tendency of western intellectual world regarding the issue of literature and linguistic made us to involve in the quarrel. The separate texts composed by the western intellectuals regarding the linguistic and literature that are prescribed in our syllabus are taught in our classroom as a different discipline. This kind of practices had been functioning in our universities regarding teaching literature and language. The department of language and linguistics never smelled the literary texts in their syllabus. Our curriculum designers were also influenced by the western tendency. So, they designed the curriculum of English language and literature separately. They never tried for meaning and harmonious combination in the curriculum for teaching language and literature hand in hand. Then, the practitioners of teaching language and literature moved ahead parallel like the two sides of a river learning the English language itself from the two extremes.

The ELT practitioners thought that the language of literature is not exactly appropriate for language teaching because it is idealized and figurative. They only focused on significance of linguistic norms which creates the proficiency in the language and important for language teaching. Their concern was in the linguistic norms and values. Moreover, they never thought the value of literature for teaching language. Its significance to provide the real situation how people can communicate the idea was ignored. It was not realized that literary texts are also made with the certain structure of linguistic phenomena that is supportive for teaching language. This idea was introduced by scholars in designing syllabus of language teaching classroom. Linguistics became like a hard rock with its own certain structure and values. The curriculum of our subject made us rigid in our area.

Present scenario

The tendency of teaching the English language in Nepal has been changed now. Literature is no more untouchable in a language classroom. The curriculum of language teaching has selected some of the literary texts in English language classroom. Some of the texts of linguistics and literature have mismatched with each other; the curriculum of both subjects has been merged somewhere a little bit. The time has changed; new generation has known this reality better than the past. The curriculum of ELT has used literature and literary texts in its syllabuses. The usefulness of the style of language used in literary texts has been focused on the English language teaching classrooms. Likewise, the classroom of literature teaching has also acknowledged the value of linguistics and language teaching to teach the literary texts. The teachers and students are familiar with language and literature in their classrooms either it be literature or language teaching classroom.

Now, the curriculums of English language and literature have created friendly environment between ELT practitioners and English literature facilitators. People think that linguistics and literature are not two separate subjects, and there is inseparable relationship between them in term of learning language. The distance, which was created by them, has been reduced. The practitioners of language and literature are not rivals at all now. There is the situation of drinking water at each other’s cup between teachers of English literature and ELT practitioners unlike in the past. Literature has also entered into the language classrooms. The literary texts have also been placed in the syllabus of linguistics classroom, and the study of language is also included in the syllabus of literature. The current practices of universities of Nepal have changed the old scenario of English teaching programs. What is the relationship between language and literature? What is the role of literary texts to learn the English language in EFL classroom? Regarding these questions, I try to write up of my experiences about the effective relationship between literature and linguistics to learn the language.

My English teaching experience to students of different colleges also reveals that literary texts are fruitful for teaching English language. Works of literature are studied worldwide, mostly for pleasure. However, for last couple of decades, it has been realized that literary texts are playing significant role in language teaching and are considered great source of authentic materials. Literary texts have become the most important source of materials in English language teaching classroom. Now the literary texts are also incorporated in their syllabus of language teaching program as they offer valuable authentic sources. In this regard, Collie and Slater (2009, pp. 3-4) mention that literature is used in language class because it is valuable authentic material; it enhances cultural and language enrichment, and it fosters personal involvement. So, it can be said that literature is an important source in language teaching because it offers varieties of texts along with culture aligned to it, that are useful in language teaching.

Different genres of literature can be useful in language teaching classroom. A poet composes a poem with the use of cohesion and coherence, which can be used in the texture of the linguistic analysis. The devices of language such as simile, metaphor, metonymy, pun, etc. are used in the poem, which can be useful tools to study of language teaching classroom. The demonstration and recitation of extract of beautiful verse of poem can create interest and develop comprehension about the language of poetry among the learners. It can help them develop their pronunciation. Therefore, the poem can be a good source for learning language. Short stories are also very useful to the English language learners as they are interesting, motivating, and amazing. In this regard, Wright (2000) mentions that making and responding to stories is only way of being creative. Stories offer new language, making it meaningful and memorable, which is a distinctive manifestation of cultural values and perceptions. It requires reflection on values and culture. He further argues that making and telling stories require the students to organize information into cohesive and coherent whole in order to communicate to other people. He also mentions that listening to the stories can develop listening skills whereas studying and learning stories contextualize language diversity in dialect and register of language, and narrative and description of speech.

Therefore, short stories are useful to learn four basic skills of language; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They are also equally helpful to learn grammar, vocabulary, and language functions. They promote the imaginative skills and creativity as well through fun and creative activities of classroom. Teaching stories in the language-learning classroom engages and motivates learners creatively. The elements of short stories can be guidelines for creative writing. The learners can write their own stories using those elements.

Similarly, the play can be useful to promote the language skills of learners. Play is composed with use of contextual dialogue in a certain setting of it. The learner knows the contextual meaning of language after reading the play. Therefore, it is beneficial to learn the pragmatic and semantic meaning of the sentences used in the play because the dialogues are used in the conversation among the characters in the certain settings. The play is a representational art of literature, and it has a theatrical performance. The students can involve in the theatrical performance of the play. They can perform the actions and events of the play by using the dialogues. They can promote their speaking skill through the theatrical performance of play and achieve self-confidence in speaking English in front of the audience. They can develop their presentation skills and develop an understanding of cultural practices of other people through the play. They can be aware about the body language and contextual use of language. They develop their language skills watching and listening plays in the classroom.

Likewise, the essays are also beneficial for the language learners. Essays are written in different forms like persuasive, narrative, descriptive, etc. The language learner learns different forms of language and structure of sentence pattern through the essays. They get pleasure reading such essays and develop their reading habit that promotes their reading language skill.

Long fictional texts like novels also can be useful to promote the reading habit of learner with pleasure of reading. The rhetorical style of such long text can be beneficial to know the way of expression, style of writing and structure of sentences.

Conclusion

The role of literature in the ELT classroom has been reassessed. Now, English teachers and ELT practitioners view that literary texts provide rich linguistic input and effective stimuli for students to express themselves and a potential source of learner motivation. Those literary texts also provide an opportunity for multi-sensorial classroom experiences and can appeal to learners with different learning style. The students can develop their creativity in writing poetry, dialogues and descriptive writing after reading the masterpieces of literary texts. Likewise, literary texts engage the learners arouse interest to observe how to use figurative language, such as metaphor, metonymy, simile, pun, alliteration, assonance, hyperbole, etc. The literary texts make the learners to be aware of the pattern of sounds in language such as rhyme, rhythm, and repetition. Therefore, English language teachers and facilitators can use the literary texts for developing learners’ English language proficiency as authentic sources.

References

Collie, J., & Slater, S. (2009). Literature in the language Classroom. Combridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wright, P. (2011). Stories and their importance in language teaching. In Humanizing Language Teaching, Year 2; Issue 5.

English Medium Education: Hearsay and Reality

April 1, 2015Education in General, Native Perspectiveadmin

Chair, NELTA Surkhet Lecturer, Mid-Western University Surkhet, Nepal — **Bishnu Kumar Khadka** Chair, NELTA Surkhet
Lecturer, Mid-Western University Surkhet, Nepal

The context

Teaching and learning English has been a matter of an invisible ghost among the teachers and learners in most of the government aided community schools of Nepal. On the other hand, English has been a matter of identity and pride of private boarding schools of Nepal. Since English has been a key to the attraction of parents in the private boarding schools. It is also claimed that quality in education is also achieved through English medium education. On the basis of such hearsay most of the parents are highly motivated to admit their children in the English medium boarding schools pursuing quality education. Because of English medium education in private boarding schools nearby, the flow of students seems to be increased in those schools. Consequently, it has reduced the number of students in government aided community schools. Realizing the fact, some of the government aided community schools of Nepal have started English medium instruction in order to compete with privately owned boarding schools in terms of student number and learning achievement.

It is really a matter of quest that whether English medium education is a cause of access and quality in education or not. It is also a matter of curiosity that whether English medium education can ensure the access of the students from the linguistic minority groups and sustain their high learning achievement or not. Does English mean quality? Does English medium Education really equate with quality education? Are private boarding schools really English medium schools? Are private schools really providing quality education? Can government aided community schools also provide English medium education? Is it reasonable and justifiable to provide English medium education from the basic level? Is it possible to transform Nepali medium government funded community schools into English medium? Will there be a large number of students and high learning achievement in the community schools where the number of students are said to be decreasing due to the medium of instruction if there is provision of English medium of education? There are so many such issues related to English medium education and the issue of access and quality in education.

My experience

To me, English is amazing thing when I got first exposure in one of the government funded primary schools of my village of mid-western hilly part of Nepal for the first time after upgrading in grade four. As I remember the first class of my English period, the teacher appeared suddenly in the classroom and said ‘Good morning students’. We were unknown about what our teacher really said and what should we reply. Then he said in Nepali language say ‘Good morning teacher’ when the teacher enters into the classroom in English period. Then our first class of English period started with the very good morning. After that, our teachers asked us to turn the first page of English textbook in our hand but we did not know what was written there because none of us were English alphabet literate. They were very odd and difficult to copy for us. We started our journey of learning English alphabets first with capital letters and then with small letters and then learned the spelling of ‘Good’, ‘Morning’, ‘Sir’, etc. The teacher wrote the spelling of ‘Good’ means ‘ramro’ ‘Morning’ means ‘bihan’, ‘Sir’ means ‘guru’. The holistic meaning of ‘gurulaai bihanko namaste’. I was really confused about the individual word meaning of the word and how the phrase ‘Good morning sir’ meant so. I thought English is not easy and straight as our teacher translated and interpreted the text.

The journey of learning English as the compulsory subject in each grade continued as a matter of undesirable burden with frightening ghost in each examination with uncertain guessing marks up to SLC examination. I was really the don in English among my classmates because I obtained high score in English than others from the hillside school of Dailekh. I was skilful enough to obtain marks in the examination because I could memorize and digest the answers of the questions and vomit on the examination papers which made me the don in English among other competitors.

Fortunately, I crossed the Lohore stream of SLC and my journey of learning English climbed up towards the Saatsalli straight uphill about three hours continuous on foot walk and reached to Surkhet valley within a whole day walking from 5 am to 10 pm. After crossing the small entrance creek of Surkhet Campus (Education) I appeared as a valid student of English Education of Tribhuvan University. My god! English classed ended there without using a single word in Nepali on that very first day of my college life. English teachers spoke only English during their whole periods. I was amazed of their English and their nonstop speaking in English. I was nearly hopeless at English and my donship stepped down on the spot. The English medium in English period among English students was hundred percent English. I crossed the Bheri river of PCL too and the journey of learning English migrated from Surkhet valley to Kathmandu valley towards the gate of Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tahchal, Kathmandu. I thought it is the place where English is taught and learnt. English was English there too. Much more English! Again, I migrated towards Kirtipur where Gurus of Guru Jees were there who could speak English not only in class but also outside the classroom and everywhere. English was teasing me and I was just wondering the glory of English upon my fate.

After that I started my new journey of teaching English. I started teaching English from primary level to university level and from private boarding school to government aided community schools. What I have realized while teaching English as the medium of education in private English medium schools where other subjects are also taught in English is that there is a craze and compulsion for learning and sharing in English not only of the students but also of the teachers. On the other hand, English is taught as the subject in government funded public schools where students just take as the burden in learning and the phobia of being failed always hunt them. Teaching learning activities are found to be dominated by Nepali langauge even in the English class too. The students want to learn the content of the text in English and teachers also want to teach the content of the text simplifying and supplying support from their mother tongue. English has been taught as a subject rather than a language.

My journey of learning and teaching English, described in a couple of paragraph above, clearly displays a huge gap between teaching English at schools and at the universities. The context now may have changed or modified a little, but English alone has not even been taught in English medium, especially in school level. In such context, hoe logical does it seem to imagine English medium instruction in schools? The question has to be raised not only in terms of the difficulties faced by the students but also the potential challenges that (non-English) teachers have to face in using fluent and comprehensible English to their students when many of them are not proficient in English. Taking English medium instruction and quality education synonymously leads to hundreds of such challenges.

Mother tongue education versus English medium education

Language not only helps to promote equality and empower its users but also is a key factor for the social inclusion in multilingual communities. The children with mother tongues other than Nepali cannot compete with Nepali-speaking children who have acquired it as their mother tongue in our context. Naturally, they feel inferior, isolated, or incompetent and are forced to remain as a disadvantaged group in our school situation. Many studies have already revealed that teaching in mother tongue in the early grades enhances children’s ability to learn better than in second or foreign languages. It has also been reported that if children are taught in languages which are different from their home language, they drop-out from school, have low learning achievement, and repeat classes.

Unaware of the fact that mother tongue education means teaching of and through the mother tongue and providing children with cognitive and linguistic benefits, parents think that it means simply teaching the children their mother tongue, which they can learn in their own home, and thus it is a waste of time to send their children to such schools. They want their children to learn languages which can get them a job and access to higher education. They think that education in the mother tongue will not help them attain their goal but would rather restrict their children to a limited area. They have rather a positive attitude about Nepali, the official language of the country and English the international language and lingua franca accepted globally.

These days, most of the government schools have started teaching in the English medium and made it a rule that students should come to school in the assigned dress with a tie around their neck and a bag on their back in order to compete with English boarding schools to attract students for enrolment. These schools give priority to those who want to learn English rather than to those who want to learn the mother tongue as an optional subject. It naturally makes the mother tongue learners feel humiliated. As a result, they opt for English instead of their mother tongue.

Conclusion

As Nepali and English have grown more dominant in Nepali societies they have started to replace other languages. Despite increasingly overwhelming evidence of the value and benefits of early education in mother-tongue, few countries invest in it. Designing policies to incorporate these findings should be central to addressing the low quality of education in the developing world. It also goes to the heart of making education more inclusive and ensuring the right to education for all. Our education system favours using national or ‘global’ languages instead of mother-tongue teaching. This needs to be brought under discussion.

The issue of English medium education is also related with the issue of mother tongue based multilingual education as the linguistic right to get education in their mother tongues. The linguists and educationists claim that the access and quality in education is only possible if the education is provided in the mother tongue of the learners in the multilingual speech communities. It is reported from many studies and researches that access of linguistic minority groups learners can be ensured in education and they can achieve high learning achievement through mother tongue based multilingual education. Nepal is a multilingual country where the multilingual education is piloted in some of the pilot schools of Nepal expecting to increase the access and quality in education especially of the linguistic minority community schools. Similarly, there are a few of the pilot districts projected as the English medium education as well with the aim of achieving the quality in education. The medium, either mother tongue medium education or English medium education ensures the access and quality in education is really one of the major issues in education circle among the educationist.

Spoken English: Challenge for College Students

April 1, 2015Teacher's Experience/anecdotesadmin

– Durga Bahadur Pun

Needless to say, the importance of English is surprisingly increasing day by day. People all over the world are investing a lot of money and efforts to English Language. However, college students in Nepal, who have already invested money, time and efforts, for learning English, are yet to succeed. Migrant Nepalis working abroad, who hold academic degrees, cannot speak even simple sentences in English. As a result, they have become the subject of mockery. In this blog post, I will make an attempt to discuss on spoken English as challenge for college students.

Let me share with you an anecdote. One day one of the students came to me and asked, “I can write grammatically correct sentences in English. But why can’t I speak?”

The student is the representative of many others who frequently asks me the similar questions. I did not have any ready-made answers for the curious students’ question that time, however, I discussed with them citing some reasons for lack of proficiency in spoken English.

Some time later, I pondered over the issue. I came up with a very simple and amazing answer. Having grammar in spoken English is useless. Non-native speakers of English facing the problem for speaking English is just due to grammar. This is the fact shown by researches as well. As educated persons or college level students, they always want to use grammar properly, they never can speak English.

Importantly, we can make brief statement, questions and answers in spoken English. For instance, to make the question, auxiliary verbs and WH words are used at the beginning of the interrogative/question sentences as per grammar. Such a complexity to form question or interrogative sentences makes students unable to ask any questions to the teacher or anyone.

Here, one question may arise in your mind, what type of shortcut English is there without grammar? English without grammar can be said to be shortcut or real English. No doubt, there is no language without grammar in the world. Grammar is a science of language. Even if grammar is missing, it is hidden in spoken English.

We mostly use shortcut sentences and we simply prefer to call it “Spoken English”. According to grammarian, I. Jaykaran, who published the book “Master your English Grammar”, we make several shortcut sentences during conversation. It is not a grammatical mistake, but an accepted shortcut.(page 414)

Let’s consider how we speak our Nepali language. As you know, a baby and our grandfather or grandmother do speak Nepali so well without Nepali grammar even they have not learnt in the school. We, educated persons or students, never use Nepali grammar while talking with people. Can’t this be similar case in English. It is vivid that speaking a language does not necessarily use proper grammar, right?

Practical or Real English is informal language. It is also called spoken English. In our daily conversation, we simply use this language in family, with friends, relatives and other people. In Real English, we do not care grammatical rules which frustrate the beginners to speak English.

On the other hand, grammatical (proper) English is formal Language. It is standard and specific language used in academic organization, official purposes and formal programs. We mostly use proper grammar while talking to seniors or strangers too.

STRUCTURE OF SPOKEN ENGLISH

There are two parts in spoken English;missing words and speaking words.

In case of missing words, it is not good to speak frequently the same words or matter in talking, which is already known or spoken out. That is to say, we don’t need to speak again which is clear and can be understood easily.

See the examples below;

Are you watching the TV? (Grammar)
1. You watching the TV? (Spoken)
2. Wathing the TV? (Spoken)
We have to stop the car here. (Grammar)
3. Have to stop here. (Spoken)
4. Stop here. (Spoken)

In example 1 and 2 above, are and you are missing, in example 3 and 4 we and the car, and we have to and the car are missing . It is, of course, considered best in spoken English.

According to grammar, In above example (4), ‘stop here’ is the imperative sentence. But in spoken, it makes a same meaning like other two utterances.

Speaking Words – We simply talk about a person or a thing in normal conversation. To make it short and sweet, we need to speak as Spoken English which is the best way of speaking in every language.

Above example (2), (3) and (4) are as Practical English without subject and object as the grammatical sentences.

The words are missing in Spoken English in such a way. So if we do not know the situation or circumstances, sometimes it becomes unclear or gets different meaning.

To conclude my opinion, I would like to urge the college students to once try to follow the above mentioned way if they really want to speak English fluently. I hope this will help them get success very soon. I am teaching spoken English in such a way mentioned above. I have found the fruitful result. Most of the students are wonderfully satisfied with my teaching.

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The author teaches English language in Kathmandu valley.

Crossing the boundary: What I did during my stay there still knocks them to ring me

April 1, 2015Teacher's Experience/anecdotesadmin

**Chandra Acharya** ELT practitioner, Life Member of NELTA, and freelance writer in English

Frankly speaking, this blog entry does not entertain you, the readers, because it does not unveil any particular issue on ELT rather it talks about an effort I did to advance the career in ELT creating a recurring dream for the learners ever no matter where they go and be what in their life. Hope you do not interpret this as a self exaggeration.

I was so I did, I am and I do and if I will be I will be doing

This is the working definition of existentialism and I am not untouched by this definition. As the title, ‘Crossing the boundary: what I did during my stay still knocks them to ring me’ owns a sense of existentialism which is directly linked to the effort I made during my stay in an English School from where I started my teaching career for the first time. Mount Everest English School Dangihat, Morang, where I started babbling in English (for the language teaching) is the means and ends to expand the horizon of my passion in English language teaching. Thus, the credit of all the success I achieve on ELT till this time goes to the administration there.

At first, it was quite challenging for me to be adjusted in the environment. I was with a tongue twister that how could I be a good member of that nice community. This questioned me several times on my behavior and challenged me to work as a teacher of English. No sooner had I presented in a class of 30 more students for the first time, the nightmare started since then. In the very beginning of the presentation I found some quake shocks in my body but it went at please some minutes later. I didn’t know whether the presentation was beautiful or not but what I did after the supervisor left the class was quite nice and that worked in my selection I think. I had sung a song that was a key of my selection I think because I had kissed the heart of the students through that song. So, my salute also goes to the song; mohani laglahai gauleko bolile…, that I had selected this song as a dancing number at the school anniversary I talk later. Making some other talks with the administration I returned to my room on that day. No sooner had I reached the room I found a call from the principal that I was selected as a lower secondary English teacher there.

The next day I got the appointment. As I got the appointment I found that the real life began with some emotion. On the one hand I felt happy that the cost of the study could be maintained decreasing some financial burden to my family, but I felt like a horse in a shed on that day onwards on the other hand. As I was like a colt on the grassy land before, I found myself be a dutiful dude day to day. Sometimes, I felt the freedom of life was banished but actually the real life had begun. Since then, I understood the value of time, the life of different circumstances and the policy of talks. The very important thing I learnt was the professional life cycle one owns.

Teaching and preaching to the kids at the threshold of adolescence, I crossed a five-month life cycle as a lower secondary English teacher there as I had joined on the month of Kartik. Then after, the post was switched to secondary English teacher. Having being a five-month experienced member of that nice school family, I found myself an energetic member that I had to be in any of the administrative decision, be it a classroom management or creating an English environment they are making every efforts for a long time. Analyzing my capability in English either it is a pronunciation or creative writing skills or any other skills a teacher of English should have, the administration shared me a responsibility of a co-coordinator to manage English environment in the school zone. This made me a unique kind of teacher among the colleague there. As they did this, I thought it was an opportunity to collect the missiles of English language and to blast over that community they were in need. So I promised myself to left no stone unturned in my responsibility ahead.

To this, the very first thing I did was; making the colleagues agree to make ‘teacher talk’ in English as they could and the ‘baby talk’ for the students. The reason why I did this is teacher talk is a key to form a habit to do everything in English on the part of the students because learners are the imitators of their Gurus. Simply, I requested them to use English as a Medium of Instruction (EMOI) as I was impressed by the term; if one needs to be a good person in English one should do things in English. I also tried my best to spent some of their class-time to engage in private speech; talk apparently to and for themselves rather than for any external conversational partners which could regulate internal thought, without any external articulation as proposed by Vygotsky. To the teachers from nursery to secondary, either they were teaching English or Nepali, I shared some ideas to speak in English on several bases. As I was also the beginner in English, I tried my best collecting ideas from external sources to create English speaking environment in the school zone. In addition to this, I assigned a student of higher classes who could spoke English at ease to each house. Managing these things properly, Nepali speaking environment magically switched into an English speaking zone. Here, the very exciting thing I found was, even the students of class nursery smiled saying good morning sir/ma’am, may I go out sir…, bye! bye! sir/ma’am etc. which made me feel proud in my mission.

The second very important thing I did for the success of Mount Everest English School during my stay was; sharing ideas in certifying the authentic teaching learning materials in English. This does not mean that applying a book from the foreign writers, but the book to facilitate English speaking zone they need and to empower students in English. What I did to this matter was making decision against the administration’s agreement. Crossing the boundary they had already established, I stopped them not to apply the books in Nepali medium in English subject. I didn’t know whether the decision I made was favorable to the will of the administration, but it was a great effort for the success of the school and its family I believed. Why because, if students are with the choice of a difficult thing and an easy thing at the same time, no matter they choose the essayist way. I mean if we had launched the books of English subjects translated in Nepali, the students could only read the translated version of English terms. They didn’t go for exploring and practicing the things in English and this certainly could create problems in developing reading comprehension on them which could stop in facilitating in fluency in English too. Considering this I stopped them and they agreed to me finally. But in the very beginning of this decision they were against me as I was to them, because they might have some benefits in applying the books of different publication every year which I didn’t know at the time. With some ups and downs I enjoyed teaching the kids there.

Similarly, my effort for the success of 10^th anniversary of the school, the first time after its establishment, was another corner stone for the good will of the school. I know it was the first event I have ever coordinated in my life and that was the first and completely a new event organized among 5 more schools in the community there as the local newspapers reported the other day. In the programme what I did the best was making students able, to present 6 hours long programme sharing varieties of exciting ideas to build of positive attitudes, and to making speeches in English from primary to secondary. The programme proved to be a success of the mission; creating English speaking zone in the school as each students assigned for the specific work talked in English during the day which could easily be seen on parents’ appearance.

As their wish, I left no stone unturned to make the anniversary a mega event under the chairmanship of Mr. Jagat Bahadur Basnet, a foresighted principal of the school. Mr. Basnet was not only a principle of the school; he guided me as a path-exhibitionist whom I never forget till the ELT air exists in my mind. I am speechless at the time I talk about the attachment between him and me. How he guided, encouraged and added a new kind of emotion to boost of my passion in ELT is not enough to explain in words. Because of these very things I worked there as a catalyst for the development of school no matter how hard I did in different ups and downs during my three year’s stay there.

The hardest of all I faced was at the time of leave. It was quite a difficult thing to be separated from their parent like relationship. At the leave I thought that something from my body was being separated. I don’t know how they felt in my leave, whether they were sad or happy but Mr. Basnat’s speechless voice while accepting resignation letter broke my heart. Though leaving them was not my interest, it was my compulsion to earn master’s degree at Tribhuvan University (TU) which, I say, was my childhood dream.

As I had a dream of earning master’s degree in ELT at TU, I did it last year and made them a call to share my happiness; they responded me saying ‘Surya sir the door is open for you all the time’. I wondered why they called me as Surya sir, I questioned myself first but later I found that my very last speechless voice at the time of leave from the school was; I am Chandra Sir till this time, tomorrow I will be back again and rejoin the relationship as Surya Sir why because Surya is far more powerful than Moon (Chandra). And one more thing that refreshed the image about the school was, the school had just been running in a new building with facilitated teaching learning environment. Having fun of this kind we ended the conversation. Since then the call log in my mobile is not untouched from Mount Everest English School’s reminding call.

In summing up, I, not only worked as a teacher there but as a change agent for managing quality education and to the all-round development of the school. Teaching students the good moral to making them a positive minded personality to have success in their life ahead. I tried my best as a teacher one should do this or that for all the success of his/her students and for the school improvement in overall. But one thing I could never learnt during my stay there was money-minded nature which I hope I never learn until my last breath. Because of all these very things, what I did crossing the rules and regulation of the school during my stay still knocks them to call me to reunite the circle there. And finally the school building I visited last time on Dashain vacation stunned my heart. The design of the building attracted me to take hundreds more photograph and one of them I have attached here comparing to its structure during my stay.

Students studying in old classroom setting

New building which warmed my heart in my last visit

The last but not the least words I suggest to the novice teachers and to the experienced ones to some extent are;

believe in work to word,
never be frustrated working under pressure as it is the starting of you real life,
feel that every activities done in the school is your own property and should have your responsibility on them,
try applying all the efforts you have without being money minded,
think that teaching environment you are with is the lab to practice the knowledge you earned,
believe that the routine work you are in teaches you the policy of life,
and finally, leave no stone unturned to be a unique teacher in the circle creating a recurring dream in students mind whatever they do and where they stay in their future life.

Attending an Online Course: My Experience

April 1, 2015Reflectionsadmin

Rajan Kumar Kandel Teaching Assistant Surkhet Campus (Education) — **Rajan Kumar Kandel**
Teaching Assistant
Surkhet Campus (Education)

This post deals with a short synopsis and experiences of participating an online teacher training course named Practical Applications for Listening and Speaking Skills (henceforth PALSS). It is written to share the willing teachers to help participating an online course in spite of the challenges like frequent power cuts and unstable networking.

Introduction

The course was 10 week long, (started from January 7 to March 15, 2013 for me) offered through the University of Oregon, Linguistics Department, American English Institute (UO AEI) as one of the nine courses funded through the E-Teacher Scholarship Program. We spent at least 8 to 10 hours per week engaged in online studies and activities. We had to score 70% or above to pass the course.

It required us to have the Google email and Skype account which was used exclusively to communicate with the instructor. The course included weekly asynchronous readings and online Nicenet discussion, synchronous weekly small group Skype meetings with the course instructor, synchronous weekly small group Skype meeting with a conversation leader, weekly audio journals where we reflected on what we learned that week, and self-study materials to improve our listening and speaking skills using online resources among others. We had to keep a record of self-study along with reflective comments by the end of each week, in the self- study log (click here to view my self-study log). The course also included whole-group webinars at different times during the course. There were 7 webinars altogether and we were asked to attend and view at least 3 of the webinars and write synopsis and reflection. At the end of the course there was final project of preparing a long lesson plan integrating new methods and activities for teaching listening and speaking. We had to put the written assignment into the appropriate weekly folder in the Dropbox shared by the teacher.

We were expected to read the weekly readings and then post at least two times each week in the related Nicenet online discussion. We had to reflect about our activities during the week in an audio journal. I was much tempted to get acquainted with all the activities of the course and was hurried and impatient to know what I was going to achieve after I complete the course and become eligible to receive the certificate. A kind of storm was haunting inside me.

A glimpse of the course topics and the activities performed

The first week included introduction to the course, meet and interact with course participants, instructor, and conversation leader. The Nicenet discussion for the week was self-introduction. Everyone was asked to write the first post between 100 to 200 words and then post a reply to the post of at least one other participant. As the assignment was finished the obtained marks was immediately sent through the Jupiter Grades.

The second week brought the topics -listening and speaking, accuracy and comprehensibility, and learning objectives. The concept of weekly audio journal and synchronous Skype meetings were started from the week. We enjoyed both synchronous Skype meetings very much. I also prepared 5 minutes audio journal describing and reflecting everything done on that week as I was suggested and I posted it in the Drpobox week 2 folder.

Week 3 started with the topics: speaking, evaluation, teacher and peer evaluation with rubrics, and social bookmarking. The first webinar of the course was also scheduled for that week. The webinars were delivered via a program called Blackboard Collaborate. The webinar was on ‘Building Classroom Community’. Because of the unstable connection I could not attend the online webinar that week but I managed to view the recorded version the next day.

The fourth week was focused on listening and accuracy, lesson plans, and scaffolding with graphic organizers. The synchronous Skype conversation that week was on the use of social media for instruction and the teacher led Skype meeting on information gap drawing. Asynchronous Nicenet discussion was about lesson planning. I attended the webinar for the first time. The main agenda of the webinar were overview of PBL and its application to ELT illustrated by a real example of PBL for ELT. I found it very much interactive, interesting, encouraging, and fruitful.

Pronunciation, syllabus and word stress, and lesson plans were the topics for the fifth week. The asynchronous Nicenet discussion that week was based on correction and providing feedback while teaching speaking. Transcription of the first one minute speech of any of the journals earlier was an added assignment for that week that provided an opportunity to observe and evaluate my own speaking. The webinar that week was on ‘Integrating Pronunciation across the Curriculum’. I got familiar with different steps that we can consider while teaching pronunciation.

The sixth week dealt with listening, note taking, and final project. I explored the websites VOA learning English and BBC Learning English for more than two hours and thought how it can be helpful to me and my students. I thought about how I can make use of those websites in my class. I completed the self-study log and posted in the Dropbox. We studied the mechanics of note taking and found it new and impressive. I prepared the audio journal for the week and posted in the week 6 folder of the Dropbox.

Week 7 introduced the topics: speaking with focus on fluency and speed, using music in the classroom, and final project. Asynchronous Nicenet discussion that week was based on the importance of accuracy and fluency in language learning and which one should be focused at what time. I posted on the Nicenet about the topic and replied on the posts of other participants. I completed the first draft of final project plan and sent it to Mr. Salah Mohammad Ali, my feedback partner for necessary feedback. I also got his plan to suggest some feedback for him. I transcribed first one minute audio of my week 6 audio journal and listed the reflection of my speech. I posted it in the week 7 folder of my Dropbox and shared with my instructor. Synchronous Skype conversation was about role model and teacher led meeting was on songs and lyrics. I found that it was very easy to teach to speak/pronounce longer and complicated constructions using backward build-up technique. The webinar that week was on ‘Free Listening: Autonomous Extensive Listening for ELT’. It discussed about the three strands of listening instruction by Nation and Newton (2009): language focused listening; meaning focused listening, and fluency building listening. I learned that fluency building listening should consist of message focused activities; it should have easy task, and high level performance.

The eighth week was based on listening comprehension, using video in the classroom, saving audio and video online files, and copyright. I posted in the asynchronous Nicenet discussions about how to introduce and use video activities with our students. Synchronous Skype conversation group discussion that week was about music. Teacher led meeting was about the discussion on the TV news video and one of the best songs of Whitney Houston. I also attended on the webinar on ‘Independent Pronunciation Practice for Intermediate and Advanced Learners’. I worked on final project plan, read Salah’s plan thoroughly and completed the lesson plan feedback checklist and sent it to Salah and Donna (my instructor) both.

Pronunciation with the focus on suprasegmentals, fluency, using L1 in the L2 classroom, and lesson plans were the issues for discussion during the ninth week. I posted on asynchronous Nicenet discussion about teaching pronunciation: techniques and activities and replied the post of one of the colleagues. Then, I completed final project- preparing lesson plan and posted it in the Dropbox week nine folder. The synchronous teacher led Skype meeting was on suprasegmentals and mainly focused on the sentence stress. Our teacher taught us comprehensively that the content words, negative contractions, question words, possessive and demonstrative pronouns are generally stressed but function words like articles, auxiliary verbs, personal pronouns, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives are generally not stressed. We were illustrated that stress is based on the emphasis or the focus. I participated in conversation group discussion and we shared recipe of our best food. The seventh and final webinar was about ‘Jazz Chants for EFL Classrooms’ which taught the basic information about Jazz Chants. I knew that Crolyn Graham, the musician, writer, teacher, and teacher trainer, was the originator and creator of Jazz Chants and she has written many books on Jazz Chants. It is musical and it is loved by all learners: children and adults. It helps the learners to learn pronunciation, stress, and rhythms very easily and comfortably. It can be a great assistance in pronouncing the connected speech in natural speed. It helps to develop fluency of the learners. It can make the environment funny and really safe. Jazz Chants can be used with music or without music even in a crowded class.

The tenth week focused on course overview, dictation, post-course listening assessment, post-course survey, and teacher evaluation. It was the shortest week and the course ended on Friday, March 15. There were no readings and self-study log to do. Nicenet discussion, the last transcription task, course evaluations, an audio journal, and two synchronous Skype meetings were there as the assignments. Asynchronous Nicenet discussion was mainly focused on the course evaluation. Synchronous Skype conversation was about the concluding remarks of the course and any queries related to it. Teacher led Skype meeting was about dictation. I transcribed the first one minute audio of the week 9 audio journal. I also prepared the audio journal of the week as usual.

The course contents for every week along with the checklist, activity plan, and other links were sent by Gmail the day before the week started. I was so interested and busy during the course. I even left many of my regular duties. I never regret for that. As a whole it was much engaging.

Conclusion

I got opportunity to interact with many colleagues teaching English as second or foreign language at different location of this universe in different context, virtually. It also helped me to think critically and creatively to overcome the potential problems in teaching in general and in teaching listening and speaking in particular. I have realized that it has also helped me to evaluate my own learning and teaching English. I knew different new techniques much comprehensively than ever. Frequent speaking with the native and non-native speakers of English and the weekly audio journal helped to sharpen my spoken English. Transcription of the audio journal and different webinars not only added to the improvement of my listening and speaking English but also comprehensive teaching of these skills to my students. Readings and the self-study options expanded my horizon of English and broadened the creative faculty of my lesson preparation and presentation. I found the information gap activity, the backward build up activity, the illustrative description of old and revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy of objectives, the rubrics, graphic organizers, word and sentence stress, and music and chants in EFL classroom really enlightened me. Synchronous teacher led meetings and conversation group discussion, and asynchronous Nicenet discussion among many participants built my confidence. I encourage novice ELT practitioners to try such online courses.

Reference

Course website PALSS course https://sites.google.com/site/uopalss2013winter/

Teacher’s Travelogue: My First Trip to International Conference of NELTA in Kathmandu

March 8, 2015Teacher's Experience/anecdotesadmin

Prem Bishokarma

It was Saturday, and I was on complete rest when I received a call from Rajan Kumar Kandel, the then Secretary of NELTA Surkhet Chapter. He informed me about the 20^th International Conference of NELTA in Kathmandu. Though I was already aware of the annual mega event of ELT, I responded him that I needed some time for decision about my travel to the capital and participation in the conference. Soon, he added that Regional English Language Office (RELO) could sponsor me. Listening to the opportunity, I jumped with a joy and I was quick to decide and confirm my participation.

Later, I came to learn that there was another ELT practitioner, who the RELO has sponsored too to make the trip to Kathmandu. I along with seven other English teachers from Surkhet (NELTA Chair Bishnu Kumar Khadka, Yadu Gyawali, Dipendra K.C., Dhani Ram Sharma, Resham Bist, Khagendra Bista and Purna Poudel) travelled to Kathmandu on 16^th February 2015 to attend the conference scheduled from 17th to 19th February at DAV Sushil Kedia School situated in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur.

The breakfast time had already been over when we reached to the conference venue. We got registered hastily and entered into the hall but unfortunately, we missed the inauguration ceremony. We felt sorry to skip the essential part of the program. Then my eyes came across a person speaking in the program, who drew my attention. Later I learnt that he was none other than the keynote speaker, Mr. David Hayes, a Graduate Program Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Brock University, Canada. He was delivering his key note speech on the conference theme ‘The Quest for Quality ELT: The Contribution of Continuing Professional Development’. I was really impressed the way he presented the contents on the theme. He mainly focused his talk on teachers’ continuous professional development. I liked his ideas to be constant updating us with professional skills. No farmer can reap the crops daily from the only-sharpened-sickle. And the teacher himself has to learn how to cook than only to eat. His innovative ideas about the teaching were practical and based on cases.

As we reached the conference venue late and we had not eaten anything, we were starving and thirsty but there was no chance of lunch before the plenary sessions were over. However, I attempted to draw my attention to the speech but in vain. The physiological need attracted my thought to the food. At the same time, I realized the fact that we can hardly attract learners for learning unless we address their problems first.

Then a lady appeared at the rostrum. She was Elka Todeva, a Professor of SIT Graduate Institute, Brattleboro, United States. She talked about ‘Riding Waves and Scaling Mountains: Ecological Approaches to ELT. She started with a very practical grammar based on activity. I found her way of presenting preposition. The activity she designed was practical. Moreover, the learning activity was based on fun. Fun motivates learners more. Furthermore, she talked about child friendly and brain friendly activities. I enjoyed her speech as I prefer activities in my classroom.

When Dr Vishnu Singh Rai, the retired Professor of Tribhuvan University, began to talk, I plunged into the Nepali context of class. He made a lot of fun which really made me forget all the physical hunger and thirst. He presented in English through our own perspectives. I loved his originality.

Then it was time for lunch and rushed out of the hall. I saw a long queue of participants standing for lunch. After I had my lunch, I moved to concurrent sessions. I chose some of concurrent sessions as per my interests. First, I wanted to attend the session of Marian Wang from Japan, whose title of presentation was ‘Integrating Critical Thinking Skills into Study Abroad Program’, but the session was houseful when I reached there. Then I attended Jackie Van Tilburgh’s session ‘Writing Assessment: Ruminating Rubrics’. There I learnt about the importance of rubrics for the evaluation of any type of creative writing. The session was equally useful for the writer and the evaluator both.

Next I attended the session of Rosa Fagundes from Bangladesh. She talked on ‘Teaching Writing: the Value of Pre-wring Activities’. She provided different five steps of creative writing activity. They are brainstorming, clustering, listing & outlining, free-writing and the journalist’s questions. They are very practical and significant while teaching writing. I realized that we just ask the students to write but these activities should be done prior.

On February 18, I found Professor Abhi Subedi’s plenary session interesting and motivating. He did not use any ICT tool. He somehow criticized about excessive use of those power point presentations. Then I joined the session of two Thai teachers: Catherine Owens and Robert Burgess. Their session titled Blended Learning: Building Critical Thinking Awareness and Autonomy. They more or less advertized about the program launched by their university. They spoke the influence of ICT in teaching and learning.

The concurrent session I chose next was on ‘Developing Academic Writing’ by Dr. Purna Bahadur Kadel from Nepal. He expressed all the steps of developing academic writing. It can be shaped by some specific procedure.

Last day, Professor Sanjeev Upreti talked about postmodern perspectives. He pointed out the importance of teacher’s ignorance about the absolute answer. The teacher will quest for better until s/he gets it. I liked his post modern approach.

When the plenary sessions started, I joined the session by Kamal Raj Lamsal and Khum Bahadur Gurung on ‘Critical Thinking Activities in the Language Classroom’. They described about the perspective of everyone’s thinking. It is quite unique and absolute. The same thing can be correct in different ways. The last session I attended was the session given by a Bangladeshi Lecturer Murshida Nishat. She made a conversation on ‘Blending Critical Thinking to Develop Writing Skills’. She attached all the kinds of emotions, thinking and belief towards society and culture. I found it very relevant and useful.

Before the closing session, there was a panel discussion with ELT experts from Nepal, India and Pakistan. Director General of Department of Education, Dr. Lav Deo Awasthi was invited there but he couldn’t make it. Instead of Dr. Awasthi, Jai Raj Awasthi had represented Nepal while Z.N. Patil and Zakia from Pakistan were the panelists of the discussion moderated by Bal Krishna Sharma on the English education policy in the three countries. Nepal is in a dilemma about when to start English from class one or three or so on. The government is implying English from very beginning to survive the government schools. The same is the case with Pakistan while India has already English education policy, according to the panelist Patil.

The conference indeed provided the participants especially English teachers from different parts of the country with an international exposure of teaching English. Although I have been teaching English for the last nine years, it was my first time to attend the international conference. I realized that I had earlier missed the great fair of English teachers where they can shop of their interest, sharpen their knowledge, refresh their cognition and enhance their skills. The global practices of teaching language as second language or native, professional development, debate of authentic English, way of teaching and innovative skills and its sharing was wonderful for me. It has invigorated me to my teaching profession. It has motivated me and triggered my passion of teaching English.

Finally, I would like to thank RELO, American Embassy, NELTA Surkhet Branch, conference organizers and the speakers who updated me and my professional skills.

The author is an English teacher at a secondary level school in Surkhet.

Conference through eyes of a rapporteur

March 8, 2015Reflectionsadmin

Jyoti Tiwari

For the first time, I have ever attended an international conference recently. I was not just a participant but I was one of the rapporteurs in the 20^th International Conference organized by Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA) in Kathmandu from 17^th to 19^th February 2015. The conference covered wide range of issues about various aspects of English Language Teaching (ELT) among ELT professionals, practitioners, researchers, experts and scholars. It proved to be a change agent to promote better ELT scenario in the country. In this blog entry, I make an attempt to share with you about the conference from personal and rapporteur’s view.

It was my first experience and perhaps in the ELT history of Nepal that over 800 participants including teachers, professors, researchers, trainers, and other freelance professionals from 16 different countries including UK, USA, Bangladesh, India, China, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, UAE, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, and Nepal presented, participated and made discussions on different issues of ELT.

Prof. David Hayes, Graduate Program Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Brock University, Canada and Prof. Elka Todeva, a language educator with a doctorate in English in Applied Linguistics, who now works as a professor at the SIT Graduate Institute in the USA, were the keynote speakers of the conference. Both of them have highlighted on the conference theme. The theme of the conference this year was “The Quest for Quality ELT: Riding the Waves and Creating the Landscapes”.

In addition to the keynote speeches, there were 10 plenary sessions, 2 panel discussions, 161 concurrent and 18 Interactive Language Fair sessions.

Day One (Feb. 17, 2015)

I attended a few other panel discussions and concurrent sessions other than the plenary sessions on the first day. The two concurrent sessions that I attended, as one of the rapporteurs, were from India and Bangladesh. Uma Maheshwari Chimirala, one of the ELT professionals from India presented a paper on impact of anticipation and peer assessment on oral task performance who discussed ‘anticipation’ as a teaching strategy to design ‘anticipatory’ tasks to maximize learner investment, noticing and learning opportunities in the ESL classroom.

In the second session, Md. Eftekhar Uddin, an associate professor in the department of English Language and Literature in International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh, made a discussion on ‘Developing Postgraduate ELT Students’ Research Skills through Blended learning Approach’. He presented a detail course module for developing research competence of MA ELT students in a private university in Bangladesh. The module was based on blended learning approach using tech tools like Schoology, Padlet and PowerPoint.

Day Two (Feb. 18, 2015)

The second day of the conference on February 18, 2015 began with the plenary talks by key note speakers Prof. David Hayes, and Prof. Elka Todeva and Prof. Dr. Abhi Subedi.

Key speaker Hayes facilitated a plenary talk on Teaching Learning and Context: What We can learn about Innovation and Quality in ELT from Studying the Lives and Careers of English Language Teachers. In another plenary talk was on Tapping into the Good Learners in All of Us. Likewise, Dr. Subedi facilitated a plenary talk on ‘Is Writing Colourless Green Ideas Sleeping Furiously Together?

Following the plenary talks on the second day, I attended three concurrent sessions. The first concurrent session was of Catherine Owens and Robert Burges from Thailand, who jointly presented a paper on “Blended Learning: Building Critical Awareness and Autonomy”. Secondly, Humaira Cheguft Chowdhary from Bangladesh made a discussion on “Using Pictures to Enhance Appropriate Uses of English Descriptive Words”. In the third con-current session, Ganesh Kumar Khanal from Nepal presented a paper on ‘Addressing Multiple Intelligence in EFL Classroom’.

The second day concluded with two plenary sessions by Z. N. Patil on ‘Enriching Linguistics and Communicative Competence through Literature’ and Ganga Gautam and Zakia Sarwar on ‘Learners Autonomy in Large Class through Innovative Project Based Learning’.

3^rd Day (February 19, 2015)

The third day of the conference began with three plenary talks and followed by concurrent sessions. Sanjeev Upreti from Mimic Man to Global Citizen: Interpreting EFL from post-colonial and post-modern Perspective”. The next plenary talk was by Laxman Gnawali on ‘Not Just Action: Blend Activities with Conten’. The last plenary talk facilitated by Balkrishna Sharma was on ‘Whose Waves and For What Qualities: Nonwestern Philosophies for Professional Development in ELT’.

I participated in four concurrent sessions facilitated by the presenters from Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Asmaul Husna from Bangladesh presented the paper on ‘Movies for the English Class’ while Akhilesh Kumar Sharma from India on ‘L2 Teaching learning Process: Students Preference’. Likewise, Thirth Karki from Nepal presented on ‘Short Stories in EFL Classes’. Last but not the least, Praveen Kumar Yadav facilitated a session on ‘New Media Technology for English Language Teaching and Learning: What and How.

To conclude, the three-day conference was a huge success. NELTA president Hemant Raj Dahal’s closing remarks wrapped up the conference. I must say everyone who are directly or indirectly related to ELT field, they must join this forum. As one of the rapporteurs, I felt myself confident and proud to be a member of this largest ELT forum of Nepal.

Presenting for first time in the conference

March 8, 2015Reflectionsadmin

Priyanka Pandey

Attending conferences, seminars and training is not just effective ways to develop one’s professional skills, but presenting papers in such events also plays vital role to develop professionally. Presenting paper in those professional venues boosts up confidence of the presenters when they utilize the opportunity to share their ideas, skills, knowledge and experiences. Last month, when I presented my first conference paper and also participated in Interactive Language fair session, I learnt a lot. In this piece of writing, I will reflect on and share my experiences of presenting my paper in the recent held conference of NELTA in Kathmandu. pandey1

The interactive language fair (ILF) coordinated by Dr. Laxman Gnawali, my mentor, was an add-on to the conference. As I participated in the fair, I had an opportunity to realize my strengths as well as weaknesses. It is true that most of the people in every field feel scared when they are doing something for first time and so did I. Although I was excited to present the paper for the first time in the conference, I also feared at the same time and was worried about my presentation since my proposal was accepted for the presentation. My worries grew further as the date of presentation drew closer. I always thought and worked on how I could make the best presentation. The more I worried, more I started losing my confidence. Even I wondered whether I could have sufficient participants in my session.

Many scholars from different countries of the world and different parts of our country were participating in the conference where I was going to present my paper. Such a thing always recurred to my mind and thought. As it was my first presentation in any conference, I prepared my stuff to be exhibited in the ILF session in advance and visited my professor. I received some suggestions from him to make my presentation better and I did accordingly. Even excitement, curiosity and fear of making mistakes within me continued affecting me. But later, I became more relaxed after I got positive and encouraging feedback from my professor when I showed my presentation slides. Then I felt relax a bit and decided not to worry about my presentation any more. I was determined to present my paper at any cost, no matter what could be the results.

But again, when I looked at the conference schedule, I found both of my presentations of concurrent session’ and ‘ILF’ were on the same day. Even I talked to my professor but he told me that it would be difficult to change the schedule. Further, he encouraged and told me not to worry as well.

Finally, the conference started from February 17 and my presentation was the next day. On the first day, I was more curious to learn from the key note speakers and other presenters when they facilitated their sessions. I tried my best to concentrate on the ways they were making presentations.

On the second day, I rushed to the ILF session and exhibited the presentation stuffs in the fair. In the beginning of the session, everyone was invited to introduce themselves and the topic of their presentation and exhibition. It was my turn. As I had slightly changed my topic for ILF, I was little confused and shared the title of previous topic which interrupted me during my speech. I felt little nervous but quickly corrected myself. Upon my presentation, here I question myself, “Is it sin to make mistakes or get confused?”, or do we need to feel humiliated when we don’t have fluency in English? No, not at all, I answer. Making mistake is a process of learning but we should never give up. Such thoughts encouraged me to avoid all the fear of making mistakes and feeling of humiliation. Finally, I increased my level of confidence and perception of looking into making mistake also changed. Finally, my hesitant soul transformed into a confident soul. Then, I realized that it is necessary to change the perception to develop one’s profession.

The first session in the ILF was at 1 pm and the second was at 1:35 pm at different halls. During the ILF session, I talked to the participants on ‘learning negation at early years by EFL learners in Nepalese context’. I mainly focused on developmental process of learning negation by Nepalese EFL learners at their early age. I found most of the participants were interested to observe developmental process of learning negation as it reminded their childhood. In the session, I enjoyed myself to interact with participants and also felt more confident as I talked to them. Likewise, I found most of the participants interested to listen to me and they were attentive in the session. Moreover, some participants gave positive feedback and appreciated my session. pandey2

Despite of nervousness, both of the sessions I have facilitated went well.This made me feel better and also encouraged me to present my paper in the days to come. I was very happy and got confidence and determined to show my strengths with the help of presentation in the days to come. From that moment I decided to overcome my fear which always blocks me to go further in my life.

To conclude, presenting paper in the conference of NELTA helped me boost up my confidence and I believe that it has a great impact on my professional development. It helped me realize my strength and encouraged me to present the paper in the upcoming conference as well. I wish to become a good presenter, which is an essential part of teaching.

My first ever experience attending the conference

March 8, 2015Reflectionsadmin

Deepak Dulal, Master Second year

Mahendra Ratna Campus , Tahachal , Kathmandu

Attending the twentieth international conference of English Language Teaching (ELT) last month was my first ever experience. I cannot help myself expressing immense pleasure to be a part as a participant in the mega event.

Like in the past years, it was the 20^th time that NELTA organized the annual international conference that in Kathmandu. This year, the conference was held at DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati Higher Secondary School, Lalitpur, Nepal on Feb 17, 18 and 19.And, the theme of the conference this year was “The Quest for Quality ELT: Riding the Waves and Creating the Landscape”.

In addition to the key note speeches, I attended in 10 plenary sessions, which included ‘whose woods are these….? By Vishnu S. Rai-postmodern ELT; Neuro ELT by Marc Helgessen; Teaching, Learning and Context by David Hayes; Tapping into the good learners in all of us by Elka Todevais writing colorless green ideas sleeping furiously together? by Abhi Subedi; Enriching linguistic and communicative competence through literature by Z.N. Patil; Learners autonomy in large class through innovative project-based learning by Ganga Gautam and Zakia Sarwara; From mimic men to global citizens, interpreting EFL from post-colonial and post-modern perspectives by Sanjeev Uprety; No just Action: Blend Activities with content by Laxman Gnawali and Whose Waves and for What quality; Non-Western philosophies for professional development in ELT by Balkrishna Sharma. All the ten sessions I attended were interesting and insightful. However, I found the three sessions quite interesting. Firstly, Marc Helgesen widely talked of learners need, interest and their neurological science in learning language. Secondly, Ganga Gautam and Zakia Sarwara talked about learners’ autonomy in learning, which I found most interesting and greatly useful. They presented free writing or project-Based learning strategies methods and their findings. The third, Laxman Gnawali talked about the flipside of communicative teaching method in language teaching and he also provided the solutions. He argued that communicative method followed by English teachers in Nepal hardly focuses on content.

Likewise, the two panel discussions I attended during the conference were impactful on participants. The first discussion moderated by Dr. Laxman Gnawali was about the role of literature in proficiency development of English language and panelists were Professors Abhi Subedi, Vishnu singh Rai and Tej Ratna Kanskar. The second discussion with panelists Jai Raj Awasthi from Nepal, Zakia Sarwara from Pakistan and Z N Patil from India were on ‘policy issues on ELT’, and it was moderated by Bal Krishna Sharma. They largely discussed on ELT issues and policies on ELT in the contexts of three neighboring countries.

Out of total 161 concurrent sessions in the three-day conference, I attended Flipping the classroom by Christina Torres (USA); Learners autonomy in ESL teaching by Faisal Naseer(Pakistan); Errors correction techniques in ELT by Jagdish Poudel (Nepal), Continuous Assessment to increase motivation by Soniya Urfat Urmee (Bangladesh); Active, independent and lifelong English language learning(part-i) by Umer Farooq (Pakistan); Story writing through a creative fun game by Umes Shrestha(Nepal); look ma: I did it-Reclaiming the joy of learning by Elka Todeva (USA); Working with teachers in the Quest for Quality ELT, Understanding and controlling our experience by David Hayes(UK); Collaborative Approaches to writing effectively in a large class by Chiranjivi Sharma(Nepal) and lastly New media technology for ELT: what and how, by Praveen Kumar Yadav (Nepal). I found each session with own importance and value. Mostly importantly, I came to know that language (English) teaching and learning has wider perspectives of issues and challenges. I learnt about different innovations and investigations in the field of ELT from different countries. Most of the presentations focused on how to teach effectively.

Another interesting session was interactive language fair session, which was coordinated by Dr. Laxman Gnawali. For the fair, 18 presenters stood with their stalls and explained the visitors about their presentation stuffs. I found it most effective session among all sessions, wherein I had an opportunity to meet talk and share our experience face-to-face with the presenters and participants.

As an ELT practitioner, while attending on this mega event I learnt about wide range of ELT issues focusing on diversified areas covering alternative assessment, leaning outcomes and teaching effectiveness, ICT in ELT, creative writing, critical thinking, academic writing, critical thinking, teacher professional development, literacy in EFL, literature in pedagogy, mother tongue education and EFL, multilingualism, trends and research in EFL, new media in ELT, and fun games in ELT. The conference was a get-together of English language teachers, I was able to meet many of them including Dr. Laxman Gnyawali, Ganga Gautam, Rishi Rijal , Balram Adhikari , Umes-Shrestha and Praveen Kumar Yadav. For me, it was also a networking event, I met many of the participants from Nepal and other 16 different countries for the first time and exchanged our experiences and email addresses with a hope to become friends to do the same in future.

Acknowledgment:

I am indebted to the support of our teacher Miriam Corneli from the US, English Language Fellow for Nepal, who I believe is a great ELT scholar. I was one among ten M. Ed. students from MRC Tahachal Campus, who Corneli sponsored for the participation. Through essay writing contest, the ten of us were selected for the reward and the opportunity to attend the conference.

Interview with Program Manager of British Council Nepal

January 1, 2015Interviewfeaturedadmin

Ms Vaishali Pradhan is the Program Manager at British Council Nepal, working to improve English Language Teaching situation in the country. Here is an interview Choutari took with her.

ELT Choutari: How do you assess the current situation of English Language Teaching in Nepal? What are the prospects and challenges?

Pradhan: These days English is no longer a language for the elite class. Students from all backgrounds want to learn the language. Parents aspire to see their children speak good English. It is because of this need that English Language teaching in schools has gained momentum over the past few years. Our education system has seen a systemic shift and so has the ELT situation in Nepal. Trained human resource, quality materials and assessment for me are the main challenges our schools face today. Figures from many of our project baselines have shown that majority of teachers continue to teach English in Nepali. Receptive skills like listening, speaking and reading are given less or no priority. Some of these teachers probably aren’t equipped with the right training while the others fail to take their learning into actual classroom teaching. Quality materials and assessment is also an area that needs attention. Good English language teaching requires materials that can make English learning fun. This then needs to be supplemented with an equally engaging assessment tool.

ELT Choutari: What are the key programmes that the British Council is implementing for improving ELT situation in Nepal? What has been most effective?

Pradhan: We currently have two large scale projects that focus on improving the teaching methodology of primary school teachers. English for Teaching: Teaching for English (ETTE+) is a British Council project that helps teachers of English language improve their language and teaching skills. ETTE+ is particularly designed for teachers who live in far-flung areas, and who have not yet benefited from training or development opportunities. English for Teaching: Teaching for English makes this possible by using a new flexible model of delivery that combines direct and indirect delivery of face-to-face, printed, electronic and on-line services. It helps school teachers improve their performance in the classroom by enhancing their access to materials, methods and opportunities for their professional training and development. We are currently this in Lamjung and Chitwan. The phase one results of this project was very promising – by the end of phase 1 we had 96% of teachers speaking in English in the classrooms compared to 76% during the baseline. We also had 88% students speaking in English with their teachers compared to 16% before the project intervention.

We recently signed an MoU with NCED to implement Project NIITE (National Initiative to Improve Teaching in English). This project is aimed at teachers working in an EMI (English as a medium of Instruction) setting. This project will be implemented from February 2015.

ELT Choutari: Through this interview, we would like to inform teachers, researchers, and professional leaders in the field of ELT about the kinds of opportunities you have. Please list or describe some of the opportunities and resources that you have for them.

Pradhan: The British Council offers various opportunities for English teachers. We have scholarship opportunities like the Hornby Scholarship and Hornby Regional School. We have online and face-to-face training courses like LE Pathways, Master Series Workshops and Teach English Professional development courses. We also run the CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) which is an internationally recognised English teaching qualification for people with little or no previous teaching experience. It is one of the most widely taken qualifications of its kind and it is essential for anyone hoping to work for a reputable English language teaching institution such as the British Council. Details of all these opportunities and resources can be accessed via our website or by clicking on the link below.

http://www.britishcouncil.org.np/EnglishTeacherTrainingNepal

2014: A year of crash for Nepali universities

January 1, 2015Critical Thinkingadmin

NIRJANA SHARMA

This may not be a coincidence that the highest number of Nepali students went abroad on student visa for higher education this year, while countries four of the universities came under the scanner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on serious corruption charges.

The year 2014 painted a bleak picture on the credibility of the country’s oldest and reputed universities, keeping students in dilemma whether to pursue higher education in these universities.

After the CIAA sped up its investigation over various complaints of irregularities against the top most officials of the Purbanchal University, Mid-Western University (MWU) and Pokhara University, most of the accusations were backed up by the strong evidences. The anti-graft body had to recommend suspending dozens of senior officials after the investigation.

While the CIAA action was inevitable to expose the uprooted corruption. But the reveal of the names emptied the posts at the varsities.

In April, when the anti-graft body began investigation in Purbanchal University, involvement of around two dozen officials including the Vice Chancellor (VC), Registrar, Exam Controller and Faculty Dean was prior to their arrest later.

Again in August, officials’ suspension followed by their arrest of including the executive head of the autonomous varsity- VC, Rector and Registrar panicked around 1500 students of MWU, who had high hope from the regional varsity established in their own place in Surkhet. Later in October, 22 officials from Pokhara University were arrested.

Contrary to the students’ hope to achieve higher education from the university for the establishment of which they had struggled at MWU, the students starting moving to the Tribhuvan University (TU) affiliated colleges again.

In the wake of the exposure of corruption by officials at theMWU, dozens of students discontinued their courses and started searching for alternatives.

Quitting of the university by students in droves was sparked by the exposure of corruption and subsequent suspensions at MWU. Although the newly appointed VC and registrar have expressed their commitment to improving things, the students appear not to be reassured. Around 150 students have already left the varsity till November, said the MWU-based student unions.

Purbanchal was not an exception. And neither the Pokhara University. The Purbanchal, that failed to follow thr calander in many of the faculties, a positive impact upon the administrative and academic work is yet to be visible in the ongoing service of the VC and other officials appointed for interim state.

A popular saying made on lighter node, give a worrisome message about the Purbanchal instead. “One student left his management course in mid-session, went to India, completed a degree there and came back to teach PU students who were of his own batch there,” said Pashupati Nepal, Eastern Region In-charge of the All Nepal National Independent Student Union – Revolutionary.

With the CIAA being aggressive in its scrutiny of university, and absence of another mechanism to oversee the activities of the varsities, the future is mote worrisome, experts say.

Universities being the autonomous body, it is hard to interfere in their daily activities, whereas frequent reports of corruption in many universities does not portend well for students enrolled there.

The University Grant Commission (UGCC) cannot seize documents and take any other strict actions, which allow the universities to skirt accountability, says Bhola Pokhrel, Member Secretary of the UGC.

Former vice-chancellor of the TU, Kedar Bhakta Mathema, said that there is no mechanism within the education system to take the situation under control if the top-level varsities themselves engage in corruption.

“In order to avert crisis in the education sector, it is high time that the concept of high powered commission that can oversee the activities of universities be discussed seriously,” he said.

Can the CIAA’s action raise question over the accountability of the UGC itself? Pokhrel said that the universities do not cooperate with the commission, so its job remains limited to allocating funds.

Politicization is the real culprit, states Former VC of Tribhuvan University Kedar Bhakta Mathema. He believes that the government failed to realize the importance of making these academic institutions, like most other institutions, free of political intervention.

“Until or unless the provisions of political appointments at universities are not scrapped, Nepal´s higher education will remain weaker and may eventually collapse,” he warns.

“Picking the VC, Rector and Registrar from parties, is meant to work in favor of institution, rather they will serve their political interest”, he added.

—

The author is an education journalist.

My Professional Trip to the US

January 1, 2015Teacher's Experience/anecdotesadmin

Teacher’s Travelogue

PEMA KALA BHUSAL

Travelling is something I’ve always craved for since my childhood. My passion for travelling has led me travel to many places across the country and recently abroad, fortunately. In the autumn (October-November) of 2014, I visited Eugene, Oregon, USA, to participate in a three-week-long E-Teacher Professional Development Workshop sponsored by the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (Office of English Language Programs) and the University of Oregon, Linguistics Department/American English Institute (UO AEI). I was chosen for the program based on my performance in the online E-teacher Course I had attended virtually. I was one among 24 participants representing 24 different countries. I not only represented Nepal but also Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

24 participants from 24 different countries

Before I traveled to the US, I had different perceptions and curiosities. This was not only the first time I was traveling to a foreign country, it was also the first time I was making a long journey alone. I was both nervous and excited during the trip. Sometimes, I thought about missing a flight, losing my belongings, and so on. But fortunately, I did not face any trouble at all.

The E-Teacher Professional Development Workshop was held in a beautiful campus of University of Oregon (UO), Eugene. The campus looked so colorful and fascinating with almost five hundred species of trees in its premises, that has made this Oregon more unique in its beauty. Above all, I believe peaceful and fresh environment, generous people, special educational system, and remarkable natural beauty together have made a great ambience for the program.

After having a complementary continental breakfast at the Phoenix Inn Suites, located near the UO campus and downtown Eugene, we attended the morning sessions of the workshop at the Phoenix Inn itself. The sessions were held from 9 am to the noon. Following the morning sessions, we always moved to the UO Campus, Carson Dining Hall for our lunch, which consisted of a variety of food items.

The workshop sessions were designed and delivered in such a way that triggered to make us (participants) more interactive and engaging. I found most of the contents related to Nepalese contexts as well. I really got surprised from the commitment, support of my instructors, management and overall American English Institute (AEI) faculty. What a wonderful management for the workshop! Overall, the sessions, instructors and the materials were incredibly awesome.

Class Observation

Meanwhile, I also got the opportunity to observe the classroom. I mainly observed two English classes at the UO. The first class was at high intermediate level at B13B Klamath with Ms. Stef Brewer. I saw the students discussing Museum and the Art (They had gone there the previous week) in different groups. I also joined with one of their groups and learned about their journey to the museum. The group had some non-native speakers of English whose English language was not very proficient, so to improve their English speaking skills, two graduate students who are native speakers of English, joined the conversation. The graduate students were visiting tutors to them. During the conversation with the tutors, I found they would visit the class twice a week and they also wanted to become teachers. At last, the students were assigned to come up with the problem solving questions and they had to solve in the group. This is the approach they followed to assess the students, I learnt. I really liked this idea to help the learners improve their language skills.

Another classroom I observed was writing at 322 Library with AEIS110 (American English Institute) students. During the observation, I found that the students were non-American (Chinese) and they were taught English grammar. The tutor told me that they were very good at their English speaking skills but they did not know the rules. That’s why they were taught English grammar, the tutor added. This is what I found completely different from our context. Overall, I enjoyed observing both the classes and learned a lot about the new systems which I was not familiar with before.

Observing English Language Classs at Academic of International Studies — Observing English Language Class at Academy of International Studies

Likewise, one of the wonderful schools I have ever visited was Academy of International Studies, Woodburn School District. This is an outstanding multilingual school district which motivates and empowers all students to succeed. I was fascinated from different systems and facilities provided by the school. The main mission of the school is to engage, inspire and prepare all students to learn and lead in a global society. The school principal was very kind and supportive. Despite busy schedule, he spent the whole day helping us to observe the classes. I found the Spanish class, German class, and English language classes all interesting. The teachers were highly active and experienced. Above all, what amazed me the most was the goal of the school, which was to produce multilingual students. Multilingualism is viewed as an important and powerful goal of education in more places around the world and we should learn this lesson in Nepal.

Sightseeing

Apart from the workshop and class observation, the sightseeing was wonderful. I visited to different famous places during my stay in Eugene. The first trip was at Oregon coast and Oregon Coast Aquarium. For me, it was also an opportunity to see new and different creatures such as Sea Otters and harbor seal, which I was not familiar with before. The main interesting thing I witnessed there was the time to feed the creatures and see them behaving like human beings.

What I enjoyed doing the most in Eugene was ‘shopping’. Mainly, Bestbuy, Wallmart, Market of Choice and Macy’s, Target were among the different shopping places I visited. I found ‘Best buy’ as the best place to buy electronic items. How could I forget the moment when I was about to lose my way when I went for shopping in ‘Wallmart’? But later with the help of the systematic maps in each and every bus station and the very kind bus drivers, I was able to find out the suitable way.

Newport, Bayfront was another great place for shopping and sightseeing that I could explore during my trip. Although I did not buy lots of things there, I enjoyed watching them and find new things there. I also visited to the Newport lighthouse, beach walk and a great city, New York. Wherever I went, everything was amazing and I enjoyed my visit a lot.

Learning American Culture

My trip schedule to the US included exploring American culture as well. As a part of American culture, Halloween, a cultural event, is the most amazing experience I had during the trip. I was very excited to celebrate this event, so I and my colleagues went to a local farm to purchase pumpkins. Then, after a very few days, it was the time for Pumpkin Carving for Halloween. It was nice to see all in different looks wearing different cultural Halloween things. We enjoyed a lot taking pictures and having party at Phoenix Inn, Hospitality room.

Then I could participate in a cultural exchange program’ at ‘Knight Library Browsing Room’. The University of Oregon (UO) faculty and staff and invited officials and community members had attended the program, wherein I shared information about Nepal, my country, and Nepalese culture. Everyone seemed enjoying the program and we also distributed some cultural items to the participants. It was really nice to see almost all the participants in their own national customs. Overall, I had a wonderful experience I have ever had.

Final project

Finally, I was supposed to do was to design a project to deliver two-hour workshop in my home country, Nepal. Then, I started working on my project (Team Building) which is suitable in our context. We were 24 participants from 24 different countries to collaborate, discuss and work in the groups which made us easier to work on the project.

working on the project — Working on the project

Then there was the time to deliver a 30-minutes presentation about my project which was the part of my two-hour workshop. New place, new people and the new things to do, I was a bit nervous. My nervousness grew further after I came to learn that the presentations were broadcast live worldwide and open to the public. Despite of my anxiety, my presentation finally went on well and it was fun and engaging to the participants. It was nice to get positive feedback from the participants including instructors. It was a great learning that there was nothing to be nervous but this way I built up confidence.

To conclude, I spent three busy weeks in beautiful Eugene of Oregon. I feel myself recharged with lots of experiences and excitements back to Nepal. Each place I went was rewarding and stimulating. I wish we had similar roads, physical infrastructure and all the facilities I saw during my trip to the US. I believe the trip was the most exciting and fruitful moment I have ever had in my life. It was simply awesome learning.

—

The author is doing her Masters in ELT from Kathmandu University.

AmericanEnglish.State.Gov: Great Online Resource for ELT

January 1, 2015ELT Resourceadmin

FEATURE STORY by GANGA GAUTAM

Those who teach English are taken as busy teachers in Nepalese context. Having abundant opportunities for English teachers is probably the key reason for their busier schedules. And many of them claim that they cannot just make their earning sufficient, teaching at just one institution.

“For busy teachers like me, the americanenglish.state.gov is the hub for resources,” said Praveen Kumar Yadav, an English teacher who participated in a training facilitated by me in December. Yadav, who is working for King’s College and Republica English national daily simultaneously, said, “I found the website not only useful for English language teaching but equally for English language learning.”

Even though he has been surfing internet and exploring online resources for English language learning and teaching for the last five years, he had never come across the americanenglish.state.gov before the workshop, Yadav said.

Like him, fourteen English teachers from primary to tertiary levels attended a three-day teacher training workshop organized in King’s College, Kathmandu recently. The main objective of the training ‘Maximizing American Space Resources for English Language Enhancement’ held with assistance of the US Embassy Nepal, was to make the participant teachers familiar with online resources managed by the US State Department, especially americanenglish.state.gov, which are freely accessible all over the world.

Divya Nakarmi, another participant English teacher at DAV School, used to spend most of her time in developing materials for her classroom to teach primary level students. She felt herself over the moon after she came to learn about the americanenglish.state.gov

“This website is incredibly awesome with number of materials I can use in my classroom. I find americanenglish.state.gov an amazing site to solve all my problems,” Divya said. “I don’t have to worry about the materials required for my classroom as I can download them easily from the site itself.”

Immediately after learning about americanenglish.state.gov, one of the participants, Prajwal Singh Thapa, who is pursuing his masters in ELT from Kathmandu University, said that he would constantly browse it.

“To avoid the monotonous class environment, the online resource could be very helpful for me to find various techniques to make the class interactive,” Thapa said.

The website ‘americanenglish.state.gov‘ is a very useful online resources many teachers like me find user-friendly. Once you visit this site, there are two main gateways: Teach and Learn.

American English

The Teach site offers the materials to teach English that include activities, lesson plans, games, songs, stories, reading and writing activities. It also contains the professional development materials including the webinars and teacher training materials. You will also find announcement of the webinar series and other e-teacher training opportunities on this site. Similarly, there are activity books, interesting games ready-to-use materials for busy teachers.

Once you explore the site, you will be addicted to it ! If you would like to make your English class effective, interesting and you would like to have fun while teaching English, this is where you find the wonders !!!

—

The author is Reader in English Education at Tribhuvan University. He is also an executive member (Immediate Past President) of NELTA.

What the school planned

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Teacher’s Travelogue

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