Babita Sharma

Dear valued readers,

Greetings!

It gives us immense pleasure to release the fourth quarterly issue (October-December) of ELT Choutari, 2021 under the theme of ‘Teacher Research or Classroom-based research for teachers’ continuous professional development.’ As we talk about learner autonomy in the 21^st century and the bottom-up approach of teaching and learning, it seems essential for teachers to wear a hat of a researcher and begin to explore the natural teaching context and be certain about their teaching approach and skills. We, therefore, felt that this discourse should be addressed on an academic forum like ELT Choutari. Unlike becoming fully dependent on imported ELT methodologies, one requires to explore classroom issues, involve their students in the research process, meaningfully reflect on their teaching, assess and refine their teaching method, always keeping students learning progress, that they are responsible for, at the centre.

Teachers are likely to hesitate when they are asked to carry out research because the term ‘research’ sounds, in general, like a heavy academic task that requires a great deal of time and energy. However, teachers can simply explore within their teaching time, in order to acquire deeper insights and understanding about their own successful teaching practices as well as challenges. This kind of exploratory research refers to stepping back from the present situation and beginning to take a careful look at one problem at a time and spend some time trying to understand the problem itself rather than acting quickly to solve it (Smith & Rebolledo, 2018).

Teachers see, hear or feel and know whether something is working or not working in their classroom but that knowledge is not sufficient to explain the reason behind the situation. The present issue of ELT Choutari aims to encourage English teachers to carefully examine the issue, gather information, reflect on our experiences, make interpretations based on the evidence gathered, develop the teaching method suitable to their context, plan to work differently, and help other teachers to learn from it. The writings in this issue reflect the firsthand experiences in the area of teacher research and reflective practice of the authors/teachers and thus the ideas can be directly replicated to our English language teaching-learning context.

There are five articles in this issue:

Ram Aryal, in his article ‘Supporting students’ learning through the use of group work in ESL classroom: An exploratory action research’ reports the finding of his four-week study on supporting students’ learning through the use of group work in a large ESL classroom where teacher’s individual support was almost impossible. He explains how the slogan ‘the friend next to you helped him to encourage his students to actively participate in group work and how he succeeded to establish a system where students in groups could learn from each other. He further asserts that classroom-based research directed him to understand his problem and find solutions within his own teaching context.

Likewise, Seetha Venunathan in her article entitled ‘Reflective practice – Rants and revelations’ asserts that a person who is responsible for someone’s language progress, should constantly access to their approach and skills as a teacher. She explains the importance of teachers’ meaningful self-reflection and beautifully expresses how reflection is a lot more than just ‘having a think’ about a lesson. Finally, she offers some valuable tips for how a teacher does reflect meaningfully.

Similarly, Gobinda Puri in his reflective piece ‘A teacher’s journey from classroom researcher to the mentor’ claims that a teacher can be a researcher, a writer and a teacher research mentor. He highlights the importance of Action Research as the best tool to improve the existing classroom situation and groom oneself as a professional teacher and researcher.

In the same way, Hiral Lal Moktan in his writing ‘Students’ use of mobile phones during Covid -19 Pandemic’ reflects his experience that he obtained during his online classes with students. He shares the pros and cons of using mobile during online classes. He further shares how the use of mobile phones can be made more effective for students’ learning in pandemics like Covid-19 from his own experience as a teacher.

Finally, Purnima Thapa in her article ‘Zoom technology as a tool in teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Reflection of an English teacher’ reflects her personal experience of using zoom technology as a tool for teaching during online classes. She talks about its use and challenges in the rural context.

For ease of access, below is the list of hyperlinked articles:

Finally, I would like to thank our lead coeditor Sagar Poudel for his endless support throughout the process. We both are thankful to our coeditors and reviewers Ganesh Bastola, Ashok Raj Khati, Karuna Nepal, Mohan Singh Saud, Jeevan Karki, and Nani Babu Ghimire, Ekraj Koirala, Jnanu Raj Paudel and Rajendra Joshi, and the entire ELT Choutari team for their support and encouragement. Likewise, most importantly, we are indebted to all contributors of this issue.

If you enjoy reading these articles, please feel free to share in your circle, and of course, drop your comments in the boxes below. Likewise, please write and send us your teaching-learning experiences for which we will be happy to provide a space at Choutari. Our email is 2elt.choutari@gmail.com

Wish you a happy Deepawali and Chhat Festival!

Happy Reading!

References:

Smith, R & Rebolledo, P (2018). A Handbook for Exploratory Action Research. London: British Council.

Babita Chapagain

Lead editor of the issue

Sagar Poudel

Co– editor of the issue

Dear valued readers,

Greetings!

It gives us immense pleasure to release the fourth quarterly issue (October-December) of ELT Choutari, 2019 under the theme of ‘EFL/ESL teachers’ new teaching ideas/ methods and best practices on integrated approach to teaching English’. As the Ministry of Education, Nepal is heading towards developing and implementing integrated curriculum especially in basic grades, we felt that the discourse should be centered towards it on the academic forum like ELT Choutari. Many countries around the world have been practicing an integrated approach to teaching and learning and advocating its effectiveness for more than two decades. For instance, Dewey (1938) argued that when various subjects are taught in isolation, children lack holistic understanding of the concepts. Likewise, Brain research has depicted the connective nature of brain development that supports the view of integrated curriculum. Wesley (1992) argues that language learning is a whole brain activity; language is learned faster and better if it is taught in a holistic manner. In this backdrop, English teachers of Nepal cannot remain aloof from this new idea.

Learners always bring culture and life experiences related to different content areas to their classroom as they come from rich biological, ethnic, cultural and linguistic background. Language is learned by using it meaningfully in various contexts. Therefore, language education should not merely focus on teaching language skills in isolation but curriculum should be integrated and students, especially in basic grades, should be given ample opportunities to learn English as a second/foreign language by experiencing it in real life situations across various content.

Exchanging our teaching learning experiences on professional platform is a part of continuous professional development, which helps us to stay abreast with current trends and practices in our teaching-learning.

The 92^ndissue of Choutari offers a wide range of experiences, and opinions of the contributors capturing best practices in ELT in the area of integrated approach to teaching English. We hope these articles will give some ideas, especially to English teachers, on how to integrate English language with other content areas and thus to avoid rote learning and treat English only as a subject in isolation. Moreover, these writings reflect the firsthand experiences in the area of integrated curriculum and project based learning of the authors/teachers and thus the ideas can be directly replicated to our English language teaching learning context.

There are five articles in this issue:

Ramesh Prasad Ghimire in his first article ‘Place of English in an integrated curriculum for basic grades (1-3) in Nepal’ provides a glimpse of integrated curriculum as well as relevant materials that have been developed for grades (1-3) and piloted in Nepal. In addition, the author explains where English stands in the new curriculum and finally he talks about its challenges in the part of implementation and highlights the necessity of careful and effective teacher preparation before the curriculum is launched in a large scale.

Likewise, the second article entitled ‘Enhancing project work in EFL class’ by Samira Idelcadi offers practical way of integrating project work in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) class and some important ideas to help students in their projects, monitor and assess the projects and learning during the process. She asserts that project work enhances both students’ language skills and life skills and therefore it should not be merely taken as an extra-curricular activity and teachers could rather make it a part of their regular lesson.

In the third article ‘The market study- an integrated approach’, Prakriti Khanal shares how a long term project-‘market study’ can be the pivot around which many other themes and objectives of curriculum across the subjects can be strewn. She furthermore explains how this kind of integrated project enables students to enliven the event and develop their communication and other important life skills.

Midesh Maharjan in his reflective piece ‘Experiential learning experience in Innovative Preschool’ shares some of his innovative teaching ideas to integrate English across contents and explains how children learn language by experiencing it while being engaged in various tasks related to different subject areas.

In the last post, Choutari editor Jeevan Karki compiles you the five special photos from different areas that can be used in teaching language skills especially speaking and writing.

For ease of access, below is the list of hyperlinked articles:

Finally, I would like to thank the entire team of ELT Choutari in general and Jeevan Karki, Ashok Raj Khati, Ganesh Bastola, Praveen Kumar Yadav and Dr. Karna Rana in particular for their rigorous effort in reviewing and editing the blog pieces. We are equally indebted to all contributors of this issue.

If you enjoy reading the articles, please feel free to share in your circle, and of course, drop your comments in the boxes below. Likewise, please write your teaching-learning experiences and send us. We will give a space at Choutari. Our email is 2elt.choutari@gmail.com

Wish you a happy Chhat Festival!

Happy Reading!

References:

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Touchstone.

Wesley, D.K. (1992). Educational implications of brain research applied to teaching language arts for creative and critical thinking in writing. ED345240.

ELT CHOUTARI

Nepal’s First Digital ELT Magazine

All posts by Babita Sharma

Welcome to Fourth Quarterly Issue of ELT Choutari 13(101)

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