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

Critical Outlook, Scholarly Article


         Ram Ashish Giri, PhD

EIL, Monash University, Melbourne

Introduction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Context of ELE reform

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

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

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

The School Leaving Certificate Examination

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

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

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

The High Stake Nature of the SLC and its Stakeholders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Role of the SLC English test in Reforming Existing ELE Practices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kellaghan (1992) expresses a similar view:

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

References

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

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

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

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

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

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TESTING:WHAT?

Miscellaneous, Scholarly Article

Welcome Note!

Hello!

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

Thank you!

What is testing?

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

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

-It is tricks and the acts of teasing to several

-It is of course a great trip to few

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

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

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

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

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

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

Test: in search of identity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tests of TU: toddling to the balancing act!

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

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

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

Silence is now full consent!

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

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

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

Testing or getting tested

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

Let’s be hopeful for the RISE!

References

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

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

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

November Issue of Nelta Choutari

Editorial

Editorial

Post modernism and Nepalese ELE

Post modernism is in air. Whether it be philosophy or education, arts or architecture, trade or craft, dance or music, literature or linguistics, post modern wave must have either renovated it promptly and utterly or if not, it must have begun to break the typical crust of the field belatedly and tenderly.  Typified by diversity against universality, regionalism against centralization, relativism against absolutism, decentralization against totalization, eclecticism against certainism, deconstructionism against classicism and conventionalism and many other subversive nouns, post modernism has dismantled the conformist prototype and has given considerable space for inclusion, recognition and promotion of local socio-political, linguistic, cultural and educational values. In fact, all disciplines including ELT have been revamped in both theory and practice by the post modern blow. Of late, ELT in the periphery has been advocated to be divorced from the mainstream for the reason that mainstream ELT practice has crushed the local realities and has not fetched the expected. Voices have been lifted from various corners to embody in ELT many novel but subversive trends that challenge global practices, promoting local ones. ELT in the periphery is advocated to be characterized by traits such as non-methodological practices, eclectic approach, recognition and use of regional and nativised models of English, collapse of native speakerism, bottom up thinking, recognizing ELT as ideological practice, valuing of peripheral socio-political values, acknowledging local knowledge, cultures and contexts and language not as limitations but as asset and something inevitable. These emerging trends seem to have begun to reshape periphery ELT elsewhere.  What about ours?  Are we doing post modern ELT or we are still away from the touch of it? Critically, the answer will be –partly yes and partly no. The present Nepalese English Language Education does seem to be triggered off by the current wave of change to a considerable degree. Recent revision of the B. Ed. and M. Ed. courses reflect a number of post modern characters. Nevertheless, a lot more is still waiting to be accomplished. Nepalese ELE needs to be resituated in accordance with Nepalese cultures and contexts. For instance, locally budding variety, Nenglish needs standardized via its optimum inclusion in the ELE curricula. Local but successful practices need to be theorized. Indigenous socio-political, cultural and educational values have to be made the guiding lens for Nepalese ELE. Instead of adhering to the global practices, importing the mainstream course materials, native flavor needs to be added to create a sense of belonging in Nepalese English language learners. To put it other way, culture specific and context sensitive approach is the cry of the day. This all orients us to make Nepalese ELE more responsive to cater to the challenges aforementioned i.e. we need to practice post modern ELE in the post modern epoch.

Sajan Kumar Karn

Editor, NELTA Choutari

 

Note:  Your comments –sweet or harsh will feel like a million bucks for us.


Nepalese English Language Education in New Era

Critical Outlook

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

by  Sajan Kumar Karn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you very much for your time and contribution.

Post Modern Paradigm in Nepalese ELT

Native Perspective

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

Dr. Govinda Raj Bhattarai

Professor of English

Department of English Education

Tribhuvan University

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

01 Nov 2010

tu.govinda@gmail.com

Methods to Principles in Langauge Teaching

Native Perspective

 

                          Methods to Principles in Language Teaching

     Dr. Bal Mukunda Bhandari

Associate Professor

Departement of English Education

Tribhuvan University

Background

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

Methods Debate

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

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

Principles

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

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

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

–          Engage all learners in the lesson.

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

–          Provide maximum opportunities for the student participation.

–          Develop learner responsibility.

–          Be tolerant of learners’ confidence.

–          Teach learning strategies.

–          Respond to learners’ difficulties and build on them.

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

–          Promote both accuracy and fluency.

–          Address learners’ needs and interests.

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

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

A: How are you?

B: I’m fine. Thank you

A: How old are you?

B: I’m ten years old.

A: Where are you from?

B: I’m from Gulmi.

A: Are you a student?

B: Yes. I’m.

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

Conclusion

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

References

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creative Writing Conference Summary

Miscellaneous

 

Creative Writing Conference

Asian English Teachers’ Creative Writing Group 

Dr. V. S. Rai

Associate Professor

Departement of English Education

Tribhuvan University

Asian English Teachers’ Creative Writing Group organized a 2 day conference at Little Angel’s School, Hattiban, Kathmandu. About 200 teachers attended the conference. The presenters were 2 from the UK, 4 from Malaysia, 2 from Vietnam, 1 from Indonesia, 2 from India, 1 from Thailand and 4 from Nepal. The main attractions of the conference were the plenary sessions by Prof. Alan Maley from the UK, Prof. Jayakaran Mukundan from Malaysia and Prof. Jai Raj Awasthi and Vishnu S Rai from Nepal. Every aspect of creative writing -from how can teachers themselves write to how they can help their students write – was covered. Despite the fact that creative writing was something new for the participants, their presence in overwhelming number suggested how keen Nepalese English teachers are to learn new tricks of their trade.

What participants liked most was that all the sessions provided them with the practical activities which provided them with the opportunity to experience the thrill and sensation of creative writing and learn how they can write creatively and teach their students to write creatively by doing.  The conference was successful to make the participant realize that creative writing can be done by non-native speaker of English, that it is really very interesting and that students can learn English better through creative writing activities.

A lot of institutions joined their hands together to make the conference and workshop successful. Asian English Teachers’ Creative Writing Group was assisted to conduct the conference and workshop by the British Council Nepal, Grammar School Group, Little Angel’s School and Bhundipuran Prakashan. NELTA central office also gave moral support by being present in the conference.

The importance and use of creative writing were carried by the wind quite far to Pokhara from where NELTA Branch Pokhara requested the Asian English Teachers’ Creative Writing Group to conduct a workshop. So after the conference, a two day creative writing workshop was held in Lake City which was facilitated by Alan Maley and Vishnu S Rai. About 40 participants from Pokhara, Syangja, Navalparasi, Tanhu and Rupandehi districts were present in the workshop.

The Post Modern Langauge Teacher

Global thought

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

Andrew Edward Finch, Ph.D.

Kyungpook National University

Republic of Korea

Introduction

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

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

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

Changing definitions

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

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

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

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

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

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

Postmodern categories include:

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

 

Changing sciences

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

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

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

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

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

Changing worlds

Socia upheavals as evidenced in:

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

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

Changing educations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Changing Englishes

TABLE 1: Contrasting modern and postmodern educational concepts

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

[3] TEPS: Test of English Performance Skills

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