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

Introduction

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

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

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

A glimpse of the course topics and the activities performed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

Reference

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

Priyanka Pandey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rajan Poudel

Globalization of English language demands competent users of English language in the world today. And to producing competent or skilled language users, there is the need of qualified educators and technical manpower. The Ministry of Education (MoE) has been implementing in-service teacher training for a long time to improve the quality of English language teachers. But there are numerous issues related to in-service teacher training, regarding its effectiveness and transformation. Therefore, this article seeks to scrutinize issues and challenges of in-service teacher training in Nepal.

In-service teacher training in Nepal is usually seen ineffective because English language teachers are not adequately trained to teach at school (Shrestha, 2008). There are questions to be addressed in relation to the quality, transformation of knowledge, effectiveness, methodology and approaches of in-service teacher training. School administrators, the major stakeholder, often complain that training is provided only when there is a revision or changes in core curriculum. But there is a lack of training and continuous support to equip teachers to face challenges while teaching.

In theory, in-service teacher training is training taken by a teacher after he/she has begun to teach. The training aims at enhancing the skills, knowledge and performance of the working teachers. In-service teacher training is important for a teacher because the working conditions and the demands from the society are always changing for professionals like teachers (Gnawali, 2001). Thus, in-service training is necessary to meet the demand of time and demands of the society.

Some of the key objectives of teacher training, as Bhan (2006) mentions, are – to upgrade the qualification of a teacher, to upgrade the professional competence of serving teachers, to prepare teachers for new roles, to provide knowledge and skills relating to emerging curricular change, to make teachers aware of critical areas and issues, and to overcome gaps and deficiencies of pre-service education. These objectives of in-service teacher trainings are equally relevant to the context of Nepali education system. In this light, Bista (2011) mentions that untrained teacher may not be as innovative as their trained counterparts. Therefore, training is important for teachers to upgrade, enhance professional competence and raise awareness in the critical issues and areas.

Role of National Center for Educational Development (NCED)

In-service teacher training programs are primarily run by the National Center for Educational Development (NCED) and Secondary Educational Development Center (SEDC) in Nepal. Established in 1992, NCED is the government run institution that conducts teacher training. The center has nine well facilitated primary teacher training centers spread throughout the country. NCED has also a policy to allow the private agencies to run teacher training programs. NCED has been offering the long-term 10 month in-service training to the working teachers but a lot of permanent teachers are still untrained.

Issues and challenges

Not only is it important to prepare updated teachers, it is crucially important to produce quality learning outcomes through in-service training. For this, one of the ways is that teachers be willing to work collaboratively with other teachers. Neuman (2010) states that many teachers who are interested in exploring processes of teaching and learning in their own context are either unable, for practical reasons, or unwilling, for personal reasons, to do collaborative work (p.18). However, in our context, teachers are hardly willing to collaborate with each other.

On the basis of my own interaction with major stakeholders, besides collaboration, these are some major issues and challenges of in-service teacher training.

Copycat mentality

Copycat mentality is one of the major issues that strives on imitation of what happens in the western countries. Our curricula, pedagogical approaches, assessment methods continue to be derived from the West. For instance, Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner and Maslow continue to be perceived as gift for the scholars in Nepal.

Similarly, practicum or teaching practice models are imported from another context. These concepts need to be contextualized rather than adapted. Teacher training institutions and schools have not valued indigenous epistemologies or the culture and value systems of Nepali children. This has led in significant ways to schools being perceived as an alien and unfriendly place, with seemingly irrelevant content and practices that marginalize students and lead to underachievement. Therefore, the need for a culture sensitive pedagogy in teacher training program is crucial.

Shortage of trained trainers and trained teachers

The government of Nepal claims that 92.9% teachers in primary, 79.4% in lower secondary and 90.3% in secondary are trained teachers (Flash Report 2012/13). But in reality, there is a dearth of well-experienced, appropriately-trained teachers. Teachers have become training-proof, mostly in primary level because they don’t feel differences in many types of training conducted for them. The effectiveness of teacher training has not reached inside the classroom. The achievement of students in different examinations is the evidence of this low training delivery. Similarly, there are also challenges of finding quality teacher trainers who can facilitate teachers to transfer their new knowledge in the classroom.

Teaching conditions

One cannot talk about teacher training or education without adequately looking at their teaching conditions. An inescapable fact in Nepali context is that teachers are underpaid but overworked. Unreasonable demands and pressures are laid at their shoulders, more so when they get transferred to rural communities where the living standard is generally lower than in urban centers. Policy makers need to ensure that teachers are treated equally so that they could contribute the best in term of effort and outcome in the classroom and communities. Therefore, their teaching conditions need careful re-evaluation.

Ongoing professional development

It is not unusual in Nepal for teachers to continue working without further upgrading of their knowledge or skills for the rest of their teaching careers. For example, it is common for lower-secondary or secondary teachers in either rural or urban schools to fail to undergo any refresher courses for a very long time. They require attending short in-service training courses only when there are changes made to curricula. This has serious implications for the quality of their teaching. It is imperative that Ministry of Education devises strategies whereby their teachers would be continually upgraded on curriculum, pedagogical and assessment area in their respective fields.

Shifting from knowledge to practice

Teacher trainings require a shift of focus from what teachers know and believe to what teachers do in the classroom. In this regard Freeman (2001) states that as there are many problems with this knowledge-transmission view, it depends on the transfer of knowledge and skills from the teacher education to the classroom in order to improve teaching (p.73). This does not mean that knowledge and beliefs do not matter but, rather, the knowledge counts for practicing entailed by the work. A practical knowledge generates tasks and involves teachers in practice. But, practice-focused curriculum for learning teaching needs to include significant attention not just to the knowledge demands of teaching but to the actual tasks and activities involved in the work.

The concern on focusing to the practical tasks is that if the teachers become aware of the practical tasks, they can develop different tasks and apply in the classroom. Getting knowledge means being aware and applying in the daily behavior. For instance in a classroom, the novice teacher needs to know how to conduct a short warm-up language activity at the beginning of the day, it is easy to shift into a discussion of the uses of warm-ups, an analysis of possible language activities, or a reflection on how well a particular activity worked. Thus, teacher training needs to offer deliberate opportunities for teachers to practice the interactive work of instruction. Shifting of training must be observed in classroom context rather than documentation

Besides the above mentioned challenges, teacher trainings are mostly based on aid dependency where concerned authorities conduct training to get aid form the foreign agencies. Thus, teacher trainings are just in name, not in work. Without blaming anyone, training should be conducted for knowledge transferring into classroom, improving teacher skills, attitudes – but not for imposing latest development theories.

Another area of concern is the lack of induction program to new-inexperienced teachers after joining schools. Even national curriculum doesn’t talk about new teacher induction, this situation needs rectifying. A teacher goes to school and the head-teacher or principal asks him/her to start immediately, and even sometimes the teacher is assigned to teach Social Studies or Population. What needs to be remembered is that ultimately, it is the students who will suffer the consequences of inadequate support for teachers starting out on their teaching careers.

Conclusion

To conclude, EFL in-service teacher training in Nepal is crawling with lots of hindrances for trifling achievements. Efforts are being made but they are insufficient. The concerned authorities are required to work hard to address the dire needs. One sole organization NCED alone cannot cope up with all the challenges and thus other organizations of similar interests must collaborate. For this government must diversify and ease their monopolistic policy.

References

Awasthi, J.R. (2009). Teacher education with special references to English language teaching in Nepal. In S. Mansoor, A. Sikandar, N. Hussain and N.M. Ahsan (Eds.). Emerging issues in TEFL: Challenges for Asia. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.

Barker, I. (2010). Cambridge international diploma for teachers and trainers. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.

Bhan, S.P. (2006). Teacher training. New Delhi: Lotus Press.

Bista, K. (2011). Teaching English as a foreign/ second language in Nepal: Past and present. English for specific world, Vol. 11, No. 32. Arkansas State University, USA.

Farmer, F. (2006). Teacher training and development in ELT: A professional approach.  Indonesian journal of English language teaching, vol. 2. No.2. (pp. 149-158).

Freeman, D. (2001). Second language teacher education. In R. Carter and D. Nunan (Eds.). The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages (pp. 72-79). UK: Cambridge University Press.

Formative Study Report 36 (2009). Exploring the opportunities for professional development of primary school teachers in Nepal. Kathmandu: Tribhuvan University Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development (CERID).

Gnawali, L.(2001). Investing classroom practices: A proposal for teacher development for the secondary school teachers of English language in Nepal. An unpublished dissertation of Masters: The college of St Mark and St John, London.

Government of Nepal, Ministry of Education. (2066). Teacher Professional Development (TPD) Handbook. Sanothimi: National Center of Educational Development.

Government of Nepal, Ministry of Education .(2012). Flash Report 2012/13. Sanothimi: Department of Education.

Mohan, R. (2011). Teacher education. New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited.

Neuman, D. (2010). Research methods in language learning. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.

Shrestha, K.N. (2008). Teacher development and management at secondary education in Nepal. Journal of education and research. Vol. 1. No. 1. (pp. 41-50).

—

Rajan Paudel
M. Phil. ELE
Kathmandu University
School of Education

Reflections on Presenting in Interactive Language Fair (ILF)

Jeevan, Dipesh and Praveen

The Interactive Language Fair (ILF) during the 19^th International Conference of NELTA in February 2014 was the first of its kind coordinated by Laxman Gnawali, Associate Professor (ELT)
School of Education Kathmandu University. The coordinator of the ILF has introduced this special event to the conference, replicating the ideas of similar event of the IATEFL. The idea was that each presenter was provided with one table, which was visited by groups of delegates interested to know more about the theme of their presentation. The separate tables were arranged just like stalls in a fair. Sixteen presenters, including us (Jeevan, Dipesh and Praveen), had interactions with the audience, by providing them information, answering questions, and inviting responses. The participants walked from one table to another, learning the presenters’ efforts to different ELT issues through discussion. In this post, we have shared our reflections on presenting in the ILF.

 Now, let the world see our students’ creativity’: Jeevan Karki

Unlike other sessions, the ILF was a truly participants-focused event, where presenters explained their researches and other successful ELT ventures to the visitors, based on their queries. On the contrary to other sessions, the ILF presenters had to share the aspects of the presentation that the participants opted for learning. In addition, they could discover a wide range of issues dealt by different presenters at a single slot. Similarly, they enjoyed freedom to visit the presenter’s stall as per their choices.

The title of my presentation was ‘now, let the world see our students’ creativity’. I focused on publication of creative writings of our students, which I believe is the greatest award for encouraging them. I chose the area of my presentation after I generally found very few of them focused on publishing the creative writings of students. As a whole, I shared my opinions with the audience on the significance of publication when they want the students continue with creative writings.

In order to encourage language learners and develop their competencies in creative writings, we, a group of young scholars involved in creative writing have started a webzine called www.merocreation.com. I introduced the webzine and shared my ideas of encouraging students in creative writings and the procedures of how we publish the students’ writing on the online venue. As similar to my last article in Choutari,  I discussed on techniques to accommodate creative writings in language class. Many participants visited my stall and we had a very exciting interaction. Besides the interaction, I showed them a video clip on creative writings. I took it for a splendid opportunity to share with them my ideas and initiatives on MyCreation. One among those visitors was a young participant from Bhaktapur, who I find was looking for some ways of giving platform for his students’ creative writings. He was so excited to learn our venture that he continued the talk during our lunch time, even after the conclusion of the event.

Let’s get the ball rolling 24/7 with Critical Thinking: Dipesh Sah

As the ILF was completely new for ours, I had submitted my proposal soon after the call for presentation was solicited by the coordinator Gnawali Sir. As luck would have it, I got an opportunity to present the research paper, where I made an attempt to show the value of critical thinking strategies for better learning in the ELT classroom.

Critical thinking underlies the three layers, which are mental, critical dialogue, and control based on reliability. It is a process by which the thinker improves the quality of their thinking. It is also an energizing force in education and a powerful resource in one’s personal and civic life. In my research, I have analyzed the data in order to find out the quantitative level of critical thinking in the students. My research was based on primary data collected from one public campus and two constituent campuses of Tribhuvan University viz; Sanothimi Campus, Sanothimi, Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tahachal and Nilkantha Campus, Dhading. Finally, I have suggested some the specific techniques used for testing the learners’ thinking capacity and also the ways to develop their individual critical thinking skill.

No doubt, I have experienced a good interaction with the audience in the ILF. Unlike plenary and concurrent sessions, it was not only interactive but it was participatory too since there was an exchange of conversation between me and them.  

Professional Development in Nepalese ELT through Blogging: Praveen Kumar Yadav

I was thrilled to participate in the special event during the conference of NELTA in February. Taking the case of NeltaChoutari from my M. Ed. research, I have shared with the audience how it has helped ELT practioners in Nepal build on their scholarship and enhance them professionally and also the ways they have translated their learning from the blog into practice.

Starting with a glimpse of background and rationale of the research study, followed by the methodology I have adopted, I have highlighted on the blog ‘NeltaChoutari’ has helped to develop ELT practioners in Nepal professionally and also the ways they have translated their learning from the blog into practice. For instance, the informants have used the materials from the blog to facilitate trainings, carry out activity in the classroom, reference into their theses and organize discussions on ELT issues. Based on the findings, I have concluded with some substantial suggestions to increase its readership and circulation and also pedagogical implications.

Wrapping up

Before we attended the ILF in the conference, the event coordinator Gnawali Sir had solicited us one PowerPoint slide, which included our name, institutional affiliation and the title of our presentation. He had suggested us to include a relevant image on the slide as per our wish and also insert some text on our presentation to help us in our talk. While the slide was projected, we had our two-minute thumbnail presentation in the beginning.

As we were asked to bring slide show, video, poster, any other materials that we wanted to display/present and interact with the audience, a table was provided to us for the materials including the summaries of our presentation for distribution. However, had the presenters experienced about the language fair, they could have brought many materials as expected and display them for the purpose.

Indeed, our presentation in the ILF was rejoicing experience for us. As we learnt that this special is going to take place again in the next year, we anticipate our participation as well. But, we are confident that this will be one of the most popular events during the conference 2015.