When I had a brief stint as principal of a private school in Nepal circa 2008-2009, I had to deal with two frustrating parents representing two contrasting groups that created financial hardship for the school to run. One group represented the canny and the other naive. Mr. Chatur (pseudonym) represented the canny group, the smart well-to-do parents who didn’t pay fees and Ms. Saralmati (pseudonym) represented the naïve, poor parents.
Mr. Chatur was a businessman. He ran a retail-cum-wholesale store not too far from the school. He sold school supplies including uniform, shoes, belts, etc. to our students. Being one of the parents and due to proximity to school, he had an advantage to win business from the school community. We also recommended his store for parents to buy uniforms for consistency of color shades, etc. My problem with this otherwise fine gentleman was that he never paid the tuition for his sons. Clever as he was, he took advantage of an existing provision of a flawed school policy of tuition waiver for the top-performing students. Both of his sons topped the class every year and Mr. Chatur claimed the waiver for them. It would not be wise to do away with this merit benefit because all other schools also adopted it. My disappointment with this businessman grew when I heard that he hired a personal teacher to teach his two sons. Business minded as he was, in the wrong way, I would add, he figured out that hiring a personal teacher for a couple of hours a day was in fact more cost-effective for him than paying full tuition for his two children. This way, he was saving tuition money. Obviously, he was rich enough to pay the full tuition for his kids. Irony.
One day, I talked to him and asked him to consider donating something to the school after congratulating him for both of his sons’ excellent academic performance. I indicated to him that we needed some lab equipment for school. He said okay for many times, but he never donated anything. Finally, after months of my requests, he showed up with a cheap plastic wall-clock. His annoying business-sense was visible in the advertisement of his business printed within the dial of the clock that he wanted us to hang on the school’s most prominent wall. I was sad but I laughed at my own success as a fundraiser.
Ms. Saralmati represented the naive group. She was the guardian to her grandson Raju (pseudonym). Her son worked in a Gulf country and her daughter-in-law (Raju’s mother) had married a different man so Raju was technically an orphan under the elderly woman’s care. Ms. Saralmati had no money, and Raju was an average student. At one point, his tuition had not been paid for 18 months. The number of parents not paying their kids’ tuition was significant and was steadily increasing. They would just send their children to the English Medium School because this was in itself prestigious in the community. This prestige issue coupled with the demonstration effect of a conservative society was so deep that it defied rationality in terms of the parents’ ability to pay. Such parents were a great problem because due to their delinquency in paying fees, teachers often had to wait for months to receive their already meager salary, the only reward of their hard work. As school principal, my desire was to recommend raise for teachers’ salary.
At one point, teachers decided to prevent students with fees due from sitting for the final exam, a decision that I came to learn after I took the position of the Principal. Notices had been sent to parents in advance stipulating that any students with tuition due would not be allowed into the examination hall. When the examination day arrived, a number of parents led by Ms. Saralmati, along with their respective kids, lined up to my office door. When I reached school, Ms. Saralmati caught me at the feet and started begging and imploring that her grandson be let into the exam hall. “Please, Sir! Don’t end my grandson’s education today. My son is in the Gulf. He will send money one day and I will pay you! I have nothing to offer right now!” I was moved and torn apart from the story of her financial hardship, which was real. But if I let her child in, I would lose the trust of the teachers. I called these parents into my office to talk.
My conversation with the parents
I knew that the conflict was hitting both sides so I tried to direct it towards a productive end. I explained to Ms. Saralmati and those parents that I was bound by the rules of the school and the trust of the teachers and so was not able to allow their children to the examination hall that day. But I assured them that I could arrange to have a separate examination the following week so that their kids’ education is not jeopardized. As they felt better, I asked them one by one what happened and why they were not able to pay tuition for their kids. Each of them had a unique story of financial hardship but the interestingly resounding promise was that they would pay later somehow. Their record of long delays has a more serious story behind. They were financially unable to pay the tuition in the reasonable future.
“Why don’t you consider sending your kids to public school?” I asked the blunt question in as polite a way as I could be while pretending as if I was just curious. Everyone went silent. I knew it was a hard question. But since Ms. Saralmati had already been vocal, she disclosed the reason.
“Sir, we know that the public school is free but as everyone says, the free education has no value in it.”
“But it is not free in that way,” I tried to explain. “It is free for you because the expenses of the school are paid for by the government.”
“Oh really? So does it actually have value then? Would my naati get a job by going to iskul [public school]” Ms. Saralmati asked, while other parents listened heartily. All nonplussed.
“Yes, it does. I was educated in a iskul myself!” I explained.
“But there were no Boardings [English medium schools] when you went to iskul, were there?” asked a cynical parent.
“That’s right, but there are still good reasons to send your children to the public school. First of all, your kids will feel better and more confident in public schools because they will know that they don’t owe money to school. Secondly, as I explained to you, the government is spending a lot of money on public schools. Thirdly, they also teach English once a day!”
I showed them the calculation how we spent Rs. 11,255 per student from what we get from the parents while the government spent Rs. 13,359 [estimated]. They started looking at each other when I put my principal hat back on and reminded them not to forget to pay the tuition dues.
Looking Forward I offer this story to the intellectual community asking all of us to think what this says about our education and society. How does this relate to ELT and what should language teachers take away from it? Benefits of multilingualism and the mythology of English medium’s equivalency to quality education has been discussed before in Choutari.
This is one of the consequences of that mythology, a consequence that impacts parents severely, that destroys private schools (which tend to be seen more as villains than as victims), and demoralizes students across the country. Also, when I reflect on my own brief tenure of principalship, I now understand what made me so uncomfortable that I quit the job in less than six months. The system in place was and is still, aggravating socio-economic inequality and injustice. I will write in next blog what I think could potentially solve a principal’s plight of having to hate Mr. Chaturs and avoid poor grandmas. Until then, please let me know what you think.
The author: Uttam Gaulee is a doctoral candidate at the institute of higher education, University of Florida in the USA.
During my recent visit and involvement with teacher training programs throughout some rural parts of Nepal, I did a lesson on writing, both in schools and during training sessions. Writing about Writing illustrates the process I go through when I teach writing. In this article, I have tried to outline the steps I take while teaching writing for both younger developing writers and older more experienced emergent writers.
When I teach writing, I teach it as a process because that is the way that I view it. Writing involves planning, writing a draft, editing and revising and publishing. It takes practice to develop your skills as a writer; it just doesn’t happen overnight.
To begin with, when I work with students, I do several things that vary only with the age and skills that my students have. First, I activate prior knowledge by having students brainstorm the different ways that they use writing. Younger students generally talk about the notes they write their moms or the handwriting practice they do while older students talk about lists, taking notes, writing letters or now-a-days, texts, and writing stories. Activating prior knowledge is important because students need to become aware that we use writing in many ways and for many different purposes.
After brainstorming about how we use writing, I model my own writing so that my students see me as a writer. For example, if I am asking students to write about themselves then I share with them the process that I go through when I am writing about me. It is important that students watch the process of writing so that they know that this is a process that all writers go through. Again, this process is planning, draft writing, editing and revising, and then publishing.
Let’s say that it is the beginning of the school year, and I am asking my students to write about themselves. If I am working with younger students or developing writers, I will first model a picture plan by drawing a picture of myself, my family, my house and a few other interesting details. Then I would orally go through my picture and describe it while at the same time labeling key pictures, (myself, my husband, my dog, cat, house, ect.)
By orally describing my picture and labeling, I am showing my students the picture/word association and also giving them some ideas about how they can do their own picture plan. I would also include some discussion with my students about their own families, who is in it, where they live, what they like to do, ect. Before letting students go off and do their plans, again, giving some guidance for their plans. Then I would set them free to draw their picture plans about themselves, their families, where they live, the things they like, and any other details that they might like to add. Picture plans work well for kindergarteners, first graders, and other developing writers.
Older students generally have more language and can use a different type of plan. Generally, for older students I use a circle map, which is a type of thinking map; thinkingmaps.org. A circle map has a frame around it that guides the writer’s ideas. The frame is usually divided into four sections which can vary dependent on the topic you are writing about. A beginning piece about themselves might be framed with things like: Facts: name, age, family members, where I live; Things I like; My Favorites; and My Goals or things I’d like to get better at this year. Using a plan like this allows students to jot down their ideas before they begin writing. Students then list the answers for these questions or topics in the different areas of the circle. I try to remind them not to write out complete sentences in their circles because this is just a plan and that draft writing is when they put their ideas into complete sentences. Just as I did with younger students, I model my own plan and go over it with them and then show the students how I moved from my plan to my piece of writing. For this assignment, I give the direction that they are to write at least one paragraph about themselves using information from their plans.
As students finish their plans, my job as a teacher would be to go around and have them describe their picture plan to me so that I could help them label it. I would encourage students to label what they could beforehand and share their plan with their neighbor, but I would try to get around to all the students to help them label and add any extra details. Planning might take a whole class for some students but for others, it might be quick and they might be able to continue on to the next step- draft writing. My directions for younger students might vary dependent on the age and development of their skills as a writer but usually I would give a direction for students to write 1-3 sentences about their picture. My goals for younger students are to get them to write so I accept invented spelling and look to see that they are generating some sentences that give me information about their picture.
Conferencing with students, I might point out spacing issues, handwriting difficulties, but primarily I am focusing on their ideas. “Wow, I see you wrote that you like to play with your dog. What is your dog’s name? Can we add that to your sentence? Good job.” I like to think of a “Star and a Wish” when I am giving feedback. Writing takes practice and it is important to praise what a student is doing well rather than focusing on the things they need to correct. If I see many students having the same errors or difficulties, then I use that as a teaching point and do a mini lesson the following day about whatever the issue was, or I say, “Today I am going to be looking for good spacing between your words as you write” to draw their attention to something I noticed was an issue previously. If my students need more support to generate their ideas then I will use some patterned sentence starters to help them. For example, I might put on the board the following pattern: My name is ____. I live with _____. I like to_____. I might also have a mind map that I’ve done previously with students to list things they like to do; again, the idea being that they have a list of words already generated that they can use for their own labeling or to add additional information to their sentences.
When I model my paragraph, I point out that I didn’t use all my details to make my paragraph, but if I wanted to use all the information then I share with them how I could write a multi-paragraph piece of writing that included all the information from the plan. I show students both models of writing, (one paragraph and multi-paragraph) and then provide them with models of patterned sentences/paragraphs that they can use for either writing one paragraph or multi-paragraphs. These are written out on charts and hung on the wall, or they are written on sentence strips and put in a pocket chart for students to see. I also talk about topic sentences, (main idea sentences) that begin a paragraph and let the reader know what my writing is about. Then I talk about closing sentences that end my paragraph by summing things up or by adding an emotion to it. I add this in the form of a sentence starter and label it with either topic sentence or closing sentence. We also spend some time brainstorming aloud some other ideas for topic sentences and closing sentences and if needed, this is organized as a mind map for students to see and choose from.
Now, my students are ready to begin the process of writing at least one paragraph about themselves. First, they plan and I go around and comment on their details and ask a few open-ended questions where necessary to encourage them to add to their ideas. I also might make my own connections to their ideas to reinforce to them that I’m interested in them. For example, one student writes that purple is her favorite color, and I say, “Oh, purple is my favorite color too; how cool is that!” As the purpose of this writing activity is to help me get to know my students, it’s important to connect with them about common or shared interests when and where I can.
After students finish their plans, they can begin their draft writing and can use either the patterned sentences model for one paragraph or the multi-paragraph model to help them write, if needed. Again, I rove and comment here and there on something they’ve written, but I don’t use this time to correct, unless a student is asking me something specific. When their drafts are done, then I set up a writing conference with them, and that is the time to point out some things that might need fixing up or to emphasis some details that might be needed to strengthen their writing. I still use the idea of a star and a wish to guide my conferencing, and I don’t overcorrect. By pointing out something that they are doing well with their writing before adding a constructive point for them to think about, I help my students recognize their strengths in their own writing while also encouraging them to look more critically at how they can strengthen their writing. I also try to get students to read back over their writing first before coming to me or to share their writing with a neighbor or a friend first. I want to be able to help them self edit and do revisions on their own. I also look for common errors and use them as a teaching point for a mini lesson the following day.
If I have students who are more proficient with their writing skills, then I use my conferencing time to extend their writing. Some things I might do are to to ask them to select at least two sentences to revise by adding more details using adjectives, adverbs, or other figurative language such as metaphors or similes. I might also ask students to select a few sentences and add more details by adding the word, “because” to let their readers know why they like something or like to do something. Combining ideas and varying their sentence structures so that they start their sentences in different ways to improve the fluency of their writing might also be something to conference about. How I use my conferencing time with students is dependent on their skills and needs. As with writing, everyone is different; however, taking the time to conference with students isn’t. It is an important part of the process. It takes time, but it is important for students to get that one on one time with you to look more critically at their own writing.
When conferencing is done, students go back and revise their writing to produce a final draft, which is their published piece. Whenever possible, I encourage them to word process this or to hand write it neatly and if time, to add an illustration to it. We share our published pieces with the rest of the class, so students know that their work is valued and then it is posted in our Writer’s Corner for others to see. Celebrating their work helps students see that writing is important and something to be proud of. A saying I like is, “Writing is Power.” If you can write well, you can do anything.
Teaching writing is something I’ve done for many younger and older students. While the topics and content may vary, the process for teaching writing is generally the same. Planning, developing their ideas, drafting, and then revising and editing before publishing are steps that all writers take with their own writing. By modeling and providing structure and guidance, students of all ages learn how to develop their own skills as writers. They also learn to appreciate that writing is a process and an important one.
The Author: Doreen Richmond has taught at all grade levels in the USA. She was a Special Education teacher for many years and currently teaches Reading and Writing in the Transitional Learning Department at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, Washington. Recently, she has been involved in a teacher training program in Solukhumbu, coordinated by REED Nepal.
I was a bit concerned when my friend Shyam advised me to write about my PhD experiences for this month’s Choutari. Would it be worth a read? But, then, I remembered reading Philip Guo’s PhD Grind with my exhausted, empty mind post-defense. This little book, an account of a computer scientist’s six-year engagement in Stanford University PhD, had nearly inspired a memoir of my own six years in Kathmandu University.
I remember reading a line from the acknowledgements page of a graduate thesis written for an American university. The author, with a visible sigh of relief, writes something like this: I thank my wife [Name] for not eloping with someone while I remained either engrossed in the writing or absent for library or field work. This is perhaps an ‘extreme’ feeling for a culture like ours, where you do not need to fear polygamy or elopement to result from such a pious mission as the PhD. But how you miss the family joy, and remain apprehensive of having become a nuisance to your own dear ones!
I began one of my post-PhD talks with this quote I happened to read on Facebook, “Long time ago, people who sacrificed their sleep, family, food, laughter and other joys of life were called saints. Now they are called PhD students.” Someone asked me right away how I had grown through that supposed phase of sainthood. I said I had come out of a very ungenerous conviction that my own family was the biggest hurdle to my growth and that I sometimes felt like dumping everything away and starting the life of an ascetic. This is another extreme feeling one could ever speak to an eager audience.
Yet, I do not aim to present a very personal experience, which might rather take the form of a grumble than a celebration of success. This is the real danger of post-defense rambling. I would rather love to foreground the aspect of learning and personal growth. People think PhD must have made me wiser. I have no desire to deny this. I take this opportunity to share what I consider worth sharing from my six-year engagement.
PhD is an adventure marked with meeting many people – interested, disinterested, uninterested – and talking about your research. It is an anxious journey from the known to the unknown and back to the known. In such a process, I travelled to India five times. I presented papers at four international conferences. A couple of these travels were planned for meeting with Prof. Raman, my Supervisor from BITS-Pilani Goa. I travelled alone, with friends, with my better-half. Each travel involved some confusion, some excitement, some irritation, but gave enough impetus for further work.
I spoke to international audiences half a dozen times, a different work and perspective in each presentation while rhetorical theories, Nepalese history and newspaper editorials featured in each discussion. Inside Nepal, I would explore possibility of integrating rhetoric in English teaching and present in NELTA conferences, and grasp any aspect of editorial discourse and present in the conferences of Literary Association of Nepal. In the process, I collected dozens of books in Nepali. I would in fact pick up anything from Kathmandu streets if it spoke of media, movement, contemporary politics, and any stuff from the internet that had a key ‘editorial’, ‘rhetoric’ or ‘fantasy theme criticism.’
In the university, I taught English and communication skills integrating elements of classical rhetoric wherever possible. I made and taught syllabi for the courses in media studies and communication ensuring the inclusion of some useful aspects of rhetoric and discourse. I encouraged undergraduates to take up projects in rhetorical studies, and got about a dozen reports produced on representational themes.
I spent hours downloading YouTube video lectures on communication, rhetoric, discourse, and critical discourse analysis. I spent hours on Facebook gossiping with friends about my progress, crafting statuses and posting notes. I ran at least five blogs, writing, editing and publishing diverse contents. I wrote poems, essays, memoirs and newspaper articles. When I look back at the bulk of the dissertation, its accompanying raw materials, the blog entries and the collection of poems and essays in English and Nepali, I feel that the six years with PhD were my life’s most creative period.
PhD is a phase that comes to your life only when you choose to bring it because you must. Once it comes and you enter a process, it shakes your life to the core. What you have to learn and practice does not necessarily come from your earlier learning, nor from your regular work. Circumstances teach you how to put aside all the previous pomp and baggage. I name this a compulsion of “ruthless submission of adult arrogance to childish ignorance.”
PhD makes you develop a passion for listening and making others listen. My own main temptation was to talk if someone was there to put up with me. Dr. Adhikari, my supervisor from Nepal, would spend hours with me listening and talking things. Each time after I parted from him, I felt reinvigorated. A lot of new ideas would surge up and I would ramble a dozen pages forward no matter whether they made it to the dissertation or not. Then I would talk with my wife about my current epiphanies and progresses. I would explain to anyone my project if they showed a little curiosity to know how I was faring.
There is greater pressure in the share of a scholar in English. You have the burden of the virtue of not committing grammatical and stylistic errors. Most often, you are others’ guru and friend so far as teaching these vital aspects of dissertation is considered your own pious, universal responsibility. You are your own guru and enemy. You know how to tutor yourself, and at the same time keep on accumulating pressure in the name of ensuring quality.
I would take to my undergraduate and graduate classes any theory, method, tips on writing or speaking. That’s how the concept would matter to others and get registered and matured as valuable knowledge for myself. I must have scribbled the largest number of junks during the formative years. The junks were the most original things about my learning and experiences. They still look dearer than the 351-page ‘final’ dissertation.
PhD gave me many good things, especially the readings that were useful to life if not to the dissertation and degree. The materials wait to be revisited, helped to mature and brought to their actual discourse community. They continue to claim to have been the degree’s legitimate offspring.
I understand that the product of PhD (dissertation/thesis) is specific for a small discourse community. Not many people will and have to understand the work. Parts of it may come to a wider network of readers only if the writer opts to work beyond the degree either into a book or a journal article if only he or she is in or joins a university teaching position.
Once your work is brought to the public, every literate person appears to believe and may sometimes brag that they could have done as good or even better if they had thought about doing what you have done. But you are the only person who did it. The work is unique. And you are your own reader. Your supervisor has read it, plus a few people in the evaluation committee. Except for five or six persons, the product may have only a very small audience in the future. I am sure not more than half a dozen people have read my thesis. I only hope some people will read part of it if they happen to work on an identical topic. Else, as far as the saying of many goes, it will remain proudly at a corner accumulating dust – for ages.
What do you find out, or develop out of half-a-dozen years’ straining? Perhaps, you create knowledge, or a perspective. Or you have uttered a popular idea in a more interesting and philosophical way. Someone else can give equal scholarly hue and worth to similar task later. But for the moment yours has got qualified, it is the only work on earth that can claim novelty if it is novel.
Nevertheless, the dissertation is not out to change the world, neither the degree it brings, but you are. You are at least expected to initiate some kind of change.
The people from your scholarly network may read you and try to make a difference. You have not closed the lid for new perspectives. You cannot do so. You only transfer one perspective to your community and hint at new avenues of reflection. If one PhD ended all possibilities, we would have been mugging up stale thoughts and moth-eaten books and none would ever think of sweating for three to six years.
The hard-bound black book is only a signifier that a section of the work in continuum has taken a tangible shape. Every dissertation is in the making. It is just a beginning. A ‘finalized’ work has several other works ingrained in it. Only some curious and profoundly informed scholar can interpret the text and nourish its discursive embryo into one or more useful births later. The continuum exists. A scholar in discourse lives in this continuum.
The author: Dr. Kafle is an assistant professor and coordinator at humanities and management unit, school of engineering, Kathmandu University Nepal.
I have observed that many public schools are adopting English as medium of instruction (EMI) in Nepal for a decade. During my last visit to Solukhumbu in June, some school principals stated, with a great enthusiasm, that they are gradually replacing Nepali with English as the medium of instruction up to secondary level. Even though there is lack of research and case of studies to find whether such a shift is a boon or bane. It is already a disputed issue at both global and local educational discourses and policies. Based on my own experience, observation and theoretical knowledge, I, in this blog post, make attempts to analyze the EMI situation in Nepal with reference to some questions attached to it. I also suggest that a transitional model of language education is appropriate for multilingual country like Nepal.
Shifting into EMI
I have visited several EMI classrooms, particularly three under-resourced schools in my working areas for three times this year (2014/2015). What I found is, the primary motives of shifting into EMI are increasing students’ participation, enhancing quality of education and improving performance of the schools.
Many public school authorities are basically shifting their medium of instruction to English from Nepali in order to attract the large number of students who are now attracted to private English medium schools.
One of the school principals, Mr. Prabhu Ram Basnet, from Solukhumbu articulates his views this way:
English is a global language, and it functions as an international lingua franca. EMI helps students connect countryside with a global world and offers them boundless opportunities. In addition, it is the language of global business and technology. If I had not implemented EMI in my school, many children would have joined private schools. Still, we are not able to increase the number of students at primary level. The government has already cut off the teachers’ quotas for primary section due to less number of students. EMI is producing better results to increase enrollment in my school.
Public schools are also adopting EMI so that they can acquire more quotas for new teachers from the government. More strikingly, teachers take for granted that teaching in English helps students find job and participate in global community. They also believe that students’ progress in the English language contributes to more access to information and knowledge.
Likewise, parents also consider EMI as a gateway to join a global academic and economic community. They think that English creates better academic and economic opportunities.
A guardian from the same area puts his views this way:
English is obligatory in this competitive world. I want my children to learn English so that they could receive better academic offers at national and international arenas. Ultimately, it leads to a quality to life. Therefore, EMI in school is a right approach now.
From the cases above, we can understand that both the teachers and guardians mean EMI leads to quality education. Whereas, there have been a lot of critiques regarding whether English when adopted as medium of instruction in the school contributes to quality education.
In the schools with EMI, teachers have to depend on the textbooks prescribed by the government alone. Sadly, there is not any support and teaching resources that can help the teachers to effectively conduct their classes in English medium. Very few teachers find EMI classroom pleasant and exciting in several content related subjects. Such teachers are either are from English language teaching background or novice ones. They love speaking English in the classroom most of the time. They also invest more efforts to learn new words and phrases in English. On the other hand, most teachers who have been teaching in Nepali medium of instruction for decades in the past find EMI very challenging. They feel their schools adopting EMI has posed a burden in their profession. This tendency might hinder teaching learning activities. In this regard, a teacher from Southern part of Solukhumbu, asserts as below:
I am not confident enough to teach in English. I’ve been teaching in Nepali since last two decades. Now I am supposed to teach in English. Teaching in English is very challenging for me. I cannot update myself at the old age. Neither are we provided any intensive training that can support and facilitate the EMI.
Another observation, use of translation method that has once abandoned by English teachers with school level English textbooks written using communicative methods has a comeback with the schools adopting EMI. School teachers are largely translating English texts into Nepali language during classroom teaching. While in others, teachers only use English. Here the paradox is, students can easily comprehend the contents delivered by the teachers using translation methods but they cannot when the contents delivered by the teachers in English. During the interaction with teachers, they have revealed that they have not made any assessment to find whether the students comprehend their teaching in English. If the students fail to understand, the teachers are yet to come up with a proper strategies to help the students in case of failure. All the teachers do not possess required proficiency level in English. And they do not bother about learning English either. They argue that they give emphasis on content, not language while teaching subjects like mathematics, science and social studies.
Yet another revealing part of my observation, students are less involved in pair and group works. Neither are they found engaged in any types of project work as it is a must for learner centered approach. Generally, teachers introduce the lesson, talk to the students, explain the teaching items, translate them and provide little notes on the board. However, students’ progress in building English vocabulary is a noticeable phenomenon through EMI. They generally seem to enjoy the lessons in all subjects with EMI in the beginning even if they can hardly read and write about social studies and science lessons. Their enjoyment is finally detected during the assessment. It is evident from the cases of students who do not understand test items in English. When inquired, a student states as follows:
Sir (teacher) translates questions in Nepali, so it is very easy for us to answer in the classroom. But I found difficult to understand some questions during the examination when teachers did not translate them in Nepali.
But some schools have been implementing CAS (Continuous Assessment System) to assess overall progress of students. A teacher from Solukhumbu put her views in positive light as follow:
We have challenges in terms of proficiency level of English to implement EMI. Further, students from Rai and Tamang linguistic backgrounds find it hard to learn all subjects in English in the beginning. However, we assess students incorporating the parameters from CAS, such as students’ attendance, participation in classroom activities, behavioural changes, project work and so on. We discouraged paper pencil based test at early grades for two years. So I did not find a lot of problems to assess students.
The impact of EMI on learning
The brief background of EMI setting might not capture all other contexts, but it certainly sets a scenario of EMI implementation and its impact on broader educational practices in Nepal. Parents and children have been influenced by the global academic and career offers, advancement of technology and access of information. They firmly believe that English opens the door to build a global networks, ties and relations. EMI has brought significant progress of students in English language being exposed to it and expressing the ideas in reading and writing in several academic subjects. However, comprehension part of the students is not clear. For instance, I did not find students performing drama in English. Neither were they involved in other creative activities in my working area. The learning achievement of these three schools has been increased by 6% in this academic year. However, the increased learning achievement might need further justification and statistics to see whether other factors or EMI alone contributes to this increase.
Teachers report that many students from early grades fail in mathematics, science and social studies because of sudden shifting into EMI. Their views reflect that students understand the content better in their first language. The other side of the impact is the growth of other national languages in which children are believed to learn and comprehend better than any other second or foreign languages. In many cases of EMI in Nepal, students are punished if they use their mother tongue inside classroom or school. They are forced to generate knowledge and internalize the meaning of content taught in English. It raises the question of cognitive development of learners. Hence, is EMI a medium of instruction for other academic subjects, or is it the sole objective at all? In a nutshell, the question of whether EMI is producing satisfactory learning outcomes still remains unanswered and needs further explorations.
Looking EMI into Back and Forth
When reflecting back to the history of medium of instruction policy, Jung Bahadur Rana, a powerful Rana Prime minister, established the Durbar (Palace) School after his return from Europe as he was greatly influenced by the use of English in the west. However, it was only open to members of the Rana family (Eagle, 1999). Thus, the first government-run school in Nepal practiced EMI. Likewise, the first post-secondary educational institution in Nepal, Trichandra College, opened in 1918 also practiced EMI. The government of Nepal showed interest in cultural unification only after 1950. The slogan of ek bhasha, ek bhesh, ek dharma, ek desh (one language, one costume, one religion, one nation) summarized the goals of the Panchayat government, which attempted to spread Nepali, Hinduism, and other symbols of nation throughout the country to create a unified national identity (Rai et al., 2011). Throughout the Panchayat era, the goals of education were to promote development through unification of the nation under one language and culture. Education in Nepali medium of instruction became accessible to common people instead of a privilege for elites with the goal of bringing the whole population into a unified national identity. (Weinberg, 2013). Thus, Nepali was the mandatory medium of instruction and all other languages including English were discouraged. After the restoration of democracy, many private English medium schools started EMI from grade one and public schools followed the same pattern.
There are questions regarding EMI implementation and the age of the students. At which age is EMI is to be incorporated? What is the justification in a way it is appropriate at grade one? What is the progress of students with EMI of different ages at different levels in relation to learning outcomes? These questions certainly need further inquiry. In addition, public schools do not have any definite guidelines to implement EMI. Policy only allows choosing English or Nepali.
The medium of instruction for school education shall be Nepali, English or both, whereas primary education can be provided in the mother tongue (first language). Language (as a subject) shall be taught in the same language (CDC, 2008).
The policy does not have comprehensive arrangement and facilitation plans to support the schools that implement EMI.
Next element of the analysis is teachers’ English language proficiency level required for EMI. My observation shows that teachers are forced to teach through EMI in many cases. Many public schools have been implementing EMI policy without qualified teachers. It is entirely unclear what the requirements are with reference to English language competence. Many EMI teachers do not see themselves as English language teachers. They consider their job as a facilitator of students towards better learning content deliberations through better comprehension.
On the other hand, schools do not have any plan to teach students through EMI. Teaching through second or foreign language is entirely different issue from teaching academic subjects through the first language. As EMI concerned with language teaching pedagogy, there are questions that require further discussion. Are teachers, dealing with EMI, aware of foreign language teaching pedagogy in a multilingual context? Are they familiar with the process of communication through second or foreign language in the classroom? Is effective communication in English happening in those classrooms? In most instances, formulaic use of English is being observed. Students memorize the phrases and words, even sentences, most of the time. If the subjects to be taught do not have meaningful relationship with the outside world, learning cannot take place. How we can ensure effective communication taking place in the classroom in English among teachers and students in various academic subjects is a crucial issue in EMI settings.
The use of students’ home or community language is seen in all EMI schools I have observed. In many classrooms excessive use of Nepali has been observed. If the teachers are not proficient enough in English, they certainly use students’ home language. In this regard, what is the effect of using and not using L1 in the learning of the students? A clear guideline is indispensable. With reference to the teacher training, there has not been any uniform teacher training modality developed yet to assist EMI in Nepal. NCED (National Centre for Education Development), the apex body for human resource development at school education has not institutionally materialized the teacher training model for the EMI purpose. Neither there is any space for EMI in current TPD (teachers’ professional development) model of teacher training. It shows that EMI is not in priority of policy in the Ministry of Education. Furthermore, there are doubts on training manuals at theoretical ground designed and implemented for EMI purpose by several organizations in Nepal. For example, some training sessions are merely translation while others are full of pair and group works. Ministry of Education and its associate agencies need to think over a uniform teacher training model for the EMI purpose which can be a basis for training at different levels.
Similarly, many head teachers are found confused with which subjects to be taught through EMI. For instance, many private English medium schools teach social studies in Nepali medium while this subject is taught in English in public schools. The basis for decisions is not clear yet. The decisions are not based on the effectiveness of learning process and outcome from the medium of instruction implemented in schools.
Conclusion
EMI is unquestionably a growing phenomenon in public education in Nepal. It is assumed to be a passport to a global world. Despite the fact, 50 % students still fail in SLC and end up being a migrant laborer. It has been beneficial to improve the students’ English as it provides maximum exposure to them through speech, reading and writing in several subjects. EMI is thought to open the door of possibilities for lofty academic and economic offers at local and international level; nonetheless there are suspicions over how many students from public schools have this opportunity. Furthermore, EMI in Nepal is being very powerfully promoted, and the phenomenon is more idealistic in nature. However, it has been contested issue in Nepali academia for both political and pedagogical reasons. There are strong academic evidences that support multilingual education at both local and global educational policies. The most importantly, researchers have critiques on the weak pedagogical aspect of EMI in multilingual situation, particularly on the process of communication inside the classroom. EMI has been implemented without any logical guidelines in public schools. It is being implemented with little or no preparation and planning at all. The phenomenon is not effective in terms of its impact on students’ learning of several academic subjects.
The policy regarding EMI is not comprehensive, nor is it academically and practically desirable. It is more covert in nature leaving the things up to the market. The English language related policies and practices have been implemented without considering the educational costs and benefits in Nepal. The sole logic behind the current shift is globalization and market forces. Thus, EMI has also been a key selling point in the market in the guise of the ideology of quality education, which at present remains a myth. It has been projected as a commodity in the market. But very few students have access to the global and local market resources available in English.
Incorporating a foreign language at the early foundation of education is not academically sound policy. Nepal needs to formulate multilingual model of the language policy and planning. Whereas, EMI planning needs to be guided by the transitional model- from local language to official language to international language from early grades to university level.
References
CDC (2008), Curriculum Development Centre, Sanothimi Bhaktapur.
Eagle, S. (1999). The language situation in Nepal. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 20 (4-5), 272-327.
Rai, V. S., Rai, M., Phyak, P., & Rai, N. (2011). Multilingual education in Nepal: Hearsay and reality. Kathmandu, Nepal: UNESCO.
Weinberg, M. (2013). Revisiting history in language policy: The case of medium of instruction in Nepal. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 28(1), 61-80.
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The author is a training specialist in English at REED Nepal and an adjunct faculty in Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has been a burning issue in community schools in Nepal these days. Nepali language has been the medium of instruction for the academic subjects like mathematics, science, social studies and so on. Although English is said to be taught in the same language, it is also not found to be fully implemented. In this backdrop, some community schools in Nepal have initiated the practice of EMI for teaching-learning. To support and enhance EMI, NCED has recently launched a project called National Initiative to Improve Teaching in English , known as Project NIITE. The project has made many teachers, academicians and administrators aware of implementing EMI in classrooms. Yet, some regard that content knowledge that students learn is more important than the medium of its delivery.
After the completion of secondary or higher secondary school education, students have to face colleges and universities in English medium. Those students, who want to go abroad for further study need to sit for English language tests like IELTS, TOEFL, SAT and GRE. This is when they realize the importance of English language and feel inferior before their competitors. Students with higher academic scores also cannot meet the entry requirement in language tests and get deprived of international academic opportunities. It is not the knowledge that stops them from such opportunities but the language.
On the other hand, students from English medium private schools find these tests easier in comparison to the students from community schools. The textbooks of community schools do not go any changes and revisions for long, whereas they are modified each year with up- to- date information in private schools.
The policy of the government has given freedom to schools to use either Nepali or English as a medium of instruction. Basically, private boarding schools practice EMI and government public schools use Nepali language. They use Nepali language to teach subjects like English, mathematics, science and social studies. They have limited resources and the teachers ignore their everyday tasks before, while and after they are in their classrooms. The students, though they learn English language from primary level cannot communicate in English and they do not easily comprehend the texts they use. The students and most of the teachers in primary level do not have good command over English language. But many public schools have started introducing English language as a medium of instruction. This has made EMI training to public school teachers a must.
The recently launched project i.e. Project NIITE by NCED with support from British Council has a main objective to enable primary level teachers from all over the nation to use English as a medium of instruction. The EMI training also follows the same modality of TPD training of NCED except for its focus on developing English language proficiency to deliver classes in English language.
The developing craze for English language among students and parents brought most of the students from community schools to private boarding schools. The number of students in public schools has been decreasing gradually in Nepal. According to the latest data, 417 public schools were merged because of having less students than supposed to be. It has also shown the importance of English language and its craze in a developing country like Nepal. It is because of this, most of the community schools not only decided to shift the medium of instruction but also managed school uniform that look similar to English medium private schools. However, implementing EMI has not become comfortable for teachers and the students at once. Therefore, the government decided to run EMI training for primary level teachers as EMI begins from primary.
In Primary level, students cannot understand and use English properly. The teachers know English but they have not used it as a medium of instruction. As they have been using Nepali language, which has lowered their confidence in using English language. The teachers are hesitant to communicate among themselves and in the classrooms. Now, EMI training supports primary school teachers to use English in a simple and clear way. It teaches them how to maximize students’ participation and minimize teachers talking time in class. EMI gives them skills to maximize students talking time and minimize teachers talking time. It helps them better understand that the role of a teacher in classroom is to demonstrate, give clear instructions and engage all students through pair work, small group work or whole class activities. In my experience as a teacher trainer in Nawalparasi and Gulmi districts of Nepal, the EMI training was much favored by the primary level teachers and they looked very much excited after six-days training was over. From the third day onwards, they communicated among themselves in English and used English language to talk with the trainers. The trainee teachers learnt how to use English rhymes and language games in classroom. They learnt to make useful classroom materials and became eager to go to school and implement what they had learnt in the raining. In the last two days of the first phase of the EMI training, they were also involved in a short micro teaching. This micro teaching and the feedback from fellow teachers and the trainers made them confident in six days.
EMI training under Project NIITE lasts at least for three years and a master trainer from NCED and one from British Council work together to train teachers effectively. This project has its own training manual having 12 main units and many sub units under them. EMI covers all the subjects except Nepali. This training mainly focuses on how to give clear, short and simple instruction to the students in English. It focuses on learner-centered classroom where students take active participation in classroom activities. The training focuses on the use of English language as a means of communication between teacher and students, and students and students. EMI focuses on the use of four skills in every class. After the completion of EMI training, the trained teachers can use English as a medium of instruction, plan their own lessons, prepare teaching materials, train other teachers and become more creative.
A good lesson plan with specific objectives, teaching materials, time management of a teacher in classroom, use of classroom language by teacher and students, and the use of language skills are the highlights of EMI training. In the same way, involvement of students in learning activities such as a pair work, small group and whole class work, feedback and error correction, better monitoring, building good rapport between students -students and students -teacher and reflection are also the contents of EMI training. The main focus of the training is the use of classroom language, language for instruction, and evaluation. EMI also focuses on child friendly, anti- racist and gender equality in classroom.
The schools which are willing to shift their medium of instruction must provide EMI training to their teachers so that it equips them with skills to teach subjects like English, mathematics, social studies and science through EMI. This is a pilot project in Nepal aiming to provide training to seven thousand basic level teachers in the country within three years.
Some people think that it makes no difference whether schools use English or Nepali as a medium of instruction but what matters most is the transfer of content knowledge. This is is right but EMI is a demand of school teachers in community schools to stop the huge transfer of students to private English medium schools. EMI is not against using mother language in classroom. It does not promote ‘only-English’ policy in classrooms. However, a teacher can use mother language to help students comprehend the texts and contexts.
Finally, under the project NIITE, EMI training is aiming to make teaching-learning effective basically in primary level in Nepal. The increasing curiosity among teachers regarding EMI training, and their motivation and active participation during the first phase of training has made us optimistic of its upcoming success. It seems to me that, EMI will surely help community schools to minimize the gap noticed in education between private schools and community schools.
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The author is Master Trainer (Project NIITE) British Council, Nepal.
The college I work for had resumed after one and a half months following the devastating April 25 earthquake. I teach World Literature for Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) 2nd semester at King’s College, Kathmandu.
The classes after the destructive earthquake are quite difficult for both teachers and students as the disastrous incidents are still fresh in their minds. The fun-related activities such as games, drawing and dance can be taught to younger students for the first or few days after the schools resume. Such activities give comfort for both teachers and students. Although I had learned many ways to teach the quake-affected students while I was still writing education related stories on behalf of the district based correspondents for Republica, I myself was puzzled about my lesson plan for the first class.
During the review process of syllabus and the course of study for World Literature, an idea struck my mind. I decided to teach a story related to the recent earthquake to my students. It was not only relevant as per the course I teach, but it was appropriate in the present context of Nepal too. In this blog, I share my experience teaching the first day when the new semester began following the earthquake. I also incorporate other teachers’ experiences about their first classes before I draw my conclusion.
First class after earthquake
Aftershocks are still on; many students have turned up to the college on the first day. Indeed it was a reunion for everyone. I felt that my students were a warrior who came back home after fighting a battle. Their faces looked curious; they were curious to talk to each other. Before they got a chance to talk with their colleagues, I had an ice-breaker activity.
“We are survivors, aren’t we,” I asked.
They shouted, “Yes.”
“Thank God. Everyone survived. So, everyone has a story of survival,” I added.
I told them to tell their stories. I could see they were hesitant to share their stories. Then one of them asked me to tell my story first and so did the rest of students. I told them my story as follows:
I had two different experiences in the last two deadly earthquakes: one in my living room and another at workplace, one escaping from the ground floor of three-storied building and another from the second floor of seven-storied building. Though both magnitude and duration of the second earthquake (7.4) was less compared to the first one (7.8), I felt more scared in the second one.
April 25.
All of a sudden, all electronic gadgets in my room were automatically turned off Saturday noon. I had been working on my laptop at the time. At that inauspicious time when the clock showed 11:56, my bed started to shake and the TV set almost jumped at me.
I rushed to the door and stood between the pillars from where I could see and hear other people in my neighborhood yelling and running helter-skelter. I shouted at them not to run but stay inside safely till things were settled.
Nobody listened to me, and I was scared. The earthquake continued for more than a minute, and nobody was inside. I had never experienced continuous tremors and it made me lose hope. I was at wit’s end.
I came out in the open after it stopped. Hundreds of people had already gathered outside. I saw parts of some buildings and boundary walls nearby collapse. I tried to contact my family, friends and colleagues, but in vain. I browsed the net, which was luckily available. I tweeted about the earthquake and also posted a status on Facebook.
Immediately after the first quake, no Nepali media covered the news, except Radio Nepal. But I could read Facebook posts and tweets about earthquake from different parts of the country. Though there were reports about damage and loss of properties and lives in Kathmandu alone, at first, nationwide reports soon followed.
Through social media, I could learn that Saturday’s devastating earthquake measured 7.9 on the Richter scale with its epicenter in Gorkha district. Thereafter, international media was not only quick but also active in reporting the incident. Nepali media became active only after news spread through international media.
May 12 First, I thought it was an aftershock and decided to stay inside. But the intensity got noticeably higher. Then I managed to escape from the tall building that had started to swing and later developed cracks as well. Thank God, both the powerful earthquakes occurred during daytime.
Had they occurred during the night, or on workdays, human casualty, especially school and college students and structural damages would have been immense.
So far the death toll from May 12 quake with epicenter in Sunakhani of Dolakha has crossed 100. Likewise, the toll from the first quake with epicenter at Barpak in Gorkha is around 9,000 and twice many are injured, according to Nepal Police. Of 14 affected districts, Sindhupalchowk is the hardest hit. Over 3,000 people have been killed there.
All Nepalis, both in and out of the country, have stood by the victims in these difficult times. They have lent their helping hands with what they can. Although Nepalis had earlier been divided along political, gender, ethnicity and geographical lines, they are united now. Such a bonding was not possible in any other way.
Then the students started sharing with each other their stories. I could observe some of the important points they were making while listening to their stories. Some of the students were good at narrating the story, while others became hesitant as they could not fully narrate stories in English. Even I allowed few hesitant students to tell their stories in the Nepali language. The presentation of the stories by individual students varied. Some presented in details and interesting away, but others told very short story skipping the details. This is because of individual differences and diversity of students. I found that even the students who failed to stand up and speak out earlier told the story. There was an overwhelming response from students.
At the end of the class, I briefly introduced different genres of literature – fiction prose, poetry, drama and non-fiction. The story they shared is an examples of non-fiction, I told the class.
To conclude, I have also interviewed some of my colleagues about their first classes after the disasters. I found out that some of them began their classes with something related to the earthquake. For instance, an environment science faculty member held a discussion on how disaster brought environment problems in Nepal. As economics faculty provided shared his thoughts on how the earthquake affected the country’s economy.
The next day, I assessed the students’ interests, but many of them were no longer interested to talk about the earthquake. They argued that they were bothered by listening to their parents or neighbors and the other people, who always talked about the earthquake.
As aftershocks are still on, some precautionary measures are a must to save our lives from the future disasters. I facilitated a discussion on how to take precautions, and went back to a normal situation of taking classes. The college also organized some events like treasure hunt, which I believe helped students recover from the quake trauma.
The Choutari team has initiated a new ‘photography project’. The aim of the project is to promote the use of photography/pictures in EFL teaching. In this project, the Choutari team members share with the larger ELT community a variety of photos they take in different times and places. We do not create our own stories out of these pictures, rather we leave it open for multiple uses (e.g., essay writing, story writing/telling, critical pedagogy, group work, participatory research)as per the need of EFL teachers . In acknowledging the importance of photos/pictures in EFL teaching, this project is influenced by the “Critical Photography Theory” (Wells, 2015) and the “Critical Art Pedagogy” (Cary, 2011). We encourage our fellow colleagues all over the world to use these pictures (of course, acknowledgement is appreciated) for the classroom purposes and participate in the discussion on various issues concerning the use of photography in EFL teaching.
To begin, we share the photos taken by Prem Phyak, our past editor, in different locations and times in Nepal.
Ramesh Prasad Ghimire Instructor of English, Educational Training Center, Surkhet
Initiation
In recent years some government schools of Nepal are slowly moving towards English medium instruction (EMI). Some schools have started teaching all the subjects except Nepali in English. This is happening mainly at primary level (grade 1 to 5). National Center for Educational Development (NCED) has made a decision to provide training for the school teachers who are interested in using English as a medium of instruction. NCED has made MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with British Council (BC) for conduction training for the school teachers.
The project has been given a name National Initiative to Improve Teaching in English (NIITE). It is a three years project. The project focuses on training the primary level teachers (grade 1 to 5) but the main focus of the training according to Jovan Illic, the head of Programmes at British Council, is on the teachers who are teaching in grade three, four and five.
The target area of the project is all the seventy five districts of Nepal. However, the three districts of Nepal Surkhet, Nawalparasi, and Jhapa have been selected as the piloting district for conducting training for this year. These districts have been selected as piloting districts because the demand of the teachers was high from these districts. In the first year, it is aimed at training 7000 primary level teachers.
My experience
As an English trainer, I was always worried about our primary level teachers’ English. Last year I conducted EMI training in ETC Surkhet for 50 primary level teachers. Most of the teachers’ English proficiency was very poor and my focus was on improving their English rather than equipping them with some skills and teaching techniques. I was so worried about their English. I was thinking how they could conduct English medium classes without having some proficiency in English. I even carried out an action research focusing on developing their English proficiency. I was not free from my worry throughout the year. This year too I have to train 150 primary level teachers in Educational Training Center (ETC), Surkhet. The tormenting question that strikes me all the time is “How can a teacher teach in English without being able to use some English for general communication?”. And I hope majority of the teachers who are using English as a medium of instruction at the basic level might be worried about their own language ability.
Fortunately, I attained EMI training this year. It was master training of trainers (MTOT) jointly organized by NCED and BC in Nepalgunj from 14 to 18 March. One of the key message that I got from the training is grammar is not a thing to be worried about in communication. Grammar is, in fact, not a liberating force but an obstacle in effective communication. If you know nouns and verbs you can communicate. For example, if you are thirsty and want to drink water, you can say “Give water.” instead of “Can I have a glass of water, please?” I already had got this idea in University but it was, I think, in my subconscious level of mind.
Some of you may be worried about grammar especially with written English. But one thing that we should not forget here is that in EMI classes, grammar is less important than fluency and communication of meaning. If you are able to communicate your intended message to your reader or listener then your language is okay even if it is grammatically incorrect. Grammar develops itself in course of time if language is used for communication. This is the key of current communicative approaches to language teaching as well. If you look at how children learn their first language, you will find that they use single word or simply two words for communication and their message is perfectly intelligible for the adults. Their grammatical system develops much later in life. But it is important to have a good store of vocabulary. The lexical approach to language teaching also focuses on the prime role of vocabulary in learning a language and communication. Some other lessons that I learned from this training are:
First fluency then accuracy
Make your instruction as short as possible
Use very few words and much demonstration
Do not speak much in the classroom, encourage students to speak much in which they use whatever language they can
Teaching is very easy; just go into the classroom and give students something to do so that they forget that they are in the classroom.
Use a lot of visual aids and actions for communication of meaning
My instance
I am not happy with this government policy, however. I do not think that teaching in English guarantees quality in education. In the name of using English in the classroom, the students should not be deprived from the basic understanding of the subject matter. Before making any new policy we need to look at our local ground realities and contexts. I personally think that we still need some years to make a jump to EMI in this county. I have observed some of the EMI classes in Surkhet and have some discussion with the teachers as well as students. I suggest dear teachers to use some Nepali or other mother tongues of the students to some extent in EMI classes. But one thing that impressed me was that the students said that they loved English classes much and they were more active smart and confident than the students who were in Nepali medium classes.
My plan
Now I am convinced that my trainee teachers who are participating in EMI training in ETC, Surkhet can handle EMI classes even if their language proficiency is not so advanced. My first action in this training will be to make my participants feel that English is not difficult and grammar is not so important in communication in this context. I am planning to make them feel this not by telling but by demonstrating.
Needless to say, the importance of English is surprisingly increasing day by day. People all over the world are investing a lot of money and efforts to English Language. However, college students in Nepal, who have already invested money, time and efforts, for learning English, are yet to succeed. Migrant Nepalis working abroad, who hold academic degrees, cannot speak even simple sentences in English. As a result, they have become the subject of mockery. In this blog post, I will make an attempt to discuss on spoken English as challenge for college students.
Let me share with you an anecdote. One day one of the students came to me and asked, “I can write grammatically correct sentences in English. But why can’t I speak?”
The student is the representative of many others who frequently asks me the similar questions. I did not have any ready-made answers for the curious students’ question that time, however, I discussed with them citing some reasons for lack of proficiency in spoken English.
Some time later, I pondered over the issue. I came up with a very simple and amazing answer. Having grammar in spoken English is useless. Non-native speakers of English facing the problem for speaking English is just due to grammar. This is the fact shown by researches as well. As educated persons or college level students, they always want to use grammar properly, they never can speak English.
Importantly, we can make brief statement, questions and answers in spoken English. For instance, to make the question, auxiliary verbs and WH words are used at the beginning of the interrogative/question sentences as per grammar. Such a complexity to form question or interrogative sentences makes students unable to ask any questions to the teacher or anyone.
Here, one question may arise in your mind, what type of shortcut English is there without grammar? English without grammar can be said to be shortcut or real English. No doubt, there is no language without grammar in the world. Grammar is a science of language. Even if grammar is missing, it is hidden in spoken English.
We mostly use shortcut sentences and we simply prefer to call it “Spoken English”. According to grammarian, I. Jaykaran, who published the book “Master your English Grammar”, we make several shortcut sentences during conversation. It is not a grammatical mistake, but an accepted shortcut.(page 414)
Let’s consider how we speak our Nepali language. As you know, a baby and our grandfather or grandmother do speak Nepali so well without Nepali grammar even they have not learnt in the school. We, educated persons or students, never use Nepali grammar while talking with people. Can’t this be similar case in English. It is vivid that speaking a language does not necessarily use proper grammar, right?
Practical or Real English is informal language. It is also called spoken English. In our daily conversation, we simply use this language in family, with friends, relatives and other people. In Real English, we do not care grammatical rules which frustrate the beginners to speak English.
On the other hand, grammatical (proper) English is formal Language. It is standard and specific language used in academic organization, official purposes and formal programs. We mostly use proper grammar while talking to seniors or strangers too.
STRUCTURE OF SPOKEN ENGLISH
There are two parts in spoken English;missing words and speaking words.
In case of missing words, it is not good to speak frequently the same words or matter in talking, which is already known or spoken out. That is to say, we don’t need to speak again which is clear and can be understood easily.
See the examples below;
Are you watching the TV? (Grammar)
1. You watching the TV? (Spoken)
2. Wathing the TV? (Spoken)
We have to stop the car here. (Grammar)
3. Have to stop here. (Spoken)
4. Stop here. (Spoken)
In example 1 and 2 above, are and you are missing, in example 3 and 4 we and the car, and we have to and the car are missing . It is, of course, considered best in spoken English.
According to grammar, In above example (4), ‘stop here’ is the imperative sentence. But in spoken, it makes a same meaning like other two utterances.
Speaking Words – We simply talk about a person or a thing in normal conversation. To make it short and sweet, we need to speak as Spoken English which is the best way of speaking in every language.
Above example (2), (3) and (4) are as Practical English without subject and object as the grammatical sentences.
The words are missing in Spoken English in such a way. So if we do not know the situation or circumstances, sometimes it becomes unclear or gets different meaning.
To conclude my opinion, I would like to urge the college students to once try to follow the above mentioned way if they really want to speak English fluently. I hope this will help them get success very soon. I am teaching spoken English in such a way mentioned above. I have found the fruitful result. Most of the students are wonderfully satisfied with my teaching.
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The author teaches English language in Kathmandu valley.
Chandra Acharya ELT practitioner, Life Member of NELTA, and freelance writer in English
Frankly speaking, this blog entry does not entertain you, the readers, because it does not unveil any particular issue on ELT rather it talks about an effort I did to advance the career in ELT creating a recurring dream for the learners ever no matter where they go and be what in their life. Hope you do not interpret this as a self exaggeration.
I was so I did, I am and I do and if I will be I will be doing
This is the working definition of existentialism and I am not untouched by this definition. As the title, ‘Crossing the boundary: what I did during my stay still knocks them to ring me’ owns a sense of existentialism which is directly linked to the effort I made during my stay in an English School from where I started my teaching career for the first time. Mount Everest English School Dangihat, Morang, where I started babbling in English (for the language teaching) is the means and ends to expand the horizon of my passion in English language teaching. Thus, the credit of all the success I achieve on ELT till this time goes to the administration there.
At first, it was quite challenging for me to be adjusted in the environment. I was with a tongue twister that how could I be a good member of that nice community. This questioned me several times on my behavior and challenged me to work as a teacher of English. No sooner had I presented in a class of 30 more students for the first time, the nightmare started since then. In the very beginning of the presentation I found some quake shocks in my body but it went at please some minutes later. I didn’t know whether the presentation was beautiful or not but what I did after the supervisor left the class was quite nice and that worked in my selection I think. I had sung a song that was a key of my selection I think because I had kissed the heart of the students through that song. So, my salute also goes to the song; mohani laglahai gauleko bolile…, that I had selected this song as a dancing number at the school anniversary I talk later. Making some other talks with the administration I returned to my room on that day. No sooner had I reached the room I found a call from the principal that I was selected as a lower secondary English teacher there.
The next day I got the appointment. As I got the appointment I found that the real life began with some emotion. On the one hand I felt happy that the cost of the study could be maintained decreasing some financial burden to my family, but I felt like a horse in a shed on that day onwards on the other hand. As I was like a colt on the grassy land before, I found myself be a dutiful dude day to day. Sometimes, I felt the freedom of life was banished but actually the real life had begun. Since then, I understood the value of time, the life of different circumstances and the policy of talks. The very important thing I learnt was the professional life cycle one owns.
Teaching and preaching to the kids at the threshold of adolescence, I crossed a five-month life cycle as a lower secondary English teacher there as I had joined on the month of Kartik. Then after, the post was switched to secondary English teacher. Having being a five-month experienced member of that nice school family, I found myself an energetic member that I had to be in any of the administrative decision, be it a classroom management or creating an English environment they are making every efforts for a long time. Analyzing my capability in English either it is a pronunciation or creative writing skills or any other skills a teacher of English should have, the administration shared me a responsibility of a co-coordinator to manage English environment in the school zone. This made me a unique kind of teacher among the colleague there. As they did this, I thought it was an opportunity to collect the missiles of English language and to blast over that community they were in need. So I promised myself to left no stone unturned in my responsibility ahead.
To this, the very first thing I did was; making the colleagues agree to make ‘teacher talk’ in English as they could and the ‘baby talk’ for the students. The reason why I did this is teacher talk is a key to form a habit to do everything in English on the part of the students because learners are the imitators of their Gurus. Simply, I requested them to use English as a Medium of Instruction (EMOI) as I was impressed by the term; if one needs to be a good person in English one should do things in English. I also tried my best to spent some of their class-time to engage in private speech; talk apparently to and for themselves rather than for any external conversational partners which could regulate internal thought, without any external articulation as proposed by Vygotsky. To the teachers from nursery to secondary, either they were teaching English or Nepali, I shared some ideas to speak in English on several bases. As I was also the beginner in English, I tried my best collecting ideas from external sources to create English speaking environment in the school zone. In addition to this, I assigned a student of higher classes who could spoke English at ease to each house. Managing these things properly, Nepali speaking environment magically switched into an English speaking zone. Here, the very exciting thing I found was, even the students of class nursery smiled saying good morning sir/ma’am, may I go out sir…, bye! bye! sir/ma’am etc. which made me feel proud in my mission.
The second very important thing I did for the success of Mount Everest English School during my stay was; sharing ideas in certifying the authentic teaching learning materials in English. This does not mean that applying a book from the foreign writers, but the book to facilitate English speaking zone they need and to empower students in English. What I did to this matter was making decision against the administration’s agreement. Crossing the boundary they had already established, I stopped them not to apply the books in Nepali medium in English subject. I didn’t know whether the decision I made was favorable to the will of the administration, but it was a great effort for the success of the school and its family I believed. Why because, if students are with the choice of a difficult thing and an easy thing at the same time, no matter they choose the essayist way. I mean if we had launched the books of English subjects translated in Nepali, the students could only read the translated version of English terms. They didn’t go for exploring and practicing the things in English and this certainly could create problems in developing reading comprehension on them which could stop in facilitating in fluency in English too. Considering this I stopped them and they agreed to me finally. But in the very beginning of this decision they were against me as I was to them, because they might have some benefits in applying the books of different publication every year which I didn’t know at the time. With some ups and downs I enjoyed teaching the kids there.
Similarly, my effort for the success of 10th anniversary of the school, the first time after its establishment, was another corner stone for the good will of the school. I know it was the first event I have ever coordinated in my life and that was the first and completely a new event organized among 5 more schools in the community there as the local newspapers reported the other day. In the programme what I did the best was making students able, to present 6 hours long programme sharing varieties of exciting ideas to build of positive attitudes, and to making speeches in English from primary to secondary. The programme proved to be a success of the mission; creating English speaking zone in the school as each students assigned for the specific work talked in English during the day which could easily be seen on parents’ appearance.
As their wish, I left no stone unturned to make the anniversary a mega event under the chairmanship of Mr. Jagat Bahadur Basnet, a foresighted principal of the school. Mr. Basnet was not only a principle of the school; he guided me as a path-exhibitionist whom I never forget till the ELT air exists in my mind. I am speechless at the time I talk about the attachment between him and me. How he guided, encouraged and added a new kind of emotion to boost of my passion in ELT is not enough to explain in words. Because of these very things I worked there as a catalyst for the development of school no matter how hard I did in different ups and downs during my three year’s stay there.
The hardest of all I faced was at the time of leave. It was quite a difficult thing to be separated from their parent like relationship. At the leave I thought that something from my body was being separated. I don’t know how they felt in my leave, whether they were sad or happy but Mr. Basnat’s speechless voice while accepting resignation letter broke my heart. Though leaving them was not my interest, it was my compulsion to earn master’s degree at Tribhuvan University (TU) which, I say, was my childhood dream.
As I had a dream of earning master’s degree in ELT at TU, I did it last year and made them a call to share my happiness; they responded me saying ‘Surya sir the door is open for you all the time’. I wondered why they called me as Surya sir, I questioned myself first but later I found that my very last speechless voice at the time of leave from the school was; I am Chandra Sir till this time, tomorrow I will be back again and rejoin the relationship as Surya Sir why because Surya is far more powerful than Moon (Chandra). And one more thing that refreshed the image about the school was, the school had just been running in a new building with facilitated teaching learning environment. Having fun of this kind we ended the conversation. Since then the call log in my mobile is not untouched from Mount Everest English School’s reminding call.
In summing up, I, not only worked as a teacher there but as a change agent for managing quality education and to the all-round development of the school. Teaching students the good moral to making them a positive minded personality to have success in their life ahead. I tried my best as a teacher one should do this or that for all the success of his/her students and for the school improvement in overall. But one thing I could never learnt during my stay there was money-minded nature which I hope I never learn until my last breath. Because of all these very things, what I did crossing the rules and regulation of the school during my stay still knocks them to call me to reunite the circle there. And finally the school building I visited last time on Dashain vacation stunned my heart. The design of the building attracted me to take hundreds more photograph and one of them I have attached here comparing to its structure during my stay.
Students studying in old classroom settingNew building which warmed my heart in my last visitNew classroom management
The last but not the least words I suggest to the novice teachers and to the experienced ones to some extent are;
believe in work to word,
never be frustrated working under pressure as it is the starting of you real life,
feel that every activities done in the school is your own property and should have your responsibility on them,
try applying all the efforts you have without being money minded,
think that teaching environment you are with is the lab to practice the knowledge you earned,
believe that the routine work you are in teaches you the policy of life,
and finally, leave no stone unturned to be a unique teacher in the circle creating a recurring dream in students mind whatever they do and where they stay in their future life.
It was Saturday, and I was on complete rest when I received a call from Rajan Kumar Kandel, the then Secretary of NELTA Surkhet Chapter. He informed me about the 20th International Conference of NELTA in Kathmandu. Though I was already aware of the annual mega event of ELT, I responded him that I needed some time for decision about my travel to the capital and participation in the conference. Soon, he added that Regional English Language Office (RELO) could sponsor me. Listening to the opportunity, I jumped with a joy and I was quick to decide and confirm my participation.
Later, I came to learn that there was another ELT practitioner, who the RELO has sponsored too to make the trip to Kathmandu. I along with seven other English teachers from Surkhet (NELTA Chair Bishnu Kumar Khadka, Yadu Gyawali, Dipendra K.C., Dhani Ram Sharma, Resham Bist, Khagendra Bista and Purna Poudel) travelled to Kathmandu on 16th February 2015 to attend the conference scheduled from 17th to 19th February at DAV Sushil Kedia School situated in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur.
The breakfast time had already been over when we reached to the conference venue. We got registered hastily and entered into the hall but unfortunately, we missed the inauguration ceremony. We felt sorry to skip the essential part of the program. Then my eyes came across a person speaking in the program, who drew my attention. Later I learnt that he was none other than the keynote speaker, Mr. David Hayes, a Graduate Program Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Brock University, Canada. He was delivering his key note speech on the conference theme ‘The Quest for Quality ELT: The Contribution of Continuing Professional Development’. I was really impressed the way he presented the contents on the theme. He mainly focused his talk on teachers’ continuous professional development. I liked his ideas to be constant updating us with professional skills. No farmer can reap the crops daily from the only-sharpened-sickle. And the teacher himself has to learn how to cook than only to eat. His innovative ideas about the teaching were practical and based on cases.
As we reached the conference venue late and we had not eaten anything, we were starving and thirsty but there was no chance of lunch before the plenary sessions were over. However, I attempted to draw my attention to the speech but in vain. The physiological need attracted my thought to the food. At the same time, I realized the fact that we can hardly attract learners for learning unless we address their problems first.
Then a lady appeared at the rostrum. She was Elka Todeva, a Professor of SIT Graduate Institute, Brattleboro, United States. She talked about ‘Riding Waves and Scaling Mountains: Ecological Approaches to ELT. She started with a very practical grammar based on activity. I found her way of presenting preposition. The activity she designed was practical. Moreover, the learning activity was based on fun. Fun motivates learners more. Furthermore, she talked about child friendly and brain friendly activities. I enjoyed her speech as I prefer activities in my classroom.
When Dr Vishnu Singh Rai, the retired Professor of Tribhuvan University, began to talk, I plunged into the Nepali context of class. He made a lot of fun which really made me forget all the physical hunger and thirst. He presented in English through our own perspectives. I loved his originality.
Then it was time for lunch and rushed out of the hall. I saw a long queue of participants standing for lunch. After I had my lunch, I moved to concurrent sessions. I chose some of concurrent sessions as per my interests. First, I wanted to attend the session of Marian Wang from Japan, whose title of presentation was ‘Integrating Critical Thinking Skills into Study Abroad Program’, but the session was houseful when I reached there. Then I attended Jackie Van Tilburgh’s session ‘Writing Assessment: Ruminating Rubrics’. There I learnt about the importance of rubrics for the evaluation of any type of creative writing. The session was equally useful for the writer and the evaluator both.
Next I attended the session of Rosa Fagundes from Bangladesh. She talked on ‘Teaching Writing: the Value of Pre-wring Activities’. She provided different five steps of creative writing activity. They are brainstorming, clustering, listing & outlining, free-writing and the journalist’s questions. They are very practical and significant while teaching writing. I realized that we just ask the students to write but these activities should be done prior.
On February 18, I found Professor Abhi Subedi’s plenary session interesting and motivating. He did not use any ICT tool. He somehow criticized about excessive use of those power point presentations. Then I joined the session of two Thai teachers: Catherine Owens and Robert Burgess. Their session titled Blended Learning: Building Critical Thinking Awareness and Autonomy. They more or less advertized about the program launched by their university. They spoke the influence of ICT in teaching and learning.
The concurrent session I chose next was on ‘Developing Academic Writing’ by Dr. Purna Bahadur Kadel from Nepal. He expressed all the steps of developing academic writing. It can be shaped by some specific procedure.
Last day, Professor Sanjeev Upreti talked about postmodern perspectives. He pointed out the importance of teacher’s ignorance about the absolute answer. The teacher will quest for better until s/he gets it. I liked his post modern approach.
When the plenary sessions started, I joined the session by Kamal Raj Lamsal and Khum Bahadur Gurung on ‘Critical Thinking Activities in the Language Classroom’. They described about the perspective of everyone’s thinking. It is quite unique and absolute. The same thing can be correct in different ways. The last session I attended was the session given by a Bangladeshi Lecturer Murshida Nishat. She made a conversation on ‘Blending Critical Thinking to Develop Writing Skills’. She attached all the kinds of emotions, thinking and belief towards society and culture. I found it very relevant and useful.
Before the closing session, there was a panel discussion with ELT experts from Nepal, India and Pakistan. Director General of Department of Education, Dr. Lav Deo Awasthi was invited there but he couldn’t make it. Instead of Dr. Awasthi, Jai Raj Awasthi had represented Nepal while Z.N. Patil and Zakia from Pakistan were the panelists of the discussion moderated by Bal Krishna Sharma on the English education policy in the three countries. Nepal is in a dilemma about when to start English from class one or three or so on. The government is implying English from very beginning to survive the government schools. The same is the case with Pakistan while India has already English education policy, according to the panelist Patil.
The conference indeed provided the participants especially English teachers from different parts of the country with an international exposure of teaching English. Although I have been teaching English for the last nine years, it was my first time to attend the international conference. I realized that I had earlier missed the great fair of English teachers where they can shop of their interest, sharpen their knowledge, refresh their cognition and enhance their skills. The global practices of teaching language as second language or native, professional development, debate of authentic English, way of teaching and innovative skills and its sharing was wonderful for me. It has invigorated me to my teaching profession. It has motivated me and triggered my passion of teaching English.
Finally, I would like to thank RELO, American Embassy, NELTA Surkhet Branch, conference organizers and the speakers who updated me and my professional skills.
The author is an English teacher at a secondary level school in Surkhet.
Prem Bahadur Bishwakarma, an English teacher from Surkhet district, had longed for the past few years to attend a mega event of English teachers and participate in the discourse of English language teaching methods and practices. He teaches English at SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, Surkhet.
Eventually, his wish came true this year and now he is in the capital to learn about different English language teaching (ELT) methodologies practiced across the globe. He was happily sharing his experience of teaching English during interactions with other ELT practitioners.
Although Bishwakarma has been teaching English to secondary level students for a decade, after attending the program he realized that he had actually yet to know a lot of things about teaching English.
“I found out that way of teaching this language has changed a great deal. People like us hardly have such knowledge. It has really turned out to be a great opportunity,” said Bishwakarma.
Another English teacher, Durga Kumari Devkota, who teaches at Kanya Secondary School in Birgunj is also in the capital to attend such a program for the first time in her life.
She was encouraged by her colleagues to participate in the program. Interestingly, when she set off for the journey, she also managed to persuade few more teachers to join her to attend the international conference in Kathmandu.
With a view to enhance their knowledge and skills in teaching English, over 800 participants from across the country have thronged to Kathmandu to attend the 20th international conference of English language teaching organized by Nepal English Language Teachers´ Association (NELTA) from Tuesday.
The three-day-long conference that will conclude on Thursday is organized under the theme ´´The Quest for Quality ELT: Riding the Waves and Creating the Landscapes.”
Inaugurating the conference, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mahendra Bahadur Pandey said that English language is not just a lingua franca as it is seen around the world today as a passport to global competition.
“English is the key to vast treasure of knowledge and skills and it is also the means to economic prosperity,” said minister Pandey. “Hence, English teachers must enable themselves to cater to the learners´ needs.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mahendra Bahadur Panday, inaugurates the 20th international conference on English language teaching, organized by Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association in the capital. Over 800 English teachers have gathered to take part in the conference.(Republica)
“Professional enhancement through such conferences and workshops could prepare them for the job,” he said referring to the 3-day event organized by NELTA.
Meanwhile, Lava Deo Awasthi, joint secretary at the Ministry of Education, said that teachers at community schools that are switching to English as the medium of instruction need to develop their proficiency in the language first. “Only then they can effectively deliver the contents to the students in English,” Awasthi said. At the same time, he also expressed worries over threats to local languages resulting from the increasing focus on English language.
“English is important, no doubt. However, this somehow undermines the existence and development of local languages,” joint secretary Awasthi said.
Prof Abhi Subedi, Prof Tirthraj Khaniya, Prof Govinda Raj Bhattarai, and Prof Jai Raj Awasthi were some of the figures who spoke at the program.
The key speakers Professor Elka Todeva from SIT Graduate Institute of Brattleboro in the United States and Professor David Hays, from the UK, who is currently involved in Brock University, Canada, facilitated the plenary sessions focusing on challenges and opportunities of English language teaching all over the world. In addition, experts from Nepal and delegates from 16 different countries, including India, Japan, the UK, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, UAE, the US, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand are presenting papers, posters, and participating in workshops related to English Language teaching during the conference.
The conference includes 10 plenary sessions, two panel discussions, 161 con-current sessions and 17 interactive language fair sessions. The presentations cover a wide range of ELT issues focusing on alternative assessment, use of information communication technology (ICT) in ELT, creative and academic writing, teacher professional development, literature in pedagogy, mother tongue education, and current trends and other researches in English language teaching.
During the conference, a special book exhibition with relevant books for the participant English language practitioners has also been arranged with the support from Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Collins and the local publishers, informed NELTA President Hemant Raj Dahal. “The participants will be offered special discount on the purchase of books,” he added.
NELTA is a non-government professional association of English language teachers across the country. Through the membership of 3000 ELT practitioners and 43 branches, NELTA has expanded across the country to provide English language teachers with an academic and professional platform for sharing their ideas and networking.
Community schools at a crossroads
A significant number of community schools across the country have already started teaching in English medium while many others are preparing for the shift at a time when they are struggling to deliver quality education due to lack of resources.
However, such a shift has not led to impressive results, linguists say. Every one knows that community schools are taking the step just to retain their students.
“I see the move as a desperate attempt to compete with private schools rather face closure in lack of students,” said Ganga Gautam, a teacher trainer, who is also an associate professor of English Education at Tribhuvan University.
No doubt, community schools that have started teaching in English medium are able to attract more students than before, according to Gautam. “This move is just to ensure their survival,” he said.
Unfortunately, the government has not yet formulated any clear cut policy on English Language Teaching (ELT). Last year, a committee of ELT experts from NELTA reviewed the government plans and policies in order to find any clause related to English. One of the committee members, NELTA president Hemant Raj Dahal, said, “We could not find any clause related to ELT in those documents except in the last School Sector Reform Plan.” Dahal said this during a panel discussion on policy issues on ELT on the second day of the conference on Wednesday. The panel discussion, moderated by Bal Krishna Sharma, a PhD scholar at the University of Hawaii, USA, saw participation of English language experts, Prof. Jai Raj Awasthi from Nepal, Z. N. Patel from India and Zakia Sarwar from Pakistan.
Unlike in India, there is no clear English language policy in Nepal and Pakistan, according to the panelists.
“The contents of other subjects when delivered in English at community schools cannot be rich and resourceful in our context because teachers are not efficient enough in English,” moderator Sharma argued. Prof. Awasthi suggested that the government needs to have a concrete policy on English language teaching based on empirical research. “Then the policy should clearly state that children should be taught English at what age and from which grade.”
Recently, the government allowed community schools to switch their medium of instruction to English if they find themselves capable, according to Prof Awasthi, joint secretary at the Ministry of Education. However, the government has established no mechanism to check whether schools shifting their medium of instruction to English are fully prepared, according to the teachers.
Without adequate preparations and proper plan, this move at community schools for English medium instruction has brought them at crossroads.
This news story written by the author was published in Republica (English National Daily) on February 19. Click here to the original publication.
Interview with Hornby School Tutor Dr. Amol Padwad
Amol Padwad, who took over the presidentship of ELTAI in July, 2010, holds a master’s degrees in English and Russian. He has other degrees to hiscredit like M.Phil (English), LL.B and PGDTE (CIEFL). He also did M.Ed. (TESOL) from University of Leeds, UK on the Hornby Trust scholarship. Currently the head of thePostgraduate Department of English at J. M. Patel College, Bhandara (Maharashtra), he was a moderator of ELTeCS- India (the regional electronic network of ELT professionals, promoted by the British Council) for a number of years.
He has completed one and is working on three ELT projects, funded by the British Council and the Hornby Trust. He is associated with numerous professional and social bodies, and has published several articles and translations. Here’s an interview with him done by Ushakiran Wagle.
What was the main focus of the Hornby School in Nepal?
The focus of the Hornby School in Nepal was ‘learning in low-resource classrooms’. This one-week residential school was a follow-up on a similar school last year. The main objective was to enable teachers to deal with the problem of lack of resources in their classrooms. The approach of the school was not ‘experts bringing academic knowledge and readymade solutions’, but the participants sharing their rich and varied experience, their ideas and practices and helping each other finding ways of addressing the problem.
How was your experience of delivering the sessions at the School?
It was an immensely enjoyable and enriching experience. The group had in it a range of countries (Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), school contexts (urban/ rural, private/ state, primary to tertiary) and participant profiles (novices/ veterans, male/ female, various qualifications). There was a lot to learn from and share with each other. The sessions were all participatory and collaborative, and participants contributed actively and seriously to each session. The tutors Richard Smith and Jovan Ilic also brought in their rich experience, varied perspectives and ideas from other contexts.
Did the focus for the school and the local context here in Nepal match? If not, how did you respond?
The focus of the school had a great relevance to the local context in Nepal, I believe. As I understand, shortage of resources is a perennial problem in most Nepalese schools. Most schools have what we would term ‘low-resource classrooms’. So the proceedings of the Hornby School, we hope, were very useful to the Nepalese participants, who must have carried home several ideas and insights from the School to be tried out in their classrooms.
What is your opinion on the global trends and local context difference? How can we as ELT professional balance?
Especially in the case of ELT, we (meaning the countries in SAARC region) show a general tendency of blindly following whatever latest trends and techniques that come to us from the West. Global trends, which for us normally mean Western (especially UK-USA) trends, are either completely and uncritically accepted, or completely and equally uncritically rejected. Take, for example, communicative language teaching, to which we have shown one of these two extreme reactions. What we need is not to accept/ reject the whole package, but unpack it and see what has relevance for us and needs to be discarded. I personally believe that the ‘original’ Western model of CLT is not feasible/ relevant in our countries, but also that there are some really great insights and ideas which we may ignore to our peril. As ELT professionals, we might ask of every new development the ‘WIIFM’ question – ‘what’s in it for me?’
What is your final message to the readers?
My final message to the readers (who are all teachers, I guess) is – a teacher can and does make a world of difference to every classroom, whether we like it or not. But it’s in our hands to try to make a planned, thoughtful and positive difference to our learners and classrooms. The first step of making this positive change is to start changing ourselves.
Perhaps no one exactly knows if the early human being was ‘man’ or ‘woman’. But in the Biblical tradition, it is said that God created the two sexes; ‘Adam’ first and ‘Eve’ later by taking of a rib from Adam. God gave Adam the right and power to name and domesticate the animals. This might be the reason why the terms such as ‘mankind’ instead of ‘womankind’; ‘manhood’ instead of ‘womanhood’; ‘boyhood’ instead of ‘girlhood’; ‘brotherhood’ instead of ‘sisterhood’; ‘forefathers’ instead of ‘foremothers’ were coined and have been very common. English has a lot of words which are formed by adding the terms referring to maleness such as headmaster, manpower, man-made, man-to-man, prehistoric man, man-eating tiger, manhole, fireman, postman, chairman, and so on. Similarly, terms referring to men are put first in the pairs as if the women are the second sex such as father and mother, uncle and aunt, man and woman, king and queen, husband and wife, sir and madam, lord and lady, master and mistress.
English ideology “All men are created equal” is itself gender -biased. Why can’t we say “All women are created equal”? We can find ‘male’ as a base or root for ‘female’, ‘man’ for ‘woman’, ‘he’ for ‘she’, and ‘Mr’ for ‘Mrs’. These terms show that women are semi-human beings, or subordinate or marginal creatures. Female terms are also formed from the male terms by adding the suffixes such as –ess, -ette, e.g. poet/poetess, author/ authoress, actor/actress, major/majorette, usher/usherette. These examples show that men are core and women are derivative of men. The famous linguist Janet Holmes views that the use of an additional suffix to signal ‘femaleness’ is seen as conveying the message that women are deviant or abnormal. It has also been suggested that the suffixes like –ess and –ette trivialize and diminish women, and when they refer to occupations such as ‘authoress’ and ‘poetess’, carry connotations of lack of seriousness. Because the word ‘woman’ does not share equal status with man, terms referring to women have undergone pejoration. If we examine pairs of gender-marked terms such as lord/lady, baronet/dame, Sir/Madam, master/mistress, king/queen, wizard/witch, we can see how female terms may start out on an equal footing, but they become devalued over time.
The English language discriminates against women. When we give our speech, we begin our speech with ‘Ladies and gentlemen’. Does it mean that ladies are not gentle but only men? Why are the men just men but the women are ladies too? Women are given a title, either ‘Miss’ for unmarried ones and ‘Mrs’ for married ones, but men, whether they are married or not, are given a title ‘Mr.’ Why should we distinguish women as married and unmarried by giving the corresponding title but not for men? Janet Holmes also views that women may also be described or referred to in terms of food imagery such as ‘sugar’, ‘sweetie’, ‘honey’, which is equally insulting. We greet the male teacher using more formal term ‘Bhattarai Sir’ but informal term is used to address the female teacher ‘Meera Madam’. We only use the term ‘doctor’ for male but ‘lady/woman/female doctor’ for female one which conveys the idea that she is not the ‘real’ thing. The word ‘professional’ used with the men has positive sense but with the women has the negative sense i.e. they are prostitutes. Similarly, the term ‘businessman’ has positive connotation but the term ‘business girl’ is used as a slang term for a prostitute. We can say ‘She’s John’s widow,’ but we cannot say ‘He’s Sally’s widower.’ Linda can be described as Fred’s mistress but Fred cannot be described as Linda’s master. Men play golf and cricket, while women play women’s golf and women’s cricket. Why so?
The famous sociolinguist Suzanne Romaine views that language has helped to gender the way we think about space; men’s space is public, in the workplace, while women’s place is private and in the home. This difference is encoded discursively in expressions such as working mother, cleaning lady, businessman, policeman, housewife, making it easier to accept as ‘natural’ the exclusion of women from public life. We have the English phrase ‘career woman/girl’ but not the ‘career man’ as if men by definition have careers, but women who do so must be marked as deviant. Similarly, a man can also be ‘a family man’, but it would be odd to call a woman ‘a family woman’ as if women by definition are family women.
Many grammatical forms are also found gender-biased. We can see or read the texts where the use of masculine pronouns ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ is very common, e.g. ‘Everyone should get his hat.’, ‘Somebody has forgotten his umbrella.’, ‘The average student is worried about his grades.’, ‘Each student will do better if he has a voice in the decision.’ etc. These sexist practices have promoted to the ‘he/man approach’ to language as the scholar Wendy Martyna says, that is, the use of male terms to refer both to males in particular and to human beings in general designates men as the ‘unmarked’ and women as the ‘marked’ human category. Experiments have shown that women feel excluded when they read texts with generic ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his.’
Feminists have claimed that English is a sexist language which has marginalized women. Sexist language has been drawing the fire of feminists for several decades now, and a number of linguists and sociolinguists have turned their due attention to the issue. To reduce sexist usages and make the language more inclusionary, new gender-neutral terms have been suggested by feminists such as ‘tey’ to replace ‘she’ and ‘he’, or combining them as ‘s/he’; ‘Ms’ to replace ‘Mrs’ and ‘Miss’; ‘chairperson’ or ‘chair’ for ‘chairman’; ‘fire-fighter’ for ‘fireman’; ‘letter carrier’ for ‘postman’; ‘police officer’ for ‘policeman’; ‘prehistoric people’ for ‘prehistoric man’ and so on. Besides these, the scholars Rebecca Freeman and Bonnie McElhinny mention the five guidelines or strategies suggested by the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) for avoiding the use of the generic masculine pronoun: First, drop the masculine pronoun (e.g. The average student is worried about grades.); second, rewrite the sentence in the plural rather than the singular (e.g. Students can select their own topics.); third, substitute the pronouns ‘one’ or ‘one’s’ for ‘he’ or ‘his’ (e.g. One should do one’s best.); fourth, use ‘he’ or ‘she’, ‘his’ or ‘her’(in speech and writing) or s/he (in writing); and fifth, use ‘their’ when the subject is an indefinite pronoun (e.g. Everybody should get their hat.). Feminists now think that as long as women must use a language which is not of their own making, change is impossible. As an output, some women refer to themselves as ‘actors’ rather than ‘actresses’, ‘poets’ rather than ‘poetesses’ and so on. The sociolinguist Suzanne Romaine writes that many women authors, now-a-days, deliberately use ‘she’ as the generic pronoun to shock their readers. She presents the idea of one feminist as ‘if there are men who feel uncomfortable about being excluded, they should think of how women feel within minutes of opening most books.’ If women feel being excluded, they will not be motivated to read the texts that impede their comprehension. Therefore, let’s create anxiety-free texts by using gender-neutral terms and expressions in order to create linguistic harmony in the linguistic world.
The author teaches at Sukuna and Pathari Multiple Campus, Morang and is a treasurer of Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA), Morang branch.
If you had known me five years ago, you would have known me as a news reader in the national radio. You would have heard: This is Radio Nepal. I am Umes Shrestha and you’re listening to the news. First the headlines.
That was my daily routine. Translate the news. Edit them. And go live. I still remember the day I went on air for the first time. Inside this small square studio, I was literally shaking behind the microphone. Needless to say, it was a scary and entertaining job. Getting to speak to the whole nation through the prestigious national radio. It was a dream come true. That’s what I thought at that moment.
But as the years went by, my enthusiasm for the job started to wilt. Something started to bother me. May be it was the routine job. May be it was the same political news day in and day out. But definitely I needed a change.
So after sitting on the same chair for almost half a decade, working on the same PIII computer and going into the same old battered news studio of Radio Nepal – I decided to quit the job.
I went to see my news in-charge. And I told him: Sir, I’m leaving the job.
He turned his big baldhead towards me, stared into my eyes and said: But you are good at it. And I shocked him with this answer: Yes sir, and that’s the reason I want to quit this job.
You see, for almost half a decade, I lived in my comfort zone of that studio and embraced mediocrity. I was the best at being an average. I lost my drive because it was easy, it was patterned and it was getting boring. I had hit the rock bottom.
When I told about this to my mom – she got really worried and said: How can someone even think of leaving a sarkari jaagir? I told about this to my close friends. They reacted the way my mom did. I told this to my to-be-wife. With complete disbelief in her eyes, she told me: You’d better have a good plan – because we’re getting married soon.
But I did leave the job. And after a few months of soul searching, I started teaching in a school and a college. It was my calling. It was what I was meant to do.
And then, I got my hand on the book that changed my life. It was “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” by John Wood. I suppose, you have gone through this book. One thing I’ve learned from the book is – if you remain happy in your comfort zone, you will settle for that happiness and will eventually stop dreaming for something better.
I am in no way trying to compare myself with John Wood. He left Microsoft and his lucrative salary. He started an amazing organization Room to Read from the scratch. I – well, I left a minor job. But he and his book are always an inspiration to me. The book keeps me reminding to step out of my comfort zone and do something challenging.
I am a teacher, and I want to do something amazing, inspiring and even crazy. I want to be the guy who left Radio Nepal to change the world. Big dream, hai? I believe teaching is a very challenging job. At the same time, teaching is a very rewarding and inspiring job. And I also believe that – teaching can change the world for real.
Please read this book.. it might just change your life as well.
Hu Xiao (Joseph is his English name) is one of the trainers of the workshop***. He holds a master degree in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL). He has also been teaching in BICC for two years. He loves traveling and playing guitar. Here is the interview with Joseph on Chinese Language teaching. I hope you find it interesting and useful.
What is the scope of Chinese language teaching and learning across the world? Why do you think foreigners should learn Chinese?
We hope that Chinese language teaching will be worldwide, just like French Alliance.
I think that China is a country with tons of people as well as opportunities, once you learn Chinese you’ll get the chance to communicate with one of the most potential nation.
As a language teacher, what problems and challenges do you face while teaching Chinese to the foreigners? And how do you overcome them?
The biggest problem or challenge i think is the teaching of Chinese characters. This is because foreign people are afraid of Chinese characters.
I think the Chinese teachers should not only teach the character itself, but also teach the background and the formation of characters. By that can let the students get interested in learning Chinese characters.
Does English language help you in teaching Chinese to foreigners? If yes, in what ways?
Definitely, especially in communicating with the beginners. We call English the “mediator”, but when a learner learns more and more, the use of English should be less and less.
Could you please share with us some phonetic difference between English and Chinese language?
For example, ‘j, q, and x’ in Chinese pinyin. In linguistics, we call them “the sound of tongue blade”, but in English we don’t have a sound like that. When the English-speakers start learning these 3 phonetics in Chinese, they find very hard to pronounce them.
Finally, would you like to convey some message to those interested in learning Chinese language?
We’d like to invite those who are interested in learning Chinese language to attend some Chinese language learning activities held by your country’s Confucius Institute. Because that is the place that you may directly feel the Chinese culture and language. Also if you are not that convenient in learning Chinese in class, you may choose the internet learning. Making more Chinese friends is also a good way to learn Chinese, because the Chinese people are always surround other countries’ people.
***
I have recently attended the ‘2015 China Workshop Program for Foreign Chinese Language Teachers’ at the campus of Beijing International Chinese College (BICC) in the Olympic Village in Beijing, Capital of China.
Over 30 teachers from Russia, Mongolia and Nepal participated in the China Workshop Program for Foreign Chinese Language Teachers, sponsored by Hanban. This workshop/training program is specifically designed to encourage foreign teachers to become Chinese language teachers and promote the Chinese language and Chinese culture outside China. The training course included 100 class hours, plus numerous sightseeing and cultural activities. The courses taught during the workshop were based on the needs of the Chinese language teachers; the main focus was on teaching the foreign participants the theory and methodology of teaching Chinese; and the application of modern educational technology in Chinese language teaching and cultural practices.
All the BICC trainers for this workshop are the full-time Chinese language teachers and guest professors from Beijing University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing Normal University and Beijing Foreign Language University.
Travelling is something I’ve always craved for since my childhood. My passion for travelling has led me travel to many places across the country and recently abroad, fortunately. In the autumn (October-November) of 2014, I visited Eugene, Oregon, USA, to participate in a three-week-long E-Teacher Professional Development Workshop sponsored by the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (Office of English Language Programs) and the University of Oregon, Linguistics Department/American English Institute (UO AEI). I was chosen for the program based on my performance in the online E-teacher Course I had attended virtually. I was one among 24 participants representing 24 different countries. I not only represented Nepal but also Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
24 participants from 24 different countries
Before I traveled to the US, I had different perceptions and curiosities. This was not only the first time I was traveling to a foreign country, it was also the first time I was making a long journey alone. I was both nervous and excited during the trip. Sometimes, I thought about missing a flight, losing my belongings, and so on. But fortunately, I did not face any trouble at all.
The E-Teacher Professional Development Workshop was held in a beautiful campus of University of Oregon (UO), Eugene. The campus looked so colorful and fascinating with almost five hundred species of trees in its premises, that has made this Oregon more unique in its beauty. Above all, I believe peaceful and fresh environment, generous people, special educational system, and remarkable natural beauty together have made a great ambience for the program.
After having a complementary continental breakfast at the Phoenix Inn Suites, located near the UO campus and downtown Eugene, we attended the morning sessions of the workshop at the Phoenix Inn itself. The sessions were held from 9 am to the noon. Following the morning sessions, we always moved to the UO Campus, Carson Dining Hall for our lunch, which consisted of a variety of food items.
The workshop sessions were designed and delivered in such a way that triggered to make us (participants) more interactive and engaging. I found most of the contents related to Nepalese contexts as well. I really got surprised from the commitment, support of my instructors, management and overall American English Institute (AEI) faculty. What a wonderful management for the workshop! Overall, the sessions, instructors and the materials were incredibly awesome.
Class Observation
Meanwhile, I also got the opportunity to observe the classroom. I mainly observed two English classes at the UO. The first class was at high intermediate level at B13B Klamath with Ms. Stef Brewer. I saw the students discussing Museum and the Art (They had gone there the previous week) in different groups. I also joined with one of their groups and learned about their journey to the museum. The group had some non-native speakers of English whose English language was not very proficient, so to improve their English speaking skills, two graduate students who are native speakers of English, joined the conversation. The graduate students were visiting tutors to them. During the conversation with the tutors, I found they would visit the class twice a week and they also wanted to become teachers. At last, the students were assigned to come up with the problem solving questions and they had to solve in the group. This is the approach they followed to assess the students, I learnt. I really liked this idea to help the learners improve their language skills.
Another classroom I observed was writing at 322 Library with AEIS110 (American English Institute) students. During the observation, I found that the students were non-American (Chinese) and they were taught English grammar. The tutor told me that they were very good at their English speaking skills but they did not know the rules. That’s why they were taught English grammar, the tutor added. This is what I found completely different from our context. Overall, I enjoyed observing both the classes and learned a lot about the new systems which I was not familiar with before.
Observing English Language Class at Academy of International Studies
Likewise, one of the wonderful schools I have ever visited was Academy of International Studies, Woodburn School District. This is an outstanding multilingual school district which motivates and empowers all students to succeed. I was fascinated from different systems and facilities provided by the school. The main mission of the school is to engage, inspire and prepare all students to learn and lead in a global society. The school principal was very kind and supportive. Despite busy schedule, he spent the whole day helping us to observe the classes. I found the Spanish class, German class, and English language classes all interesting. The teachers were highly active and experienced. Above all, what amazed me the most was the goal of the school, which was to produce multilingual students. Multilingualism is viewed as an important and powerful goal of education in more places around the world and we should learn this lesson in Nepal.
Sightseeing
Apart from the workshop and class observation, the sightseeing was wonderful. I visited to different famous places during my stay in Eugene. The first trip was at Oregon coast and Oregon Coast Aquarium. For me, it was also an opportunity to see new and different creatures such as Sea Otters and harbor seal, which I was not familiar with before. The main interesting thing I witnessed there was the time to feed the creatures and see them behaving like human beings.
What I enjoyed doing the most in Eugene was ‘shopping’. Mainly, Bestbuy, Wallmart, Market of Choice and Macy’s, Target were among the different shopping places I visited. I found ‘Best buy’ as the best place to buy electronic items. How could I forget the moment when I was about to lose my way when I went for shopping in ‘Wallmart’? But later with the help of the systematic maps in each and every bus station and the very kind bus drivers, I was able to find out the suitable way.
Newport, Bayfront was another great place for shopping and sightseeing that I could explore during my trip. Although I did not buy lots of things there, I enjoyed watching them and find new things there. I also visited to the Newport lighthouse, beach walk and a great city, New York. Wherever I went, everything was amazing and I enjoyed my visit a lot.
Learning American Culture
Celebrating Halloween
My trip schedule to the US included exploring American culture as well. As a part of American culture, Halloween, a cultural event, is the most amazing experience I had during the trip. I was very excited to celebrate this event, so I and my colleagues went to a local farm to purchase pumpkins. Then, after a very few days, it was the time for Pumpkin Carving for Halloween. It was nice to see all in different looks wearing different cultural Halloween things. We enjoyed a lot taking pictures and having party at Phoenix Inn, Hospitality room.
Then I could participate in a cultural exchange program’ at ‘Knight Library Browsing Room’. The University of Oregon (UO) faculty and staff and invited officials and community members had attended the program, wherein I shared information about Nepal, my country, and Nepalese culture. Everyone seemed enjoying the program and we also distributed some cultural items to the participants. It was really nice to see almost all the participants in their own national customs. Overall, I had a wonderful experience I have ever had.
Final project
Finally, I was supposed to do was to design a project to deliver two-hour workshop in my home country, Nepal. Then, I started working on my project (Team Building) which is suitable in our context. We were 24 participants from 24 different countries to collaborate, discuss and work in the groups which made us easier to work on the project.
Working on the project
Then there was the time to deliver a 30-minutes presentation about my project which was the part of my two-hour workshop. New place, new people and the new things to do, I was a bit nervous. My nervousness grew further after I came to learn that the presentations were broadcast live worldwide and open to the public. Despite of my anxiety, my presentation finally went on well and it was fun and engaging to the participants. It was nice to get positive feedback from the participants including instructors. It was a great learning that there was nothing to be nervous but this way I built up confidence.
To conclude, I spent three busy weeks in beautiful Eugene of Oregon. I feel myself recharged with lots of experiences and excitements back to Nepal. Each place I went was rewarding and stimulating. I wish we had similar roads, physical infrastructure and all the facilities I saw during my trip to the US. I believe the trip was the most exciting and fruitful moment I have ever had in my life. It was simply awesome learning.
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The author is doing her Masters in ELT from Kathmandu University.
Every January first, people all over the world celebrate New Year in many different ways. Making resolutions is one among many things that most people do. A resolution is a promise to change or do something different in the coming year.
People from all walks of life make New Year’s resolutions as it is a common tradition today. In a recent training, we spoke to participant English teachers about their resolutions, hopes and wishes for 2015.
Priyanka Pandey, one of English teachers, talks about her New Year’s resolutions. She hopes to complete her masters’ thesis and build on her vocabulary.
Another participant, Padam Bahadur Nepali, who teaches English to secondary level students, resolves to explore, learn and practice effective techniques to teach grammar.
Parista Rai, like Priyanka, wishes to complete her master’s thesis and translate the knowledge from the recent training into practice.
As a primary level English teacher at DAV School, Divya Nakarmi, who originally hails from Birgunj, makes New Year’s resolution to make 2015 a memorable year by collecting and developing a lot of materials for different activities of English language learning and teaching.
Making her classroom more interactive and engaging is New Year’s resolution for Sashi Kyasthya.
Similarly, Sodhika Dhungana’s New Year resolution is to make the best use of americanenglish.state.gov to learn different techniques to enhance her language skills.
Prajwal Singh Thapa also makes similar New Year’s resolution like others. He wants to exploit the website ‘americanenglish.state.gov‘and get benefit largely.
Attending different teacher training to develop professionalism is one among other New Year’s resolutions Prasanna Karki makes.
Like Prasanna, Ganesh Kumar Khanal has similar New Year’s resolutions.
Leela Moktan, a student from Janakpur, who is doing her masters from Tribhuvan University, wishes to complete her studies and find a teaching job in 2015 as her New Year’s resolution.
Like all the teachers I spoke to, Yuwaraj Belbase, one of our valued readers, writes on the Facebook of ELT Choutari, his New Year resolution is to implement some innovative and strategic techniques inside and outside the class.
Meanwhile, Umes Shrestha, one of Choutari editors, shared his New Year’s resolutions. He said:
My new year resolution as a teacher is:
To become better at dealing with teenage students To practice more to become a better presenter and a public speaker To explore the concept of entrepreneurship in teaching profession And, to make a lot of mistakes.
Last but not the least, on behalf of Choutari, my resolution here is to wish all of our valued readers, contributors and well wishers a happy, healthy and productive New Year 2015. May all of our resolutions bear fruit in the year ahead.
My learning accelerated as I learnt to read and more I read, more I understood, more I understood more I found my horizons expanding. As my horizon expanded, I realized that I could impart my knowledge and experience to others. My learning was aided by reading and I believe as I teach, my teaching will be aided by my reading. A teacher is first a reader than only a teacher. Here are the views of the two teachers and a learner on a teacher as a reader:
Saroj Mandal:
Teachers help students to get knowledge for the fulfillment of their needs, desires, wishes etc. in their life. So, one can say they totally depend on their teachers. Students always learn from elders not because elders are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong. Elders express their ideas, thoughts, opinions etc. through various literary forms. Among them one of the effective forms is print like newspapers, magazines, books, articles, poems, stories, essays, novels etc. More teachers will be in touch with these sources, they will have more practical and up to date knowledge which they can use in their profession. If teachers are good readers then not only can they recommend some reading materials to their students but they can also be mediator between students and the writers. Without teachers recommendation students may select inappropriate reading items which can demotivate them or lead them to a wrong paths. That’s why teacher needs to be a good reader as well.
Pabitra Gurung:
It was the color that attracted me the amazing sounds the heterogeneous meanings that I was amused by
I was mistaken by the comics blindfolded by the text irritated by the comprehension I hated and rejected because of exams
happy, encouraged, excited for the first class struck by some new words I gasped hurriedly looked into the dictionary WHAT!!! I already knew it
continued the text, so many words, already read but never had thought
now on more than 100th books, teacher has a very less new word look “you are confused, read the sentence UNDERSTAND, don’t be amused”
Teachers know everything, yes they should and must, no, teachers are human not gods, I doubt, if you are teaching then you should know, or teach the level you can help them grow
I am a teacher and I am proud I read because I have to make my knowledge sprout
Read then you understand your child, Read then you love into the wild, Read then there won’t be new words, Read then you speak your guts, Read then you will understand the world Read then you will understand you
It’s better if you are reader then teacher but when you are reader, you won’t be a teacher, you are facilitator or creator, BUT if you are teacher and reader, you are satisfied and happiness transmit you are knowledgeable and the learned one whom all understand as the case already done
Jiwan Subedi:
He took out a notebook from his back pocket and dictated his lecture of the day. It did not take long for the class to decipher that the data he provided was ten years old. The notebook was in tatters. This was a lecture in the first week of my University. We stopped attending the Professor’s lectures. A decade back, he had switched into being a one-way organism that had stopped taking in and only gave out information and ideas. They said, he had become a Professor with promising credentials, and was then an embodiment of excellence. The person had changed when he stopped reading; the once-stellar brain received nothing to process and fell into disuse.
Do you ever wonder why you like some teachers and why you absolutely dislike others? Why some teachers inspire you and why some sap your enthusiasm? And now that you are a teacher yourself, do you ever wonder why some students love being around you and why others try to dodge you when they see you coming?
Back in my school days, I remember being fond of my English teacher. He was into rock music and horror movies. I liked my Nepali teacher too. He was ‘haudey’ and friendly. He also told funny jokes. I liked my head-teacher because he had a visible halo of intelligence around him and looked like Morgan Freeman with chubby cheeks.
Students like teachers for various reasons. For a teacher’s absolute authority, command over the subject, confidence, personality, character, even gender, age and background. Or because the teacher does not nag students for grammatical mistakes… doesn’t pressure the students with assignments and deadlines. In college, we liked teachers who gave us notes. A friend liked Sociology ma’am because she was unmarried. My female friends liked a teacher because he had a unique British accent. There could be so many reasons.
So why we end up liking (or disliking) a teacher? There must be some explainable reasons. In this article, I claim that one of the reasons is non-verbal communication between the teacher and the students.
What the theories say:
We communicate in two levels: verbal and non-verbal. We might think that the verbal part matters the most. Thus, a teacher focuses on delivering the content. The what part. However, we overlook the other one. We infact completely neglect it. Gestures, eye contact, body language, distance, social norms, expectations and so on. The how part. Non-verbal communication is about ‘how’ you share the message rather than ‘what’ message you are sharing.
Teaching is an act of communication between the teacher and the students. This happens in both verbal and non-verbal levels. Therefore teaching depends on both ‘what’ and ‘how’ part of the delivery. But do we know if teaching was meaningful? George Bernard Shaw had said that the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. By lecturing our content to the students, we may delude ourselves into believing that learning has taken place. But the non-verbal part of teaching might have gone completely awry, impeding the communication process and obstructing the sharing of knowledge. That’s not meaningful. And, students don’t like that.
But when teachers communicate effectively on the nonverbal level too, students learn from the teachers and reciprocate by liking the teachers. And hence, dear teachers, granted that you are well qualified and you know your content inside out, here are three simple aspects of non-verbals you can consider, and implement them to make your students like you even more.
Eye contact:
Back in my school days, I had a teacher who, it seemed, believed in not looking into the eyes of the students. His preferred method of teaching was writing everything on the blackboard and making us copy word by word. Or he would spit out from his notebook and we would have to copy them. Naturally, his eyes were often buried deep into the notebook and textbooks. There was no rapport. There was no trust. I didn’t like that teacher. I don’t remember his name either.
When a teacher looks into the eyes of the students, the students feel warm, cared and respected. It makes them feel understood. It does not matter if it’s a large class or a small class. Eye contact works like magic.
Movement:
I used to move a lot. I would constantly pace around the classroom, from one corner to another, from front to the back and from one side to another. I thought that I needed to move around for two reasons – to control the class from noise makers and to get near to each and every student.
I also realized that such pacing was a result of my own anxiety, fear and nervousness. On the days when I was not properly prepared for the class, I would be pacing more than on the days when I was completely prepared and confident.
What we need to do is controlled movement, or let’s call it – movement with purpose. Instead of going for a morning-walk around the classroom, one can stand firm for a few minutes and then change the location. This type of movement is also necessary for the eye contacts.
The opposite of this also holds true. There are teachers who sit on a chair or stand still on one side of the room and deliver their lecture. Students might get completely tuned out and get lost in their own mental vacation.
Facial Expression
Emotions are contagious. Remember the proverb: when you smile, the world smiles with you. And when you frown, the world frowns back at you.
The most visible outlet of the emotions is our face and therefore positive facial expression matters a lot. I always enter a classroom with a big smile in my face. In some days, even when I don’t feel like it, I just force myself into a smile and try to keep the first five minutes of the classroom positive and happy.
But when a teacher lets her negative emotions win over and starts showing anger, resentment, frustration and even boredom, the class too quickly gets contaminated with these emotions. And as a result, the whole class gets put off and tuned out. We don’t have to be Einstein to figure this out. There were some teachers who never smiled. I didn’t like them.
Now here’s the nugget of gold.
Non-verbal communication, just like any normal communication, is always two-way. The non-verbal signals of the sender and the receiver are constantly interacting and giving feedback to each other. If your non-verbals send happy signals, the students also return happy signals. The more positive the interaction is, the more effective the whole communication becomes. But if you send disinterested signals, you can guess what happens. Therefore, be conscious about the non-verbal signals you are sending to the students.
So, to sum it up:
Proper eye contacts: When you have proper eye contacts with the students, they also respond by looking at you. This creates a positive psychological space between you and the students. And it elevates the quality of the interaction you are having. They feel acknowledged, cared and respected and in return, you feel they are more ready to listen to you.
Controlled movement: When your movement is controlled and relaxed, you feel confident and easy. But in the contrary, when you start pacing around showing nervousness, the students too feel nervous and lose confidence in you.
Positive facial expression: With a conscious attempt to keep your facial expression friendly, warm and empathetic, you can win your students’ warmth, love and trust.
