Category Archives: post-method pedagogy

Fostering Learner Investment in Nepalese EFL Classrooms through Project-Based Language Learning Approach

Case Studies, Creative Writing, Critical Pedagogy, Education in General, Miscellaneous, post-method pedagogy, Reflections, Scholarly Article, Teacher Education, Teacher identity, Teacher Training, Teacher's Experience/anecdotes, Teachers' narratives, ,
Mr. Dev Ram Joshi

Introduction

Project-based language learning is a procedural approach of language learning activities through the planning, exploring, analyzing, and synthesizing, in which the learners present their findings in the class either orally or in written form (Beckett, 1999). Dhungana (2025) believes that the project-based learning (PBL) model encourages students to learn actively by using different strategies to develop their language skills and improve achievement. He further supported this model as an opportunity and a transformative method to develop the 21st-century skills in the learners to maintain international standards. Furthermore, PBL creates a productive environment for learning, but the projects are to be selected rigorously, students are to be guided in each step, and there should be proper assessment of the students to encourage all of them for meaningful learning and cosy presentation in the class (Fleming, 2000). PBL can be taken as an innovative and inquiry-based learning method that fosters learners’ active engagement in language learning through continuous guidance of teachers and exploration of students. This framework of learning develops not only the language skills but also the soft skills during the process of conducting and completing the project works (Ecuador, 2019; Maulina, 2024; Nasir & Dermawan, 2021).

The concept of PBL was developed by stepping on the project method (Kilpatrick, 1918), experiential learning and teaching (Dewey, 1938), and sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978). Similarly, the historical steps for this approach began after the 1980s, when a task-based approach to language learning took place in ELT (Beckett & Slater, 2005; Wang, 2020). In the context of Nepal, this method gained value in the Nepalese education system when the national curriculum framework (2076 B.S.) envisioned life skill-based and competency-based subject-wise curricula. Then, the English curricula and textbooks, including other subjects, incorporated project works after each chapter of the textbooks from grades six to twelve. Additionally, the curriculum development centre has designed an internal evaluation guideline (2080 B.S.), which provides rubrics to evaluate students’ project works and other academic activities objectively and reliably.

Regarding empirical studies on project-based learning (PBL), the existing literature focuses on the effectiveness, challenges, and possibilities of PBL in the EFL classroom (Dhungana, 2025; Sanchez, 2019; Maulina, 2024; Devkota et al., 2017; Guslyakova et al., 2021; Aldabbus, 2018). Likewise, other studies have focused on how PBL fosters learner active participation and confidence of students in EFL classrooms (Aubrey, 2021; Giri, 2016; Nasir & Dermawan, 2022). Furthermore, Bastola (2021) examined how PBL can guide students to solve problems while learning English. Acharya (2023) analyzed the perceptions, practices, and challenges while applying PBL in health education. Gibbes and Carson (2014) scrutinized PBL from learners’ perspectives, Yuliani (2017) studied how PBL can enhance learner autonomy, and Somani and Rizvi (2018) compared PBL and traditional approaches of language teaching under a quasi-experimental design. However, I could not find the studies on PBL that investigated it to promote English language learner investment and integration of internal assessment with it.

I found my students avoiding investing in English language learning, which led them to low performance in all skills and aspects of language activities. Then, I asked them how much time they invest in English, and they replied that they only spent five to twenty minutes on English, and they again added that they usually do not pay much attention to the English subject, as they can pass it. I thought that if they depend only on classroom teaching and do not put in extra efforts outside the class, they might not perform what the are capable of. Similarly, overconfidence and exam-focused preparation in any subject is not good for knowledge and personal development. Therefore, this study aims to enhance learner investment through PBL incorporated with internal assessment techniques in secondary level students of Nepalese public schools by using the following research questions.

  1. How does PBL, integrated with internal assessment, enhance learner investment in learning English?
  2. What are the challenges and possibilities while implementing PBL in the EFL classroom?

Methods

As a practitioner teacher, I improve my professional practices with the help of action research by following the steps: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting (PAOR) (Burns, 2010). In this research, I have employed a project-based language learning approach integrated with an internal assessment system as the interventional technique to increase the time, effort, and dedication of my secondary level students in English language learning under the framework of technical action research by following the PAOR structure (Kemmis et al., 2014). The students of grade nine and ten (e.g. English medium sections of 9A and 10A), who numbered thirty and fifty students respectively, were the participants. I got my students to complete the projects mentioned in the textbook in regular teaching. Here I have presented projects: reading, writing, observing, and giving a speech project and peer/classroom teaching as the integrated project works, which I had provided during two long vacations, and I supported them to present their projects in the class. I observed how they have prepared and what resources they have studied, I collected their reports and looked at them closely, and I observed their classroom presentation by following the rubrics. Similarly, I had surveyed the status of students about their time, efforts, and dedication that they have about English language learning by asking open-ended questions. Finally, I analyzed the reflections that occurred in the class based on thematic analysis, followed by research questions and themes generated from classroom performance of students (Burns, 2010; Kemmis, McTaggart, & Nixon, 2014; Mertler, 2019).

Results and Discussion

Reading, Writing, Observing, and Giving Speech Project

As I had assigned the task of preparing a long essay, most of the students had prepared the essay as per the instructions, and a few students expressed the reasons for not completing the project work. And I provided them a few days to complete the task. Meanwhile, I provided feedback on their essays and guided them to make a final draft of the essay to record them in the file of project work. To make a clear understanding of the topic, we discussed the topic, and most of the students took part in the conversation actively. After the reading, writing, and observing (i.e., watching and listening) activities, students were taken towards preparing a draft of a speech to present in the class and one day, public speaking training was conducted by using multimedia and teaching the techniques of giving a speech. Students presented their speeches one by one every day. I evaluated their speech based on the modified criteria of internal assessment (e.g., report preparation-5, accuracy and clarity-5, confidence and style-5, content coverage-5, Timing-5), and I converted 25 marks into 16 marks to match the criteria of the internal assessment guideline, as there is a provision of testing listening and speaking for 16 marks. Thus, this project work contributed to the development of not only all language skills and aspects but also collaboration, confidence, creative, and interpretive skills as the students got help from peers, teachers, and other references during the process.

There was a girl who was unable to buy a copy for making notes, but she bought a grammar book and practice book, being encouraged to learn English after I conducted public speaking training for a week. I asked her, “Why and how did you manage the money for all these things?” She happily answered that she went to work on the farm as a labourer for five days and earned twenty five hundred rupees, which was enough for her. After such a long preparation, huge efforts, and investment of time, effort, and dedication, she was able to give such a nice performance. The integrated and task-based activities encourage students to be involved in learning activities for a long time (Joshi, 2024). He further claimed that the writing proficiency gaps could be maintained through continuous support to the students and involving them in publishing booklets of their project works. Similarly, Joshi (2025) claimed that the empathetic communication and supportive environment in the class help students to cope with stress during the preparation and presentation of academic activities. Furthermore, active participation and confidence of students can be enhanced through balanced project work in EFL classrooms (Aubrey, 2021; Giri, 2016). To sum up, it is certain that the PBL enhances the learner investment if the project works are designed carefully and if the students are supported in each step, not only in the classroom but also through technology and library resources.

Classroom/Peer Teaching Project

My English medium students were good at reading and average at speaking and writing skills. Therefore, I guided them to select any reading text and prepare for teaching to develop all their language skills integratively. Therefore, I provided this project work during the long holiday of Dashain and Tihar. When the classes began, I checked my students’ project works and provided feedback on their word meanings, answers to the comprehension questions, and other tasks that they had worked on. Before getting them to present their lessons, I explained and clarified their confusion related to the texts. I guided my co-teachers (students) to present their lessons at the beginning of the class within the timeframe of ten to twenty minutes, but some students requested the whole period of 45 minutes, and then I checked their preparation first and allowed them to take the whole class, ensuring detailed preparation. Meanwhile, I facilitated and judged them during their presentations. Some of the students presented excellent, and some did average. However, the hopeful point was that they maximized their time, efforts, and devotion in English language learning activities.

There was a boy in grade ten who used to stay passive in the class, but he used to ask questions related to English, not related to the current topic. When I provided him a chance to teach, he taught in such a way that students exclaimed with delight that his performance was perfect. After the presentation, I asked him how much time he had spent preparing for the lesson, and he replied with pride that he had spent a week for the preparation; consulting extra books, watching YouTube videos, and discussing with Chat GPT to prepare the lesson. Similarly, there was a girl in grade nine who was assumed to be fussy as she used to remain passive but talkative with her friends. She was average in subject matter, quiet, and not interested in communicative activities in English. However, when she got a chance to present her lesson, she used a clear, confident, commanding voice while teaching and used English most of the time. I asked her the same question, and she replied that she had worked two weeks to prepare a lesson. Rusli et al. (2021) accepted that peer teaching is significant to enhance the academic achievement of students as it creates an environment that develops confidence and motivation. Yuliani (2017) also supported this and claimed that PBL promotes learner autonomy.

Integration of Internal Evaluation with PBL

National Curriculum Framework (2076), Secondary Level Curriculum (2078), and Internal evaluation criteria (2080) recommend the incorporation of internal evaluation of English from nine to twelve with regular learning facilitation process through creative tasks and project works. Similarly, there are listening and speaking skills to be tested separately for 16 marks. However, the curriculum’s intention is for integrated language learning activities. Therefore, I decided to test language skills integratively through project works that I discussed earlier. I tested listening and speaking skills as per the curriculum during the classroom teaching. Saud et al. (2024) also emphasized the modification of internal assessment rubrics to contribute to learning language with a holistic approach rather than just evaluating students’ achievement.

Challenges and Possibilities of PBL in EFL Classrooms

Besides the unlimited benefits of project-based learning, due to more closures of schools and frequent holidays, not all of the students got a chance to present their projects by taking the sufficient time they wanted. Additionally, the lack of time challenged me as well because I could not conduct learning activities by covering all the projects mentioned in the textbook. Although the students were motivated to engage in project work, a few students got frustrated due to the lack of resources that they required to prepare for the projects. Some students have neither access to additional materials nor the library (e.g., physical or digital), in the initial stage, they did not accept these PBL techniques as it was new and had never been presented in class before as a regular part of learning, so the lack of confidence prevented them from smooth learning. Similarly, the students with a poor language base tried to avoid the project works, but they did so after the huge support and encouragement.

Despite the challenges, the project-based language-learning model creates space for an open, context-specific, and active learning environment if we can manage the challenges mentioned earlier. Similarly, the effective implementation of internal evaluation incorporated with regular teaching and PBL techniques can ensure the required investment and engagement of all learners and support for proficiency gaps as well. The internal evaluation criteria are used for providing marks to prepare results, but these have not been incorporated effectively with classroom teaching and internal evaluation in many schools, due to students feeling threatened in project works without a support system (Saud et al., 2024). Therefore, only after creating supportive mechanisms and effective implementation of internal evaluation can learning opportunities be provided (Joshi, 2025). Devkota et al. (2017) explored the challenges and opportunities, and their findings are also similar to my study, as they mentioned that the time and school environment play vital roles in making PBL more fruitful in EFL classrooms.

Conclusion

As the purpose of the study, the investment in students for the English subject increased at a satisfactory level. I wanted my students to spend at least an hour every day. However, some of them provided up to two to three hours, two weeks, and most of them gave an hour happily, although they used to give only five to twenty minutes. Similarly, they increased their efforts and invested money not only in reference materials but also invested time to consult the library. As a result, they performed better in the class, their handwriting improved, clarity and confidence increased, and they learnt collaborative skills to give and take help in the learning process. Although the project work was new and unique, and the previous trend was just a repetition of the course content in vacations, my students accepted the plan for project work easily after they observed some project works in videos. Not only during the project work but also in regular teaching, the technique (e.g., encouraging students to share their learning in the class as a task or a project) made students alert and prepared. This study will be helpful and a reference for those English language teachers who want to implement PBL in EFL classrooms to enhance learners’ active participation, and for language policy designers to revise the internal assessment guideline in the coming days. This study only presented the reflections of two project works, just for internal assessment and fostering learner investment, and further investigations can be conducted to integrate soft skills in the language learning process through project-based learning.

References

Acharya, S. (2023). Perceptions, practices, and challenges of applying project-based learning in health education. Journal of Education and Practice, 14(2), 112–121.

Aldabbus, S. (2018). Project-based learning: Possibilities and challenges in primary classrooms. International Journal of Education and Research, 6(4), 75–88.

Aubrey, S. (2021). Enhancing English language learner engagement through project-based learning. TESOL Quarterly, 55(3), 780–804.

Bastola, B. (2021). Project-based learning to develop problem-solving skills in English language classrooms. Journal of NELTA, 26(1–2), 45–58.

Beckett, G. H. (1999). Project-based instruction in a Canadian secondary school’s ESL classes: Goals and evaluations [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of British Columbia, Canada.

Burns, A. (2009). Doing action research in English language teaching: A guide for practitioners. Routledge.

Curriculum Development Centre. (2019). National curriculum framework for school education. Government of Nepal, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Curriculum Development Centre. (2021). Secondary level (Grades 9–10) English curriculum. Government of Nepal, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Curriculum Development Centre. (2023). Internal evaluation guideline for school education. Government of Nepal, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Darvin, R., & Norton, B. (2023). Investment and motivation in language learning: What’s the difference?. Language Teaching, 56(1), 29-40.

Devkota, B., Karki, R., & Shrestha, S. (2017). Challenges and possibilities of implementing project-based learning in EFL classrooms in Nepal. Journal of Education and Research, 7(1), 32–49.

Dhungana, A. (2025). Investigating the effectiveness and implementation challenges of project-based learning: A case study of public school teachers in Chitwan, Nepal. Journal of Balkumari College, 14(1), 89-96.

Dhungana, K. (2025). Effectiveness and implementation challenges of project-based learning in English language teaching. Nepal Journal of Language Education, 10(1), 15–28.

Gibbes, M., & Carson, L. (2014). Project-based language learning: Learners’ perspectives. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 8(2), 171–189.

Ginting, D. (2021). Student engagement and factors affecting active learning in English language teaching. Voices of English Language Education Society, 5(2), 215-228.

Giri, R. A. (2016). Project-based learning as a 21st-century approach in English language teaching. NELTA Journal, 21(1–2), 12–25.

Guslyakova, L., Kuznetsova, N., & Ivanova, E. (2021). Problems of implementing project-based learning in EFL classrooms. European Journal of Education Studies, 8(10), 34–46.

Joshi, D. R. (2024). Teachers’ experiential strategies for bridging writing proficiency gaps among secondary level students. Far Western Review, 2(2), 91-105.

Joshi, D. R. (2025). Exploring counselling-based pedagogy in EFL classrooms: Perceived values of English language teachers in Nepal. Far Western Journal of Education, 2, 57-73.

Karki, S. (2018). Effectiveness of project work in developing students’ speaking skills. Journal of NELTA, 23(1–2), 101–113.

Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., & Nixon, R. (2014). The action research planner: Doing critical participatory action research. Springer.

Maulina, M. (2024). Empowering English language learners through project-based learning for language proficiency. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14(1), 66–78.

Mertler, C. A. (2019). Action research: Improving schools and empowering educators (6th ed.). Sage Publications.

Nasir, M., & Dermawan, A. (2022). Enhancing learners’ participation and confidence through project-based learning in EFL contexts. Asian EFL Journal, 24(5), 90–104.

Rusli, M., Degeng, N. S., Setyosari, P., & Sulton. (2021). Peer teaching: Students teaching students to increase academic performance. Teaching Theology & Religion, 24(1), 17-27.

Sanchez, R. (2019). Effectiveness of project-based learning to improve students’ speaking skills. English Language Teaching Journal, 12(6), 123–134.

Saud, M.S., Aryal, S., & Sapkota, J.L. (2024). Student assessment in formal education: Nepali community school teachers’ perspectives. Prithvi Academic Journal, 7, 67-77.

Somani, R., & Rizvi, M. (2018). A comparative study of project-based and traditional approaches in English language teaching: A quasi-experimental design. International Journal of Instruction, 11(3), 15–30.

Yuliani, S. (2017). Promoting learner autonomy through project-based learning in EFL classrooms. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 8(2), 68–77.

Author’s Bio: Dev Ram Joshi is an English language teacher at Mahunyal Secondary School, Bhajani-1, Kailali and the MPhil scholar at Far Western University, Nepal. He has been teaching English at the secondary level for over ten years. His areas of research interest include language proficiency gaps, psycholinguistics, motivation, transformative pedagogy, learner empowerment, self-directed learning and professional development, ecosystem in language education, and ELT material development. He can be reached at teacherdrjoshi@gmail.com.

 

 

Engaging Students in Large Class: An Experience of an English Teacher

Critical Pedagogy, post-method pedagogy, reflection, Reflections, Teacher's Experience/anecdotes, under-resourced class, , , ,
Binod Dawadi
Binod Duwadi

Setting the Context

I attended a public secondary school in Dhading, which was five kilometres walking distance away from my home. I had to do all the morning chores, prepare meals, eat and run to school as my parents had to go to work on the farm every day. As the classroom was overcrowded with up to seventy students, it was difficult to get a spot in the front row. I had to adjust with six students on a bench at the back of the class, which would make it hard to listen to my teachers. It was challenging to find a cosy place to read, write and listen to the teacher’s lectures. When I recall now, it was tough to get through all this and complete my school education.

Despite the teachers trying to engage us in learning, most of my classmates were inattentive to the teachers’ instructions. The teachers used to crack jokes or share some new things but the students hardly paid attention to their studies. As a result, the teachers were less motivated to teach us and ignored what my classmates were doing in the classroom.

My classmates were from different ethnic communities: Brahmin, Kshetri, Newar, Gurung, Tamang, Gharti, Dalits etc. As they were from diverse groups, they had different beliefs and ways of doing activities. They were basically from working-class families. Yet, some of them belonged to semi-educated families and they were less interested in their study. Nevertheless, I was very excited about my studies.

On a chilly day

It was a cold winter morning. I was teaching ‘The Ant and Grasshopper’ in class ten. I asked my students to write some new words in their exercise book individually. There was some noise, so I tried to control their side talking by cracking a joke. Some of the students who were sitting on the first and second benches were listening to me passionately, whereas the students who were sitting at the back were busy with their personal talk. Again, I told them not to make noise, but their side-talking was ongoing. I further inquired and knew that they were not listening to me clearly. Again, I advised the other side students to have patience and it took around 15 minutes to make them silent.

Moreover, I just had 30 minutes to go. Hence, I revised the previous lesson and made them ready to participate in my large class. Then, I taught my lesson before the lunch bell rang. When I came out of the classroom and I went to the canteen for lunch, I shared my problem with my close friend, who had also been teaching English at a lower secondary level. He listened to me very carefully and agreed with my problem. When I finished the trouble of the classroom. Interestingly, he narrated a story of his classroom that he was also suffering from a similar kind of trouble in large classes. After school, I went back home in the evening and started thinking about my trouble alone.

I realized large class teaching is a complex task and large classes are pretty challenging for the teachers to conduct effective instruction. In such classes, the student number is very high, more than 50, which causes difficult teaching circumstances (Hess, 2006). It is tough for teachers to focus on every student equally. It is considered that students’ engagement and active participation are diminished in large classes, and the frequency and quality of student-faculty interactions are reduced (Cash (2017). Furthermore, Marshall (2004) considers small classes to be very friendly and easy to handle but large classes are highly risky and challenging. Marshall (2004) further highlighted that the analysis of contexts, institutional change in resource allocation and teaching in multidimensional contexts is very thought-provoking.

I conceptualized that teaching in large and under-resourced classes is very tough and tedious throughout my teaching career. In the past, I was a student of a large class where physical infrastructure was not adequate, though we had a blackboard inside the classroom covered with dry grass roof of the building. We didn’t have sufficient classrooms. I still remember when I was a class three grader, and our class was divided into two different classes within a single classroom. It was pretty noisy and hard for the teachers as well. I experienced teaching in an under-resourced context is not an easy job.

Furthermore, I equally reconceptualized that large classes need much personal attention and encouragement to make progress. The students in their learning potential vary considerably due to their language and literacy skills. Thus, we say teaching in large classes is very much like teaching in all other situations; however, handling large classes is more complicated, exhausting, and infinitely more demanding, and challenging.

I explored the reality of large classes through the experience of my research participants who have been teaching a class comprising more than 60 students. I investigated challenges for instance, disruptive students, crises of discipline, and unwanted noise and explored strategies like group work, pair work, and collaborative project works to cope with the large classes with an in-depth study.

I realised that no students get a chance to learn new things in crowded classrooms. They lack the opportunity to grow holistically. Consequently, the prior investment of parents, teachers, schools, and students goes in vain. Based on my experiences as an EFL practitioner in a large classroom, I noted that offering group work and pair work was an effective tool in large-class teaching.  The ability to handle large classes provided me an insight through which I germinated useful tips for large class teaching. I reconceptualized the concept of post-method pedagogy by Kumaravedivelu (2006) who persistently claimed that a meaningful pedagogy cannot be constructed without a holistic interpretation of particular situations and that cannot be enhanced without an essential improvement of those particular situations as a theoretical foundation to scaffold his ‘parameter of particularity’. Thus, it is noted that post-method pedagogy prioritises much on creativity, patience, teamwork and leadership.

Major Strategies I Employed in My Large Classroom:

A comprehensible teaching-learning process that ensures efficiency and effectiveness involves the design and implementation of creative and innovative teaching strategies, capable of responding to the individual needs of students and ensuring their academic success, (Jucan,2020). Without level-appropriate activities and contextual strategies, the teaching-learning activities are not making success, (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). Learning style, the learner’s preferred mode of dealing with new information, includes a construct known as cognitive style, (Oxford,1990). In my experience, large-class students have various ways of learning strategies, so I have applied various ways to make them learn. Some of them are as follows.

Engaging students in different project work:

Group work is believed to be allowing students to share ideas, perspectives, and skills among their pair and group. Students learn skills of collaboration and team building in which they develop communication, cooperation and the ability to work effectively with others. It also promotes higher-order thinking, creativity, and problem-solving, as students have to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information collaboratively, (McCormick et al, 2015) So, I designed some activities to attract the student’s attention in his large class every day. I often engage students in different activities. I ask to design a Calander for a group, a Code of Conduct for the classroom for another group and a Wall Magazine for the other groups. Likewise, I instructed them to share their ideas with their friends through their diverse perspectives. Moreover, they started taking feedback from each other. I involved students in some small groups. In doing so, I selected discussion topics that could be of interest to my students. Sometimes I provided them with topics in groups or individually, they searched on the internet and through some reading materials.  I knew that all the time group did not work, so to keep every student involved in the group work, sometimes students were provided answers for each of the questions individually first.

Motivating students in pair work:

Working in pairs allows students to give and receive constructive feedback. Pairwork helps in the development of various skills such as teamwork, leadership and interpersonal skills. It is well known that motivation is a force that drives people to work towards a particular outcome (Maslow, 1943). I equally motivated students in pair works where they actively participated and developed a sense of competitiveness in and between other pairs in the classroom. I often motivated them to work on different tasks such as conversation practice, role-playing, problem-solving, debate, collaborative art, etc. Thus, I particularly engaged students in story-writing activities, case study analysis and general problem-solving. Moreover, students would appreciate their tasks in pairs and they learn their commonalities and differences.

Encouraging students to ask questions:

Teaching with questions to my students provided me direct connection with them (Filiz,2009). There is a great role for asking good questions in effective teaching and learning. Hence, I encouraged students to ask questions in my class because this task helps them build critical thinking skills. In this, they asked content-wise questions as it helped them to work together and make sense of the particular subject as mentioned by Kumaravadivelu (2003). Moreover, I motivated my students to raise questions based on their curiosity about the content. Developing questioning abilities indicates students enhance creativity and critical thinking skills. Moreover, questioning habits helped students feel relaxed and learn easily the complex subject matter. It encouraged my students to be active, independent and creative in the large classroom.  Besides this, I encouraged my students to speculate on certain incidents, for example, I showed a picture and told them to imagine and connect with the picture. I wrote a sentence, “ If I were in this situation…..”. I let students think, develop their hypotheses, and arrive at a conclusion. This pattern scaffolded students through their positive mindset that they learn interestingly in the large class classroom.

Involving students Think-pair-share procedure:

Think-pair-share (TPS) is a cooperative learning strategy that encourages active participation and engagement among learners. In this think-pair-share technique, students are given a question, and students first think about themselves prior to being instructed to discuss their response with a person sitting near them. Finally, the group shared what they discussed with their colleagues to the whole class and their discourse kept on going (Rowe,1972). Hence, I used the TPS strategy to cope with a large class context. I began my class by asking a specific question about the text. For example; What are the various uses of Artificial Intelligence in education and list them based on your experience. (from one of the chapters of grade 10). Then, my students started thinking about what they knew or had learned about my query. Then, I engaged them to work in pairs with their partner in a small group discussion. Finally, they share what they have collected so far.  Thus, the post-method pedagogy entails that students develop coordinating skills, increasing active participation and enhancing their innovative sharing skills.

Major Takeaways: 

We teachers struggle in our large classes due to a lack of level-appropriate instructional tools. We often think of managing a large classroom since it needs tactfulness and a lot of experience. Teachers’ ability to explore and develop approaches to observe, analyze and evaluate their teaching for the purpose of accomplishing desired changes. It is an eye-opener and a gateway to make teachers, who are reluctant to bring innovations to their teaching, change their minds and redirect their teaching toward a more contextualized implementation of the strategies suggested to assist them in enhancing their teaching and their students’ learning. Engaging students in various project work, motivating students in group and pair work, encouraging students to ask questions, making level-appropriate fun as well as engagement, and evolving them into TPS strategies are major roadways to creating a learning environment in large classes.

References:

Cash, C. B., Letarago, J, Graether, S. P., & Jacobs, S. R. (2017). An analysis of the perceptions and resources of large classes university. Life Sciences Education, 16(2).

Cash & Marshall, (2007). Between deep and surface: Procedural approaches to learning in

engineering education contexts. Studies in Higher Education,29:5, 605-615, DOI: 10.

1080/0307507042000261571

Gibbs G. (1996). Using assessment to support student learning. The University of East Anglia.

Filiz, S. (2009). Questions and answer method to ask questions and technical information on the effects of teacher education. Social Sciences Journal of Caucasus University.2.

Jucan, D.A., (2020). Efficient didactic strategies used in students’ teaching practice. Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Beyond methods: Macro strategies for language teaching. Sage.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2005). TESOL methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 59-81.

Hess, N. (2006). Teaching large multilevel classes. Cambridge University Press.

Hess, N. (2007). Teaching large multilevel classes. Cambridge University Press.

McCormick, N. J. and et al, (2015). Engaging Students in Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: A Brief Review of the Literature. Journal of Studies in Education. 5(4).

Oxford, R.L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Newbury House/Harper &Row.

Rowe, M. (1972). Wait time and rewards as instructional variables: their influence on language, logic and fate control. ERIC No Edo61103.

About Author: Binod Duwadi has earned an MPhil in English language education from Kathmandu University, School of Education. Mr. Buwadi has been a faculty of English at KUSOM and KUSOED. His research interests include ELT in under-resourced contexts, ELT with ICT integration and Multiliteracy pedagogy.