17th NELTA Confernce Phase I

17th Conference Phase II

Rod Ellis_Principles of Instructed Language Learning

[slideshow]

The following sessions (plenary presentations, workshops, poster presentations, symposium, and papers) were presented in the 17th International Conference (18th -20th Feb, 2012 Kathmandu (Phase I) and 22nd – 23rd, Feb 2012, Chitwan (Phase II))

In the workshop What is a task? Prof Rod Ellis suggested that ‘task’ is a fuzzy construct and that therefore it is not possible to determine whether an instructional activity constitutes a ‘task’ or an ‘exercise’. This workshop provided participants with an operational definition of a ‘task’ and then explored to what extent it could be used to distinguish tasks from non-tasks by examining a variety of instructional activities. In addition, participants examined how they could modify ‘exercises’ to convert them into ‘tasks’.

In the session Consciousness-Raising Tasks for Grammar Teaching, he began by explaining the difference between two types of second language (L2) knowledge – implicit knowledge and explicit knowledge. It then considered the role that explicit knowledge plays in both the use and the acquisition of an L2. One way of developing explicit knowledge pedagogically – through consciousness raising tasks – was discussed in terms of both its advantages and its limitations. A framework for designing such tasks was presented by examining ‘data’ and ‘implementation’ options. A number of studies that were investigated consciousness – raising tasks were discussed.

Angi Malderez in On Stories in ELT expressed, ‘Have we forgotten to use the oldest didactic technique we have? This talk provides a current rationale for the use of stories in ELT. The talk was illustrated by, and demonstrated the use of four stories – one for a primary language classrooms, one for a secondary classroom, one for teacher development, and one for mentor development. Sources for more stories are also provided.’ And in On Noticing she expressed, ‘In this workshop, participants will be involved in exploring the importance of noticing in effective teaching and teacher development, and in some of the many challenges we all face in noticing accurately. How to use what we have noticed to manage our own on-going learning is discussed, and a recent term in education – learnacy – is also introduced.’

In the presentation Vocabulary Building as a Response to Students’ Present and Future Needs Prof F. Stoller expressed, ‘Our students are typically the first to tell us that they are either at a loss for words or that they desperately need more vocabulary. And from our own experiences learning other languages, we know how critical vocabulary is for speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Although students can learn a lot of vocabulary incidentally, through language input, they benefit greatly from explicit attention to vocabulary learning in the classroom. In this presentation, we’ll explore important principles of effective vocabulary teaching and learning that can be used with students at all proficiency levels. Emphases will be placed on vocabulary selection criteria, principled ways to teach vocabulary, teaching techniques for recycling vocabulary, and instructional options that encourage students to see key words in relation to other words.’

In the workshop Techniques for Developing Students’ Reading Fluency she said, ‘Second language reading is a complex skill that requires main idea comprehension, discourse awareness, vocabulary learning, reading strategies, reading for different purposes, motivation, and fluency (Grabe, 2009; Nation, 2009). Sadly, fluency training is often neglected even though research has demonstrated that it contributes to reading comprehension abilities. Teachers sometimes believe that they lack the time to devote to fluency training; they assume that students will develop fluency on their own; and/or they are unaware of the many activities that can be integrated into their classrooms to promote reading fluency. Workshop participants will be introduced to the key elements of reading fluency (e.g., automaticity, accuracy, reading rate, word- and passage-reading fluency) and then explore various ways in which reading fluency can be addressed in the classroom with existing reading materials.’

Aaron P. Campbell’s presentation Guided Imagery for Language Learning focused on the use of text, photos, audio, and video as the primary means of content delivery in language learning. However, how often do we draw upon the imagination of our learners for the same purpose? The presenter introduced a guided imagery technique used in EFL classes with Japanese university students. In addition to giving participants a chance to experience the technique firsthand, the presenter also shared feedback from learners who practiced the technique repeatedly over a semester.

Afsana Laila and Ashik Sarwar’s presentation The Interior of EFL Classroom and the Tertiary Learners in Bangladesh focused on whether there was motivational and de-motivational relationship between the student’s peripheral learning and the interior design of an EFL classroom at the tertiary level. The focus of this study was on the environment, specially, the decoration of the classroom, the shape of chairs and musical background. The survey was on the Bangladeshi tertiary level of education where most classrooms are designed in such a way that they unintentionally develop learner’s tension affecting learning. This study drew on the Suggestopedic method that was concerned with affective filter and positive learning outcome.

Amber Powers’ presentation How to Make Exams Fair and Useful deliberated the assessments that come in all shapes and sizes, but one of the classic assessment tools is the written exam. This presentation discussed the benefits of creating term and mid-term exams and reviewed the rules for designing effective and fair exams for students in English medium classes. Moreover, it also looked at the examples of effective and ineffective test questions and tasks, and reviewed the process for designing, giving, and correcting tests. Amber Powers’ another presentation How to Teach While Students Play focused on all children who are born with a natural curiosity and love of learning. In this session, the presenter discussed easy ways to teach and assess younger students through playful, hands-on activities. They presented real examples from public school classrooms where teachers transform lessons from English medium government textbooks into engaging, rich learning experiences that efficiently teach students important concepts and vocabulary.

Amitpal Kaur’s paper Innovations: Crux of ELToffered some innovative classroom practices for the promotion of originality and divergent thinking through the teaching of English. They include issues like approach to teaching, role of learners, assessment methods and use of language outside the class. Creating humorous situations help to achieve useful results. In that, learners need to be self-motivated and tasks should provide multiple interactions.

Ananda Sharma and Laxman Gnawali’s presentation on Dictionaries and Foreign Language Learning discussed the importance of dictionaries in teaching and learning language cannot be stressed too highly. Often, however, the language users simply confine the use of dictionaries in finding word meanings, spelling and pronunciation. However, in fact, dictionaries come closer than grammars and textbooks to dealing with language as a totality. A good dictionary contains information on grammar, usage status, synonym discrimination, application of derivative affixes, and distinctions between spoken and written English. Such information is barely found in any grammar or textbook even in rudimentary fashion. Thus, the dictionary becomes an indispensable weapon in teacher’s arsenal, and discussions on its preparation and practice seems important in every teacher-training program.

Anil Gaman Ahire’s The Bonding of Culture and Language in the Language Learning Process
dealt with the teaching situation and teaching methods used in English Language Teaching (ELT) that needs to be changed to involve culture instead of language knowledge only. Teachers need to know to what extent cultural background knowledge influences language learning and teaching, and how teachers can take advantage of that influence in listening, speaking, reading, and translating.

Aniruddha Burm’s presentation MI Theory can be Used for Teaching and Learning of English
focused on language games and songs can be very effective tools in language teaching. Visits to places of environmental degradation can be made a source of teaching and learning both language and literature. Group Discussion, debates, quiz programmes, dramatization, seminar etc may be other ways of teaching language and literature. Charts, tables, diagrams, pictures can also be used for teaching language.

Anongnard Nusartlert’s presentation The effect of Thai Orthography on English Final Consonants Pronunciation deliberated that the Thai orthography (Karunt) is used for expressing the absence of sound especially when transcribed from foreign language into Thai. The objective of study was to analyze whether it affects English final consonants pronunciation. The data was collected from 10 Thai native speakers by reading target words. The analysis shows that Thais pronounce English final sound partly in accordance with their orthography and final sound pronunciation according to English loan words in Thai under constraints. It can be concluded that Thai orthography partly play important role on English pronunciation.

Antara Basak expressed in the presentation Classroom Action Research: An Effective Technique for Teaching Plan that carrying out the action research, he selected the students of class VIII of a school to check their efficiency in the use of “–s” and “-es” morphemes with the third person singular number in present indefinite tense.

Arup Ratan Das in Primary Teachers’ Attitudes towards English Language Teaching and Learning expressed that teachers’ attitudes are a crucial variable in any change (of materials, methods, etc.) in teaching-learning process. The introduction of new materials and methods need to be supplemented with the change of teachers’ attitudes and beliefs. English in Action (EIA), a language development programme is currently piloting a facilitative pedagogy to teach communicative English in Bangladesh. EIA aims to engage students and develop teachers’ practice through innovative classroom resources. This session explored primary teachers’ attitude using the new methods and materials.

Ashley Hager’s presentation Using Literature to Encourage Critical and Creative Thinking and English Language Proficiency dealt with learning how to use books, other than text books, to encourage critical and creative thinking and to promote English language proficiency. More specifically, teachers would understand the difference between critical thinking and memorizing, use fiction and non-fiction children’s books to ask questions to encourage critical and creative thinking and to design lessons use children’s books to design lessons that promote English language proficiency.

Ashok Sapkota and Mahendra Poudel’s presentation Choice of Languages by Nepalese Multilingual Speakers concentrated on Multilingual speakers’ aims to explore the different contexts where multilingual speakers use different languages. It tried to find out the attitudes of the participants towards the language they speak. The study revealed the fact that multi lingual speakers use different languages in various domains. Mainly eight domains: family, friendship, religion, education, job, business, mass media and health were taken in the study. The study tries to find out how multilingual speakers were benefitted by using multiple languages which help to reflect their multiple identities in context of Nepal. Likewise, Sapkota’s another presentation on Bringing E-technologies to EFL Classroom dealt with the use of several internet sources such as: blogs, ELT websites, several texts related video clips useful for higher secondary schools and web-based resources that are useful in the EFL classroom. It provided a practical on-line discussion to create blogs, search for ELT materials through web, and participant in the discussion shared their classroom experiences or problems related to it. It also tried to focus on the different teacher related on-line resources and the discussion forums that are useful for teachers’ professional development.

Ashutosh Ramakant Vardikar’s paper Teaching of Grammar: A Task-based Approach clarified that grammar teaching is an essential part of teaching of English language. The first part of the present paper briefly looked at basic issues in teaching grammar and discusses the principles of teaching grammar, as well as procedures that could be used in the classroom. The second part showed how grammar could be taught communicatively. It also described the characteristics of a good grammar task and how such tasks could be constructed.

Glocalizing Teaching of English as Communication by Avinash Yograj Badgujar mentioned that a problem in the teaching of English as communication in the rural scenario has come into particular prominence over the past few years; the presenter suggested a way in which it might be resolved. The problem is that students from rural area, who have received several years of formal English teaching, frequently remain deficient in the ability to use the language and to understand its use, in normal communication, whether in the spoken or written mode.

Vygotsky’s Theory of Scaffolding to Develop Students Reading and Writing by Babita Sharma Chapagain expressed when students learn new topics and begin new tasks, they may not have prior knowledge of the topics and tasks introduced, so they start panicking from where to begin or what to do. If their teacher ignores this reality, it can create a blockage that slows or hinders students’ learning process.

Barbara Law in Increasing Fluency and Speed in Reading discussed that fluent reading is essential to academic success. However, most texts students and teachers read are at either the instructional or the frustration level. It is difficult to increase reading and fluency when a reader has to struggle with vocabulary, complex sentence structure and unfamiliar content. This practical workshop demonstrated ways to increase fluency and speed in reading. Together participants read sample texts and discussed ways of improving their reading.

Bhawana Pokhrel’s presentation Essay Writing: Challenges and Fascinating Facilitation mentioned that writing is an arduous activity. This paper explored strategic approaches to facilitate learners/writers to write better essays creatively at the expense of less effort. It focused on starting strategies, innovative ways for generating ideas, ending strategies and know-how of the transitional words.

Bhirawit Satthamnuwong’s Teaching, Learning and Sharing: Implementing Genre-based Approach in a Writing Course proposed a genre-based lesson plan for teaching writing. Burns and Joyce’s Teaching-Learning Cycle model (1991) is implemented which includes four stages: ‘hands-on’ exploration of the genre; analysis of the rhetorical structure and lexico-grammatical features; joint-construction; and individual text construction. Learners explored the genre meaningfully and purposefully by scaffolding tasks, co-operative learning, and negotiation of meaning though class and group discussion.

Textbook in Action’ Through Technology by Bikash Chandra Sarkar and Malcolm Griffiths presented a scenario in Bangladesh. The national primary English textbooks in Bangladesh intend to focus on a communicative approach, yet there is little opportunity to practice listening and speaking skills in the classroom. English in Action (EIA) aims to improve communicative skills using innovative methods and materials.

English for Academic Purpose to the Students of Science and Technology by Bir Bhadur Shahi and Suvash Gautam highlighted the different activities carried out in English by the science and technology students, asking whether or not there is compatibility between the needs specified by the science and technology students and teachers. The major focus of the paper was to suggest to teachers, students and planners how science can be taught effectively through English.

Shadowing and Summarizing: Developing Fluency and Accuracy with Inspiring Stories by Brian McMillan presented the opinion that shadowing is the complete or partial repeating, either silently or out loud, of another person’s speech. By shadowing stories, learners can internalize phrases and grammatical structures which can later be recycled as they retell the stories, leading to improved fluency and accuracy. In this session, participants were shown how to introduce shadowing to their students, and tried shadowing and summarizing with stories that can motivate learners and promote new ways of thinking. Ideas for using split stories, action logs, class newsletters, and shadowing with movie scenes were also discussed.

Brian McMillan’s Curriculum and Materials Design for False Beginner to Pre-Intermediate Learners showed how teachers at a Japanese university planned an EFL course for non-English majors, designing learning materials targeting language from the A1 to B1 levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Participants viewed and discussed sample lessons and feedback collected from teachers after initial classroom trials. Other aspects of the course, including vocabulary learning, speaking tests, autonomous learning activities, and classroom language policies were also discussed.

Paraphrasing Stratégies & Techniques by Caroline Ouyang focused on English language learners’ composition abilities with a specific emphasis on the techniques and strategies the learners employed in paraphrasing outside sources in their original compositions. The presenter found that language learners’ paraphrasing strategies differ according to their level of mastery of the target language. The results of this project offered insight to the teachers in how to guide students in citing third party texts appropriately and references in personal writing.

Chiranjivi Sharma’s Dealing with the Building Blocks of Writing Compositions highlighted the problem of not being able to create effective compositions. The paper discussed techniques of writing effective paragraphs as prerequisite of a composition.

Big Class, Few Resources Activities by Christine Stone talked about the issues of the availability of few resources in teaching a big class in the developing countries like Nepal. The workshop also involved the participants in some general activities that can be adapted to any level and type of school where this is difficult.

Communicative Activities for Research Paper Writing by Corrie Wien presented communicative activities that help students improve such skills as avoiding plagiarism, using a variety of reporting verbs effectively, and practicing effective source integration. Participants also tried out some of these activities during the workshop and leave with handouts detailing others.

Daniel Stead’s Paraphrase Power: Paraphrasing Tasks that Support Language Development focused on the teaching of paraphrasing as a powerful tool for language learning and development. It also explored what paraphrasing is, how it is done, and why it is such an important but underemphasized language skill. The workshop showed how structured practice in both written and oral paraphrasing can help students expand their vocabulary and knowledge of grammatical structures and improve both productive and receptive language skills. The workshop was interactive, and audience participation was expected.

Authentic Language in the Classroom: Teaching Spoken English with Video by David Norton focused on strategies to use authentic language video clips as an interesting and accessible context to develop awareness of spoken English pragmatic devices and vocabulary. The presentation included sample mini-lessons and a discussion of possible sources of authentic language for classroom analysis and conclude with a discussion of other possible language forms to focus on using this technology, and a note on how to best meet the needs of your particular students using authentic language.

Teaching Effectively through Project Based Learning (PBL) by Dhundi Raj Giri gave a talk on how Project Based Learning (PBL) aims to teach the students without textbooks involving them in the real tasks in real life experiences to develop communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. PBL can be effectively used in EFL classroom.

Teaching Writing through Short Stories by Dilruba Jahan and Ms. Sarah Asefa Zaman demonstrated the effectiveness of short stories in teaching writing to the first year students with empirical data. Data were collected from the learners’ performance in group works, discussions, and from the end products. The findings indicated that using short story facilitate students’ writing skill more effectively because of the motivational benefit rooted in the stories.

Dilruba Jahan and Sarah Asefa Zaman’s Using Literary Texts/Poetry Writing in ESL/EFL Classes illustrated the benefits of using literary texts ( poetry/ short stories) in ESL/EFL classes to motivate students to use English in different situations as it will improve not only their understanding of the target language but also improve their vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

Benefits of Reading Strategy Instructions by Dilruba Jahan presented how reading has been a gateway to all other knowledge. She shared how students, in Bangladesh, are exposed to reading comprehensions from a young age, yet their performance at the tertiary level is not quite satisfactory. This paper also aimed to discover the strategies used to teach reading in different language courses in some private universities in Bangladesh, effectiveness of these strategies and, keeping the context in mind, it tries to offer some useful strategies for the language teachers.

A Radio Programme in English by NELTA Sindhuli: Exciting Experience by Dinesh Raj Dahal and Khemraj Dhungel (Pramod) shared their exciting experience of running a radio programme at rural EFL setting of Nepal under NELTA Sindhuli, in the mid-eastern part of Nepal. They have been running a radio programme in English for one year. It has successfully completed more than 30 episodes. The goal of the programme is to assist English language learners, teachers, trainers and other who are interested in English language in general and English language pedagogy in particular. This talk session

English Language Teaching Aids in Under-Resourced Classrooms by Durga Prasad Pandeya offered variety of techniques on designing and using various contextual language teaching learning aids and materials in under-resourced classrooms especially for elementary school children. Moreover, this paper also dealt with communicative way of language learning and multipurpose usage of the same teaching tool with no more consumption of time and energy if a language teacher is conscious in the language class.

Eak Prasad Duwadi’s Use of Local Myths in Teaching EFL facilitated ELT practitioners to help their students learn examples of some grammatical rules and to create stories by using local myths, stories based on tradition which has a deep symbolic meaning. The great power of the meaning of myths, to the culture in which they developed, is a major reason why they survive for thousands of years. Uses of Local Myths in Teaching EFL Class draw students’ attention in class since it assists them become more imaginative and resourceful.

Engaging Students into Developing Rubrics to Ensure Learner Autonomy by Effat Hyder and Hasna Khanom focused on how students can be involved in setting the rubric for group, pair or individual writing tasks or speaking presentations and also discusses the effectiveness of this involvement in ensuring learner autonomy.

Human Rights and the English Classroom: A Practical Activities Workshop by Elizabeth M. Muller demonstrated practical activities including games, worksheets, discussions, and debates that can be utilized and adapted by teachers of all levels to educate students not only to be conscientious citizens of their own communities and countries, but of the world. Additionally, this paper also talked about how incorporating human rights and tolerance education into the English language classroom can foster understanding and open-mindedness, while also teaching positive and empowering human rights language and law to English learners of all ages.

The workshop Inter-Textuality in the Teaching of Reading by Ercilia Delancer was intended to demonstrate that EFL students who aspire to study in an American university would benefit from learning how to read pieces of text and to connect them to other reading materials in their own culture and other fields. Inter-textuality refers to the interdependent ways in which a text stands in relation to one another (as well as to the culture at large) to create meaning. So, the students must be familiar with the repeated uses of metaphors, alliterations, clichés, allusions, quotations, parodies and other literary devices form an integral part of the text to generate meaning.

Esmat Azizi’s presentation on Newsletter and Motivation talked about how writing newsletter is one of the best ways to combat this common problem, as it brings about an element of authenticity to their writing. It was a four-week long project, in which a group of five or six students completes an actual four-page newsletter. Each student writes at least one article on the topic of his or her choice. The emphasis is on originality, creativity, fun and teamwork.

Is Writing really Difficult or we Do Make it? by Faisal Naseer highlighted the fact that most teachers are accustomed to teach writing skills with a strong focus on completing syllabus, teaching grammar, intensive exercises and tasks based on isolated expressions and sentences. This brings students to bookish knowledge and experiences, whereas, the fresh minds could do wonders if their imagination is properly stimulated.

The Need for Nepal Studies and CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning): Combining the Study of English and Social Studies by Sudhir K Jha, Babita Labh Kayastha, Hem Raj Khatiwada, Narayan Prasad Sharma and Ewan Davies looked at important aspects of syllabus design of Nepal Studies within the GCE A Level curriculum framework in Nepal. In collaboration with Ministry of Education, the Curriculum Development Centre, principals of A Level schools and the British Council a syllabus design approach has been completed that integrates important aspects of both Social Studies content knowledge and the English Language. This paper discusses the importance of combining the teaching of content knowledge through the medium of English.

The presentation Teaching English in large and under-resourced classes by Farzana Lodhi focused on the classroom practices of an English language class in Hyderabad Pakistan. The findings posit that the professional training has impacted practices more than the size of the classroom.

Submitting Our “Gems” for Publication in English Teaching Forum, and other professional journals, a presentation, by Fife MacDuff highlighted the issue that English teaching practitioners are sometimes reluctant to submit for publication. He explained that often what needs to be done is not clear and the supposition is that it is far too complicated. A step-by-step walk through the process, using English Teaching Forum as an example, will help future authors develop the confidence to submit their contributions.

Native Speech in Non-Native Classrooms: An Effective Tool for Teaching Pronunciation by Fauzia Janjua aimed at presenting her finding on the effectiveness of the use of native speech in English language classrooms. The results of the study were compared with the help of t-test and it was found that experimental group spoke English with more native like accent and was able to understand native speech quickly as compared to control group. The results of the study call for the use of native speech listening material in the spoken language classrooms to develop the pronunciation skills of second language learners.

Reflection- Mirror in Teaching, a Poster Presentation by Ganesh Gnawali discussed that most of us see our face in the mirror daily and remove our marks but how often do we observe ourselves professionally? He raised a question, ‘Do we need to see our past and reflect on it?

I’ve been Doing the Same for a Decade, a presentation by Ganesh Shrestha & Ashok Raj Khati initiated discussions and presented some experiences of six English language teachers from around the globe to give an example of how can the monotony of English language teachers in under-resourced part of Nepal generally find their profession, i.e. teaching English, monotonous and boring both inside and outside of the classroom.

Gary Cook’s presentation on Vocabulary Testing for Dummies” Starting from Scratch talked about the process of designing, an engaging computer-based vocabulary test to help with freshman and Sophomore to improve their English to better represent the words used in the BECC curriculum.

Assessment – an indispensable Part of the Curriculum, a presentation by Gayatri Khanna highlighted the issue that a curriculum is what constitutes a total learning-teaching program composed of overall aims, syllabus, materials, methods and assessment. Assessment, not only measures the progress and achievement of the learners, but also the effectiveness of the teaching materials and methods used for transaction. Hence, it should be viewed as a component of curriculum with the twin purpose of effective delivery and further improvement in the teaching-learning process. Thus, assessment improves a student’s performance by identifying his/ her learning difficulties at regular time intervals and employing suitable remedial measures for enhancing their learning performance.

Gayatri Khanna’s presentation on Dictionary: Indispensable Part of Life highlighted the fact that the use of dictionary can never be undermined to everybody who uses language, especially to students, teachers, and researchers. The average language user (and often translator) relies on a dictionary as authoritative source of information. It is not merely a compilation of words with their meanings but also their right utterance, syllable structure; part of speech, usage and etymology. Idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs are often too difficult to guess, thereby necessitating the use of dictionaries. Clearly the dictionary improves students’ writing skills with practical tips and step-by-step guidance through the planning, writing, and editing stages. Rightly so, then most people typically refer to the dictionary; not a dictionary.

Auto-ethnography: An Emerging Trend in Research, a presentation by Gokul Sharma, focused on how auto-ethnography emerged and its style of writing. Auto-ethnography is grounded on the postmodern philosophy and is linked to growing debate about reflexivity and voice in social research. In auto-ethnography, the author explores the state of understanding auto-ethnography as a research method and describes the experience of an emerging qualitative researcher in learning about this new and challenging genre of inquiry.
Gopal Prasad Bashyal’s presentaion on Learner Autonomy: Enabling Learners as Self-directed Learners talked about strategies that help them make the learners more independent, self-directed learners.

Gopal Sharma’s presentaion on Wrappers and Teaching Beyond the Text-Book focused on how Wrappers (realia) brought in classroom stimulate spoken or written language production. Its value in fostering an active teaching-learning makes English language input comprehensible. It builds an associative bridge between the classroom and the world around learners. These wrappers describe the ways of target culture and understanding. These are sets of teaching aids that simulate experience in the target culture. They give multi-sensory impressions like seeing, touching, and manipulating. These authentic materials are contextual and students bring into contact with language in the target culture. They enhance vocabulary, and are language learning tools beyond the classroom text books.

Gyanu Dahal and Bikash Rimal’s presentation on ‘Analyzing and Addressing Forgetting Problem among School Children’ focused on one of the common problems among the school children. It explored the causes of forgetting in the context of our school children and suggests some ways to minimize the problems. It has close relationship with the ways of presenting the lesson. The session tried to link different theoretical aspects and their practical application in our context.

Hannah Haegeland’s Teaching Hamro English: Developing Critical Thinking Skills highlighted how the English classroom is an ideal place to develop critical thinking skills. Emphasizing the unique capacity of every individual student to contribute is pivotal if we are to graduate thoughtful students who are responsibly engaged with the world.

Hannah Haegeland’s presentation on ‘Teaching Creative and Analytical English Writing in the Nepali Classroom’ stressed how to teach analytical or essay-writing and creative writing—including poetry, “free-writing,” stories, and descriptive pieces—to students.

Hannah Haegeland’s presentation on ‘The Globalization of English: Contextualizing Language Learning in the Nepali Classroom’ showed how EFL teachers in Nepal can make the language relevant to the South Asian, and specifically Nepali context for better learning and comprehension

Hari Maya Sharma’s presentation on ‘Just 45 minutes; 40 Students and Teaching Reading Interactively: How? suggested some steps to involve students in reading activities even in a short lesson in a large class. The presenter also shared interactive reading lesson in which the students participate in the reading activities.

Harry Samuel’s presentation on ‘Interview Role Play’ demonstrated a lesson in which members of the audience participate in a simulation of an interview. Some play the roles of interviewers and others play the people being interviewed. Problem solving skills are also practiced through participating in a selection process. This activity can be performed using a variety of situations including an employment interview, a university admissions interview, an academic exchange interview, and many others.

Task Based Language Teaching, a presentation by Hikmat Bahadur Oli and Mukund Kumar Giri shed light on the emergence of TBLT, its theoretical foundation, framework, components, types of tasks, procedures and advantages.

Ishwor Adhikari’s presentation on English Language, Globalization and Teachers’ Role focused on English as an interdependent global village with discussion on how teachers stimulate, participate and link lessons with real life world.

Teaching Oral Communication Skills using Task Based Method, a presentation by Ishwor Prasad Kadel, described the applications of the task-based approach to teach oral communication skills in an academic setting. A course ‘Oral Communication Skills’ is taught to the language learners from any walks of life.

James Stabler-Havener’s presentation on ‘Using the Action-Research process to Develop Teaching Themes in State Curriculum’ introduced the participants to the cyclical techniques of action-research (1. identifying a problem, 2. systematic data collection, 3. analysis, 4. reflection, 5. data-driven action, and 6. problem reformulation.) to address practical classroom challenges and then was described how action research can be used to develop teaching themes.

Janak Raj Pant and Ram Prasad Niraula’s presentation on English Through Games and Rhymes: An Initiative for Child-friendly Teaching presented some techniques and tips for applying games and rhymes in an English language for making the teaching learning activities fun for the students and easy going for the teachers who have to deal with the students of varying levels.

Using Innovative Methodology on Task-Based Language Teaching, a presentation by Janakie Chandrani Jayalakshmi Gunatilake involved the participants in group activities. Each group got a picture to describe so, they have to study it carefully and contribute their own ideas.

Off the Page, On the Air by Joseph Dwaileebe showed that listening activities can be created to fit materials being taught in any of the other skill areas and in grammar. A wide range of original exercises were presented and the participants, after doing them, discussed and evaluated their merit.

How to Check Meaning? by Jovan Ilic explored ways of how to check that your students understand language. A review of traditional techniques was followed by a focus on ‘concept check questions’ and ‘time-lines’; on why they work, and more importantly, on how to do them.

On Testing by Jovan Ilic reviewed the main types of tests that are administered, in particular achievement and proficiency tests. He then looked at the three key indicators in determining whether a test would be effective: Validity, Reliability and Practicality.

Received Pronunciation as Panacea for Second Language Learners, a presentation by K. Balasubramanian projected RP as the standard model for learning English pronunciation. Then the presentation was followed by the discussion that English teaching/learning would become holistic only when its pronunciation is emphasized.

Kamal Poudel and Padam Chauhan’s presentation on ‘Facilitating Learners’ Reading Efficiency’ focused on facilitating learners’ reading efficiency involving communicative activities. The workshops gave away some handy ideas that can be replicated in classroom while doing reading lessons.

Growing Without Tears: Games and Activities in the EFL Context, a presentation by Kamal Poudel and Florence Droza concentrated on how language learning can be made easy. Learning a new language is always a big challenge to the students in the context where they have to memorise and follow the rules in a structural pattern. If the learning of foreign language is accompanied with the games and activities that involve them more actively, the learning enhancement will be in smooth move which is characterised by the first language acquisition. The learning slowly moves towards the pattern of acquisition, and this enables the learners grow the linguistic skills without anxiety.

Kamal Raj Devkota’s presentation on ‘Teaching Free Writing: Link with the Real-Life Experience of the Learners’ shared the classroom practices that the presenter carried out while teaching it to the students using semi-controlled and free activities that enhanced free writing skills.

Kamal Raj Lamsal’s presentation on ‘Critical Thinking in the Classroom’ aimed at helping teachers design activities for fostering critical thinking, e.g. 1. What letter is next in this sequence? M, A, M, J, J, A, S, O, __. 2. Which is faster, heat or cold?

Use of Internet in Teaching of English at Undergraduate Level by Karandikar Vallabh Shankar dealt with different uses of the Internet, which has given a new dimension to our modern digital world, in the process of teaching of English as the Internet and English are inseparable from each other. The Internet provides various types of reference materials and sources, which are extremely useful for teaching of English at undergraduate level.

Teaching of English Narratives in India, a presentation by Kavita Ashok Chouhan and Niteen Vasant Dandekar focused on the teaching methods used for the teaching of English narratives. It focused on the feasibility of various teaching methods in teaching and learning of English narratives in India.

Word: Root of Creativity by Keshab Prasad Joshi and Dib Bahadur Sherbuja focused on encouraging the students not to use the same words and sentences repeatedly for better writing skills. They discussed on the issue that students should be inspired to produce varieties of sentences which is ultimately “answer in own words.”

Shared Experiences: Collaborative Learning Theory, Methodologies and Techniques, a presentation by Kevin Ramsden explained the advantages of collaborative learning as an effective model of learning/teaching, and looked at why it is believed to contribute to a more positive learning experience for a broad cross-section of students at the high school level and undergraduate level in tertiary institutions.

Kh. Atikur Rahman and Md. Nurunnabi’s presentation on Use of ICTs in English Teachers’ Professional Development in Bangladesh shared the opportunities created and the challenges faced while using ICTs in teachers’ PD.

Developing the Art of Interpretation: A Pedagogical Device by Khedkar Sandip Prabhakar attempted to explore possibilities of interpretations to use in the teaching of celebrated poems.

Creating a Communicative Context to Develop a News Story by Khila Sharma Pokharel revolved round the features of communicative language teaching and its application to developing a news story in a communicative context with very limited resources.

Dictionaries and Foreign Language Learning by Krishna Niroula and Phatik Poudel highlight the importance of dictionaries in teaching and learning language and how it assists second language acquisition. Furthermore, they also presented the theories with activities to use a dictionary effectively in a language classroom.

Culture Issue in English Language Teaching by Krishna Prasad Suwal focused on gathering the views of the participants on is it good or bad to incorporate our cultures in teaching English with rationale to incorporate culture in an English classroom.

Critical Thinking Strategies: Useful Tools to Foster Creativity and Increase Learner-centeredness in EFL/ESL Classes by Lal Bahadur Rana and Bimal Nepali highlighted how critical thinking strategies have been used to help learners develop higher level of thinking. However, they have also been found to be very instrumental in order to foster creativity among the learners, and to increase learner-centeredness in EFL/ ESL classes, because those strategies require learners to carry out various kinds of activities on their own.
Laxman Gnawali in ELT Conferences and Teacher Professional Development: Exploring the Thread deliberated that English teaching professionals attend ELT conferences for a number of reasons: some may attend to get new teaching tips while others may come to network with colleagues from another country. Whatever intentions the attendees may have, the conference experience is an opportunity for their professional growth and development. But for the experience to become professionally enriching, the attendees must know how to best avail from these professional events.

In the presentation, Handwriting Improvement through Different Activities by Laxmi Aryal explained that handwriting is not a big issue in the language classroom. The presenter addressed the following questions. Why handwriting problem isn’t focused in the classroom? Is copying only the way to improve handwriting?

Which Accent to Follow? by Laxmi Bahadur Maharjan dealt with the significance of the accent in every English language teacher. An intelligible accent is always considered a characteristic feature of not only an English language teacher but all and it enhances our will power and personality. There are no good or bad accents. Accents are all absolute. Any inadequate instruction in speech/pronunciation can result in a complete breakdown in communication.

Activities for Large Classes by Lisa Roegner deliberated that trying to create student-centered activities in a large class of 50 or more students can be challenging for many instructors regardless of the learning context. However, there are some ways to make such classes less teacher centered and more dynamic for second language learners.

Empowering Trainee Teachers to Use Drama and Theatre-in-Education in their Classes by Logamurthie Athiemoolam provided an account of the strategies implemented in the English methodology class to empower trainee teachers with skills to use drama and theatre- in-education in their classes. The focus of the training is on experiential learning whereby students are provided with the contexts for their own creative pieces. Some of the techniques that students are exposed to include short role play exercises, frozen image building, the creation of improvised plays and the use of short scripts for play production. The students are also afforded opportunities to create their own piece of theatre which they present to an audience.

Using Art as a Tool in ELT by Mobindra Regmi explained that expression through art is sometimes more effective than expression through words. Many learners may find it more comfortable to use art as a means for expression, especially if they are reluctant or unable to use words instead. Afterwards, the art form can be translated into words through description or reflection as spoken or written activity in English Language classroom. This session looks into ways that medium of art can be useful in the field of English Language Teaching. After all, as the old adage goes, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’

Madhu Neupane (Bastola)’s Strengthening Teacher Association for Professional Development discussed that the role of Teacher Associations for professional development of teachers cannot be overemphasized. In the present day world no knowledge can be used for long time; only truth in this dynamic world is ‘change’. The idea of a person as an expert has now been questionable. Teacher Associations are helping teachers grow professionally by taking their situations into consideration, by providing them with the platform to share their ideas and learn from each other and create knowledge locally. The strength of any teacher association lies in the preparation and implementation of strategic planning. This presentation helped the participants to strengthen Teachers Associations by giving them the practical ideas for preparing strategic planning

Incorporating Literary Texts in EFL Classroom for Creative Writing by Madhukar K.C. discussed that the role of an English teacher today is not just to teach students, but to make them self-dependent learners .The success of a teacher depends upon how he remains in motivates students to use their creative energy. Ironically, creative writing and creativity is rarely dealt with in EFL classrooms in Nepal because of teachers’ belief that their students can ever create something of their own. This presentation focuses on how the teachers can motivate their students for creative writing using various literary texts.

Improving Handwriting of EFL Learners by Mandira Adhikari Nibedita Sharma presented the findings of an action research carried out with the primary level students in order to improve their handwriting. Thirty-eight participants of the action research had problems with their handwriting: the problem was greater when they shifted their handwriting from four line cursive writing notebook to two line normal notebook.

Manju Basnet and Shailaja Jha’s Techniques for Teaching Vocabulary in EFL Context involved the participants in various activities with the aim to develop vocabulary without making learners feel threatened. It also presented innovative strategies which made the presentation more enjoyable experience for both participants and the presenter.

The session Use of Mini-Speeches in ESL Classroom by Mark (Max) Dodds dealt with the use of ‘mini-speeches’ in the classroom to help students develop the ability to briefly and logically state their point of view using appropriate vocabulary after which they must defend their view by answering classmates’ questions. The session included methods of eliciting topics, and some practical exercises to build the vocabulary needed for the speeches.

Teachers Benefiting from Researching their Own Practice by Mark Wyatt presented how the teachers can benefit from researching their own practice. This paper reported on a University of Leeds BA TESOL project in Oman with in-service primary and secondary school teachers of English. The BA TESOL encouraged the participating teachers to engage in research projects of their choice for their final year dissertations. Benefits reported by the teachers were discussed, as were lessons that could be drawn from this experience that were applicable to other geographical and educational contexts.

The session presented by Muhammad Saeed Akhter on Impact of Syllabus on ELT Methodology: SAARC Countries Perspective explored the impact of syllabus on English language teaching methodology in SAARC countries. The sample of the study was 1040 students and 340 teachers of English, selected randomly. The findings indicated that the present syllabuses did not conform to the requirements of the effective methodology for teaching English. Suggestions were given for process oriented and task based syllabus.

Symposium on Creative Writing presented by Maya Rai Motikala Subba Dewan Sarita Dewan discussed various aspects of creative writing activities for teaching English. This symposium was a part of regular activity of Asian Teachers’ Creative Group. In this symposium, they proposed to involve participants in the following creative writing activities and discuss how those activities can be applied in teaching English.
1. Writing poems
2. Performing creative writing (e.g. Slam poetry)
3. Story writing

Md. Abdullah Al Mamu and Rasel Babu’s presentation on We Want to Learn English: Voices from Bangladeshi Learners presented the result of the study which explored secondary level learners’ motivation for learning English. Data were collected from 400 secondary students and 10 English language teachers of ten secondary schools of two different districts of Bangladesh. Data had been gathered through students’ questionnaire, focused group discussion (FGD) with students and English teachers’ interview schedule. Six students participated in each FGD. Data had been analyzed following both qualitative and quantitative approaches of research. Findings of the study showed that Bangladeshi learners have different sources of motivation for learning English like passing exam, getting good job, using modern technology, upgrading self status in society etc.

Leveraging Mobile Phones to Make Bangladesh’s ‘Vision 2021’ a Reality by Md. Sikander Mondol reported on English in Action’s (EIA) field test of mobile phones, audio and visual resources and portable rechargeable speakers to realize the government’s goal of creating a ‘Digital Bangladesh’. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, described the uptake, results of how these kits help both teachers, and students learn communicative English.

Ensuring Fairness in Marking Students’ Writing: The Question of Inter-Marker Reliability presented by Md. Zulfeqar Haider Takad Ahmed Chowdhury explored the way students’ writings are marked by the different markers at selected private universities in Bangladesh. The study addressed two questions – do all markers follow the same criteria while marking a piece of writing? and, do test takers know the criteria used by the markers? The paper compares the marks awarded to selected samples of writing by several markers and collects the views of markers and test takers. The findings showed little evidence of inter-marker reliability. It was also evident that the test takers were not made aware of the criteria used for marking their writing.

Mehedi Kayser Pabitra’s Business World in Language Classrooms: An Effective Language Acquisition Model presented a simulation model of an authentic communicative platform to develop students’ business communication skills in speaking, reading and writing. Carried out for a group of ESL/EFL Business English course students, intended to help them experience business world settings inside and outside the classroom, the paper discussed the teaching techniques, the learning outcomes, and the stages of the simulation model. It also outlined the major benefits, hindrances and suggestions of simulations for ESL/EFL classrooms.

This paper cum workshop on Strategies in Teaching Listening by Molly Jo Gorevan and Sarala Bhattarai deliberated easy way to teach listening skill. The approach discussed in this paper offered a means of empowering teachers to help students deal with problems in listening movement. This paper discussed the method of listening. It is important to prepare the students for the listening by setting the context, introducing vocabularies and ideas and helping the learners predict what they will hear concentrating on extensive and intensive listening.

Mostan Zida Alnoor’s “Does Open and Distance Learning work for Teachers’ Professional Development?” discussed the idea that the teachers always need scope for continuous learning. In Bangladesh, on-going support remains limited. English in Action– has opted for a specific mode of Open and Distance Learning (ODL). ODL is an advanced step of distance learning which attempts to make learners’ learning easier by freeing them from constrains of time and place and offers flexible learning opportunities (UNESCO, 2003).

The paper on Changing Teaching: Changing learning by Mostan Zida Alnoor Sharmistha Das focused on how students’ learning is strongly linked to the quality of teaching and teachers’ professional development. Improving the quality of teaching does mean changing teachers’ beliefs on learning, their thinking and understanding of classroom practices. In Bangladesh, professional development is a challenging concept, especially in relation to life long-learning and reflective practices. In this situation, English in Action (EIA)-has initiated an innovative technology-driven teacher training and supports programme including, periodic face-to-face support, distance support and peer learning. This paper focused on the successes and challenges of the pilot phase of this initiative.

The Lens of Linguistic Difference and Institutional Interactional Practices in Pakistan presented by Mohammed Ali khan used the lens of linguistic difference to interpret the concrete discursive practices of four research sites in Pakistan. The findings suggested that understanding of the socio-economic inequality of local actors is and investigates these gives insights into the ways participant respond to ELT teaching on their everyday institutional lives.

Translation has crossed innumerable bends. In its journey from ‘random practice’ to systematic ‘translation studies’, numerous scholars have appeared, and contributed a lot in consolidating its trademark. Remaining in touch with them, Nabaraj Neupane’s Strategies Applied in the Translation of Nepali Culture-Bound Terms into English attempted to analyse its different definitions and perspectives, traced out major gaps and recommended some of the major strategies to bridge the gaps which occur in translating culture-bound terms in English. Newmark (1988), Hervey and Higgins (1992), and Harvey (2000), are adapted in the context of translating Nepali texts into English, in cases of ‘Socrates Footsteps’, ‘Muglan’ and ‘Blue Mimosa’.

Critical Thinking in ELT Classroom by Narendra Narayan showed how critical thinking enables the teachers and learners to determine their own criteria and accurate facts on the basis of plausible sources, how it is precise for a lifelong learning, unbiased and free from logical fallacies. How it equips with logically consistent and strong reasoning power.

In Motivate your Students in EFL Classroom by Narendra Singh Dhami and Ashok Raj Khati presented that learner motivation has a powerful influence in language that makes the learning productive. It is very easy to tell others: “motivate the students”. But how to motivate the students is not an easy job. Moreover, motivation in teaching EFL is different from that of teaching other subjects. In the National Curriculum for the Secondary levels, there is hardly any focus on English Literature in the English syllabus. Students in Dhaka University face great difficulty in tackling literature.

Introducing Literature Critically and Creatively to Bangladeshi University Students by Dr. Nevin Farida and Begum Shahnaz Sinha aimed to show how we meet the needs of our learners. They drew upon the techniques of close reading and stylistics to develop their critical and creative abilities in order to respond to literature. The workshop presented the approach and shared some of the materials and activities used.

Niteen Vasant Dabdekar and Kavita Ashok Chouhan’s presentation on Teaching of English through Literature focused on the use of literature as an innovative technique for teaching basic language skills LSRW and grammar in multilingual India. It also focused on the feasibility of using literature in teaching language. It studies the issues, challenges and opportunities in the use of literature for the teaching language. At a young age, we are taught to tolerate and even embrace the innate differences each person possesses. Why then, do educational practices continue to standardize instruction for a uniformity in students, which does not exist? Differentiated Instruction refers to an educational approach in which instruction and assessment are altered to accommodate the needs of every individual student.

English for Everyone: Differentiating ELT Instruction and Assessment by Olivia Drabczyk highlighted valuable practices of differentiation to implement in the ELT classroom; and emphasized the imperative of transitioning ELT in Nepal from rote learning and memorization to a multi-faceted approached in which each individual student can flourish.

Parash Malla and Janak Raj Pant’s Web-Based Learning Materials: Boon for the ELT Classroom presented some techniques/tips for applying online resources in an English language class for making the teaching learning activities fun for the students of varying levels and interest, moving from traditional classroom practices making the transition smooth. The participants were provided with a set of CDs based on British Council website.

Teaching English as a Gateway to Diverse and Integrated Learning by Parvati C. Mazumdar demonstrated how English Language teaching learning can become an instrument to widen students’ conceptual learning of different subjects other than what is traditionally considered English Language and Literature syllabus. Teacher-participants learnt how to use grade appropriate texts and multi-media to enhance listening, oral and writing skills of students. This model of integrated teaching-learning of English with other subject areas will enable English language teachers in primary, secondary and non-formal settings, to enhance their given curriculum using local resources and drawing upon the experiential knowledge of their students in a constructivist way.

Principles of L2 Vocabulary Learning by Paul Joyce deliberated that the acquisition of vocabulary is an extremely important part of L2 language and teaching. However, in order to develop your lexical knowledge as quickly and efficiently as possible, it is important to understand the principles of vocabulary learning. This workshop helped participants to develop a framework for their vocabulary acquisition by addressing such questions as: How many words do you need to know? What does it mean to know a word? How should you learn vocabulary?

Language Choice and Religious Identities: Pedagogical Implications by Phyllis Ghim-Lian CHEW presented that each language carries the particularities of its socio-cultural and historical contexts and each language cuts markers on the landscapes, maps out the cognitive terrain and provides the thought pathways whereby we may habitually traverse. This paper was a comparative study of language choice and religious identities of three Singapore madrasas. The study revealed how language chance or the medium of instruction, be it Arabic, Malay or English influence, is intricately connected to religious identities as manifested in an array of classroom semiotics and pedagogical practices. The methodology used includes ethnographic research methods ranging from field notes, participant observations, audio and video tapes to interviews with pupils, teachers, and parents.

Vocabulary Comes First by Prassanna Karki and Tika Maya Rai discussed that teaching vocabulary is essential. It can be taught in various ways. They shared ideas on teaching and learning of vocabulary through games, songs and pictures for enhanced English language learning.

How Communicative is the Communicative Approach? :The German Teacher’s Experience by Pratiti Shirin stated although reservations remain, the English language classroom has accepted CLT as the dominant approach to teach English. The German language teaching classroom is no exception. But how communicative is the communicative approach really?

Children’s rights to acquire basic education through Mother Tongue by Praveen Kumar Yadav discussed that Nepal is a home of diverse linguistic communities with more than 92 languages. The children with mother tongues other than Nepali cannot compete with Nepali speaking children. They feel inferior, isolated, or incompetent and are forced to remain as a disadvantaged group in our school situation. There is low enrollment of non-Nepali speaking children at primary level, their low achievement and higher dropouts. The present paper made an advocacy for children’s right to acquire basic education through Mother Tongue.

Experience from a Bangladeshi Primary School: Milestone in English Learning by Pushpen Chandra Paul focused on how a primary school and its community can be helpful for the tender aged students for practicing English language. Motivated learners, devoted teachers, sincere school administration, joyful learning environment, enthusiastic parents and community found as the components behind the success.

Rabeya Binte Habib’s Teacher Education Policy in Bangladesh: Gap to be Bridged dealt with the fact that the government of Bangladesh has also become serious in promoting ELT in order to gain economic growth Despite taking different plans and projects, the teacher training program in Bangladesh did not develop efficiently to meet the demand of time. This empirical research delved into the prospects and challenges of EFL teacher education at pre-university level with a view to closing the gap between policy level expectations and actual practices.

Muteness in Teaching: an Awesome Practice by Raj Kishor Chaudhary and Kishori Sharan Yadav’s explained that communication in the ELT Classroom generally takes place in the aural-oral form. Non-Verbal communication (NVC) is also one of the vital ways of communication. NVC is communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. His presentation shared that an understanding of NVC can improve the effectiveness of communication.

Raju shrestha’s Current practice of TPD: From insiders’ perspective presented current practices of teacher professional development in. He shared findings of the investigation about the potential areas of teacher development practice and explored the ground reality. This paper concluded with the practical ways to enhance teacher professional development practice focusing on local solutions to local problems.

Cambridge Advanced English Test at a Glance by Ram Sharan Dhakal focused on a general overview of Cambridge Advanced English (CAE) offered by Cambridge University ESOL.

Ramesh Khatri’s Attitudes of Student-Teachers towards Practice Teaching Programme presented attitudes of student-teachers towards practice teaching at Tribhuvan University. Practice teaching aims at helping students put their theoretical knowledge of teaching into practice and work jointly with and learn from teachers and supervisors. A questionnaire was constructed and administered to 90 informants. It was found that 72.38% respondents have positive; 20.31% have negative and remaining 6.84% respondents have neither positive nor negative attitudes towards the programme.

Rasel Babu’s Learning English at Primary Level: Fun, not Fear discussed that English-in-Action (EiA) is a project working in Bangladesh to develop learners’ English language skills. This study explored the success story of the project. Data were taken from ten primary schools of EiA intervention areas through classroom observation, focused group discussion with students and teachers’ interviews. In those schools, students learned English through games, songs, rhymes and different interactive activities. This paper highlighted the English class activities of EiA Primary schools through which students started to enjoy their lessons and became motivated towards learning English, while leaving all their anxieties behind.

English Curriculum of Bangladesh: Prescription and Implementation by Rasel Babu deliberated that English Curriculum of Bangladesh was introduced in 1995 by National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). The curriculum suggested different instruction for English language teaching-learning. The study aimed to explore to what extent the instructions of curriculum has been implemented in the real context. As the findings, the study revealed some mismatches between the prescribed English curriculum and its practice, especially in case of classroom interaction and assessment system. So, this paper presents the major findings of this research study.

Encouraging Collaboration through Project Works by Richard Hawking was a poster presentation that focused on a project in which ESL students collaborate to prepare and deliver a presentation, and then act as ‘teachers’, leading the class and guiding other students through communicative activities. Though this project was designed for university students, using PowerPoint during the presentation, it could easily be adapted to be used with ESL students of any age, and in teaching environments with even very basic facilities.

Robert Kirkpatrick’s presentation IELTS Writing test: reliability and raters explained the IELTS writing module, including a detailed look at rater training. It highlighted the difficulties involved in scoring writing tasks and the ways that the IELTS organization attempts to achieve objective and reliable rating. Explanations of the band scores should help students understand what good academic writing is and what they need to improve so that their own writing becomes clear, structured and focused.

Rokshana Shirin’s workshop Text Based Teachers Training focused on findings from a pilot training project that having a planned text book is not the core thing for effective second or foreign language teaching. The objective of any well-formed lesson planning is for learners to comprehend which requires highly text based trained teachers.

Roxana Ahmad Chowdhury and Golam Kader Zilany’s presentation Drama: Proven Essentials of BRACU CFL to Create Competent Learners focused on incorporating drama which is one of the most unique features of the Foundation Course in English at BRAC University Centre for Languages. This feature has been integrated aiming to make learners overcome fear and introvert attitudes at the very beginning of their academic life. Beside this there are some other much needed faculties for the learners like; creative/productive, cultural awareness and critical responsiveness nurtured during pre, while and post drama classes. The presentation uncovered how drama works and how objectives are achieved in the classroom situations with abundant practical evidences.

Sabiha Sultana’s presentation Learning English: Reshaping Students’ Aspirations focused on all learning arrangements revolve around students’ needs, this paper investigated learners’ aspirations and preferences about learning English. The data were collected from five groups of students at grades VI to VIII using group interviews from five rural schools in. The analysis of data shows a new dimension of students’ ambition about learning English.

Sagade Balasaheb Babanrao’s presentation Use of Computer& Internet in Teaching English: Activities for Teachers talked about Today Teaching of English, as learning of English is no more just a classroom phenomenon. The computer revolution has dissolved the differences between rural and urban students. Internet not only supports teaching but also accelerates the speed of learning English. Teachers have significant function to play in helping students achieve their goals while using the Internet. The researcher intended to explore possibilities of multifaceted use of Internet in teaching English, virtual class room, on line lectures of experts, video conferencing ,websites and other much more support services can be perceived in the pedagogical light. It will explore some internet based activities for teachers.

Sagun Shrestha’s workshop Can I Be a Blogger? Emphasized Blog is a common electronic forum for a teacher and students in a language classroom these days. They can post their thoughts and opinions on a regular basis and get immediate feedback which paves the way to be more creative and critical. Teacher blog, student blog, class blog and project blog have really transformed the traditional language classroom into techno-language classroom.

Sajan Karn’s presentation Why we are not doing what we are not doing? Integrating critical thinking into ELT Lessons emphasized that most human beings take things for granted. In other words, they have developed the habit of doing things conventionally without questioning. This is because they are not critical thinkers. The importance of critical thinking in human life can hardly be exaggerated. So is its value in education. However, Nepalese ELT seems to have virtually ignored the element of critical thinking. In this paper, he questioned why we are not doing what we should have been doing and why we have been doing what we should avoided doing during teaching of English.

Sally White conducted the workshop Look, Listen, Feel – Matching your Students’ Learning Styles. In this interactive workshop, participants were guided through Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques that serve to enhance teacher and learner autonomy in the classroom. The focus was on identifying and using the three systems of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic in teaching and learning. Through awareness of individual preferred learning styles, students can take charge of their learning and teachers can more effectively meet the learning needs of each student. Participants were engaged in activities involving reading, writing, discussions, focused observations, and gentle physical movement.

Samjhana Pradhan’s presentation English Teaching Techniques in Business Education explored teaching techniques to Business students graduating from Bachelor’s programme. It discussed methods and approaches of teaching, the role of English teachers in Business education. Teachers undergo teacher training and teacher development programme. Despite their knowledge on language and literature, the teachers need to understand business individually as a consumer in the world business.

Sarah Elisabeth Howlett’s workshop Rapping with Obama: The Power of Music in Understanding English Texts explained Essay writing is a challenging concept for any student, whether they are native or foreign language speakers. This workshop aimed to demonstrate how complicated English texts can be broken-down and restructured into songs, thereby enabling students to extract fundamental information from a given piece of writing and simultaneously comprehend the components of formulating an essay. Furthermore, students are encouraged to exercise their creativity and their concluding performances not only entertain all, but provide valuable lessons in teamwork. Students come to appreciate the value in English writing and, through their own ingenuity, understand that English essay construction is not such a daunting task.

Saraswati Dawadi’s presentation Testing plays a very important role in teaching learning process discussed five assessment principles that are important when designing any type of test. In addition, it provided varieties of techniques and strategies to make our test a good test. The participants were involved in various activities so that they can experience and understand the five important aspects of testing and get equipped with the standard techniques to design an authentic test.

Hermayawati Setijadi’s presentation Improving Speaking Skill of Domestic Migrant Worker Candidates Using FELM focused on English Module designed for improving overseas job-seekers speaking skill for survival needs. It is effective to use in the Authorized Institution of Indonesian Overseas Worker Candidates (for alpha was 0.04) to improve a hundred overseas job-seekers in Yogyakarta, in 2010. The training project funded by the Department of Education aimed at improving their speaking skill to increase their bargaining position abroad and to communicate with employers. This program was a community service project in the form of English training using FELM as my previous research finding.

Teaching English in Large and Under- Resourced Contexts by Shaila Ahmed discussed that most schools in Bangladesh have large, under-resourced classes. As a result, teachers are constantly applying various methods and approaches to make their ESL class successful and provide the best opportunities to every individual. Group work and pair work may be good methods for not only reaching out to large classes but also helping back benchers, under-motivated and shy students. This paper presented the findings of an action research done to determine the benefits and disadvantages of group work or pair work in large and under-resourced classrooms.

Shama Rajbhandari Shrestha and Jolly Shrestha Subba’s presentation Games In EFL Classroom
Focused on language learning skill which can be taught through different language games, students learn more if they are involved in language through games. Different language games are required for strong motivational impact on learning language upon students. So the presentation focused on how teachers can motivate their students by the help of language games in EFL classrooms.

Sharmila Sitaula and Kalpana Paudel’s presentation An action Research: How to make Grammar Class Interesting? Explored the possibilities of teaching grammar in interesting ways, grammar seems to be a boring part for the ESL learner. ‘To be an effective teacher and to make learner enjoy with the grammar’ an attempt was made with the questions viz, “How do we teach grammar in the ESL classrooms? Can it be taught in an interesting way?” They shared how difficult and problematic component of grammar can be taught in interesting and interactive way in ‘teacher friendly’ environment.

Experience of Developing Reading Materials for Bangladeshi L2 Learners by Sharmistha Das and Masuda Khatoon highlighted the challenges and opportunities of a context where additional readers need to be integrated with the mainstream English language curriculum and English in Action in Bangladesh. In Bangladeshi Government schools, children are hardly exposed to any English reading materials except their course books. In the classroom, reading is treated as a mere process of decoding linguistic components rather than an interactive approach to developing the skill in a meaningful context. To expose primary children to a variety of English reading materials, English in Action has introduced a pilot reading scheme initiative.

Shawn Huizenga’s presentation Content Based Instruction: Approaches and Considerations highlighted on content-based instruction which is an increasingly important aspect of second language education. As one of the broadest of all pedagogic categories, however, it presented unique challenges to language instructors. This presentation addressed some of these challenges, discussing the nature, benefits and practical applications of content-based instruction. The presentation was of interest to educators interested in expanding their current English courses to include greater substantive content as well as instructors who are teaching content-based classes and are interested in exploring new methods of instruction.

Shefali Kulkarni’s presentation Listening and Speaking Activities for Under-Resourced and Large Classes conveyed the fact that under resourced and large classes cause great anxiety to teachers. In this workshop, they talked about listening and speaking activities where the class is large and under resourced and the teacher and the students become the resource themselves. The participants experienced predominantly listening and speaking activities and class management techniques to handle large classes. The three activities would be a scenario created by a team on the instructions of another team, a cheating dictation and a jig-saw story-telling with presentations where the resources are extremely limited.

Shyam B. Pandey and Suman Laudari’s workshop Teaching Grammar: Not a Problem Any More stressed on some handy ideas to teach grammar to teachers teaching English at different level. The workshop began with a warm-up activity and was followed by some intensive communicative activities to teach grammar. Then, the presenters presented the rationale of the activities and briefly highlight the theories of teaching grammar.

Suresh Kumar Shrestha’s presentation Fossilization: shall we challenge a challenge? focused on fossilization as a hindrance to language learning which appears naturally, when it comes to learning foreign languages. It is the result of having incorrect linguistic stuff set by repetition. So what about all those correct assets we possess through long practice? Can native speakers avoid their naturalness? Isn’t it fossilization? We know attitude dominates aptitude.

Susan Deith’s session Teaching IELTS Skills explored some motivating and interesting ways to present and teach a number of IELTS skills for each of the four sections i.e. reading, writing, speaking and listening. In her another paper, Making Learning Fun – without Paper!! By Susan Deith conveyed the fact that we have all been there when we need to start a lesson with something to grab our students’ attention and then finish it where you have time to fill! In this active, hands-on session, participants learned paperless or low resource activities for all ages and abilities.
Sushma Parvathini’s presentation Grammar in Communicative Approach: Classroom Practice focused on the nature of grammar teaching in the communicative classroom. The situation is examined in the Indian context. The paper provides a clear picture of teacher perceptions in teaching grammar through the communicative approach and an understanding of how these perceptions are realized in classroom practice. An attempt has also been made to develop a pedagogic framework for teaching grammar through the communicative approach. The study is based on the data collected through classroom observation, questionnaires and informal interviews.

Language as a Medium to Teach for Social Change by Sylvan Blignaut highlighted on South African society which has undergone dramatic educational changes in the past decade. Considerations about redress and equity have now been elevated to the top of the agenda. Although many policies have emerged in post-Apartheid South Africa, addressing issues of race, redress and equity, racism and poverty continues unabated in the society. In this paper, the presenter argued that a focus on language teaching offers the best possibility to mitigate racism and move the society towards social cohesion and a more democratic and just future. Without social justice teaching, ideals like reconciliation and the “rainbow nation” could never be realized.

Tania Hossain’s presentaion Native- vs. Non-native-Medium Schools in Bangladesh: Inequalities and Policy Options highlighted that in Bangladesh disparities between native- and non-native-medium schools are fuelled in part by government actions such as resource allocation and administrative oversight that determine institutional policies and practices which lead to societal inequality. Students from resource-poor schools, where English teaching is at best perfunctory, are significantly disadvantaged. The implications of these findings for reframing current language policy are presented. A four-pronged ethnographic method was used to find out the differences between observed Native medium and Non-native medium schools. Results indicated that students from resource-poor rural schools are fraught with pedagogical inequalities, and call into question the government’s current educational policy.

Tapasi Bhattacharya’s presentation Beyond the Binary: English in Nepali highlighted on the magical power of English Education in the Nepalese context from the South Asian perspectives in course of the globalization process. She attempted to address the policy documents on English in Nepal and trace the history of the changing status of English Education in Nepal illustrating and referring to different texts from the Nepali scholars and foreign scholars, she also discussed how English have greatly influenced the Nepali context, the Nepali vernacular and also the Nepali society. Finally, she also demystified the hurdles to achieve the national goal and suggest some remedial measures.

Making Your Classroom an “English Zone” by Tara Bates emphasized For most students who study English, the classroom is their only chance to practice. Many teachers would like to set up an environment where the students speak English without translating into their native language — but it can be hard to get the students to follow along. This workshop showed how to start out the school year right with simple activities that create an “English zone.” As your students begin to listen, speak, and think in English without translating, you will see an amazing improvement in their skills!

Tasik Mumin’s presentation Teaching Speaking English: Nervousness or More? Justified that most ESL students are either shy or nervous to speak English, be it at personal level or public sphere. There are different opinions regarding the methods and techniques to improve speaking skills. While developing speaking abilities of students, ESL teachers experience multi-faceted challenges such as cultural barrier, methods to be adopted, class size and mixed ability class. This paper enquired into the reasons behind students’ hesitation at tertiary level in Bangladesh and suggests ways to overcome the barrier within limited time-frame.

Tazin Aziz Chaudhury and Md. Ziaul Karim’s Presentation, CLT Approach in Developing English Reading Skills in Bangladesh focused on the methodology known as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), in relation to other teaching methods and explore its applications for enhancing reading skills of the English language learners in Bangladesh. It also focused on the different understanding of CLT from teachers and students, its misconceptions and perceptions and also its future prospects in Bangladesh. Finally, it suggested guidelines for employing it more successfully in ELT classrooms with the view to developing English reading skills.

Learners’ Acceptance of Feedback on Their Writing and its Impacts by Tazria Islam Discussed the effective role of different types of feedback (oral, written and peer) for improving the students writing skill in a large class room and learner’s perception about the feedback strategy that they prefer as their assessment tools for the composition class. About one-twenty Bangladeshi English Non-Major Students of Stamford University Bangladesh took part in the investigation. The result showed learners’ positive attitude towards oral and written feedback. They also suggest that the first draft of writing should be checked by their peers, but the teacher should provide the written feedback on their final drafts of writing.

Thakur Prasad Bhusal’s presentation Developing Extensive Reading in EFL Classroom discussed that with the changing context in ELT stressed on to develop such a reading skill in their students in which they could get the real taste of reading as independent fluent readers which, in fact, is the ultimate goal of teaching reading. In this sense, to maximize benefits from reading, students need to be motivated and should be involved in both extensive and intensive reading. In this regard, this presentation revealed the research findings on what several kinds of motivational strategies English teachers find useful and of great importance for making the learners motivated toward extensive kind of independent reading development.

Tirtha Raj Wagley’s presentation Decision Making in ESL Classroom clearly expressed different approaches have been introduced in the field of second language teaching. Therefore, ESL teachers are often required to make the best decisions to suit a particular goal while planning, teaching and evaluating the students. The teachers are unable to make right decisions because of lack of appropriate training. The workshop created feeling of self-awareness in teachers making them able to select the right options, which helped to develop their professionalism. The paper has been divided into three sections: Planning Decision, Interactive Decision and Evaluative Decision. Each of them presented some reflective questions and tasks for discussion, which helped create self-awareness in teachers.

Tushar Madhukar Kamble’s paper Cultural Influence on Teaching English focused on the fact that the learning of a second language entails conscious analytical efforts. It encompassed several components such as syntactic, semantic, and communicative competence. Learning second language does not only mean to get command on vocabulary, pronunciation and grammatical structures but to incorporate cultural elements, which are inseparable from language itself. Second language learning plays a crucial role in paying respect towards one another’s culture. The disconnection of the learner and teacher with cultural roots of second language may lead into a confused state.

Introducing Humour in English Language Classroom by Ushakiran Wagle focused on the fact that lesson stands a better chance of success if it is based on the learning-through-fun principle. This principle is realized when the language lesson includes elements of humour. Humour is the ability to amuse others: the quality of being funny. Applying this ability to amuse in the language classroom can be a good way of making our students motivated towards learning. Motivation definitely makes our lessons effective. Come and join me in my session in which she shared some ways of using humour in the language classroom. Bring some humour with you, too.

Cambridge ESOL Examinations in Nepal by Uttam Panta clarified about the importance and usefulness of ESOL Examinations. It covers different examinations that Universal Language & Compute Institute (ULCI) administers in Nepal. These exams are beneficial to students, teachers and people of all occupations. ULCI is the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations Testing Centre in Nepal. ULCI administers
• Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT)
• Key English Test (KET)
• Young Learners English (YLE
• Preliminary English Test (PET)
• The Business English Certificates (BEC)

In the paper Role of LI in English Language Classroom: Does it help or Hinder?, Huma Khan reviewed the role of L1 in English Language Classroom and to determine to what extent L1 might be utilized to maximize in learning English at tertiary level. She further deliberated that the general assumption that has prevailed is that English ought to be learnt through English, and not by the use of L1. Consequently, several teaching methods and trends support the use of L1 as a helpful teaching and learning tool.
Role of English Consonant Letter Name in L2 Spelling Development by V.E.Venkatasamy explained learners’ use of knowledge of letter name to spell words. Two sets of learners, typically developing learners (TDL) and visually impaired learners (VIL), across 4th, 5th and 6th grades were selected. The result showed that learners use their knowledge of letter name in vowel consonant letter names. In comparison to the TLD, VIL are developmentally slow but not developmentally deviant and the letter-name error percentage among learners decreased with a rise in their proficiency and age. The study argued for a need to develop phonemic awareness skills.

Ms. Valerie Pflug’s presentaion Discourse Analysis: A Tool for Reflection in the Language Classroom conveyed the fact that as language teachers, we want our students to have as many quality opportunities as possible to practice the target language during a class session. Therefore, it behaved us to eliminate classroom talk that is not productive, and behaviours that cause some students to be excluded. Discourse analysis was an invaluable tool for creating a reflective practice in which the conversational exchanges between teacher and students are examined.

Varpe Machhindra Govind’s presentation Linguistic and Communicative Competence in English focused on time when English education was started in India. It argued the different Education Commission views about the importance of English. It suggests two types of competences – Linguistic and Communicative competences. Linguistic competence consists of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.

Vocabulary Learning Strategies adapted by Nepalese Secondary School English as Foreign Language Learners by Vim Lal Shrestha presented a paper based on an academic research. It has explored the vocabulary learning strategies adapted by Nepalese secondary level students. On the basis of gathered literatures, the presenter analyzed the Nepalese learners’ experience through the qualitative paradigm. Qualitative is a methodology and philosophy this research study.

Vishnu S Rai conducted a workshop on Creative Writing: Getting out of the Box. Creative writing helps learners not only to develop their writing skills but all other skills. It breaks the monotony of the class and brings fresh air in. Many people wrongly believe that creative writing cannot be taught, that it is only for a few genius students. It is true that by only teaching creative writing we cannot make Eliot or Hardy. However, that is not the main purpose of creative writing: the main purpose is to help learner develop their language competence for which nothing is better than creative writing. My experience is that students like creative writing, that it boosts their moral as they realize that they can write in English and that they take more interest in learning because creative writing activities are fun. It is therefore, desirable for the teacher to know use creative writing activities in their class.

Symposium on Creative writing by Tapasi Bhattacharya, Maya Rai, Motikala Dewan and Sarita Dewan presented various aspects of creative writing activities for teaching English. This symposium was a part of regular activity of Asian Teachers’ Creative Group. In this symposium, they proposed to involve participants in the following creative writing activities and discuss how those activities can be applied in teaching English.

1. Writing poems
2. Performing creative writing (e.g. Slam poetry)
3. Story writing

Professor W. Jon Lambden’s presentation Taking Stress out of the Test emphasized on testing which is an integral part of both learning and teaching but it doesn’t have to be nor should it be stressful. The presenter discussed student attitudes and fears and highlight the most useful and appropriate techniques to moderate and overcome stress in testing not only in the classroom but also in periodic and annual assessment events such as the SAT,GRE, GMAT and TOEFL.

Turning Students into Temporary Teachers: Effective Techniques for Teaching Pronunciation by William Wolf focused on teaching pronunciation, which is especially difficult in large classes: generally, there is only one person (the teacher) who knows how to produce the correct sounds. Quite often, teachers use methods in which only the teacher is active and in which students only listen passively. However, several techniques allow teachers to turn students quickly into co-teachers. When students are co-teachers, it becomes possible for them to be far more active in class (in peer-group activities, for example). This workshop shows a clear step-by-step method to turn students into temporary teachers and to build learner autonomy.

Yadu Prasad Gyawali’s presentation The Reflective Teacher introduced reflective teaching as a significant way to facilitate teachers to build their professionalism. It also talks about the levels and time of reflection. It attempted to split out the causes of non- reflective behaviour of English language teachers in the second language context. A strong ethical component emphasizes the several techniques available in our context. This presentation suggested every teacher needs to be reflective-friendly in the real world of teaching and professionalism.

CLT Materials/Assessments at the Secondary Level in Bangladesh: Teachers’/Learners’ Perception by Golam Kader focused on CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) which was introduced in Bangladesh a decade ago, but to what extent has it accomplished its target? The CLT materials are tools to implement this approach. Furthermore, the mode of assessment, a major parameter to assess learners’ performance, is expected to be designed to prepare more competent language users. The presentation was about the CLT materials being used and modes of assessment being practiced at the secondary level in Bangladesh. The presentation also uncovered the teachers’ and learners’ perception about CLT from a survey of 20 teachers and 200 learners.

The 18th International Conference of NELTA will take place on 16th – 18th, February, 2013 and 20th – 21st , February, 2013.

Dr.T.Karunakaran
University of Jaffna,
Sri Lanka.

The contact between English and Tamil, one of the national languages of Sri Lanka, and the consequent expansion of bilingualism caused the borrowing of many English words into Tamil. The verbal communication between bilinguals and monolinguals in different situations led to the penetration of English words into the speech of monolinguals. The variation in the sound systems and the number of phonemes of English and Tamil is the main reason for assimilation. Especially, the Tamil monolinguals who are not concerned about the root of the English words employ them comfortably in assimilated forms.

Although equivalent Tamil terms have been made available for some technical terms, the English terms are enjoyed in the casual communication of Tamils due to the reputation of English words. The translated or transliterated forms of English words are used in written texts. A severe decline of English bilingualism can be seen in Jaffna now, especially following the introduction of Tamil, the first language as the medium of instruction in government schools and other higher educational centers in 1945. There are many other factors that hamper the acquisition of English in Jaffna. Jaffna students do not have chances to have a good contact with English. Because of the long standing civil war, tourist industry and business and cultural activities have been paralyzed. Interruption in the transport service obstructs free contacts with those living outside Jaffna peninsula. This kind of obscured and culturally confined surrounding in Jaffna turns out to be shutters against the English oriented world.

The purist feeling of Tamils also posed restriction on the use of English. There have been propagandas emphasizing the use of Tamil technical terms possibly for all general concepts and common objects. A lack of enthusiasm can be seen among the Jaffna people in acclaiming the English programmes delivered by the electronic media like radio and television and internet. Indifference to English programmes and materials might be attributed to the deficiency of English proficiency.

However, influx of several hundred household articles, electronic tools, consumable goods and so on cause innumerable English terms to penetrate into the communication of speaking and writing of Tamil. In business transactions and bargain, financial institutions such as banks and normal social interactions, the mingling of many English words can be seen. The economy in usage and assimilation of such English words urge people to mix them. There are instances where speakers make effort to use English words with prestige motive in showing themselves as literate ones in order to create a social identity.

The authors of modern literature make effort to introduce new genres and adopt western literary modes in their works. They try to bridge the divisions which are found between the themes, language, and style of the conventional literature and western literature chiefly the English influences which are becoming more and more a part of the experience and a way of life. To attain this goal, they focus on the new literary language that is flexible enough to put across the experience of the changing set up of social and intellectual trend that can reach out to large middle class reading public that is anxious for reading material but not intellectually competent enough to read classic literature. At present, social relevance has become an important issue. All works on literature whether fiction, poetry, or play concentrate on political and social matters and themes.

The application of English borrowings as part of the English impact over the social and political experience of people has turned out to be unavoidable in the modern Tamil literature generated particularly by writers of Jaffna. The use of English borrowings is adopted as a literary tool to emphasize ideas and form impression of humour and mockery. Moreover, the unavailability of Tamil equivalents or translation and in case of certain borrowings the greater familiarity of people with the practice of these borrowings make writers select borrowings to insert in their works. The use of English borrowings in the modern Tamil literature makes it easy for the writer to convey the theme effectively.

The infiltration of English words has in fact enhanced and extended the Jaffna Tamil lexicon. The use of English borrowings has facilitated one’s expression of ideas with ease and effect. Despite certain degree of criticism with regard to the language purism that may be damaged by the fusion of borrowings from other languages, the very truth that the scope and a merit of a language expand and flourish through addition of foreign linguistic elements. Unequivocally, the linguists and philologists with the positive perspective would recognize the presence of English borrowings in Tamil. The following discussion illustrates how the presence of English borrowings in Tamil could facilitate ESL teaching.

Through the adoption of certain manipulation pertaining to teaching, the ESL teacher can focus on teaching some language areas like vocabulary, phonetics and to some extent English grammar. For instance, the ESL teacher in Jaffna context, when teaching vocabularies can quote a borrowing that deals with its different shades of meanings in different contexts. The spelling and correct pronunciation of words must be treated properly, since in the case of totally assimilated forms, the pronunciation is vastly deviated while interpreting the meaning of an English word. It is advisable for the teacher to offer a Tamil equivalent for the English word, so that the students will be able to understand the meaning more easily. The presence of a Tamil equivalent would enable the students to identify the concept for the object and associate it with its social and cultural background in the better sense. For example, the word ‘cigarette’ is pronounced as ‘si:krat’ ,when it is used as a borrowing. Here, it is a responsibility of a teacher to make the students aware of the spelling of the word and the actual pronunciation of the words as well. Then, students will be mentally more comfortable in getting the right pronunciation through linking the spelling of the word with a pronunciation of the uttered word by the teacher. A Tamil equivalent for cigarette does not exist in usage and the students will not expect the teacher to give an equivalent for it, as the frequency of this word is very high. Another interesting example that somehow baffles the teacher is that, when the teacher looks for its Tamil equivalent, is the word ‘boycott’. An equivalent frequently used in Tamil for ‘boycott’ is ‘pakiskarippu’ that is not of Tamil origin. Despite its origin, being of another language other than Tamil, when the teacher equates ‘boycott’ with ‘pakiskarippu’, students are psychologically at ease. Here, the teacher’s effort to supply the available equivalents in Tamil for English borrowings is stressed. It is very much essential that educationists and curriculum designers should venture in creating technical terms in order to eliminate famine for Tamil equivalents. The need of the availability of technical terms or Tamil equivalents for English borrowings is felt necessary, since the literary compositions or research pursuits in Tamil compulsorily require Tamil terms instead of translated forms of English borrowings.

The use of English borrowings in Tamil can be successfully applied in the English classes to teach certain portions of English language structure, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The Tamil ending ‘-ai’ is added to the borrowings in Tamil, if it is a noun: for example, in Tamil ‘vayarai ǝu’ (Take the wire), the ending ‘-ai’ is added to the English ‘wire’. Further example, ‘tiai kui’(Have the tea). If the borrowing is a verb, word ‘paṇṇu’ (Do) goes with ‘vayarai yoin paṇṇu’(Join the wire). Similarly, test paṇṇu(Test).If the borrowing is an adjective, the Tamil ending ‘a:na’ goes with ‘ni:a:na velai’ ( Neat work). In case the borrowing is an adverb, it is combined with the Tamil ending ‘a:ha’ as in ‘silova po:na:n’(He went slowly) and visia: irukkiraan(He is busy).

Highlighting the above features which are involved in the Tamil expression entailing English borrowings, teacher can explain as to how English nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs can be distinguished and identified. Sometimes, it is difficult to differentiate distinction code-mixing from borrowing due to lack of linguistic evidence. It is encouraging to say that currently a greater stress is given to the production of technical terminology in Tamil. Immense efforts are made in India and Sri Lanka in this regard.
Special focus needs to be given to produce a set of standardized technical terms at least in the academic discipline to evade puzzle caused by the presence of various Tamil translations for the same English word. Further, in some texts, Tamil translations and in some other texts Transliterations are used for the same terms. Hence, it is necessary to plan whether an English term, whether it is borrowed word or not, needs to be in transliterated form or it should be restored by a Tamil translation. Considering the economy of effort in pronunciation, proper meaning expression needs to be taken into account.

References

Canagarajah, S. (1995). Use of English borrowings by Tamil fish vendors: Manipulating the context. Multilingua 14: 5–24.

Canagarajah, S. (1997). Challenges in English Literacy for African-American and Lankan Tamil Learners: Towards a Pedagogical Paradigm for Bidialectal and Bilingual Minority Students.Language and Education, no1,Vol.11.

Gunesekera, M.(2005).The Post colonial Identity of Sri Lankan English .University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
Karunakaran, T. (2008). English Borrowing in Jaffna Tami from 1993 to 2006.
Unpublished Mphil thesis, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya.

-Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Background
This training course was especially designed to the primary level English language teachers of public schools who possessed very low level of English language proficiency. Based on the teachers’ needs, the course consisted of some basic understanding of English language teaching methodology as well as some teaching techniques viz. classroom language, English sounds, four language skills/grammar/vocabulary and reflection. Classroom language sessions were based on the book titled Classroom English and sessions on four language skills/grammar and vocabulary were focused. These sessions were believed to provide guidelines to the teachers to deliver their class in communicative approach. These sessions were also implemented by Action Plan; a reflective session which helped teachers to reflect over the techniques they had experienced/learned. Sessions on classroom language/four language skills/grammar/vocabulary was basically designed and practiced considering the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) techniques (pair work, group work, role play, dramatization, gestures, facial expressions, games, rhymes, etc.) so that the training would be the blend of teaching pedagogy and language input in order to improve the teachers’ proficiency of English language and their classroom practice simultaneously.

This training was conducted in two different NELTA branches viz. Tanahu and Siraha which were selected based on the exposure of teachers. The life members have been rarely getting chance to involve in such trainings. The sponsor of the training was Ms. Kate Miller who is from the UK and she has been proved herself as a true NELTA family member who did not only sponsor the training but also accompanied with the trainers to Tanahu. She minutely observed the training sessions, guided them and delivered one/two sessions in Tanahu, too. Her guidance, mentoring and suggestion to the trainers, to NELTA center, NELTA branches are really praiseworthy. She sponsored for the training and came to Nepal from UK to observe and see the training personally on her own eyes. In short, this training was a joint venture of the sponsor Ms. Kate Miller, NELTA, trainers and the teachers of Tanahu and Siraha.
Trainers
NELTA selected four teacher trainers who have spent a long time in training the school teachers. These trainers were in different NELTA branches many times through NELTA. They have been actively contributing to NELTA in other such programmes, too. The selected four teacher trainers were Mr. Janak Raj Pant, Ms. Sarita Dewan, Mr. Uddab Bhattarai and Mr. Shyam Bahadur Pandey.
1. Janak Raj Pant: Mr. Pant has done M.ED. in English Education from Tribhuwan University and he is a teacher trainer cum training coordinator of Global Action Nepal (GAN), as well as NELTA teacher trainer. He has been to different parts of Nepal with short and long term training packages. Recently, he has been doing the TESOL Diploma from Kathmandu, Nepal.
2. Ms. Sarita Dewan: Ms. Dewan, is working as the head of department in Little Angels’ School, she has done PGDE from Kathmandu University, Masters in Sociology from TU, has devoted more than 10 years to NELTA, has visited different NELTA branches with short term teacher training packages. She is a master trainer of Student Quality Circle (SQC) Nepal. She has done the TEFL International TESOL Course from Kathmandu, Nepal. She is a member of creative writing. She is the Scholarship Winner of the 46th IATEFL Conference too who participated the conference held in Gloasgow, Scotland, UK in March, 2012.
3. Mr. Uddab Bhattarai: Mr. Bhattarai has done M.ED in ELT (English Language Teaching) from Kathmandu University and he is a professional teacher trainer who has conducted more than 10 long-term school level teacher trainings in different parts of Nepal through different INGOs and NGOs (Good Neighbors Nepal, COSAN, RRN, WVIN, GAN, NELTA and so on). He is also a roster trainer at Training Institute of Technical Information (TITI). Recently, he has been doing TESOL Diploma Course from Kathmandu, Nepal.
4. Mr. Shyam Bahadur Pandey: Mr. Pandey has done M.ED in ELT (English Language Teaching) from Kathmandu University, Nepal and he has been actively serving to NELTA since last 5 years and has been to different NELTA branches to conduct school level teacher trainings. He is a lecturer at Brilliant Multiple Campus, Chabahil, Kathmandu who teaches English literature and grammar to the students of tertiary and Bachelor of Arts. He is a Program Coordinator of NELTA as well as English Access Microscholarship Program (The U.S. State Department sponsored program implemented by NELTA into the different parts of Nepal). He has done TESOL Core Certificate and Young Learners Course from Wisconsin University, USA and Teaching English to Teenagers (TET) Course from University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA. He is also a TEFL International TESOL graduate and recently he has been doing TESOL Diploma Course from Kathmandu, Nepal. He is the Scholarship Winner of 46th IATEFL Conference who presented a paper in the Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
Selection of Location
NELTA centre selected two NELTA branches; Tanahu and Siraha, which are newly established branches. These branches have not got any such chances of conducting trainings yet. People in Tahanu and Siraha do not know much more about NELTA. Based on the especial request of the branches: Tanahua and Siraha, NELTA centre selected these two branches for the three day training.
Participants
This training was totally focused on the teachers who have been teaching in the primary level because comparatively primary level teachers get less chance to get involved in training. Generally, they enter in teaching right after their SLC or intermediate. Therefore, they mostly are not familiar with the newly practiced teaching techniques. Since primary level is the base of other levels of education, it is a very crucial phase in the foundation of education. Until and unless the primary level teaching gets improved, one can/should not expect the progress in education. Considering this fact, the participants were selected from primary level only. Although some participants’ level of English was not up to the desired level and some of them were higher than others, most of them were similar in their level of English which added plus point to make the training more effective.
Objectives
This training was grand to achieve the specified objectives. Similarly, it was able to give a kind of impression to the teachers about the language teaching techniques. Though the training is was not long, it is expected that the teachers got maximum benefit through the training because the modality of the training was not ‘top down’ rather ‘bottom up’ as it was based on the needs of the teachers. Prior to the training program, it aimed to achieve certain objectives which were as follows:
a) This training will make aware about the different language skills of language teaching in the participants’ class e.g. four language skills, grammar, and pronunciation.
b) This training will enable the participants to use communicative language teaching techniques such as pair work, group work, role play, dramatization, gestures, facial expressions, songs, games etc. in their classroom.
c) The participants will be able to use classroom English confidently with their students.
Tanahu
17—19 November, 2011: Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA) organized a three day teacher training programme for the primary English teachers in Tanahu. The training was inaugurated by Ms. Kate Miller, the sponsor and Mr. Chakra Adhikari, the NELTA Tanahu Branch Chair. There were two NELTA trainers; Ms. Sarita Dewan and Mr Janak Raj Pant who facilitated the training simultaneously turn by turn. On the middle of the training sessions, Ms. Miller took one session on pronunciation. The training basically focused on modeling the teaching skills along with the content that the primary English language teachers need to deliver in their classroom so as to make them familiar with the different teaching techniques and activities that are more fruitful for their classroom practice. The content of the training basically focused on was the two major areas; English language improvement and English language teaching techniques. For example: the basic concept of grammar along with the language teaching tips, reading, writing, listening and speaking/ vocabulary along with some useful techniques, pronunciation, classroom dynamics and classroom English.
Based upon the aforementioned major areas, the training was guided by the participatory approach. In other words, this training was designed to highlight some teaching tips for the primary teachers; no matter they might have heard some of the techniques previously. The reflection at the end of each day gave some insight to the trainees and trainers both about the adoptability of the techniques in the local context. The training modality adopted was very close to loop input method in which content as well as process was focused using the same session. The trainers tried to make the sessions maximally participatory and reflected over those activities immediately after the activities so that they can relate it to their training context. Regarding the delivered sessions of the trainers, refer to the appendix I please.
Siraha
24—26 November, 2011: NELTA organized three-day teacher training for the primary level English language teachers in Lahan, Siraha. The training was inaugurated by Dr. Anil Kumar Yadav, Chair NELTA Siraha. Dr. Yadav briefly highlighted the importance of training in teaching English. There were two NELTA trainers; Mr. Uddab Bhattarai and Mr. Shyam Bahadur Pandey. Mr. Pandey shortly talked about the generosity of Ms. Kate Miller, the sponsor of the programme. Ms. Miller has been to Nepal many times with different teacher training programs into the different NELTA branches. She is a life member of NELTA as well as a true friend of NELTA.
The content and nature of the training was quite similar to the training of Tanahu in terms of the objectives. This training was focused to use everyday English, to use different language teaching techniques in the classroom such as pair work, group work, role play, gestures, facial expressions, songs, games, matchstick figure, etc., to teach students using the phonic method to improve pronunciation and to make them able to help themselves to develop their professional development in teaching. The training basically focused on modeling the teaching skills along with the content which teachers’ need to deliver in their classroom so as to make them familiar the techniques and activities that would be fruitful for their classroom practice. The major two aspects of the training were English language improvement and English language teaching techniques. For example: the basic concept of grammar along with some useful language teaching tips, reading, writing, listening and speaking/vocabulary along with some useful techniques, pronunciation, classroom dynamics, and classroom English.

Standing upon the aforesaid major parts, the training was guided by the participatory approach. In other words, the training was designed to highlight some teaching tips for the primary teachers. The training modality adopted was very close to circle participation method of training teachers in which content as well as process was focused using the same sessions. The trainers tried to make the sessions maximally participatory and reflected over those activities immediately after the activities so that the trainees could relate it to their teaching context. It was completely workshop based. The participants were active throughout the day. They listened less, involved themselves more in different activities. The reflection at the end of each activity gave some insight to the trainee and trainers both about the adoptability of the techniques in the local context. English was the medium of training. Please refer appendix II for sessions’ details.

There were 27 participants who were the primary level English language teachers. They have been working in the local public schools of Lahan, Siraha. Although they were good enough to understand the instruction in English, they were hesitant to speak in English. Since the training was based on participatory approach, they were expected to actively take part in the training which went in accordance to the objectives. The participants were really active and worked hard during the training. They made an action plan and assured to implement the ideas in their classroom. They were impressed very much by the nature of the training. Almost all the branch executive committee members actively took part in the training even though some of them were veteran ELT experts for example Dr. Anil Kumar Jha, Mr. Pawan Kumar Shah and others. These people are University teachers but they used to ask to the trainers if the trainers could allow them to stay in the training session. They were allowed to stay in the training but they were not counted as participants because the training was not focused to them. The logistic support was very nice. It proved that the local people understood the spirit of the training which was for them to utilize the ideas in their local context. All the participants were provided the necessary stationery with free of cost, transportation and accommodation cost to the trainers were covered by the fund sponsored by Ms. Kate Miller.
The three-day programme was aired by the different local F.M. Radio stations. They did not forget to announce the name of the programme sponsor; Ms. Kate Miller.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Conclusion: Therefore, the trainings were able to achieve the specified objectives. It again proved by the remarks expressed by the teachers in their reflection sessions, too. Most of the participants were assuring and informing us that they first time in their life attended such trainings where they got many handy tips to teach English as well as they got some ideas to develop their level of English and professionalism together. Previously, they were hesitant to speak in English but at the end of the training, there were excited to speak in English. They had a kind of perception that training is meant to get some abstract philosophical and theoretical ideas but this training added training is/should be focused on the needs of the teachers. This training was able to give to the participants some useful teaching techniques which might be useful to their daily classroom. Before starting to the training, the participants were elicited different speaking tests but could not speak. Later, they were asked how they would engage their students in speaking activity and they were excited to share and promise to the trainers that they are going to engage their students into the different activities which they learnt in course of the training.

Recommendation:
• Although almost all the participants were from the primary level, some of them were high and low in their level of English language. This factor should be considered in the future. There should be need analysis before going into the training either it was short term training or long term.
• No matter for what level the training was focused on, if any teacher trainer minutely observes and takes interest into the sessions, he/she might learn something new and use those ideas in the future. Even though the training was especially designed to the primary level English language teachers in Tanahu and Siraha, there should be some local NELTA branch representatives so observe the effectiveness of the training as well as they can cash cede the ideas to the other local teachers. It was not found in Tanahu.
• In spite of the good coordination between NELTA Center and the NELTA branch there were some lapses regarding the logistic matters e.g. program banners, logistic support to the participants and signatories of the completion certificates, etc. which shouldn’t be repeated in the future.

Appendix I
Program Schedule
Date: 17, November, 2011
Location: Tanahu Day: First
Session Topic Remarks
First Session Introducing: interactive activities useful in language class Janak Raj Pant
Second session Teaching alphabet Sarita Dewan
Third session Classroom management: Job chart
Tea Break
Third Session Pronunciation: sounds Kate Miller
Fourth Session Janak Raj Pant
Fifth session Reflection Session Sarita Dewan

Location: Tanahu Day: Second Date: 18 November, 2011
Session Topic Remarks
First Session Grammar lesson Sarita Dewan
Second session Reading lesson [incorporating dramatization activity] [Three big fish] Janak Raj Pant
Third Session Teaching Vocabulary Sarita Dewan
Tea Break
Fourth Session Making letters Sarita Dewan
Fifth session Reflection Janak Raj Pant

Location: Tanahu Day: Third Date: 19 November, 2011
Session Topic Remarks
First Session [10:15-11:15] Listening through story telling
[Reflection
Running dictation] Janak Raj Pant
Second session [11:20-12:50] Writing Sarita Dewan
Third Session [1-2] Classroom English and manner teaching
[Starting to use classroom English: when English and when Nepali
Checking understanding
Teaching classroom English and Development
Classroom English
Practice ] Janak Raj Pant
Break
Fourth session [2:30-3:00] Action plan
Now please think about:
What new things
Kate and Janak

Appendix II
Program Schedule
Date: 24 November, 2011
Location: Siraha Day: First
Session Topic Remarks
Preparatory Session Workshop management:
Workshop Agreement
Responsibility Distribution
Appreciation Box
Expectation & Objective Sharing Uddab Bhattarai
Introductory Session Introducing myself through using five fingers
Introducing our group members
Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Uddab Bhattarai
Team Building Activity Two Truths and a Lie
Uddab Bhattarai
Tea Break
First Session Reflection our English Language Teaching Practices Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Second Session Material Development : the Dice and its usages in language teaching Uddab Bhattarai
Reflection Session Reflection on the Day’s Activities and Learning
Feedback Sharing Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Location: Siraha Day: Second Date: 25 November, 2011
Session Topic Remarks
Preparatory Session Report Presentation
Job Distribution Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Team Building Activity The Cocktail Party Uddab
First session Understanding and Eliciting Classroom English Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Tea Break
Second Session Techniques to use Classroom English Uddab Bhattarai
Third Session Material Development: Easy Learning Roll and its Usages in Language Classroom Uddab/ Shyam
Reflection Session Reflection on the Day’s Activities and Learning
Feedback Sharing Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Location: Siraha Day: Third Date: 26 November, 2011
Session Topic Remarks
Preparatory Session Report Presentation
Job Distribution Shyam Bahadur Pandey

First Session Ten Little Ducks: Using Rhymes/Songs in Language Classroom Uddab Bhattarai
Second session Life at the Age of Ten: An Speaking Activity
Uddab Bhattarai
Third session Writing our Own Story
Using Stories in Language Classroom Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Tea Break
Fourth Session Using Matchstick Figures in ELT Uddab Bhattarai
Reflection Session Reflection on the Day’s Activities and Learning
Feedback Sharing Shyam Bahadur Pandey

Closing Session Closing and Celebration NELTA Siraha, Trainers, Participants and others

Appendix: IV
Participants’ Feedback
Participants’ feedback has been always crucial to evaluate the effectiveness of the session/training/workshop. It not only helps the trainer to explore out what efforts remained effective and what are the areas to improve but also gives an insight for further works. We as practitioner trainers also collected feedbacks from the participants at the end of the workshop using focused group discussions and feedback sharing cards. The feedback sharing cards were given to each participant in which they had to write down two areas they appreciated and an area to improve. After they wrote their feedback individually again they were asked to discuss in their respective groups and come up with their groups’ feedback. Since there were four groups, each group’s feedback after some language edit is mentioned below in their own words:
Group A says,
“The training organized by NELTA followed a participatory approach from which we learnt how to make our teaching participatory. The contents which were delivered remained very fruitful to the teachers who are trying to enhance fluency in speaking. We as primary level English language teachers would be grateful to have similar kind of trainings time to time.”
Similarly, group B states,
“First of all we would like to thank to the sponsor Ms. Kate Miller who became so generous to us and NELTA for organizing this kind of training for us. We have learnt a lot of classroom English expressions in this training which would certainly influence our teaching in the coming days. Stories, jokes, songs and dances during the training created a comfortable learning environment. We are really thankful to you both trainers.”
Group C mentions,
“We learnt many things from the training such as the new and interesting way of introducing each other, the responsibilities distribution to make all the participants feel responsible for their learning, classroom English expressions etc. We also came to know that how to use classroom English expressions in our teaching so that students could use them in their day to day communication. We thank to trainers and the NELTA and the sponsor Ms. Miller from the bottom of our heart.”
Group D says,
“In this short period we learnt a lot. We never forget the lesson that we learnt from this training. We will always try to use classroom English expressions in our classroom teaching and maintain English speaking environment in our classroom. We had really enjoyed all the activities during the training. We are very grateful to Ms. Kate Miller and NELTA trainers for giving us this opportunity.”
Finally, group E, states,
“This NELTA training is really good for the teachers. It taught us new techniques to use classroom English expressions in our classroom along with so many refreshing activities. After attending this training, we came to know that there is still a lot to learn as English teachers. We, therefore, request you and NELTA to organize this type of training time and again. Thank you very much for this wonderful training.”
Training Glimpse

Figure 1) Ms. Kate Miller, UK inaugurating the three-day teacher training programme in Damauli, Tanahu on 17 November, 2011.

Figure 2) Teachers in Siraha in a group work activity on 24 November, 2011 which was facilitated by Mr. Shyam Bahadur Pandey.

Figure 3) Participants in Siraha at the training session learning to sing and act the children song which was facilitated by Mr. Uddab Bhattarai.

Figure 4) Participants enjoying with the balloons after winning the classroom expression making competition and the two trainers enjoying with the trainees.

Figure 5) Trainers and trainees in Siraha after the group presentation.

Figure 6) Participants after the completion of the three day teacher training in a single lens.

Sarita Dewan

The dictionary meaning of “slam” is to shut something with a lot of noise. In journalese, it means to criticize something very strongly. Poetry slam is a live competition in which poets perform original poetry and are judged by preselected members from the audience. The focus of poetry slam is not the mere written words; rather, it is the oral interpretation and performance with emphasis on the interaction between the poet and the audience.

Poetry slam is a relatively new phenomenon that emerged out of inner city Chicago in the mid 1980s. The structure of the traditional slam was started by construction worker and poet Marc Kelly Smith in 1986 at a reading series in a Chicago jazz club. The competition quickly spread across the US. Now it is popular all over the world, including Nepal.

Each poet must perform his/her original piece within the time constraints of the competition, and must seize the audience’s attention and captivate them with words. Five judges are picked randomly by the MC from the audience. After each performance, judges hold up score cards using a 1- 10 scale, with 10 being the highest. Of the five scores for each poet, only the middle three scores are counted, and the judges’ decision is final.  Heat contestants are given a microphone, and perform in front of a live audience and get just two minutes to impress the judges (selected at random at each heat) with their original spoken word, poetry, hip-hop, monologues and stories.

Slam poetry can be considered a new generation poetry of spoken words. While formal poetry readings elicit the perception of literary value and lack confrontational criticism or judgment, slam poetry welcomes interaction and critique and it aims to provide immediate pleasure to its audiences.

Poetry slam can be used as a kind of authentic material to teach in EFL classes to motivate students to express their feelings through their poems. High school students are often found highly emotional because of their transitional period with emotional and physical changes, and communication is a means of coping with anxiety, which inevitably accompanies stress (Durbar, cited by Hurlock). Self-expression through slam poetry will allow students to identify and convey their thoughts and feelings through spoken word rather than internal or external acts of violence. It is often found that young individuals are able to manipulate language through and incorporate personal experience into their poetry, to affirm their identities through unique, personal knowledge of their individual positions.

In Nepal, the first poetry slam was held by Quixote Cove in 2010 with the support of American Embassy,  almost twenty schools  participated the competition. Danny Solis, Matt Mason and  Karen Finneyfrock were the slam poets who  held workshops, and presented their slam poetry in different places of Kathmandu and for the first time in Nepal. They made students present their own creation as poetry slam among  the live audience. Since then poetry slam is not uncommon among  Nepali audience.

There were ten top finalists in the competition. The following poem is one of them. While you read the poem, please consider how you may be able to incorporate such poetry in your own classroom, and to what effect.

A letter to my revered father

Dear father,
Creator of all, master of the universe.
It’s been long since I’ve written to you
Last time I did, the Second World War was on
I wrote it with bullets shredding at my windowpanes
Explosives bombarding at my place
Amidst the smell of gunpowder choking me
And the heat of the atom bomb burning me.
I had appealed to you,
“Father, please stop this devastation
Why are you ruining what you have created?”
You had answered me,
“Do not worry my child, I’m not destroying anything
But these self-destructing fools are
They do not destroy an inch of me, but destroy themselves.”
But then, the war halted
I felt serenity; I felt the storm was over
I felt, what a relief!!!!!!

But ….
But this letter, my father, I’m writing again
Before the damage is done
Before the storm even starts
Before the sun of cataclysm rises.

Because I sense
Because I sense the tranquility before the storm
Because I smell the danger in the air
Because I taste the blood before it has spilt
I foresee that the storm is near
Oh, the storm is near.

This time father, I’m appealing to you
Please save “My Mother Earth”
Her temperature is ceaselessly rising
She’s got this fever called ‘Global Warming’
Her precious crown of the sparkling Himalayas
Are flowing down as tears, with the heat
Leaving the precious tiara, barren and black
Unsparkling.

And do you know, she bears this excruciating pain
With a smile on her face, while her heart weeps
And so does mine
With unconditional love to give, while her soul is being killed
And so is mine
Her life saving crops have withered, famine has struck
I can’t bear to see my mother’s womb infertile
I can’t bear to see her fetus being aborted
Before it even is born.

But she still keeps us united, while she is falling apart
Managing to fill our treasury, while she is being ripped off
By the filthy hands of her own children
In the name of materialism, extravagance and unlimited wants
What disgusting murderers, what shameless deeds
Pushing their mother six feet under the ground
How can they happily watch her suffer????
Hands folded, eyes blindfolded, ears stuffed with earphones
With high volume songs, deafening my mother’s screams.

How can’t they feel the burning heat??????
Isn’t Global Warming enough????
They have physically wounded my mother too
With a shower of atomic fission and fusion
That they call ‘Nuclear Weapons’
Left unhealable scars on my mother’s once beautiful face
Her unfathomable children have gone against nature’s law
Against your law
They’re trying to take over your place, dear father
Trying to create a the Mighty God’s replica
But in vain father, in vain.

But the biggest reason why my mother weeps
Is because her own children are fighting
Trading vandalism for humanity
Against each other, sibling killing sibling
Why????????
For the lust of power????
For the love of land, that no one owns????
For the sake of religious supremacy
When God is one????
That’s you my father!!!!!
That’s you……

Please do something
Oh revered one
Do something
I beg you on my knees
Please, save my mother
I beg you on my knees
Please save my mother.

Yours sincerely,
Kumari

P.S: I’ll wait for a quick reply from you father. Please write back soon

Anudeep Dewan, National College, Baluwatar, Kathmandu