In a brief solicited feedback survey last month (in January Anniversary issue), Choutari readers indicated that they would like to see more practical teacher stories and tips, and hands-on teaching materials rather than scholarly and abstract theoretical reviews. As always, we sent an announcement though our NELTA group mail and we editors wrote to potential authors  individually to solicit contributions. Except some, most of the teachers sent a green signal to contribute a blog entry by the 15th of January. Eventually, only few could make it, however.

This is understandable. We have more than 14 hours of loadshedding at home. Within the limited hours, there are other tasks that get more priority. However, we do have some veteran teachers who devoted their time to prepare blog entries for this issue. NeltaChoutari thanks them for their contributions.  Enjoy reading them and leave your comments.

Contents

1. An incident that changed my attitude by Madhu Neupane (This entry presents a story of why teachers should be more careful in assigning homework to the students.

2. Teacher training: for money or for professionalism? by Ram Abadhesh Ray (This anecdotal entry discusses a need for professionalism in teacher development programs/occasions)

3. Local needs and local resources in teaching English  by Asharam Shah (Asharam draws his experience from his involvement in materials preparation)

4. What I as a student expect from an English teacher by Manju Pokhrel (A story on a college student’s expectations from her English teacher)

5. Branch Highlights: Tanahun, Kaski and Makwanpur

If we are asked to list some of the things that learners should do to improve their learning, I think we would not miss to say that they should do homework regularly. Though we teachers have our own assumptions and attitudes about different things, we have positive attitude about giving homework in one form or the other.

We are aware of the advantages of homework. We know that it promotes the practice of independent learning; helps students to reinforce basic skills learnt during school days; allows them for the use of resources and materials not available in the schools; provides parents with information about the progress of their children; provides appropriate opportunities for long term research; provides opportunities for teachers to differentiate work for children.

These benefits can be categorized into immediate benefits (better retention and understanding of information, development of critical thinking and concept formation, and improvement in processing information) and long term benefits (encouragement to learning, improved attitude towards schools, and better study habits and skills). Furthermore, homework is supposed to have long term non academic benefits such as greater self direction and self discipline which we want to inculcate in our learners.

Giving homework is not sufficient. Equally important is the checking of the homework. It is necessary to check homework to reassure learners that what they have understood is right; to provide repeated exposure to aid acquisition; to provide them with a record of correct language for future reference; to encourage thinking about why an answer is correct or how they have reached a particular answer; to provide support for different levels of learners; to provide them with a sense of satisfaction from discussing and sharing something they have spent doing; and to allow learners to play an active role throughout the learning process by encouraging learner independence.

What impact does it have if you give homework but do not check it? Even a single event or incident may bring a great change in our life. The same thing applies to teachers as well. I want to relate this to one of the incidents that changed my attitude towards homework checking. For this reason I want to call it a success story. This has been a great lesson for me who used to sometimes not check homework because of lack of time or other thing.

One day I was teaching in my bachelor first year class. The learners in that class came from very diverse backgrounds. Especially they were from the government schools in rural areas so we can mostly imagine their level of English. Some of them were really good. I encouraged them to take homework every day and do whatever they can at home. One day I gave them a homework that was solving exercises given in the book and said that if any one of them did not do homework I would proceed without doing the lesson for it was also their duty to do some reading themselves. Next day I checked the homework and found some of them not doing the homework. I told them to do the same task again by convincing them that it did not matter if their answers were wrong. What mattered was their attempt. They seemed to have been convinced.

The next day I had to attend a meeting with the head of the department about terminal exam so I went to the class a bit late and started the lesson. That was a reading lesson. I did not care about the work that I had given to the learners. While I was about to leave the class one of the learners stood up and said, “Madam I stayed up to 11 O, clock to do the homework. There was load shedding (power cut) so I did my homework with the help of candle. I had to prepare for the class test of other subject but I felt so strongly about the work that I did it even putting the task aside. But unfortunately you did not check the homework today. I would not do homework next time”. He said this with tears in his eyes. I felt so guilty that I put my things on the table again and put my hand on his head.  I said “Sorry Rabindra, I just thought that I would check your homework next time. Take out your homework. I would check it now”.  He took his homework out of his bag and I checked that. He had done it very well. However, he was not happy because he realized that I just did this because he had said so. I left the class with a feeling of guilty.

In spite of giving me a sense of guilty, this incident had really positive impact on my attitude towards homework. So, I want to recall it as one of the success stories in my teaching experience. It taught me the lesson that checking homework is very important.  From that day onward I have felt so strongly about the work that give that I never miss to ask whether the learners have done the work that I gave them and give some positive comments on that. It does not take me much time. Sometimes, I just have a look on their work going from front to back. If I think some learners have done it really well I read it for the whole class and if most of them have got it wrong I provide possible answers on the board.

I have found that going through learners work very quickly if we do not have time to go thoroughly can have surprisingly good impact on learners. It gives them a sense of achievement. That is, I think, greater learning experience than anything else. Since the success is the accumulation of small steps we should not forget that “small things matter”. Checking homework may just be a small thing in leading learners towards a greater success.

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Janjyoti Higher Secondary School,

Chandranigahpur, Rautahat 

Indeed, teaching is a noble profession. It has been carried out variously since the earliest times. It was conducted, facilitated, administrated and accomplished by ancient Hindu Gurus like Vishwamitra, Bashistha, Dornacharya, Kripacharya. The continuation of teaching and learning activities has been spreading widely all over the world. Considering the above circumstances, I involved myself in the field of teaching at the age of 17.

I was a typical young and shameful teenager when I started teaching. I started my teaching career since I joined a private English boarding school. My hearts and emotions were filled with a great enthusiasm. There’s one thing I detest; it’s the people who make comment on getting myself transferred from one school to another. I didn’t stand still at a single school or institution for all times. It is because I wanted to improve my academic career as well as economic status smoothly. During my teaching career, I have taught in more than seven schools and gained various teaching experiences. After completing my graduation degree, I became competent and eligible to be a secondary level English Language Teacher as per the legal provision in Nepal. I filled up my forms, faced the competition through both written and spoken modes. What I found is raw fruits in my palm that I could not taste. I was depressed by the policies and controversial arguments made among school management committee and the concerned authorities of selection committee. However, I didn’t lose my patience.

Later a new inspiration blended my performance in teaching at newly established Mid Regional Police Boarding School Jingadiya, Rautahat. I wished I could teach in that new institution. I competed for the teacher and fortunately, I succeeded among other teacher colleagues. The success really made me so delightful that I could not sleep that night. I conveyed the message of my academic victory to all my friends and relatives. My happiness knew no bounds.

The most memorable teaching event that I have experienced during my teaching career is my involvement in “listening tape script designing.” We all English teachers worked together under the department of ELT. We conducted several workshops regarding ELT issues, and picked out some new trends in listening skills. This led us to design “Tape script” ourselves. For this, we followed the following procedures and conducted task.

I.        Organizing workshop

II.        Interaction/ Discussion among EL teacher

III.        Identification of ELT issues

IV.        Making hypothesis

V.        Finding out the solution.

While designing the tape script, all English language teachers had participated. They prepared the tape scripts for each class ranging from lower to higher levels. They were prepared on the basis of their curriculum, textbooks and their needs. After the rehearsal was conducted, it was recorded on tape. When this original (self prepared) cassette was played in the concerned class, the students were fully motivated and they could understand most of the utterances naturally. Later, they were examined on the paper.

This process mentioned above was the most memorable for me. It gave a good opportunity to develop cassettes and we distributed some of the cassettes to other school teachers who also used the cassettes. Not only this, we provided some roles to our students whose voices were clear and tuned with correct pronunciation. This had encouraged them as well to design the tape scripts. Small children were also encouraged to records rhymes in chorus. When the recorded tape was played and provided them feedback as well. All these activities added enthusiasm among all English language teachers. We were highly benefited to develop listening competency among students.

Pedagogical Implications

 Several government-aided-schools, private boarding schools and even institutional schools are lacking such activities, which can be followed by English teachers and personnel.

Recently I have collected the needs from teachers working in government schools regarding teaching English in Rautahat district of Nepal. The arguments of the teachers show the changing trends in ELT regarding the use of listening clips. What I found is that they do not like to hire the cassettes produced by the native speakers but they like to get the cassettes produced by Nepalese English teachers or they would like to produce the hire cassettes in collaboration with competent speakers. It is because the teachers could not understand the utterance spoken in the script. For the beginners, self prepared cassettes are very essential. Some hired cassettes can only be played until they have mastered over the listening competence. This is why, designing and preparing cassettes by the teachers themselves for teaching listening is a must.

 Recommendations

There are some recommendations to be taken into mind before producing listening cassettes for your school and children.

• Teachers should be trained enough to handle such tasks.
• The school administration should support the teachers financially.
• The teachers should be creative, innovative and co-operative while carrying out the task.
• There should be proper use of some supra-segmental features like tempo, stress and tone intonation while recording sounds.
• Some recorded clips of sweet music, pause, rings and other catchy sounds, should be recorded along with original tape-script as background sound.
• Correct pronunciation of the words and the sentences with specific stylistic features should be maintained.
• For participants, male and female teachers, children and other concerned fellows can collaborate to complete the task effectively.

This can help English language teachers addressing present pedagogical issues regarding the listening competency in ELT and it can be scaled up and replicated in different school in Nepal.

BBA, Pokhara College of technology (LaGrandee College)

Simalchaur, Pokhara

In this entry, as a business student learning English for global communication, I am writing about what I expect from a ‘good’ English teacher. A good teacher is the one who actually aims to make students understand his/her teaching. I expect good English teacher should be built with different characteristics- i)Proficiency in English ii)Good organization iii)Effective body language iv)Patience v) Knowledge vi) A good sense of humour vii) Good attitude ix) Adaptable to the environment x)Vocabulary knowledge

It’s a genuine fact that an English teacher should have knowledge of English so s/he can teach students with fluency and in right manner. The teacher should also have a good preparation and organization of the materials s/he is presenting in the very time. The detail knowledge on subject matter is very crucial. The vocabulary power assists the teacher to be strong in their lecture or class. The continuous speed up or steady teaching cannot be effective, hence sense of humour play a role for this purpose of holding the class within the control of teacher. Perception of an individual differs according to the attitude of a person. Good attitude can be also an important factor for determining the perfection of teachers. Good attitude leads to positive response from the listeners. The environment is a dynamic factor; therefore teacher should be able to cope within given educational environment whether it suits his/her personality or not. They must  pave a way to develop congenial environment where they are teaching.

In fact, the expectations I put on were fulfilled when I was at graduation level. On remembering my English teacher, today also I felt so warm about her and her teaching. Writing about her teaching is like describing the natural beauty that adds value to the environment. Really I am privileged by this chance on putting words about the personality whom I admire. The smiling face, so poised and elegant nature adds her personality. Her speaking was pellucid; her soft and sweet voice, attracting the attention of whole class; the class which used to be noisy in other’s lecture. Her presence makes the class dear and lovely. Her vocabulary was fabulous and power to make whole class understood is admirable. She had full knowledge on subject matter she was talking on. She was conscious about her words and used to alert timely so students’ attention can be gained. Her encouragement on better writing and good speaking made us careful on our doing. She used to delineate on how to impress the reader by the simple and meaningful writing. I still remember the fact she said – use of difficult or unfamiliar words do not add to clarity and impressiveness of writing; rather writing should be clear, precise and trustworthy to draw the attention of the reader. Her role was remarkable in my life time. She encouraged me in learning English to the extent I need. She used to dictate each and every ideas and information on the topic. She never felt bored and irritated by my questions. In return, her answers used to be reasonable to the questions asked. Today whatever I am able to write freely is the result of her teaching and her inspiration.

As an English teacher it is false to view that a teacher should memorize the whole dictionary or the whole concepts on English but he/she should be an expert in the subject matter, in classroom management and in teaching techniques.

In an attempt to provide you glimpse of the great things ELT that take place across the country, we invited brief reflective reports from our colleagues in NELTA branches. This time we have quick snapshots. Ideally, we want reports in the form of “blog” entries so that readers find them quick and interesting to read. We ask that our contributors take some time to learn and write blog entries as reflective pieces, whatever the content and subject may be. So, if you would like to share about professional development activities in your branch with the community via Choutari, please look at the guidelines for writing more substantive and reflective pieces on this page. And please see this example.

Editors

 TANAHUN, KASKI AND MAKWANPUR

Training: ‘Teaching Poems and Creative Writing’ organized by NELTA

Facilitated by Motikala Subba Dewan, Sarita Dewan, and Mr. Batuk Lal Tamang, this training involved the participants in writing their own brief creative work on the spot and then discussing how to teach creative work in the ELT classroom. More than 50 teachers participated in the event.

KASKI BRANCH

Training: Basic Level Teacher Training

Organized by PABSON Lamjung and Athrai Publication, this training was facilitated by Khim Lal Adhikari. The theme of the training was Child-friendly Pedagogy, Child-centred method and How to teach English. Fifty five English teachers from different schools participated in the training.

 Teachers Training on Teaching English Website

With the assistance of the British Council, Kaski branch organized a two day Teachers’ training focused on the Teaching English Website 8^th & 9^th Sep., 2011. Altogether 60 life members of NELTA, Pokhara from different campus, school and academic institution took part in the training. The training mainly focuses how to get the teaching materials from website on line so that the teaching learning activities will be more effective. Smreety Dewan and Asim Kharel from British Council facilitated the training.

Support in PABSON Spelling Contest

PABSON Kaski organized an English Spelling contest for Lower secondary Level from 10 to 12 August, 2011 in Pokhara. The programme was coordinated by Karna Gurung and assisted by other members. 198 students from 66 different PABSON schools participated in the contest.

Need-based Teacher Training by D.E.O.

NELTA, Pokhara worked together with the District Education Office, Kaski to prepare the Teacher Professional Development (TPD)  training manual as well as the training packages for all the levels beginning, intermediate and secondary levels. Min B. Gurung, NELTA chair and Khim Lal Adhikari including other ELT teachers and school supervisors prepared the training manual at the end of the academic session 2067.

MAKWANPUR BRANCH

Training: English Language Teaching: Breaking its Boundaries

This one-day conference was attended by about 200 members. It was facilitated by scholars like Kamal Poudel, Sajan Karn, and Ekadeve Adhihari.

NELTA Makwanpur Committee 2011-2013: (From left: Mr. Surya Pd. Ghimire, Mr. Ganesh Pd. Humagain, Mr. Kishor Parajuli, Mr. Shyam Pd. Dahal, Ms. Srijana Paudel, Mr. Dadhiram Chapagain, Mr. Thakur Ram Bhandari, Mr. Sangam Chaulagain, Mr. Rajeshwar Thakur, Mr. Mohan Waiwa and Ms. Reena Acharya)

Three Day Training on ELT

A three-day training on ELT for primary level English teachers was conducted by Makwanpur and was attended by 35 teachers from PABSON affiliated schools. This training was facilitated by scholars like Kashiraj Pandey from NELTA Center.

Editorial

NELTA has genuinely taken this issue and has adopted some strategies to address it. Part of the strategies, a number of the Journal of NELTA has been uploaded in its website in a pdf format so that many of our fellow teachers can have access to the journals free of cost. Moreover, NELTA recommends the Regional English Language Office (RELO) based in the US Embassy, Kathmandu for online teacher training courses for our members. Some of the NELTA members have already been benefited from these courses sponsored by the US State Department and conducted by the US universities. To take a few examples, some of our members from Surkhet, Dang, Gorkha, Birganj and Kathmandu have already completed the online courses, and some are doing it. Several NELTA members also got chance to participate in the series of webinars presented by the US professors and the ELT experts who have given considerable insight to our friends’ vocation.

In order to promote English language proficiency of the professionals in teaching and beyond, NELTA in collaboration with the US Embassy and Radio Sagarmatha aired English by Radio for one and half-year. The materials were developed by the NELTA experts. With the consent of NELTA, the US Embassy has arranged to air 54 episodes of the programs through ten FM stations in Nepal.

Considering the importance of Nelta Choutari, we have been disseminating some sample works in Choutari, among our fellow members on different occasions. One of the most important occasions to give its visibility is the international conference of NELTA, in which our colleagues give a plenary about Choutari to more than 700 participants. The conference will take place in Kathmandu on 18-20 February and in Chitawan on 22-23 February 2012. I would like to invite the ELT professionals to participate in the conference.

Choutari team–and other volunteer teams working for promoting professional development of NELTA members–have used approaches, platforms, and talents of its members in pursuing NELTA’s visions and missions towards supporting professional development needs of NELTA members. Please tell us a few specific ways in which you might have thought NELTA can collaborate with or support such volunteer initiatives. 

First of all, I would like to take an opportunity to salute the Choutari team and volunteers for helping promote professional development of NELTA members through the regular publication of Nelta Choutari. Special thanks are due to Shyam Sharma, Bal Krishna Sharma, Kamal Poudel, Prem Phyak, Sajan Karn and Hem Raj Kafle.

NLETA highly regards the value of Choutari. However, just valuing it is not enough for promoting its visibility in the professional arena. The agenda has already entered in central committee meetings to print selected materials from Choutari and disseminate them among NELTA branches. NELTA has 33 branches across the country covering almost 50 districts. Given the need to reach widely, we are looking for resources for Choutari’s resources for teachers across the country.

Some other ways to support Choutari and similar initiatives would be to include their resources in the NELTA newsletter, journal, international conference booklet, flyers, website, etc., which is possible in terms of cost and efforts. I will certainly consider this as an agenda in the forthcoming meeting of NELTA, and I am sure my team will implement it immediately.

Choutari is a forward-looking professional development initiative in the sense that it seeks to build the platform before it even seems possible for many NELTA members to participate. What are some of NELTA’s official programs that similarly look into the future where you may want us to join hands with such initiatives? 

NELTA has been exploring the opportunities for how it could be instrumental in developing the English language teaching situation in Nepal. NELTA, with the support of the RELO office has planned to donate the ELT books to all 33 branches of NELTA and 82 public schools. RELO office has kindly agreed to allocate 40,000 US dollars to buy the books and administer the donation programme. NELTA already received fifty per cent of the books and distributed them to 38 schools, many branches of NELTA, Tribhuwan University, Faculty of Education, Kathmandu University School of Education, Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tahachal and Gorkha Campus. Rest of the books will arrive in March, and then distribution will take place in rest of the branches and the school, including some education campuses in the country. These books will certainly be useful for the teachers and teacher educators to bridge the gap between the theories and practices so that they could share their views to others.

NELTA  has started brainstorming for English by Radio program with a focus on the teachers. Moreover, discussions are underway to collaborate with the British Council for providing the NELTA members the access to the British Council global products.

We are also exploring the possibilities for how the Choutari can be linked with the websites of the British Council, RELO, IATEFL and TESOL so that more and more people can have better access to the resources. British Council has abundance of global products – many of them come online. TESOL has enormous online materials which could be shared with NELTA members via uplink. TEFL International is another key institution working for internationally accredited training such as TESOL Certificate and TESOL Diploma. The entire modules of TESOL Diploma are provided online. Collaboration between NELTA and TEFL International could be insightful to look into the opportunity for sharing the training materials.

Which Choutari article that you have read in the past three years did you like most and why?

There is no single article, I could refer to that I am impressed by. However, I would like to mention the one by Mr. Kent Grosh entitled ‘So Many Textbooks, So Little Time‘.  Mr. Grosh begins with the practical notion of teaching mathematics linking the ideas of teaching English as a second language. In the context of Nepal, the teachers are obliged to rely on the textbooks to the great extent whereas majority of the textbooks are far too difficult compared to the learners’ schema. Consequently, both the teachers and the students waste a lot of time rather than being self-aware of critical thinking. Therefore, there is an urgent need of revisiting what we do and what we are required to do.

Please suggest any areas of professional conversation that Choutari is yet to pay attention to. 

I would suggest publishing more practical teaching and learning tips in each issue of the Choutari.

Finally, do you have any message for Choutari readers? 

First of all, the more the readers could disseminate the work of Choutari, the more English teaching professionals get access to the forum. I would like to urge the readers to provide comments and feedback regarding the materials published in Choutari and also submit articles, teaching and learning tips and life experiences related to teaching and learning of English.

We all know that Nepal is an extremely multilingual society. But what is the status of multilingualism in educational context of Nepal? In this essay, I describe multilingualism and the spread of English in Nepal. I also discuss multilingualism as a means for creating social harmony as well as enhancing teaching and learning in general. I conclude by highlighting the role of teachers in promoting multilingualism.

Most of the Nepalese people are multilinguals, and many people don’t even have a clear order of first and second languages. For example, my home language is Maithili but, interestingly enough, I cannot speak it very well. Instead, I have learned Newari in addition to the mainstream language Nepali. This means that we are such a multilingual society that some of us even get confused as to which language is our “home” or “heritage” language.  In fact, most of the world’s population speaks more than one language but most of the population in western cultures is monolingual in one of the “major” languages in spite of being exposed to other languages mainly in the school context. So, multilingualism is the norm rather than exception of human societies, except that educational and political institutions try to create artificial situations where one or a few languages are given systematic privilege without realizing that suppressing language diversity is counterproductive as well as insensitive.

“There are almost no territories [in the world] in which only one languages is used by the citizenry” (Cenoz & Genesee 1998). In South Africa eleven languages are given a constitutional recognition as official ones; in India, this number is twenty-two! When people are left to their own linguistic devices, especially in the urban environments which are increasingly the norm of life in this country, their speech behavior is characterized by fluidity, interconnection, multi component code switching and easy transcendence of notional linguistic boundaries. This is true particularly of informal domains.

Also, if we look at the issue of multilingualism in societies like Nepal, South Africa, and India, we will see that there is no single and simple definition of multilingualism. Multilingualism can be rigidly defined as being native-like in two or more languages, but it can also be loosely defined as being less than native-like but still able to communicate in two or more languages. Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). First languages (sometimes also referred to as mother tongue) are acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two first languages since birth are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals one language usually dominates over the other. This kind of bilingualism is most likely to occur when a child is raised by bilingual parents in a predominantly monolingual environment. It can also occur when the parents are monolingual but have raised their child or children in two different countries.

Many people believe that Nepali language has always been the majority language of Nepal; in reality, Nepali was called Khaskura spoken by a group of people that was probably no larger than other groups like Magar, Tamang, Sherpa, or Limbu today. Nepali (Khaskura) evolved from the language spoken by a group that became politically powerful in the last two centuries, and in fact it also spread far and wide into Bhutan, India and Myanmar. Nepali language is also the official language of the state of Sikkim in India. At present, almost half of the total population of Nepal speaks Nepali; the other half of the population speaks almost a hundred different languages. If you think about it, Nepal is not only home to more language families than all of Europe combined, but also has more distinct and individual languages in one country than the whole of the European community (Yadava, 2003). However, there is the lack of study and discussion of endangered minority languages and the possible reasons of their status of being endangered for the integrated development of the country. Negligence of Government on Language policy towards poor, rural ethno-linguistic communities, and overemphasis on one language policy considering Nepali as the official language and as the medium of creating national identity and homogenization also can be pointed out major influential reasons for disregarding minority ethnic and indigenous languages. The state policy of the government takes endangerment and extinction of minority language as the matter of mere ‘language shift’ whereas the members from the ethnic and indigenous community might take it seriously as the matter of as Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) states as ‘linguistic genocide’. Some linguists diplomatically point towards political and ideological perspective in regard to the matter of endangerment, extinction of minority languages.

The newest and most important dynamics in Nepali multilingualism is the entry of English as a medium of education and a language of business, diplomacy, and cross-cultural communication. On the one hand, everyone knows the benefits of multilingualism: they would like to teach their children not only English but also other languages. But on the other hand, it is difficult for the next generation to develop the same level of language proficiency for academic and professional communication, for higher learning and sharing of complex ideas if they only use their local languages for basic communication and use English only for educational, professional, and intellectual purposes.

Educators understand that multilingualism helps to facilitate access to curriculum and to learning in school. It also improves communication between different linguistic groups. Multilingualism provides children with ability to share in a wide range of intercultural experiences such as literature, entertainment, religion, and other interests. Children can become fluent in more than one language and for many people throughout the world multilingualism is very common. The level of fluency depends on factors such as the language programme children follow in school and the extent of parental support. The ability to speak the mother tongue as well as the national language and an international language creates a much wider range of life choices for individuals but can also achieve national unity. There is no scientific evidence that learning more than one language is intellectually damaging. Children who have a good understanding of how different languages function are more likely to have good analytical skills and are often more effective communicators.  Therefore, there is no doubt that multilingualism is a positive social and personal resource.

As teachers of language and literacy, we also know that there is no evidence to show that multilingual societies are more disadvantages than monolingual countries. Social disadvantage is caused by factors other than language. It is important educationally that children learn in their mother tongues in the early years of schooling. Our Government also make policy regarding this.

However, the forces of globalization, prevailing myths about the power of English (as if it is a magical potion that will create jobs and opportunities and intellectual progress on its own) make it very difficult for societies to develop educational systems based on their understanding of multilingualism. Due to the globalization of English, parents and teachers are attracted towards giving education to the students in English medium right from the very beginning. They wrongly believe that students will be able to better succeed in the competitive world if they have English proficiency. In reality, it is knowledge and skills that students most need. A lot of research regarding multilingualism shows that supporting children’s first language will enhance the acquisition of the second and third language. Similarly, there is a link between multilingualism and creativity. Multilingualism broadens access to information and offers alternative ways of organizing thoughts. But unfortunately, these realities get lost in the maze of myths about the magic of English.

Just consider the work of a businessperson; most business people need to travel around the world, communicate with people who speak different languages. It is very clear that if your students can speak multiple languages they will be much better business people who can not only sell better but will also create and maintain goodwill with a lot more people in the future. Or consider your students who may become diplomats, administrators and managers of multinational corporations or the United Nations, writers and journalists. There is no profession that I can think of where our students will not do better if they are multilingual. But remember, it will not be enough for them to “know” how to conduct basic communication in all the other languages except English. Only if we allow, encourage, and facilitate the use of multiple languages at higher levels of education can our students be efficient multilinguals in their future careers.

Many educators wrongly believe that promoting multilingualism is costly, impractical, or difficult. The reality is that such assumptions are simply wrong. Promoting multilingualism need not cost anything: you can just encourage your students to use and develop different languages by asking them to express their ideas in different languages in the classroom (maybe as long as everyone understands). Similarly, there is nothing impractical about equally respecting and promoting different languages that your students speak; instead, the opposite should be seen as unprofessional, unethical, and shameful for educated people and educators. Finally, multilingualism is becoming a profitable business in many areas. Think about a student who is able to translate documents. Realizing the importance of multilingualism, nowadays many software companies are developing multilingual interfaces, multilingual applications for translation, multilingual communicative mechanisms, etc.

Yet another problem with educators is that they believe that they are not qualified to teach or promote multilingualism. While it may be true that you are not “qualified” to teach different languages, there is no reason why you should not promote and encourage multiple languages among your students. And, there is absolutely no reason why you should suppress students’ languages. Just think about it: you have no right to do that in the first place.

Yes, politicians try to divide the society along linguistic lines. But as educators we can help our students speak the languages of different ethnic groups and thereby help them become cross-cultural citizens and promoters of cultural harmony. For this we need to realize that we are very rich in culture and its aspects, we need to utilize our culture to create peace and harmony among the people of Nepal not for fighting with each other in the name of culture and language.

As teachers of language in a rich multilingual country, it is our duty to facilitate multicultural education among our students. Trust me, if we do so we will not betray our students’ need to learn more English. If our students continue to learn new ideas, if they grow up as citizens of the world who understand and respect different cultures and their languages, in the long run, their English will be better.  We need to prepare students for the real world and the real world is multicultural and multilingual. At the very least, we need to draw on students’ linguistic and cultural experiences and knowledge, allow them to utilize those resources, and never try to suppress them—whether intentionally or not. Teacher in multicultural classrooms should be open to their students and put forth the effort needed to know their students inside or outside the classroom. Evaluating cultural diversity, teachers should build multicultural programs, show appreciation of differences, avoid stereotypes, acknowledge differences in children and discover the diversity within the classroom. If we think about it, respect and promotion of multilingualism could be the basis for a new kind of thinking among the future leaders and citizens of this country—different from the monolingual presumptions that lie at the heart of violence, protest, strike, kidnap, rape, robbery and mass brutality in our time.

References

Crystal, D. (2003). Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Blackwell publishing.

The Interim Constitution of Nepal. (2007). Part 3, Article 17)

Phayak, P. (2009). MA in Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Institute of Education, University of London.

Yadav ,Y.P. (2007). Linguistic Diversity in Nepal Perspective on language policy, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Kansakar, T. R.  (1996). Multilingualism. Nepal, Kathmandu.

Subedi, D.P (2010).  Multi cultural classroom issues in the Nepalese context, Journal of Education and Research Nepal, Kathmandu.

Koirala B.N. (2010). Opportunities for multi lingual Education in Nepal,  Journal of Education and Research, Nepal, Kathmandu.

Inauguration Ceremony

The inauguration ceremony started with the singing of national anthem by students from International Bal Academy and lighting of 5 candles (representing each letter of N-E-L-T-A) by various dignitaries. Distinguished guest and facilitator Mr. Karn presented the “organizational profile” of NELTA with its history, mission, vision and goals, NELTA branches across the country, its various programmes and activities organized at branch levels and central level, collaboration and partnership with different national and international agencies. He also shared the branch-by-laws and requested all the participants of the programme to get associated with NELTA for the professional development.

The ad-hoc committee of NELTA Rautahat, which was chosen unanimously, was then announced (please see list below).

The inauguration programme concluded with best wishes from the Guest of Honour Yogendra Prasad Yadav.  NELTA Rautahat constitutes 31 members of NELTA including 20 life members, 7 annual members and 4 life members who are already members at NELTA Birgunj from Rautahat.

Training Programme

With the aim of encouraging ELT aspirants to change, the training programme on “Emerging Trends in ELT” was organized following inauguration ceremony. Mr. Karn facilitated the training that was participated by 50 participants including English language teachers and students, campus principals and section officer of DEO Rautahat. He discussed paradigm shifts and the cause behind the emerging trends in ELT Today, thereby motivating the participants to adopt and adapt different changes taking place in ELT.

Some of those trends include learner autonomy, globalization and ELT, methodology and pedagogy, English versus Nenglish, digital ELT, and updating ELT practice. Mr. Karn urged the participants to grow more digitally in order to survive and succeed in the networked academic world.
Affiliate to a professional associationHe further made an appeal to update themselves convincing them stating that academic qualifications once acquired are not enough forever. He concluded the training suggesting the following different ways of updating oneself professionally:

• Read journal
• Write articles
• Carry out action research
• Participate in trainings, conference, literary talks, lectures, workshops, seminars and panel discussions
• Share ideas and problems with colleagues
• Utilize web resources

Mr. Karn invited the participants to join the upcoming 17^th International Conference and National Conference of NELTA to be held in February, 18-20, 2012 (3 Days) in Kathmandu and 22-23 February, 2012 (2 Days) in Chitwan respectively. He also requested them to visit   www.neltachutari.wordpress.com  www.nelta.org.np and www.neltabranches.pbwork.com. Finally, the participants shared their experiences and reflections, before they were given certificates of attendance. To conclude the day’s programme, Mr. Anil Kumar Nidhi, chair of NELTA Rautahat extended his gratitude to NELTA Central Office, all the participants and those who contributed in the formation of NELTA Branch in Rautahat district. The programme was conducted by Praveen Kumar Yadav, member of NELTA Birgunj.

Newly formed executive committee:

Members: Mr. Anil Kumar Nidhi as chair, Mr. Mukesh Prasad Patel as vice-chair, Mr. Sachindra Yadav and Mr. Upendra Raj Kafle as secretary and vice-secretary, Mrs. Anita Shrivastava as treasurer and executive members Mr. Dipendra Thakur, Mr. Jamun Yadav, Mr. Dharmendra Kumar Singh, Mr. Ram Kripal Yadav, Mr. Rakesh Sharma and Mr. Devendra Sah.

Advisors: Mr. Chandeshwor Raut, Mr. Asha Ram Sah, Mr. Ramanand Yadav, Mr. Chandrika Das and Mr. Devendra Yadav.

Are you teaching a writing course in a college of university in Nepal? If you are teaching in a school, is writing an important component of your language curriculum? Do you help your students write multiple drafts of a text or do you just ask them to submit final versions? Do you only provide a final score on students’ writing or do you provide feedback during different phases of their writing? Do you pay attention to the type of writing genre you are preparing your students for (e.g. emails, letters, websites, creative writing pieces like poems or essays, newspaper editorials, etc) or do you just focus on grammar, vocabulary and spelling? While the curricular mandates, time constraints, and availability of resources will largely determine what you can and cannot do, as teachers we also have a certain level of control over how we want to teach our students how to write and to facilitate their growth as writers.

Here is my proposal for teaching writing in our context—the process genre approach. In my experience, English teachers in the Nepalese context face unique challenges in teaching writing: while teacher education courses expose pre-service teachers with theories and ideas of teaching writing developed in the West, our teachings are mostly motivared by exam-driven product-based writing assignments that encourage students to reproduce what they learned in the classroom. Despite such tensions, “efficient teachers” can implement their “hidden” curricula where they can adopt an eclectic approach to teach writing and prepare students for the global world making them able to write a range of tasks, instead of just memorization and reproduction in exams.  In order to build expertise in such a pedagogic skill, teachers need to be familiar with a range of teaching pedagogy options available to them. Here I try to present a model of an approach called the process genre approach that blends two approaches – the process approach and the genre approach. This approach takes account of different steps, for instance, preparation, modeling, planning, joint constructing, independent constructing, and revising and editing. However, before that I present some major shortcomings of product approach to writing which is dominant in the Nepalese context at present.

The product approach

In the product approach, according to Brown (1994), teachers focus on what a final piece of writing will look like and measure it against the criteria of vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation, as well as the content and organization. The normal procedure is to assign a piece of writing, collect it, and then return it for further revision with the errors either corrected or marked for the student to do the corrections. This approach has received much criticism because it ignores the actual processes used by students, or any writers, to produce a piece of writing. Yan (2005) claims that it focuses on imitation and churning out a perfect product, even though very few people can create a perfect product on the first draft. Another criticism is that this approach requires constant error correction, and that affects students’ motivation and self-esteem. The product approach does not effectively prepare students for the real world or teach them to be the best writers. I encourage the English teachers in Nepal to critically reflect on their approaches to teaching writing and think about making necessary changes.

The process approach

The process writing originated in the first language (L1) classroom, where it was developed in reaction to traditional types of teaching writing. This approach, for Caudery (1997), assumes that writing normally takes place through the making of series of multiple drafts of text. The process approach identifies four stages in writing- prewriting, drafting/composing, revising, and editing. These stages are recursive, taking place many times over in the course of composing. This approach emphasizes revision, and also feedback from others, so students may produce many drafts with much crossing out of sentences and moving around paragraphs. The correction of spelling and punctuation is not of central importance at the early stages. Caudery (1997) points out that the process approach is in many instances potentially extremely motivating and, to teachers and students alike. Most often it involves students in new and stimulating learning experiences. Peer feedback, for instance, is which students show each other their writing and obtain comments on it.

The genre approach

The genre approach to the teaching of writing developed as an approach inAustraliain the 1970s which is now gaining recognition throughout the world. By investigating different genres such as essays, editorials, and business letters students can perceive the differences in structure and form and apply what they learn to their own writing. Following Cope and Kalantzis (1993), the genre approach to writing consists of three phases: (1) the target genre is modeled for the students; (2) a text is jointly constructed by the teacher and students; and (3) a text is independently constructed by each student. Badger and White (2000) support that the approach acknowledges that writing takes place in a social situation and reflects a particular purpose and that learning can happen consciously through imitation and analysis, which facilitates explicit instruction. This approach seems more capable in showing students how different discourses require different structures. In addition, introducing authentic texts enhances students’ involvement and brings relevance to the writing process.

The process-genre approach

Today many ESL researchers have recognized that the teachers should not rigidly adopt just one approach all the time in the writing classroom. I also encourage English teachers in the Nepalese context to reconsider their own current practices and welcome insights from this model of teaching writing. Combining of approaches results in a new way of thinking about writing. One example is synthesis of the process and genre approaches, which Badger and White (2000) have termed the process genre approach. This approach allows students to study the relationship between purpose and form for a particular genre as they use the recursive processes of prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing. Using these steps develops students’ awareness of different text types and of the composing process. The different activities included in this approach ensure that grammatical and vocabulary items are taught not in isolation, but in meaningful, interactive situations and derived from the particular genre.

According to Badger and White (2000), the teaching procedure for the process genre approach is divided into the following six steps: (1) preparation, (2) modeling, (3) planning, (4) joint constructing, (5) independent constructing, and (6) revising. Figure 2 illustrates how these six steps interact in a recursive way with themselves and with other writing skills.

A short description of what occurs during the six steps will also illustrate how elements of the process and genre approaches work in unity.

Preparation

The teacher begins preparing the students to write by defining a situation that will require a written text and placing it within a specific genre, such as a persuasive essay arguing for or against an issue of current interest. This activates the schemata and allows students to anticipate the structural features of the genre.

Modeling

During this step the teacher introduces a model of the genre and lets students consider the purpose of the text. For example, the purpose of an argumentative essay is to persuade the reader to act on something. Next, the teacher discusses how the text is structured and how its organization develops to accomplish its purpose.

Planning

This step includes many meaningful activities that activate the students’ schemata about the topic, including brainstorming, discussing, and reading associated material. The aim is to help the students develop an interest in the topic by relating it to their experience. Since they have to participate and contribute in the classroom, learners will find the activities interesting and entertaining.

Joint constructing

In this step, the teacher and students work together as a beginning of writing a text. While doing so, the teacher uses the writing processes of brainstorming, drafting, and revising. The students contribute information and ideas, and the teacher writes the generated text on the black/white board. The final draft provides a model for students to refer to when they work on their individual compositions. It fosters collaborative writing. This step can be boosted by providing a very caring and sharing environment by the teacher. This step will provide students with a chance to write in a group and to prepare them for individual work.

Independent constructing

By this time students will have examined model texts and have jointly constructed a text in the genre. They now undertake the task of composing their own texts on a related topic. Class time can be set aside for students to compose independently so that the teacher is available to help, clarify, or consult about the process. The writing task can also be continued as a homework assignment. The teacher has to clarify what students should do for writing homework.

Revising and editing

Students lastly will have a draft that will undergo final revision and editing. This does not necessarily mean that teachers have to collect all the papers and mark them one by one. Students may check, discuss, and evaluate their work with fellow students, as the teacher again guides and facilitates. The teacher may make an effort to publish the students’ work, which will impart a sense of achievement and motivate the students to become better writers. Their final achievement will foster self-esteem among learners as they have produced something.

Final Thoughts

Things are easier said than done. Learning to write in a foreign language is a demanding task that can easily leave learners unmotivated. It can be more discouraging when students are evaluated on the basis of their writing products only, as we now observe in the Nepalese context. To combat this problem, teachers have to play more agentive role in order to empower the learners with their ability to perform real world writing tasks. We are not preparing our students just for exams, but for the global world that may require an unpredictable set of writing skills. We language teachers are the change agents even if our curricula are constrained. Use of the process-genre approach to writing allows teachers to help students recognize the steps they go through to create a written text which should lead to less stressful and motivated writing. The fact that learners are encouraged to discuss, asses, and analyze their own writing made them feel more confident and less threatened. Theoretical ideas can be confusing and conflicting at times; it is the teacher who is responsible for translating abstract ideas into a classroom practice. Further the practice to produce optimal learning benefits, teachers should constantly and systematically record, contemplate, and analyze what they have done in the classroom, and use their reflective experience as a basis for improving their instructional practice.

Works Cited

Badger, R. G. & G. White. 2000. A process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal 54(2): 153-60.

Brown, H.D. 1994. Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy.Eaglewood Cliffs,NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.

Cope, B. & M. Kalantzis. (eds). 1993. The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing.Pittsburgh,PA:University ofPittsburg Press.

Coudery, T. 1997. Process writing. In Glenn, F. (ed). Writing in the English Language Classroom. Hertfordshire: Prentice HallEurope ELT.