ELE in Schools and University Colleges

Narad Rijal, School of Education, Kathmandu University

Presentation Outline• English language Education In Nepal

• ELE at schools levels• ELE At Universities• Conclusion

To Begin

• Nepal never had an English colonial history

• Not recognised English as an official language in its constitutions until now

• Yet, the English language has already become a principle component of the Nepali education system

• globalisation and neo-liberalism

English Language Education in Nepal

• 1951 ( End of Rana regime in 1950)

• Earlier English education was limited to Royal family

• Restoration of social equality in nation, Tri Chandra started teaching English course

• Supervision of Patana University in early fifties

Contd.• Tribhuvan University ( 1959)- high priority to its curriculum in English

• The national Education System Plan( NESP 1971-76): change in curriculum, textbook and examination from Primary to University

• Reduced the weight age from 200 marks to 100

• Credit hours from 15 hours to 10

(Malla, 1977)

Contd.• English no more a compulsory school subject

• A provision to opt for any of the United nations languages such as Chinese, French etc

• Switch over from English to Nepali even though majority of educators and students were in favour of continuing English in Secondary level

(Awasthi, 1979)

Contd.• 1981: TU revised the syllabi and allotted weight age of 200 marks instead of 100

Malla, 1977)• In three decades: Tremendous change in terms of structure of Education, Pedagogies and institutions of higher learning

ELE at School Levels• The Curriculum: School level curriculum by CDC– Responsible for training, implementing, evaluating, and reviewing the curriculums

– Revision of literature oriented English curriculum in 1981

– Present curriculum has focussed on Oral-structural-situation approach

– Effective English in real life situations

The textbooks• CDC prepares textbooks for all public schools

• Private schools use textbooks approved by CDC

• Problem with textbooks in early 70s: heavy emphasis on English reading texts specially written to illustrate specific grammatical points

(Davies et. al., 1985)*Textbooks are changed but appropriate on the basis of diverse learners of Nepal

Teaching Learning Method and Situation

• Still majority of teachers in high schools follow GT method(Shrestha, 2008)

• Large and teacher centred classrooms, problem with group work

• Irregularity of teachers in the schools and universities

• Nepali languages spoken in English classes

• Rote memorization of the question answers

• ELT in schools is in a despicable condition: poor physical facilities, improper teaching method and materials

Teachers and teacher training

• In service trainings for English teachers are a must

• effective use of training programs

• Monitoring of the programs• Private Schools : Able teacher selection

• Political influences• Basic and Primary Education project ( BPEP) and Secondary Education Development Project ( SEDP) offer in service trainings

Evaluation• Success of school education is assessed on the basis of Pass % of SLC examination

• Still many students fail in English

• The four skills are not assessed properly

• In the village areas the tape recordings of the listening exercises do not reach there yet

• Mostly we rely on pen and paper based exams

Teaching English at Higher Education in

Nepal• The CurriculumCDC of Tribhuwan University

prepares implements and evaluates the ELT curriculum for all faculties

Objective of English at Bachelors Level: to enable the students’ to posses a fairly advanced command of English so that they can use the language for higher education, communication and in a variety of jobs ouside the academia with accuracy, efficiency, and fluency

(Course of Study, BA First Year, TU)

The textbooks• Selected, printed and imported from international publications

• Very few compiled in Nepal• Cover a wide range of literary genres: essays, stories, plays, poetry and novels

• Course is designed to teach language through literature but not effective in all levels due to lack of appropriate methods, the goals, materials for the lesson

Teaching Learning method and situation

• The curricula at higher education; graduate do not mention specific teaching methods and learning activities

• Facilitators in most cases translate the texts in Nepali

• Teacher centred classrooms• Students are asked to do the things by themselves

• Students in many public colleges didn't form a class but a crowd of uninteresed youngesters

(Khaniya, 2007, Fleck, 1997, Shrestha, 2008)

Contd.• Large classrooms• In both rural and urban settings public higher learning institutions do not have modern form of teaching materials/aids like computer, OHP

• Learning has just been the earning of a degree and social status rather than achieving skills and applications of English

( Fleck, 1999)

Teachers and Teachers Training

• A masters degree qualification is considered a passport

• No pre service or entry level training for university teachers

• Very rare in service trainings

Evaluation• Annual written examination in the tertiary level

• But recently in some campuses semester system is introduced

• The success rate is below satisfactory level in public institutions

• Students are unable to express their knowledge in exact words and sentence structures in the exams (Matthies, 1988)

Contd.• But the private universities are doing slightly doing better

• The enrolment rate of students is very less

Conclusion• Problems in ELE have been noticed in policy matters, classroom environment

• Advanced program packages with student centred teaching methods

• Materials, trainings and structural design are recommended to improve existing trend of teaching and learning English in Nepal

References• Awasthi, J. (1979). ELT in Nepal: A sociolinguistic survey. India: Central Institute of Indian Languages

• Fleck, C. (1999). Understanding cheating in Nepal. Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education, 2 (1), Para 26-28. Retrieved from

http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/2000spring/fleck.html?

• Khaniya, T. R. (2007). New horizon in education in Nepal. Kathmandu: Mandala Book Publication.

• Malla, K.P. (1977). English in Nepalese Education. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar.

• Shrestha, R. (1983). English as a second language/English as a foreign language distinction: Its pedagogy and the Nepalese context. Contributions to Nepalese Studies, 11(1), 45- 59.