Some ways of Overcoming the Challenges in Teaching English at School Level in Nepal. (Ram Bahadur Rokaya)

 Some ways of Overcoming the Challenges in Teaching English at School Level in Nepal.

Ram Bahadur Rokaya

Department of English

 The purpose of teaching English

English is an international Language. People all over the world speak English. English Language has been the most effective means of communication. There are several purposes of teaching English at school level. The entire purpose of teaching English to our pupils at School level is to enable them:
a) to exchange their ideas and views with a person who speaks, reads and writes English no matter what nationality he is from and what part of the world he belongs to.
b) to acquire knowledge, ideas, skills and techniques imparted formally or informally through English either in spoken, written or printed form.
c) to impart the four fundamental language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) to the pupils which are the basic requirements of learning English language.
d) to give people the ample exposure to the English language so that they can understand and respond in simple English with acceptable pronunciation and intonation.
e)  to provide them with the opportunities to practice in and outside the classroom so that they can communicate in simple English.
f) to help develop enthusiasm for reading so that they will be responsive and knowledgeable readers.
g) to help them develop their potentialities in writing so that they can be creative writer.
h) to develop a positive attitude towards learning English and build up confidence in using English.
                        Difficulties in teaching English as second language
English is the second or foreign language for the learners in the context of Nepal. The first language is their mother tongue. There are several factors that affect while teaching English as second language. It is obvious that teaching English as a foreign or second language is not easy.
1. The pupils at this level are not so mature to know about what to do with English. They are not aware of the value of English as an international language. They do not know complex structure of English language due to their low age factor.
2. The text books and methods of teaching in English have been changed along with the change of time but the teachers are unknown about it. They are using traditional methods of teaching English that has not become effective and motivating.
3. Language attitude is another factor that causes difficulty in teaching English. The learners who have good language attitude can learn better and faster than those who do not have it.
4. Mother tongue interference is also one of the factors responsible to create difficulty in teaching English as second language. While acquiring first language, the child’s mind is linguistically empty and easy to stamp it with the first language habit but in case of teaching/ learning second language, the child’s mind is already stamped with first language which interferes in learning second language.
5. The age-old grammar translation English language teaching method which is still used now by the English language teachers in most of the schools of our country Nepal which really hinders in teaching English as second language.
          Low achievement of students in English subject in community school
Community schools run by Government aid /fund. Nepal government allocates huge amount of budget for the betterment and quality education of pupils every year. The expected national outcome/ achievement in the ratio of investment is unsatisfactory. The learning outcomes of the pupils, especially in English subject in the community schools is very poor. The teachers teaching English language in community schools have vital role to play to improve it, however other factors are also equally responsible for the improvement in this case. Only active, good spirited, well trained English language teachers can handle this case. The English language teachers who can speak English distinctly, fluently, discriminating correct use of English both in written and spoken forms can solve this problem in support of other physical facilities. The reasons why the achievement of students in English subject is too poor in community schools are as follows:
  1. There are not well-trained English language teachers especially in the community schools of remote areas of Nepal. A large number of English language teachers are untrained and do not have good exposure to English language teaching environment. Their own knowledge of English is very limited and also do not have knowledge both on content and pedagogy.
2. Most English language classrooms in most of the schools of Nepal are not reasonably ventilated. The provision for lighting is quite inadequate. Some classes are very crowded and poorly furnished.
3. English language teaching facilities are extremely limited. There is no audio- visual rooms and materials. Some schools do not have facilities of furniture and chalkboard. There isn’t adequate provision for comfortable sitting arrangement in the classroom.
4. In some of the schools, there is not curriculum available. The teachers do not use the curriculum in the proper way while teaching English language. The focus of Curriculum is on the communicative abilities of pupils and their language skills but the English language teachers use it in their own way.
5. The pupils in almost all community schools are very weak in four fundamental language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). They cannot apply these skills in behavior because they are from different ethnic groups/background.
                OSS as an important approach in teaching English language
The oral presentation and practice of structures in a meaningful situation is the key to OSS approach. It combines the principle of three approaches oral, structural and situational. This approach to language teaching is also known as audio- lingual or oral – aural or oral approach. As we know that this approach is mainly based on three principles of language teaching oral aural, structural and situational. This approach of language is really practical. In this approach, the teacher presents the context/subject matter orally through the use of his/her speech. The learners listen to the teachers, imitate it and repeat after him/ her unless their use of language becomes automatic. It continues until the learners reproduce the structures without the help of teachers that they are to read and write it. Second approach takes sentence structures as the teaching item but not the word. The main focus in this approach is to teach the pattern of sentence. The teacher takes up a sentence, ‘The man is chasing a dog’. And all the students practice it with the structure, ’Det+n/p+aux+v(ing)+det+n/p’. The teacher can teach this sentence by substituting any one of the hundreds or more (lexical) items in place of these all words of the sentence. The third approach takes the situation as the most important factor to teach language without translating the meaning of target language words, phrases and sentences into L1. The teacher creates appropriate situation to clear the meaning of subject matter to the learners. If he/she has to teach, ’I am dancing’, the teacher should dance himself/herself in front of the learners to teach them. Similarly, if the teacher wants to teach,’ the sky is cloudy. It is going to rain very soon’. He/she will have to wait for monsoon season to come. Sometimes the teacher can also teach by the help of drawings. They can give the concept of different rooms by the help of a big picture of house with living room, bed room, dining room. Kitchen room and bathroom. This approach is based on the principle,’ Practice makes a man perfect’. According to this approach, we all language teachers Should present each unit of language bit by bit which is graded and selected methodologically. To teach pupils is to train them to speak grammatically enabling them to use the language without explaining grammar rules and facts about language. This approach follows,’ learning by doing’. This can be done by the active participation of the learners so it is important in English language teaching.
                             Some ways of teaching vocabulary
Vocabulary refers to a set of lexemes including single words, compound words and idioms. Mostly the language teaching programs aim to help students to provide large range of useful vocabularies. In every teaching topic, students face new words. They practice them clarifying the meaning and using them in sentences. The main purpose/ objectives of teaching vocabulary are to make students find out words meaning themselves in different contexts. The students and teachers who have strong vocabulary power, can understand the others’ utterances and express their views easily. Due to lack of vocabulary power, a person cannot express his/ her views perfectly. A person who has a large number of active vocabulary certainly becomes the fluent in speaking and writing activities. We can use these different ways to teach vocabulary at School level.
             a) Self – defining Context.
In this way of teaching vocabulary, the teacher can present the target word/ vocabulary in a sentence and the learners find out the meanings of them in different contexts for examples,’ A patient is  the sick person in hospital’. The learners can easily guess who a patient is by the context given there.
         b)  Demonstration and definition.
According to this way of teaching vocabulary, many words can be taught by demonstration and definition for e.g. ‘Breakfast’ can be taught as,’ I am hungry. I have to take tea and bread in this morning’. Through these two sentences demonstrated by the teacher, the learners can easily understand the meaning of breakfast with the word ,’tea’ and ‘bread’ in the morning. In this way, many words can be taught by definition for e.g ,’To lie means to prevaricate’. etc
      c) Antonymous Term.
Many words can be taught by using antonymous terms for e.g. The word  ‘shallow’ can be taught with other word having opposite meaning of it as ‘The ocean is deep  but the river is shallow’. And other examples (brave-coward, create- destroy, conceal-reveal, above-below) are other examples of it.
 d)   Synonymous Term.
Synonymous terms can also be used to teach words/ vocabulary for. e.g.
The ‘destitute’ man has no money to buy food.
This ‘poor’ man has no money to buy food.
Michael John stayed in Paris before.
His wife lived in Russia for a long time.
e)   Real Objects (Relia)
Real objects are extremely helpful for teaching concrete words because the real objects leave an unforgettable impression in the learners’ mind and the meaning is associated with the objects permanently like’ postcard,’pen’,’ball’ which are easily available in the locality. And some words like (a ship, a rocket, the waves of oceans etc) which we cannot bring into the classroom are taught by their beautiful photographs.
f)   Drawing Pictures.
Drawing pictures are very useful to teach vocabulary. The meaning of all the objects that are not easily carried or which are unavailable in the classroom, are taught pictorially for e.g (the picture of a rocket, a ship, the waves of ocean) can be presented in this way.
g)  Translation.
It is an easy and quick way to present the meaning of a word/ vocabulary when there is no other alternative. The teacher can teach meaning of new word translating it into learners’ mother-tongue. It is useful in teaching the meaning of abstract words for e.g Soul- Aatma,  Mind- Dimag, Love – Maya etc.
                            A way in teaching English dialogue with five activities.
A dialogue is a devised conversation intended to be uttered by the learners. A dialogue at least involves two speakers. The learners pretend to assume different roles and exchange their ideas in short conversational forms. It puts life into language because it functions as a social unit of speech. It provides context for the real- life situation. There are some practical principles useful for the classroom presentation of a dialogue. While teaching a dialogue to the learners, First, the teacher can write down the dialogue on the board in clear writing soon after entering into classroom. He/She can also draw relevant matchstick figures on the right- hand side of the exchange of the dialogue so that it arouses interest in the learners. Second way of teaching a dialogue, better than the first one is, the teacher should write a dialogue on a large sheet of paper. Then he/she hangs it opposite in front of the class over the wall in the absence of learners so that they will be motivated and the class will not become noisy when all the learners enter into classroom. Then all of them are asked to go inside the classroom and take their seats. Third, the teacher should present the dialogue and drill all unfamiliar vocabularies and structural items. Fourth, the teacher should also do model reading of the dialogue with correct pronunciation. Fifth, instruct all the learners to repeat it one by one in the class. The learners are also asked to read it silently. Sixth, for practice the teacher should take the role of one speaker himself/herself and all the learners in the classroom should take the role of another speaker. The chorus practice shifts to demi-chorus and individual. Finally, all the learners are asked to practice it themselves. The five activities that a teacher can use while teaching dialogue are as follows.
1. He/she can write the dialogue either on a large sheet of paper or on the board before the class begins and cover it with a large sheet of paper.
2. He/she can read the dialogue naturally at normal speed. The learners listen carefully.
3. He/she can conduct a choral repetition drill in which the learners repeat the dialogue after him/her line by line. The teacher should check pronunciation, stress, tone, intonation, rhythm etc.
4. He/she can explain unfamiliar language items to make the learners easily understand entire dialogue so that they comprehend the meaning clearly within the time given.
5. He/she can check to see how well the dialogue has been learned. The teacher can also choose two good learners taking one part himself/herself and other by them for demonstration. The teacher can also make sure that the speakers must face each other and use gestures as in normal conversation.
   Communicative Language Teaching Method as the best in English Subject
There are several language teaching methods. Among all, communicative language teaching method is the best in my opinion. It came into practice in the late 1960’s in British language teaching tradition. This method is based on the theory of language as a tool or means of communication. It advocates language as an instrument for conveying meaning in different social setting. The basic assumption behind communicative language teaching is language as ‘use’ rather than ‘usage’. It seeks the need to focus on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures. In communicative language teaching, the learners need to understand and express the communicative meanings of language or an utterance. Language learning in the communicative language teaching method is to learn language for communicative purpose. So, one of the most important characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language. We infer that the main goal of communicative language teaching is to develop communicative competence in learners. This approach also integrates four language skills to interpret meaning and it aims to develop knowledge of not only the linguistic forms and meanings but also communicative functions (requests, denials, offers, complaints etc). Since communication is the process, it is insufficient simply to have knowledge of target language forms, meanings and functions. The learners must be able to apply this knowledge in negotiating meaning. It is possible through the interaction and discussion between speaker and listener. This method of language teaching proposed the functional or communicative definitions of language that could serve as a basis for developing communicative syllabus for language teaching, above all, situationally appropriate use of language functions within a social context is sought in communicative language teaching. This method is very flexible in the sense that anything can be done if students get benefit. So, it gives full autonomy to the learners to accomplish their desire aspect. These all things are lacking in other methods. From the above discussion, I can conclude that communicative language teaching method is superior to other methods in many ways because
1. It pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view.
2. It focuses on the students’ communicative needs.
3. It provides opportunities to foster learners’ potentiality.
4. Language items are taught in context.
5. Task based teaching and learning.
6. It gives importance to acceptable fluency.
7. The learners are more responsible to manage their own learning.
8. Errors of forms are tolerated and are seen as natural outcomes of the development of communication skills.
9. It emphasizes fluency over accuracy.
10. This approach is liberal to allow any methods, devices and techniques to promote language learning.
                              Demand of English language teaching  
English language is an international language. It is spoken in almost all the countries of the world. Almost all the text books are written in English language.
A vast store of knowledge and technology is explored through English language. It is a powerful means to achieve the end of development. We can never pluck the fruit of the rapid advancement and innovations without the knowledge of English language. Doctors, engineers, pilots and high technical manpower should have the knowledge of English language. English language has undoubtedly the vital importance for accelerating the modernization process. English language is one of the preconditions for promoting technical education. English language cannot be substituted for any other modern language. It is because English language has been indispensable vehicle to the transmission of modern civilization into the nation. We cannot get our intended job without the functional knowledge of English language. English is the only means of preventing our isolation from the world. English language has wide scope and it is regarded as lingua franca. We cannot watch the whole world without the knowledge of English language. It is the passport through which we can travel all over the world. These are the reasons why the demand of English language teaching is increasing day by day.

 The importance of educational materials in teaching English language

The value or importance of educational materials in English language teaching can be listed and explained as follows.
Educational materials help in comprehension text by making concrete what is abstract. For example, an abstract concept like anger and beauty can be concretized by showing angry face and a picture of beautiful girl. Bringing the distant object near is another purpose of educational materials. For example, the real objects which are possible to bring into classroom best serve this function. If we have no real objects, we can show the photographs, pictures or maps of the distant object, place and things. Bringing learners into direct contact with objects, persons or things etc. is another importance of educational materials. We can also take the students away from classroom with the help of educational materials to give the students first-hand information.
1. Educational materials aid to communication by arousing curiosity, stimulating the learners to speak, making easy for the learners to talk about the object and talk with the object.
2. Educational materials aid to memory by involving many senses of the students arousing their interest, making use of pictorial context and providing variety in teaching and learning.
3. Educational materials help to make teaching effective by creating a lively situation for presentation and practice, reducing the dependence on L1, stimulating students for language works and reducing teacher talking time.
4. Educational materials make language teaching more sensible by helping students to see the reason for learning language.
5. Educational materials aid to instruction.
6. Educational materials are helpful in teaching vocabulary.
7. Educational materials make the practice and drill more realistic and effective.
8. Educational materials help to make the classroom lively and brighten up.
9. Educational materials help to increase the students’ experience.
10. Educational materials bring the learners’ world into the classroom.
11. Educational materials have their recreational value. They are important to entertain the learners.
12. Educational materials enhance the students’ knowledge about the lives and cultures other than their own.
13. Educational materials are helpful to motivate the students.
14. Educational materials lessen the burden of the teacher.
15. Educational materials save the time and effort.
16. Educational materials can help the teacher to improve his own grasp of the foreign language and to prepare more effective lessons.

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