Prospects and Challenges of ELT at a Glance

The Handbook of English Language Education in Nepal, 2023

This call invites authors from Nepal and abroad to contribute a chapter to this volume. This volume is unique in the sense that it compiles scholarly chapters in all aspects of ELE in Nepal. It will be a useful source of information for those who teach in Nepal, research Nepalese ELT issues , or train Nepalese ELT practitioners.

International Multilingual Research Journal , 2017

This paper reports on a critical qualitative case study of an EMI-based, under-resourced public school in Nepal through Bourdieu’s lens of linguistic capital. As the data analysis revealed, parents, students and teachers regarded EMI as a privileged form of linguistic capital to developing advanced English skills, enhancing educational achievements and access to higher education, and increasing the chance of upward social and economic mobility. In contrary to these rosy perceptions of EMI with overtly superficial promises, switching to EMI, without enough teacher preparation and infrastructure support in the school, had contributed to several unplanned negative outcomes, including a contested process of developing the English proficiency. Despite the school’s claim as offering EMI education, Nepali was the actual language of instruction in the school due to teachers’ lack of proficiency in English and the school’s inadequate resources and preparedness for a shift to EMI. As a result, the students developed neither the content knowledge nor English language skills. Therefore, rather than being an educational equalizer, EMI has served to (re)produce linguistic marginalization and educational inequality and injustice for children from lower socio-economic status. We suggest critical reflection on EMI adoption and re-envision “sustainable additive multilingualism” in such contexts (Erling et al., 2016).

2021

English as a medium of instruction has great influence in school education in Nepal. It is taken as a pluralistic language which promotes harmony and tolerance, and increases career, opportunities, hope and progress. At the same time, there is a danger of survival for local languages due to the imperialistic role of English. In such a context, this paper has tried to explore the results created due to the extensive use of English as a medium of instruction. To address this objective, the study employs a phenomenological research design under the qualitative approach. The information was collected from eight teachers and eight parents of eight different community schools through interviews and purposively selected two focus group discussions. The collected information from both the tools and sources were coded, triangulated, analyzed, interpreted and presented into three different themes. The results show the use of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in school education as a de...

System, 2024

English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy has shown substantial growth in all levels of education, driven by diverse aspirations such as raising individuals' global competitiveness and internationalization of education. Such a growth of EMI has been questioned from equity perspective. However, they largely draw on perception-based evidence, and do not capture exactly why and how the EMI has arisen and been practiced at the school and classroom levels, against the official, multilingual policy. This paper explores the practiced EMI policy through a qualitative multi-case study, involving in-depth interviews, focus groups and classroom observations in three Nepalese public secondary schools. The data were analysed thematically drawing on the theory of policy enactment and translanguaging. Findings showed that schools consciously chose EMI in full or part for practical reasons (e.g., career prospect) opening some equity-related issues, but teachers and students commonly adopted translanguaging strategies to deal with language and content-related problems and to level the ground for students with limited English proficiency. The findings ask critical language policy researchers to seriously consider the context in theorising equitable language policy. Practical measures to increase educational equity, such as legitimising the use of community languages in class, are also proposed.

The Warwick ELT, an ELT-based enzine run by a group of MA ELT students in the Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, promotes informed discussion of developments in ELT and draws attention to research and innovative practices related to English language learning and teaching and teacher education.

2020

This article is the result of the pilot study of my PhD research project. It examines the views of the school principal, teachers, ethnic students and ethnic parents regarding the need and use of EMI along with its classroom practice. Nepal is a multilingual and multilicultural country with diverse geo-biological landscape. However, public schools in Nepal have been adopting English medium instruction as a new linguistic market in education, challenging the mother tongue based multilingual education policy of the government. This paradigm shift from Nepali as a medium of instruction (NMI) to English medium instruction (EMI) has raised controversy in the education system of Nepal. As this study found, there has been a growing demand of parents of EMI seeing English as a linguistic capital in the global socio-economic market and they have taken it as economic investment in education. A noticeable contradiction to the successful introduction of EMI in public school education is the ten...

Journal of NELTA, 2016

I have observed that many public schools are adopting English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in Nepal for a decade. During my last visits to lower parts of Mt. Everest region, some school principals stated, with a great enthusiasm, that they are gradually replacing Nepali with English as the medium of instruction up to secondary level even though there is lack of research and case studies to find whether such a shift is a boon or bane. It is already the most discussed issue at both global and local educational discourses and policies. Based on my own experience, observation and theoretical knowledge, I, in this paper, make attempts to analyze the EMI situation in Nepal with reference to some questions associated with it. I also suggest that a transitional model of language education is appropriate for multilingual country like Nepal.

Journal of NELTA

This qualitative content analysis article aims at exploring the perspectives of English language teachers on Nepali English (NE). I purposively selected six college level English language teachers from Sunsari and Morang districts and collected the required data through a semi-structured interview. The study reveals that NE has emerged in Nepal as a result of mother tongue influence, nativization of English to local contexts, and exposure from the non-native teachers during the second language acquisition process, and it is practically more appropriate than other varieties of English in Nepal. All the research participants favour NE as it is more intelligible and easier to teach and learn than the other varieties of English, promotes Nepali identity, boosts confidence, reduces anxiety, and helps to resist the hegemony of British English (BE) or American English (AE). They, however, believe that more research and discourse on NE, its codifi cation and standardization, and power (politic...

Functional Variations in English, 2020

In this chapter, we discuss the functionality of English in Nepal’s school education. We take neoliberalism as a major ideology shaping this functionality in the country’s language education policies and practices, with a focus on EMI policy. The data are drawn from our ongoing ethnographic work collected from various sources such as curriculum documents, media reports, and interviews with parents, teachers and the representatives from local government (municipalities). The interviews were conducted in Nepali and translated into English by the authors.

NELTA Gandaki, 2024

Education is shaped and directed by the medium of dissemination. It is the language used as the medium of disseminating educational norms and values to the human capital of the nation. In this regard, this article briefly summarises the role and coverage of English in the Nepali education system via curricula of Nepali school to university education. Based on the analysis and interpretation of the review of the related literature and evidence, it was found that the English language has been playing a dominant role in the Nepali education system from school to university level in terms of the medium of teaching and learning, curricula, testing and certification. English serves as the primary language for curricula, textbooks, reference materials, and reading resources mandated for instruction and study across all educational levels in Nepal, starting from nursery through tertiary education. It acts as the medium of instruction in numerous private institutions and certain government-funded public schools. Moreover, it is utilised as the language for conducting final examinations, including the formulation of question papers for most subjects, excluding language-specific courses. In technical fields and some general subjects, it is also used for answering exam questions.