“Who Bothers!” A Common Ailment in Higher Education ELT Classrooms in Nepal

Abstract

Critics of higher education in Nepal, even the concerned agencies, are much worried about the decreased quality resulting in low employability of higher education. The most common adjectives used by them to describe this state are ‘theoretical’ and/or ‘impractical’. The present case study was instigated when two college students of third year Bachelor’s degree majoring in English, one from Bachelor of Arts (B. A.) and the other from Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.), remarked that the excessive lecture-based classes at college were not worth attending regularly. Stemming from this problem, each of the classes was observed once to see if the students’ remark would be verified. As a triangulation process, the observation was then followed by an informal post-class interaction with the faculties whose classes were observed. This article, thus, basically assesses the efficacy of the excessive lecture (EL) within the limitation of teaching English to adult learners of higher education in Nepal. Considering the inefficacious nature of EL to cause learning, and the faculties’ (Note 1) perceptions towards, and an over-attachment with, this method as the unique one, some alternative strategies applicable to English language teaching (ELT) classes have been recommended with the hope that they would be properly used to keep the burdened use of EL reasonably low. The article also recommends some changing roles of faculties involved in ELT in the higher education sector.

Development of ELT in Nepal: An Overview

“…The focus is found to be in English language, linguistics and pedagogy under the Faculty of Education whereas English language and literature under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. As Poudel and Sharma (2019) claim, "English under the Faculty of Education (FoE), which fundamentally focuses on linguistics and language teaching, and the Faculty of Humanities (FoH), which primarily emphasizes arts and literature" (p. 2).…”

“…Regarding the teaching-learning pedagogy in ELT, most ELT professionals and practitioners are still practising the traditional teacher dominant methods and techniques mostly lecture methods at the university as well as school level. The ELT methodology in the Nepalese higher education classroom, like at schools, is largely dominated by the excessive lecture method, however, in the last three decades, English language teaching has improved greatly in Nepal in terms of the structure of education, pedagogies and institutions of higher learning (Bista, 2011, Poudel & Sharma, 2019. Due to the massive use of internet and web-based resources and exposures, there is a great infl uence of international practices and globalization in the fi eld of Nepalese ELT.…”

Better English, Better Job Opportunities in Nepal

“…program was started by Tribhuvan University. But the Nepalese education system, both the school and higher levels, have been criticized and called as a theoretical, unproductive, exam-centered (Poudel & Sharma, 2019). However, to enhance the status of the English language the government of Nepal, by now, have established nine universities about 1000 constituent and affiliated colleges, 1500 higher secondary schools, and 42100 schools (Sharma, 2021).…”

Power of Reading: Reading as a Strategy for Learning English

“…Instead, the English language, originally the language of the British people, finds a prominent place in Nepalese education system. From its early influence on Nepalese elites (Kerr, 1999; as cited in Poudel, 2016) ever since the British had contact with Nepalese people in the second half of the 18 th century to its formal introduction in Nepalese education…”