कथा ३

 ३

symbolic image; @google

क्यामपस चौराहमा उभिइरहेको अनौठो मानिसलाई औल्याउँदै उसले 'छ्या कस्तो पागाल' भन्दा, मैले ऊ पागल होइन 'समाज परिवर्तनको संबाहाक हो' भने ।

कथा २

२

 हिजो ९७ वर्षका 'मुखिया बा'को 'असामयिक निधन' भई गाउँ नै 'देखावटी शोक'मा डुब्नु परेको अवस्था हुँदा, आज बिहानै सोही गाउँको 'हर्के' खान नपाइ 'झुन्डिएर मरे छ' भन्ने हल्ला फैलियो ।

कथा १

 १

अस्ति सासुबाट 'बाँझी आईमाई'को उपाधि पाएर खर काट्न हिडेकी शिला, हिजो बिहान घोर्ले भीरको खोंचमा 'शिला'को रुपमा फेला परिन् ।

Teaching Philosophy

 

My Teaching Philosophy

- Dilli Ram Katttel

My Teaching Purpose

When I was a primary school-boy, I used to think that the teachers were the most knowledgeable persons in the world. In my remote hilly village, which is still out of touch from the modernization, the teachers were the only persons having high social status. People used to summon and call other members of the community using either their first name or their nickname. But the teachers used to be called ‘Sirs’. The societal scenario motivated me to be a ‘teacher’.   Likewise, the teachers comparatively used to wear better clothes, they used to have better economic status and they were the persons of ‘respect’ in society. Moreover, When I passed grade 3 and enrolled in grade 4 (11 years old), I got an opportunity to start learning English. I still remember how I wrote the first English alphabet, ‘A’ in my student life. Gradually, I found the English teacher was better than other teachers. (Here, I am not making other teachers weaker in their subjects.)  I became much more motivated in learning English. Unfortunately, I scored the least marks in my School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination. The marks did not demotivate me to learn English and to become an English Language teacher, rather, I joined college majoring English keeping an aim to become an ‘English teacher’ and currently I have been teaching English as a Foreign language at school level in Nepal.

For me, my short-term teaching purpose is to equip my students to be able to use English vocabulary, grammar, structure and functions appropriately and pass the school level examination obtaining a good grade. However, in long run, I like to see my students be able to communicate in English fluently, effectively and purposefully. Moreover, I want to inspire my students to learn English not as ‘a subject’ but as ‘a language subject’. It inspires them to shape their own aim in learning English.

My Teaching Style

My teaching style is highly affected by the Communicative Approach (1980). I believe in learning language is to communicate using the target language though there are a number of uses of language learning. Though English is taught as ‘a subject’ in our country, I prefer to teach English as ‘a language subject’. This shall help the students to learn English purposefully. The primary goal of the Communicative Approach in English language teaching is to connect people together globally which is only possible through communication. Moreover, the Communicative Approach focuses on using language games to make learning fun. Likewise, using authentic materials like newspaper cut-outs, magazines etc. helps the students to make their learning memorable.

I teach at the secondary school level in Nepal which is to somehow equal to basic and middle school. Since my students are 12-18 years of age group learners, they like to be involved in language games, group work, pair work, dramatization etc. Using the Communicative Approach shall be better for the above-mentioned age group students while teaching language skills and aspects.

I clearly know that every student has individual differences in learning the English language. Therefore, I like to take some of the teaching styles from other approaches. As I am teaching English as a Foreign language, it is not only the second but also the third and even fourth language to some of my students. In this context, I like the judicial use of mother/another language in the class which is a style of Grammar Translation approach. Moreover, I believe in positive reinforcement to the learners which is a style of Affective Humanistic Approach. Likewise, I collocate with Direct Approach while presenting grammatical items following the inductive method in teaching. It helps the students to keep active and lively in learning. My teaching style and selection of different activities from different approaches are helpful to motivate my students. I always try to keep them toward the path of positivity by showing the importance of English language in global communication.

My Teaching Techniques

Depending upon the nature of the lesson/topic, I use a number of teaching techniques while teaching English as the second or another language. One of the most important things I consider while planning a lesson is how I can ask my students to be engaged in different activities while learning. My English Language lessons take place in a specified 35-40 minutes daily periods classes. Therefore, the students are expecting something new and different in my English class. As English is not a language of communication in our country, I have to find out something new and different to motivate them to the lesson. Therefore, I usually spend 5-10 minutes (depending on the nature of the topic) in the warm-up and objective discussion of the lesson. In this section, I usually prefer to tell something about myself, personal narrative or experience so that I can keep my learners attentive towards me. If the physical facility of the class provides me with an opportunity, I prefer to warm-up and motivate my learners using audio-visual aids. Likewise, using three physical response i.e. action, gesture and mime, I like to gain the attention of my learners.

My students are of teens. They have a certain level of linguistic knowledge. I like to cope up with the knowledge that they have. Moreover, I like to follow Krashen’s hypothesis so that they don’t feel completely difficulty or like a piece of cake while learning English. I like my students to make mistakes because it helps me to find out the common areas of difficulties of my students. Moreover, making mistakes encourages them to use language contextually. I don’t believe in strictness in error correction, rather, I prefer to use soft corner policy while correcting the errors. In other words, I don’t take my students’ mistakes seriously but at the same time, I don’t let my students’ ‘mistakes’ to be ‘errors’.

Mostly, I like to follow the 80/20 principle so that my students feel free to express their opinion, ideas and thought in front of the class. In the guided practice section of my lesson, I myself play the role of one of the students and involve in the activity/activities. I continuously support and help the students to involve in their activities. I generally find it better to use the scaffolding technique, especially while teaching speaking and writing. These techniques help the students feel easy to involve in independent practice, which I prefer to be given as a home assignment. In assessment, I prefer to give project-based questions, a part of formative and continuous assessment. It helps the students to be exploratory, critical and creative in their learning. However, depending upon the nature of the topics like ‘grammar, pronunciation etc. I prefer to take a summative assessment, too. In such a summative assessment, I generally take the class test and arrange quizzes either in groups or individually.