Bridging the Language Gap

Over the past few days, my students have been taking exams in all subject areas. The results have been disheartening. Today, I watched a five-year-old boy in class two stare at his exam for two hours. Tears welled-up in his eyes when I slowly asked him "what is your name? Write your name here" in both English and Nepali again and again. He could not write his name in either language. The expression on his face is frozen in my mind. I recently discovered that my school is "English Medium" for grades one through four, meaning that the language of instruction in all subjects, except Nepali, should be taught in English. Only one out of the five teachers at my school can hold a conversation in English. The result of this curricular design is dampening the students' ability to speak, read, and write in both Nepali and English. The extent of the student's English consists of "How are you today, I am fine," and "My name is ______." As I sat in class two today proctoring the English exam, I was bombarded by students asking me endless questions about each section of the exam ---ten loud voices shouting all at once "miss, miss miss!" I could not understand most of what they said because my Nepali is very limited. Another teacher heard their loud voices and came to help me. She patiently explained each question to the students in Nepali. She asked the students each question in Nepali. She showed the students what plurals are. She showed the students how to fill in the missing letters. She even said the names of some of the letters in both English and Nepali, and many still did not understand. Part of me wonders how we can really know what the students know after such practices, but part of me already knows the answer---no teacher wants to collect a class-full of empty pages. Today was a wake-up call.

Every day I walk to school, and am greeted by the friendly "Namastes" and "Namaskars" of my students. I wish I could sit down with them and talk for hours about their lives and dreams. The language gap between us is as wide as the distance between Nepal and the United States—but at least our smiles are bi-lingual.

Today, I realized that I will not succeed at teaching English in my school without the support of my fellow teachers. If they want their school to teach through the English Medium, we need to create a community of learners that are surrounded by the English language on a daily basis. The students will not be comfortable and confident speaking English until all the teachers are.

I realize it is not the teachers' fault that they do not speak English. Many of the teachers at my school have been teaching for decades, and know how to teach well—they engage the learners, know the content material of instruction, and care deeply for the wellbeing and success of each child. "I used to be proud of my teaching," the social studies teacher said to me in Nepali. She has been teaching for over thirty years. When she taught in Nepali, her students understood—achievement and a mutual sense of accomplishment between the students and the teacher was present. One day, the decision was made to change the language of instruction to English, as my teacher trainer in Nepal puts it, a "more international language." No one checked to see if the teachers could actually speak English before implementation. No support or resources were given to help teachers learn English. "What can I do?" the social studies teacher asks. What can she do? The day the curriculum switched to English Medium, she, and other teachers were expected to wake-up, go to school, and suddenly be fluent in English. Thus, the vicious cycle began.

From talking with teachers, members of my host family, and members of NELTA (Nepali English Language Teachers Association), I have learned that the small government "supported" primary school where I teach is just one of many schools throughout Nepal, and the Gorkha region, experiencing the same challenges. So, what can I do?—or more importantly what can we do? And by we, I mean the teachers at my Nepali primary school, members of NELTA, my fellow Fulbright ETAs from America, and anyone who cares about helping the children of Nepal learn. Significant progress regarding these challenges cannot be made by a single individual on a large scale. The foundation of a good education begins with exceptional teachers—teachers that are well-trained, well-read regarding best teaching practices, well-versed and knowledgeable in their content fields, and fluent in the language of instruction. I have found that if teachers in more rural areas of Nepal want to learn English themselves, there are few resources aside from bi-lingual dictionaries to aid them in this challenging task. To help my students, and other students at similar schools, I will begin teaching a class next week for primary school teachers in the Gorkha area who want to improve their English speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. This class community will also serve as a forum for discussing the successes and challenges of teaching in primary schools across Gorkha. The class will be free of charge, and will meet once a week on Saturday mornings. The five teachers at my school will come, and I hope to have at least five to fifteen teachers from other schools join us as well. I feel that teaching this class is one of the best things I can do to help the students indirectly. I think the teachers will be able to learn a great deal of English in the seven months that we will learn together, and perhaps even gain the confidence they deserve to successfully teach in English. I believe that together, we teachers from Nepal and the United States can bridge the language-learning gap.

I think I have discovered my true career calling! I want to start a program/organization that brings exceptional teachers from the United States to countries that are struggling to implement English Medium instruction in government schools. From my research, I have learned that this is a common challenge in many developing countries. The American teachers would travel to the country of their choice during summer vacation and provide free English classes to ESL teachers abroad. In the coming months, I will talk with the wonderful director of Fulbright Nepal about this idea. Who knows where it will go.