Sushant Kumar B.K.
After teaching for many years in notable educational institutions in Kathmandu, Shyam has now, started as English subject teacher in one of the college of his hometown, Bardiya. He holds excellent presentation skills, teaching instinct and his writing pieces are frequently published in English National dailies of Nepal. These experiences and achievements prove his credibility as a good teacher. And he also believes that he’s the best English subject teacher as he has all qualities and characteristics an English teacher should have.
But after a couple of months of teaching, he noticed that the number of students being present in his class is decreasing day after day. Being a responsible teacher he asked some of the students “Why most of your friends are not attending my class these days?” one student replied “Sir! Some of our friends said that they don’t understand your English so it was not worth attending class”. Shyam became shocked to hear such unexpected reply and with an angry mood; he boastfully argues that he was awarded the best English subject teacher while teaching in town. He’s so experienced and professional one. How could he be a failure in such a rural area? Another student who seems intelligent said “Sir, you speak complete English in class and it’s a big problem to almost all students because we are habituated to get taught in Nepali-English. It’s very hard for us to grasp your fluent English; we are not used to such teaching”. From other students he discovered that most colleges of this place are doomed with similar scenario. Then it gave him very insightful learning that an English subject teacher to some extent needs to speak in Nepali language (social language) too or the language the most of the students understand/ speak while teaching English subject if it is their second language.
Ignoring his rooted thought, Shyam came to the conclusion that that an English teacher must be a “Socio-English teacher” while teaching English as a second language. It means that an English subject teacher shouldn’t merely be an English teacher having qualities like so-called fluent English to teach English subject rather his job is to solve the academic concerns of students by speaking and using the social language too if they want. The teacher needs to identify students’ strengths, social and academic backgrounds, teaching culture and society where they’re grown up and most significantly their psychology. By specializing in those insights, a teacher can mitigate the gap between teaching-learning activities and know so well to his/her students and transfer his knowledge properly to them. If necessary a teacher could to some extent speak the language the majorities of students speak/understand or prefer within classroom while teaching because it’s obvious that the success of any teacher is to make the students understand the context and make them able to learn. Be it an English subject teacher or other. This is often how a teacher can play an excellent role to encourage and improve the capability of students and it’s an achievement for him/her itself.
[Sushant Kumar B.K. is a Nepalese poet, educator, translator, freelance writer who is originally from Gulariya, Bardiya, Nepal. He has MA degrees in English Literature from Central Department of English, Tribhuwan University(TU) and Political Science from Kathmandu Central. He is the former lecturer of English at Janasewa Multiple Campus, Baidi, Bardiya. Now, he is the principal at Bageshwory Secondary Boarding School, Gulariya, Bardiya .The above writ -up is his own retrospective experience. He can be contacted at bksushant26@gmail.com]