Challenges Faced by Novice English Language Teachers in Primary Schools in Nepal

Running Head: SECOND LANGUAGE LITERACY
Second Language Literacy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

SECOND LANGUAGE LITERACY 1
Abstract
The English language has been long considered and taught as the second or their language in
Nepal. It is basically used as the linking language among the countries and the states as well
as a global people. Teaching and propagating the English language requires not only
efficient skills, subject knowledge, techniques, strategies, and methods but also co-operation
and learning materials (Savignon, 2018). The aim or the target of this study is to identify and
illustrate the issues or the problems faced by the novice English language teachers (ELT) in
the primary schools while teaching in English. The study aims to explore the challenges by
the teachers and how they initiate some of the effective mentoring practices that help them to
cope with the challenges and the development in the field of profession. The study includes
the interview of 15 English language teacher of a primary school in Nepal and a thorough
summary of the findings have been explained in the summary section of the assignment
paper.

SECOND LANGUAGE LITERACY 2
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................4
Purpose of the study.......................................................................................................4
Content (Problem and Challenges)................................................................................5
Traditional rooted norms and practices......................................................................5
Analyze how mentoring is helpful to address this issue................................................6
How mentoring is helpful...........................................................................................7
Theory – Relate these three theories to address the problem.........................................7
Social Capital.............................................................................................................7
Net Work Theory.......................................................................................................8
Learning Organization Theory...................................................................................8
Methodological – Narratives..........................................................................................9
Summary......................................................................................................................10
References....................................................................................................................12
Appendix......................................................................................................................14
Interview Question...................................................................................................14
Results......................................................................................................................18

SECOND LANGUAGE LITERACY 3

SECOND LANGUAGE LITERACY 4
Introduction
English has been recognized and considered as an essential language gauging the
connection among the international platform. Majority of the people who are educated using
the language for their communication and in their field of the profession (Hall,2017). This
context has induced the national and the international platform to introduce the contemporary
literature of the English language in the curriculum of the primary schools in Nepal. The
objective of the English language induced syllabus is to help the pupil and the students of the
school in Nepal to inculcate and instill the reading and the learning habit of English among
people. The teachers appointed for the government-affiliated primary schools in Nepal thus
aims to enrich the language content and the vocabulary of the pupil. Teaching at the primary
school is much different than that of the teaching the other languages in the curriculum and
due to the differences from the other educational levels,teaching English to the pupil or the
young learners comes up with various problems and constraints that are encountered by the
English language teachers (Mann& Walsh, 2017). The three of the most crucial problems
faced by the teachers in the primary school of Nepal includes the absence or the lack of the
motivation and interest of the learners, the insufficient amount of time, materials and
resources and the reluctance of the senior teachers towards the propagation and the teaching
of the English language in the class.
Purpose of the study
The purpose of the study is to identify the issues and the challenges that are being
faced by the English language teacher of the primary school towards the teaching of the
literature component and practice of the age-old norms among the educational system in
Nepal. The assignment furthermore aims to identify the differences in the challenges and the
problems faced by the teachers with more experience who are seniors a the primary school as

SECOND LANGUAGE LITERACY 5
compared to the newly employed English language teachers of the primary school while
teaching the language to the pupils of the school. The significance of the study lies in the fact
that the study aims to identify the age-old traditional rooted norms and the practices of the
translation used by the senior teachers to address the understanding of the pupils, which
creates an environment of frustration and depression for the newly employed novice English
teachers in their initial days of teaching.
Content (Problem and Challenges) –
According to the study conducted by Richards and Rodgers(2014) in his research
paper, motivation is basically considered as the attribute that moves to perform something. In
the context of the classroom in the primary school, the willingness of the students towards the
understanding and the participation of the classroom activities that furthermore includes co-
operation to understand and obey the instructions of the teachers is an essential factor
(Hettiarachchi, 2015). When the pupils of the classroom do not have any sort of willingness
to get involved in the activities of the English language learning in a comfortable basis, it is a
clear indication of the lack of motivation. This is one of the major problem faced by the
English language teacher in the primary school. In the study by Valdés (2014), the author
illustrated the challenges faced by the instructors in the government primary schools at the
rural areas due to the practice of the traditional rooted norms and the practices in many of the
countries. The author of the study specifically focused on the pupil studying in the rural
school who lacks the understanding capability towards the learning of the English language.
Traditional rooted norms and practices
The article highlighted some of the instances where the students of the school felt
bored due to their habit of understanding the English language or the texts in the textbook by
the translation techniques applied by the teachers of the primary school. The newly appointed