Teaching of English in the US: What can we learn from there?

Ganga Ram Gautam

 I graduated from Galkot Secondary School in 1984 and went to Butwal Multiple campus for my Proficiency Certificate level education. Then I went to the University campus, Kirtipur and I completed B.Ed. and M.Ed. from there. After the completion of my Master’s degree, I got an offer to teach English at MahendraRatna Campus, Tahachal. In 1995, I went to the UK to do an M.A. in English Language Teaching (ELT) from Lancaster University. Since I came back, I have been teaching at the same campus. In the year 2010, I was accepted into the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program and I completed the fellowship as a full-time graduate student at Boston University (BU), USA.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1978 in honor of the late Senator and Vice President. In the spirit of a world leader concerned with fostering international cooperation, the objective of the program is twofold: to permit mid-career professionals from developing nations to gain expertise in their fields as they have evolved in the United States; and to allow U.S. citizens in the business, government, and academic communities to profit from the knowledge and perspectives of professional counterparts in other countries and to establish lasting ties with them.

The Humphrey fellowship year was a rich professional experience for me. Expansion of professional network, meeting like-minded people, visit to the professional organizations such as TESOL, sharing information about my professional work, presentation about Nepal and her diversities and attending conferences in the field of education and English as a Foreign/Second Language were some of my key priorities. I also attended some courses in the School of Education at Boston University and observed the English language classes at the Center of English Language Orientation Program (CELOP), BU. Continue reading →