Editorial!

We are immensely pleased to bring out this NELTA ELT Forum February 2015 issue to the valued ELT community. Continuing the legacy of the preceding issues, this issue also explores into some of the multi- faceted dimensions of the ELT phenomenon.

The ever growing gyre of the ELT profession now is full of innumerable adages in terms of theories and practices. The so far enormous proliferation of this profession across time and space has created a situation similar to the age- old dilemma: which is first, egg or chicken- regarding the role of building up ELT knowledge body. There are varied philosophical deliberations, theories, views and practices regarding the teaching and learning of English both in the global and Nepalese contexts. ELT now has become a truly multi- paradigm phenomenon, with unprecedented multiple conceptions and practices. There are paradigms of ELT with proven and tested promises at one place; however there are also contexts where the ingredients of the ELT recipes have not produced the result as desired. Whatever promising a paradigm be the thrust of the diverse needs of the learners, and the multi-faceted phenomena of ELT have remained growing. Therefore, the chicken- egg dilemma keeps persisting. What should be the focus of exploration and debates in ELT, particularly in the English as Foreign Language (FL) context? What possible themes could be included? What should be the centre and what should be the periphery for a worthy discussion? Is it the context; is it the learner, or the educator, or the material, or the implementation of the program? What should be at the centre of discussion among the ELT educators and professionals? How can we understand ELT and communicate about it in a better way? Is it so as that we need to prioritize the practices; or is it the theory integrating the discrete practices? What can be a better lance to represent the ELT phenomena? It is, indeed, these and many other queries that have led to immensely diverse opinions regarding the tits- bits of ELT in its community, and ELT in Nepal is also not an exception. It is needless to reiterate here, but the complexity becomes apparent only when one is involved in the learning and teaching of English as an FL. Educators simply become an interpreter of the underpinnings; no one can assure ‘this’ and ‘this’ works, and ‘that’ and ‘that’ does not. Our efforts then simply get fruitless. Continue reading →