Ramesh Kandel
M.ED. EPM (TU)
M.ED. English (KU)
When I was at school, there was less English speaking environment. The teacher used the grammar-translation method to teach English in the class. He/she only translates into our mother tongue. We were only focused on reading and writing, especially on the grammatical rules. It took more than two decades long to recall my school life; there were hardly any word-meaning charts in the school as instructional materials. We got less opportunity to be exposed to the English-speaking environment due to the lack of English newspapers and magazines and let alone watching English Movies in class.
I have chosen this topic because I hope I can explore the input or opportunity provided to the students in the English language class. I will also explore the ways or strategies that English language teachers use in the case of exposure inside the classroom. What are the available sources to provide opportunities to the learners in the classroom? What are the experiences of the learners in using newspapers, magazines, and other electronic media where the English language is used, and how are they effective for output, such things I will try to explore in this small-scale study. The English-speaking environment is the most important for learning English as a second language. Students don't get proper opportunities to be exposed to an English-speaking environment. So many students from the community school have difficulties understanding native speakers. Only reading and writing activities can't help the students to become better in English.
CONTEXT
Language is a means of communication. Without language, sharing ideas, information, and feelings is impossible. Half of the population in the world is said to be multilingual. (Grosjean & Miller, 1994). Knowingly and unknowingly, people become multilingual during their lives. Due to globalization, multilingualism has become a need of people. The English language is considered an essential that is attended to and used all over the world as a means of communication. Due to the current status of English as a global language of science, technology, and international relations, many countries around the world consider the teaching of English a major educational priority (Crystal, 1997; McKay, 2000). In Nepal, the younger generation should gain a good command of English for higher education, career opportunity, and to go overseas for higher study. The English language entered Nepal about 250 years ago as a link language between the rulers of Kathmandu and the East India Company officials. (Poudel, 2021). In Nepal, English is taught from the primary level (School level) to the university level. In the context of community schools throughout the nation, English teachers are appointed by the government and provide the textbooks and needed materials to teach English. From class 1 to 12, English is taught as a compulsory subject in each class according to the English curriculum respectively.
Exposure to the language can be demarcated as the contract that the learners have with the target language that they are endeavouring to learn. The role of the teacher is must provide the opportunity for exposure to the learners in different contexts. Exposure to the English language is something learners run into in their everyday life. This approves the advantage of learning the English language in an authentic language environment. When they sit at their computers at home, watching a film or playing a game, they might pick up words and phrases and use them in the future. However, language exposure plays a major role in the learner's language production. It should be realized that exposure to the TL can directly develop language comprehension that can lead to social interaction with speakers of the target language. Thus, a reasonable amount of exposure can be affected by one's self-efficacy and apprehension of the TL. With reference to the first question of this study, the results showed that language exposure plays an essential role in language acquisition since the overall means were highly reached. (Zoubi, 2018)
METHODOLOGY
This is qualitative research. This study was conducted in two community Schools of Dhunibesi Municipality, which is 20 km west of Kathmandu Valley. Two English language teachers (one male and one female teacher) and two students from Secondary level (9 &10 grade) enrolled in the academic year 2025 were the respondents. For the role of the teachers to expose the students to English in the classroom, a questionnaire was developed. A boy from grade 9 and a girl from grade 10 were asked open-ended questions.
Research Purpose: To explore the role of the teacher in the exposure of the students to the English-speaking environment
Research question(s):
1. What is the role of the teacher in the exposure?
2. How do the students get opportunities for exposure to English?
Being a teacher in the community school, I clearly understand that all the respondents (students) can't speak English well. So for the interviews, both English and Nepali languages were used. The interview questions were created thinking to bring out the responses which linked to the research questions. I transcribed the recorded interviews with the different respondents. I presented the transcribed data in the data coding table. I closely examined the transcript coding. After analyzing the data, findings are shown on the basis of two wide themes connected to the research questions, i.e.' role of the teacher for the exposure.' and 'students' opportunity for the exposure.'
BACKGROUND
To gauge the opportunity for exposure to English, the current review begins with examining the studies focused on students of community schools. First language influence is an indicator of low acquisition or the result of the performer attempting to produce before having acquired enough of the target language. It is, not surprisingly, found most often in a foreign language, as opposed to second language situations, where opportunities for real communication are fewer, and is only rarely seen in "natural" child second language acquisition. (Krashen, 1991)
Communicating with others is the chief purpose of language learning. Without gaining the ability to interact with other people in society, teaching and learning a language is not effective. The more the learners are exposed to the target language, the more ability to speak fluently they get. All efforts as teachers of English are to make the learners learn English so that their valuable time is not wasted without any productive outcome. Teachers should always be aware of the opportunity to provide the learners to be exposed to English (the target language).
To teach English in community schools in Nepal, a large number of teachers and students are involved in the teaching-learning process in English. The learners can acquire the language by repeated exposure to the TL. Throughout this exposure, the learner typically uses the linguistic features of which the language is composed. (Ellis, 2002) Providing opportunities for exposure to the English language is necessary for the students of the community school. Community school students have less chance to be encouraged to speak English at home and neighbourhood. Especially outside of the urban area, the students have no opportunity to speak English and interact with the English-speaking environment. The studies have given proof that the opportunity for exposure to English has a crucial role in the acquisition of the English language. Exposure to reading newspapers and books, watching English movies, talking to the teacher as well as to colleagues, etc., can contribute to exposing learners to the English language.
STUDENTS' OPPORTUNITY FOR THE EXPOSURE TO ENGLISH
The English language classes were less interactive. Students speak less in class because of the lack of environment. Students rarely speak English with their friends and the teacher. They feel uneasy while speaking in English with the teacher. They use the Nepali language to ask questions to the teacher. Another interesting thing is that when a student begins to speak in English with friends, they tease and make freeze inside. Binu, who is studying in grade nine, feels easy to speak Nepali rather than English. "Actually, I don't speak with my friends. I feel uneasy speaking English with my friends because they don't understand English, and we don't have the habit of speaking in English. I feel comfortable speaking Nepali with them". Her friends don't understand English, and she also feels comfortable interacting in her mother tongue.
Except for class ten, there is no availability of English newspapers. Prabhat, a student from class ten, understands some news in the English newspaper. "I understand some of the news and articles, and sometimes I feel a little bit difficult to understand." Due to the lack of reading habits, students feel difficult to understand the English newspaper.
Opportunity for exposure to the English language in the class is a chance for the students to learn English through interaction with the teacher as well as their colleagues. The student gets the opportunity to read English newspapers and watch English movies, which have a vital role in building the confidence of the students to interact with others without hesitation. In other words, the opportunity for exposure plays a significant role in the acquisition of the English language.
ROLE OF THE TEACHER
To expose the students to English, the teacher has a significant role. This study shows that the role the teacher is not active in creating the situation to exposed to an English-speaking environment in the class. Teachers are accustomed to translating everything into Nepali because the students are satisfied when the teacher translates the English text into Nepali.
Manju, an English teacher in grade 9, is an energetic teacher at a community school. When I entered her classroom, there was a book corner where she put newspapers like 'The Rising Nepal' and 'The Kathmandu Post' national dailies and one Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. In every class, I ask the students to read the newspaper just for 5 minutes. Each day, one student reads, and the other listens. It helps them to develop their listening and speaking skills. It helps them to be exposed to the English language. Another thing I ask them to speak English with teachers and their colleagues. English newspaper is a powerful medium to make them learn English. If there is no newspaper as well as no interaction in English, the students will definitely be weak in performance.
I observed one English language class to observe the role of the teacher in the exposure of students to English. Raju, another English teacher, is an experienced teacher. He uses traditional ways of teaching, like Grammar Translation Methods, Drill and only focuses on reading and writing skills. There, I found less opportunity for exposure to English inside the classroom. The students seemed to be less active in the class because there was one-way communication.
The teacher's active role is a must for the students to learn English in class. Only translating the text into the mother tongue (Nepali) is the main problem. When there is a situation for exposure, like the opportunity to read the English newspaper and watch English movies, the students feel the real-life situation to acquire the English language. According to (Kafle., 2007), the present trend in the education and practice of media shows that well-trained graduates with a concentration on convergence show greater adaptability in working across platforms. For exposure, the teacher should use different media in the English language classroom, and the teacher should have the proper knowledge to use the media in English language teaching.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
On the basis of the results and scrutiny of the data, the role of the teacher is to provide opportunities for the students' exposure to English and have a relationship between English language acquisition and the development of both receptive and productive skills. The opportunity to read English newspapers makes the students create a reading culture, and they learn so many new vocabularies in English. They can learn about the different situations reported in the newspaper. There is a strong relationship between exposure and English language acquisition that can take different forms like reading English newspapers and books, watching English movies, talking to the teacher and colleagues and using the English language in real-life situations. Exposure to the English language improves language learning as exposure denotes the total acquaintances with a target language that a learner obtains, both in verbal and in written forms. The students, who are much exposed to English in the class, answer in English in the interview with confidence, but those who have less exposure or no exposure to English hesitate to speak in English. English as a Second Language is often taught under unfavourable conditions; as a result, high school graduates are not always capable users of English.
It can be recommended that students should get the opportunity to be exposed to the English language through newspapers, movies, and interactions with teachers and colleagues. The teacher should be active in providing the opportunity for the students to talk, play, read, sing, and ask queries in English in the class. Otherwise, it will be useless to invest time and money in teaching English at the secondary level. Without the activeness of the teachers, the English language learning process will be less effective. So the teacher should use different materials for exposure in the English Language Classroom.
Trikuteshwori secondary School
REFERENCES
Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, R. (2002). Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Grosjean, F. & Miller, J. (1994). Going in and out of languages
Kafle, H.R. (2004). Media discourse: Evolution into the academy. Bodhi, Kathmandu University
Krashen, S.D. (1991). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Pergamon Press Inc.
Poudel, T. (2021). English in Nepal; History, Development and Policies.
Zoubi Al Samer. (2018). The Impact of Exposure to English Language on Language Acquisition
