Farewell programs for two English Language Fellows; Mr. Mathew Nelson from Prithvi Narayan Campus Pokhara, TU and Ms. Deborah F Silver from Far Western University Kanchanpur, were organized on June 10 and 26 respectively. Both were received at the NELTA Office with the RELO, officials of US Embassy, Dr. Dennis Yang, and Mr. Bishwa Raj Gautam.

During the tenure, they had facilitated training/workshops in different branches in their vicinity. Matthew had visited Syangja, Gulmi and different schools around Pokhara, while Deborah had visited Dadeldhura, Accham, Bardiya, Jhapa, Belauri, Jhalari, Dodahra, Tikapur, Mahendranagar and Kanchanpur for the training. 

Besides training, both had contributed sessions during Access Leadership Camps. The President Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan thanked both for their hardship, effort, commitment and sincerity in visiting different locations. She said that their contribution to motivating teachers, to use new techniques and also developing professionalism among them will be remembered, and their memories will remain among NELTA members. IPP Ms. Meera Shrestha and the Advisor Mr. Hemanta Raj Dahal too mentioned their contribution to NELTA in their remarks. The program was attended by the Central Committee members, life members and the staff of NELTA. Both of them were felicitated with Token of Love from NELTA Family 

The NELTA By-law discussion program was held on June 2, 2018, at Pathshala Nepal Foundation, Baghdol, Lalitpur in the presence of NELTA Central Committee, Advisor, NELTA staff and representatives from 45 NELTA branches, with a total of 68 participants. The General Secretary, Mr. Ishwori Bahadur Adhikari conducted the program for the first half. The NELTA President, Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan gave her welcome remarks, expressing her happiness on embarking on the path to adding one more milestone in the history of NELTA by reviewing the By-law in the meeting and clearing the confusion in forming NELTA provincial committee. She had highlighted the importance of the NELTA By-law discussion program and stressed all NELTA members to focus on sustainability, transparency, inclusiveness, democratic practice etc. while forming the provincial committee. She stated that whether it is the center, branch or provincial level network, NELTA's objective will always be, promoting English language teaching and learning situation in the country and professional development of all ELT practitioners. Focusing on the main agenda, the President said, “NELTA By-law will be finalized today incorporating the feedback and suggestions from the representatives”. Before ending the welcome remarks, she congratulated Prof. Dr. Laxman Gnawali, Senior Vice President of NELTA for his recent promotion to the professorship at Kathmandu University with a bouquet and khada, followed by all NELTA central committee members congratulating Prof. Gnawali with khada.

The Senior Vice-President Prof. Dr. Laxman Gnawali spoke on ''Strengthening NELTA'' He stressed NELTA's strength in its capital 5000+ life members, and NELTA needs to find a way to cash this capital. He said, "If we Neltians are strong, then NELTA will automatically become strong. If NELTA Centre is strong, then provincial and district branch becomes strong. If provincial and district branch is strong, then NELTA Centre becomes strong. Reciprocity is the Mantra for making it stronger."   

The Vice-President Mr. Jayaram Khanal had expressed his concern on finalizing the provincial structure of NELTA in his session “NELTA in Provincial Structure”. The treasurer, Mr. Ashok Sapkota, gave a brief information on the logistics of the program and urged NELTA Branch executives to maintain financial transparency and to hand over financial documents and minutes to the successive committee on time to ease the auditing at NELTA. Training Coordinator, Ms. Sarita Dewan, shared recent training updates. Before the end of the first session, the announcement of NELTA winning the global bidding to organize the TESOL Regional Conference in Nepal on November 21-23, 2019 was made by the General Secretary.

After lunch, the program was conducted by the Secretary Mr. Laxmi Prasad Ojha. The Advisor of NELTA, Mr. Hemanta Raj Dahal, presented his idea on, "The Proposed NELTA By-law" and facilitated the proposed By-law and finalizing it. After noting out the major issues of all the provinces, and the feedback by the participants, Mr. Hemanta Raj Dahal, President Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan and the Secretary Mr. Laxmi Prasad Ojha addressed the issues which were approved by all the representatives of 45 branches, NELTA Executive members and others present during the discussion.

To add a little excitement, a surprised lottery was held at each province table, where a representative in each province won a NELTA token of love. The lucky winners were the representatives from Morang, Saptari, Nuwakot, Syangja, Banke, and Bajura

Amid the excitement, NELTA central committee member, the branch Chair of Makwanpur branch as well as, the representative, announced that province No 3 is going to organize the provincial conference in February 2019. At last, the immediate Past President of NELTA, Ms. Meera Shrestha thanked the Advisor, Mr. Hemanta Raj Dahal, Senior Vice President Prof. Laxman Gnawali, General Secretary Mr. Ishwori Bahadur Adhikari, NELTA Central Committee members and staff Anu Adhikari, Anita Devkota and Laxmi Gurung for their roles in organizing the program, she also acknowledged the presence of representatives from 45 branches and the staff of Pathsala Nepal Foundation for their support and warm hospitality not forgetting the rapporteurs of the program Mr. Jagadish Paudel and Ms. Prathana Basukala.  In the end, the questionnaires for the feedback on tentative strategic plan for future regarding how NELTA branches and the provincial committee will function was collected and the NELTA Secretary, Mr. Laxmi Prasad Ojha, announced the conclusion of the discussion program.

Glimpses of the program:

A one day workshop on Teaching Academic Writing was conducted by NELTA on March 30, 2018, in collaboration with Kathmandu University, School of Education, Hattiban. The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Prithvi Narayan Shrestha, Senior Lecturer from the Open University, UK. The workshop was attended by 28 participants from NELTA, Kathmandu University, and Tribhuvan University ( Ratna Rajya Campus). The workshop covered the areas such as introduction to academic writing, approaches to teaching academic writing, needs analysis and academic writing, designing materials for academic writing, and assessing academic writing and feedback.

The President of NELTA Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan felicitated Dr. Shrestha as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of NELTA during the years 2013-14, and Prof. Dr. Jai Raj Awasthi one of the Founder members, and the past President of NELTA to mark the Silver Jubilee Year of NELTA 2018.

Facilitator: Dr. Prithvi Shrestha

Topic: Teaching academic writing: current practices and issues.

Date: March 30, 2018

Time: 12:45 - 4:30 pm.​​​​​​​

Venue: School of Education, Kathmandu University, Hattiban, Lalitpur

Bio

Dr. Prithvi Shrestha is a Senior Lecturer in English Language Teaching in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education, and Language Studies, The Open University, Milton United Kingdom. Dr. Shrestha holds a BEd, MA in English literature (both Tribhuvan University, Nepal), MA TESOL (University of Lancaster) and EdD (The Open University). He taught as an English language teacher in secondary schools and worked as a teacher educator in Nepal over 12 years. He worked at Goldsmiths College, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2006 before he joined the Open University.

Research interests

Dr. Shrestha has led or co-led a number of research projects that sit broadly within educational and applied linguistics, underpinned by Vygotskian sociocultural theory and systemic functional linguistics. In particular, his work has contributed to the field of academic literacy, language across the curriculum, assessment and educational technology-mediated language teacher education in developing countries. In academic literacy and language across the curriculum, his key contributions have been, understanding how dynamic assessment (a form of learning-oriented assessment) can support distance learners’ academic literacy development, how academic literacy contributes to learners’ progression in a discipline (e.g., science and early childhood studies) and how academic literacy embedded assessment can be designed to support distance learners effectively. Another key focus of his research has been investigating the impact of commercial language tests such as IELTS and TOEFL on different stakeholders in low economy countries (Bangladesh and Nepal). This work contributes to designing English language tests that are context-sensitive. His research in technology-mediated language teacher education in developing countries has been within large donor-funded international development projects (e.g., English in Action in Bangladesh and Teacher Education through School-based Support India (TESS-India) in India). His key contribution is in the area of English language teacher professional development through mobile technologies in low-resource contexts by developing research-led locally sensitive teacher professional development resources in Bangladesh.

Currently, Dr. Shrestha is leading on the production of a business communication module called Communication skills for business and management which has distinct features such as learning-oriented assessment, reflective learning, and workplace communication focus. He has worked extensively on language across the curriculum with various faculties in The Open University (i.e. embedding academic language and literacy practices in different disciplines such as Science and Early Years studies). He has the expertise of developing technology-mediated (e.g., mobile devices) teacher professional development materials for English language teachers who teach English as a second or foreign language (ESL/ EFL).

He has been invited as a keynote speaker at international conferences and the debate on national policy on assessment. Additionally, he has served as a Joint Coordinator of International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, English for Specific Purposes, Special Interest Group (IATEFL ESP SIG). He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of NELTA, and a co-editor of the journal of the IATEFL ESP SIG. currently, he is the editor of Journal of Language and Education published by National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

 Dr. Shrestha has been awarded Gold Medal for his outstanding practice paper in 2014, ELTons 2013(team award) and Nominee of ELTons 2007, Award by the British Council. He has supervised doctoral and Postdoctoral students

Other information

At present, he is dealing with projects such as;

• Researching Academic Reading in two contrasting EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) university contexts (Nepal & Sweden), and implications for the design of TOEFL iBT 
• Integrated study skills: effects on students’ academic writing for assessment in E109 (Early Years study, funded by Faculty
• Academic literacy and communicating assessment to students on Level 1 Science Modules (funded by eSTEeM)
• Perceptions of IELTS test users and motivations of test takers in Bangladesh and Nepal: A comparative case study (IELTS Research Grant, the British Council)
• In the Past he was involved in the research project of the British Council, Higher Education

              Academy UK, English in Action/ DfID, and Bangladesh.

• He has maintained strong links with international professional bodies and scholars within my field of research and working with Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Nepal and the UK

23^rd NELTA International Conference 2018 accomplished!

The mega event of Nepal English Language Teachers' Association (NELTA), 23^rd  International Conference coincided with the organization’s 25^th anniversary (Silver Jubilee), was accomplished with a huge success with the theme, “Content, Language, and Technology: Perspectives and Prospects in ELT” at Galaxy Public School, Gyaneshwor, Kathmandu, from 15 to 17 February, 2018 (3 days).

More than 1000 participants, presenters, and dignitaries from 17 countries participated in the conference, including the four Key Speakers: Dr. Maggie Sokolik, the USA, Prof. Richard Smith, the UK, Prof. Dr. S. Mohanraj, and Prof. Dr. Paul Gunashekar from India, with twelve Plenary Speakers: Dr. David Perrodin, Thailand, Dr. Ram Ashish Giri, Australia,   Dr. Richmond Stroupe, Japan, Dr. Seetha Lakshmi, Singapore, Prof. Dr. Vishnu Sing Rai, Prof. Dr. Anand Sharma, Mr. Hemanta Raj Dahal from Nepal,  Prof. Dr. Z N Patil, India, Ms. Rhona Brown, British Council, Nepal, Mr. Biswha Raj Gautam, RELO Specialist, the US Embassy, including Key Speakers Dr. Sokolik and Dr. Smith.

The inaugural ceremony was chaired by Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan, the President of NELTA and conducted by Mr. Ishwari Bahadur Adhikari, General Secretary, NELTA.  The honorable Chief Minister Mr. Dormani Poudel inaugurated the conference as a Chief Guest. There were 177 concurrent sessions, workshops and poster presentations on the theme and sub-themes. A panel discussion was also conducted on the burning topic of Nepal, “English in Federal Education: When and How?” moderated by Mr. Ganga Ram Gautam, Advisor to NELTA with the panelists: Dr. Lava Deo Awasthi, Chief of Language Commission, the Government of Nepal, Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadava, Expert in Multilingual Education including Key Speakers Dr. Sokolik, Prof. Smith, Prof. Dr. S. Mohanraj. There were simultaneous events like; Interactive Language Fair, NELTA Social Event, NELTA ELT Tech Network, Meeting with RELO funded participants and distribution of certificates of the Webinar and E-teacher courses, Meeting with branches on the serious issue of sustainability, and the AGM.

To mark the Silver Jubilee Year of NELTA, 2018, six host Schools of NELTA conferences in the past, Founding Members and Past Presidents of NELTA, Editors-in Chief, all the Sponsors, Key Partners, Publishing Houses, Educational Institutions, Travel Agencies, and Hotels from home and abroad were felicitated.

There was book exhibition by the courtesy of International Publication Houses, Local Publishers, Colleges and Educational Institutions with their promotional presentation and display.  Receptions were also arranged for the delegates and presenters by the British Council, U.S. Embassy, NELTA, Alfa-Beta, Galaxy Public Schools during the conference.

Thank you, Madam Geeta Rana, Madam Surina S. Gurung and the entire Galaxy Public School Family for being supportive and providing a grand platform and opportunities for sharing, networking, and learning for the English teachers from primary to university level to make a big success of mega event of NELTA International Conference 2018, at your premises.    

Some Glimpses of the program: