My Experience of Learning English: A Reflective Account

*Kamlesh Raut

NELTA Birgunj

It has been more than seventeen years when I began learning English.
Today when I am ready to step into the higher level of education, i.e. Master
Degree in English education, I have mixed experiences of learning of
English. Having chosen M. Ed. for my study, my future career of teaching
English further makes me think and rethink on teaching situation. I look
back and try to recall from my memory how I began learning English, how
my teachers oriented me to the journey of learning English, how I went
through the ups and downs in my journey of learning English and how I feel
at this stage. Familiar with the paradigm shift in English language teaching
in the global scenario, I try to compare the ways I was taught English in
those days against the backdrop of new global trends in the field.

It is still vivid in my memory when I was admitted to a pre-primary grade

popularly known as the sishu class then, now they call it playgroup in private
schools. I think my learning of English almost began with learning of my
mother tongue. It is because before I was put into a school my father taught
me some basic things of English at home. They included English alphabet
and some English words. Though formally English started from grade IV, one
period per day was allocated for English and we were taught names of some
objects then. Today, many government-aided schools are being converted
into English medium schools. However, it was not the case then. Being a
native speaker of Bajjika, I perceived both Nepali and English as new
languages for me and was so curious to learn both of them. My time of
learning language was divided into English and Nepali both. Sometimes,
Bajjika helped me learn these languages at other times it affected my
learning of these two languages badly. At home and in neighborhood, I
spoke and heard Bajjika and could hear both Nepali and English only within
school premises. The exposure to English and Nepali both was very limited
for me. Until grade IV, my teacher taught English, i.e. letters, words, and
some simple sentences such as Ram is a boy; Sita is a girl, etc. My teacher
spoke each sentence with translation in Nepali but Nepali was also not so
familiar to us. So he translated the sentence into Bajjika also. In grade IV,
when I could see the textbook I jumped with joy. The book contained some
pictures, stories and many more things. It was the first book in English I had
ever seen. I had higher regard for English than any other subjects. First day
of that course, our class teacher wrote some words with their pronunciation
and meaning on the blackboard and we were asked to parrot them.
Parroting vocabulary was almost regular. So was the case with most of the
subjects. Most teachers would ask us to parrot as homework whatever they
taught us. I hardly tried to understand things then. By education, I meant
parroting and reproducing before teachers or in exams. The more the
students parroted the contents, the more they were rewarded by teachers.
Language teaching or let us say English language teaching was also like
parroting. I could hardly realize ever that language is a means of
communication. My teacher never talked to us in English, my friends never
talked to me in English and nor did I. We mugged up English at home and
school most of the time because we considered it as a hard subject. Once we
were finished with mugging up the vocabulary, the teacher would select the
text and would translate it into Nepali and also sometimes into Bajjika,
sentence by sentence. This practice of word meaning teaching and
translation continued up to grade IX.

When I reached grade X, we got a new teacher to teach English. First time in
grade X, I studied basic grammar such as article, voice, narration,
preposition, tag question, causative verbs, etc. Our teacher gave priority to
those things which were likely to be asked in exams and omitted those
which were not important for exams. The teacher would tell us These are
VVI questions for exams, so prepare them well. Leave those topics, they
will not be asked in exams. I can still recall those days vividly now. We
studied to pass exams. All subjects, including English were taught from the
examination perspective. I had to appear for practical exam of English
during my SLC exam. First time in eleven years of learning English, I came
to know that there are four language skillslistening, reading, speaking and
writing. I could understand that all language skills are equally important.
Alas! I wasted my ten years in memorizing vocabulary, their spelling,
pronunciation, meaning, understanding the text, mugging up the questions
and their answers and reproducing them in the exam papers. I wish my
teacher had opened my eyes in those early stages of my life. I could hardly
speak any good sentence in the speaking exam. Similarly, I heard things
from the cassette but could hardly understand more than 30 percent.
I could understand English as a language only when I joined my Proficiency
Certificate Level. On completion of school study, I joined Thakur Ram
Multiple Campus, Birgunj for my higher study majoring English. I could see
and understand that the teaching and learning of the college was quite
different from my school. In the campus, I was taught by five university
teachers but I could not be very much satisfied with their way of teaching
either. Again there, many of the teachers were exam-oriented and more
authoritative in nature. We were not allowed to answer the questions
according to our wish. According to them, we had to supply the same answer
as given in the book all words and sentences. Even the medium of
instruction was either Nepali or Bhojpuri and sometimes English. Some days
later I came to know that many of them were using the same notebooks that
they had prepared ten years back. Dictation was the pet technique of most
teachers. This shows we had two types of teacher.

I do not claim that English language teaching and teachers are the same
everywhere. However, I suppose that many of you (especially those who
were taught in government aided Nepalese schools) might have faced the
situation similar to mine. When I have learnt that English language teaching
in the world has seen a lot of changes in theories and practices, I recall
those days, the poor state of affairs of teaching English. When I see and
read the changes brought in education and ELT by technology, I remember
my own poor classrooms with blackboard. When I hear people speak English
fluently and eloquently, I recall my teachers broken English and its effect
upon my own learning of English. When I read others beautiful and powerful
English, I just curse my own poor English. When I see teachers teaching
English involving students in interaction and activities, I recall my own days
when teacher hardly allowed us to speak anything in class. I wish I were
taught English differently.

*Kamlesh Raut is a budding multilingual poet. He writes in Nepali, Bhojpuri,

Maithili and English.