Is English a problem why ?

Yes teaching English is a great problem for school level. There are many causes which play vital role.

We have two kinds of schools in our country and producing tw types of students. There are government schools & pther is private schools. Government schools provide fewer hours for English. But private schools use English as a medium of instruction with full time except Nepaliclass. The first type of schools start Basic English from grade 5 where as private school stars from nursery. When I was in school. I formally started learning English from grade 4. I leafnt English alphabet, numbers and few word like 'Rate' rat mane 'musa' 'CAT' cat mane biralo Etc. Even now generally the government school teachers use the same techniqu for teaching English.

Now the situation is different. The syllabus of the goverment school have been changed. Primary & lower secondary syllabuses based on functional as well as communucative English. Now if the teacher is laborious & encourages and motivates the students he can bring a change in the field of teaching English.

Teaching techniques are different in two types of schools. In private schools a three year child who just starts to speak his mother tongue, starts to learn English with shymes & songs  like. j" Twinkle-twinkle little star........" Ba ba black sheep..." etc. though the child can't understand the meanig of each vocabulary, he repeats several times. When a child sings the song, the parents feel very proud because of English. After then the child gradually starts to learn new vocabulary & sentence structures. Generally, reputed boarding schools don't allow children to speak in Nepali during the school hour. Consequently, the language expose is full of English & childrren easily learn it. The reason is this the environment plays a vital role for learning languase.

In our government schools English is taught only in the English class & most of time, the role of teacher is active and the students are passive listeners. Generally teachers don't apply new methods and techniques for encouraging the students towards learning. To develop fluency in English, We need more time for practice. Interaction between the teacher and students and among students is most essential. Reason is this, practice makes a man perfect. Undoubtely we have least practice & less exposure for learning & developing English. Hence opur English is poor than the private school production. If the foundation is strong then the house will be strong.

Besides some exceptional cases, we need to consider some factors for learning target language (English).

1. Age factor

2. Language exposure

3. Amount of time

4. Cultural factor

5. practice etc.

The learner's age is the main infuencing factor for learning trarget language. According to child physhology a normal child learns his first language in the first few years of his lite. Target language also requires earlier age for best learning because the chilld esilly & unconsciuoly picks up a new language . Language acquisition device words strongly in this perion. When we cross it languag learning becomes slow and difficult Lenneberg (1967) suggests that between the age of two and puberty the human brain shows plasticity, Which allows a child to acquire his first languaage. This principal also happens in the case of rtarget language learning because between the age of two & puberty mostly a child eaxsily picks up the target language.

Language exposure is essential factor for learning type target language (here English). It parents converse in the target language the child easily learns & becomes perfect in a short perion of time. Untortunately, We have not sufficient exposure for learning & developing English. We have only artificeal situation (only environment of school) for learing English with the help of teachers and textboods, which are not sufficient for us.

Time is suffient for acquering mother tongue but limited for target language. A child starts top speak his mother tongue from his first cry, however. He starts to learn target languate,. he spends much time conversing in mother tongue rather than TL because his friends and whole society use mother tongue for communication.

Acculturation is also essetial for target language. because culture reflects the reality of language.

Enerybody becomes perfect by practice. Due to lack of language exposure we have short practice for conversation. In school we study English just in English class. out of this, whole situation is not in favor of English. So, we hesitate for practice & if we try to converse in English in the street perople look us asif we hare come from another planet. This is a real situation of English in our society.

All the factors, which are mentioned above play a vital role for learning target language. It is not sufficient to refer the situation of English in out context, better to accept the challenge for English. Really, we should give more time for English practise a lot sand never feel that others may laugh at us it we make any mistake. Use English for communication. we have good command in english but feel nervous to converse. So first of all give up hesitation & feel comfortable while conversing for us only fluency in speech is not sufficient written English should also be good. It introduces our personality & helps us to Good smart. we should be laborieus & give much time for practising English. In this way, English won't be a problem for our generation & for ourselves as well.

–Ram Ekwal Pandit