Challenges and Practices of Implementing English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in the Community Schools

Abstract

This study entitled Challenges and Practices of Implementing English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in a Community Schools aimed at exploring the practices of implementing English as a medium of instruction and the challenges faced while implementing English as a medium of instruction in community schools. I used purposive non-random sampling procedure to select sample, which were 30 secondary level teachers teaching through EMI in different schools of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts. I used questionnaire as the major tool of the research. The collected data were presented in tables, pie-charts and columns; and analyzed and discussed quantitatively and qualitatively. The main findings of the study showed that in the majority of the schools, EMI has been recently implemented. Similarly, in most of the schools, all the subjects except language and social subjects were taught through EMI and a majority of the teachers were found to teach their subjects in English. Generally, EMI has been implemented in the Basic Level and parent's demand was the central cause of implementing EMI in community schools. On the other hand, it was found that English language has not been frequently used by most of the teachers and all the students were not found to be able to take exam in English medium. It was found that several challenges related to the educational system, school administration, teachers, parents and students were found to occur in implementing English as medium of instruction in community schools. It was found difficult to manage subject-wise teachers, to address EMI created problems in linguistic and cultural diversity, implementation of EMI created difficulties in protecting and promoting mother tongues and local culture and there was no feasibility of implementing EMI in all subjects. Similarly, there was difficult to manage routine for Nepali as medium of instruction and EMI and to fulfill subject-wise teachers for EMI at the same time and it was difficult to interact, discuss and write the contents in English fluently and motivate the students towards the contents. Almost all the teachers felt EMI as a burden to the parents to afford fees to their children's study through EMI. Similarly, the students had many challenges such as low proficiency in English language, less motivation to the contents, confusing ideas in the subject matter. The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is an introductory chapter. It includes background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of study, vii

research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the study and operational definitions of the key terms. The second chapter deals with theoretical and conceptual framework of the study. The third chapter deals with methodology which incorporates research design and method, population, sample and sampling strategies, field/site of the study, data collection tools and techniques, data collection procedures and data analysis and interpretation procedure. The fourth chapter deals with rigorous analysis of data and interpretation of results. The fifth chapter presents summary of findings, conclusions and recommendations based on this research. Nisha Rai