Abstract
Abstract
Background
Nepal is a multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual country. Because of its geopolitical uniqueness, it has been a place for multi-faceted research studies for the scholars from all around the world. The population census of 2001 has listed 92 identified languages and the other unidentified languages. Similarly, successive research studies carried by various researchers claim that there are more than 126 languages. Most of these languages do not have their written scripts so the Government of Nepal has launched some initial programmes for the protection of the languages as they are a part of cultural heritages of the country. The protection of the languages has been one of the political agendas of the political parties of Nepal and sometimes there emerged protests for the recognition of their indigenous languages and the establishment of an inclusive language policy in the newly established republic of Nepal. The mother tongue education policy of the state is one of the consequences of the multilingual status of this country. For this education, textbooks have been written in more than 17 different languages by the Curriculum Development Center. Recently, the government 0f Nepal has prepared 'Multilingual Education Implementation Directory, 2010'. This has endorsed a policy for recruiting a native-speaker teacher of the local language in each school (MOE, 2010) . From the pedagogical perspective, it has been very challenging both for the teachers and learners in our school level. In the same background, there have been very few discussions on how to settle or address the multilingual classroom challenges in higher education of Nepal.
Background
Multilingualism refers to the condition in which more than two languages are used in the same setting for similar purposes. It has been one of the characteristics of modern civilization. But it is still a matter of debate just how much proficiency is required to get mastery over languages. Many linguists define bilingualism/ multilingualism as 'mastery over two/more languages...', but they are not clear on what level of mastery makes competence in grammar, vocabulary, communicative function, etc. The multilingual context has brought many issues which may be sometimes the complications for the sociolinguists. For example, in isogloss areas, a hybrid type of language may be created among people from various linguistic backgrounds. One of the prominent questions which the sociolinguists are trying to answer is-What are the consequences of multilingualism concerning all sorts of domains of society involving language, such as language education (language teaching) and the judiciary? It is generally accepted that language is an important marker of identity. But what is the national, regional or ethnic identity of people living in the multilingual contexts? What are the consequences of mobility and migration in the union for multilingualism? What different educational impacts are due to multilingualism? A number of social complexities are witnessed. For instance, frequent code-switching is highly probable. As a pedagogue, I have observed language teachers and language learners switching their code inside the classroom . There may be various purposes for code-switching. Holmes (2008) writes that a speaker may switch to another language as a signal of group membership and shared ethnicity with the addressee. In this context, language is a carrier of ethnic identity and culture. This creates multiculturalism even inside the classroom.
Linguistic diversity and multiculturalism
The world is a storehouse of languages. There is linguistic diversity. Linguistic diversity reflects the existence of the multitude of languages spoken in the world which is variously estimated. Crystal (2009, p. 3) writes "most reference books published since the 1980s give a figure of between 6000 and 7000, but estimates have varied in recent decades between 3000 and 10,000." Safeguarding this diversity today is one of the most urgent challenges facing our world. Estimates suggest that at least half of them are in danger of disappearing in the coming years. While some countries are linguistically homogeneous, such as Iceland, many countries and regions display a wealth of linguistic diversity, for example, Indonesia, with over 700 languages and Papua New Guinea with over 800 languages. The actual distribution of linguistic diversity is uneven. Over 70 percent of all languages in the world are found in just 20 nation states among them most of them are the poorest countries in the world. Regarding the same, writes "I will opt for the range of between 5000-7000 as my lower and upper bounds, for the year 2000-6±1K." In general, bilingual and multilingual contexts (that is the presence of different linguistic groups living in the same country) are the norm rather than the exception through the world, both in the North and the South. Bilingualism and multilingualism, that is, the use of more than one language in daily life, will be normal practice in this context (UNESCO, 2003) . Linguistically diverse contexts cover a range of scenarios in the globe. Broadly speaking, however, these correspond either to more traditionally diverse situations where several, or even up to many hundreds of languages have been spoken in a region over a long period of time, or to more recent developments particularly, in urban concentrations, the result of migratory phenomena, where in some city schools there may be as many as 30 or 40 different mother tongues among students. In all cases, there is a need to take into consideration the specific learning needs of children in relation to the language or languages of the home and those of the school. The multilingual situation is a result of migration, movement of people after the World War II, spread of colonial power, the volunteer programmes, travel and tourism, etc. In multilingualism, moving from one language to another in the course of a single conversation is very common; sometimes people may not know consciously when they move from one language to another. Wardhaugh (2000) regards monolingualism as a misfit. Therefore, it is obvious that in many of the countries multilingualism is a normal phenomenon for daily living and it is a requirement in this modern world. A speaker is forced to use different languages in different situations; for example s/he has to use one language at home, another at school or sometimes another in trade or other daily professional situations (organizations). In the place where such situation is present, the individuals learn (acquire) language naturally or unconsciously, and we can sometimes observe the language shift.This is why a child growing up or brought up in a bilingual/ multilingual society automatically becomes multilingual. (1) All the languages spoken as the mother tongue in Nepal are the national languages of Nepal.
Linguistic diversity and multiculturalism
(2) The Nepali Language in Devanagari script shall be the official language. A similar condition could be found in most of the private schools of Nepal. The students use English as a language of interaction in the classroom in the presence of their teachers and they use Nepali or their mother tongue in the playground or when they are away from their teachers. They use cultural-specific interaction styles while addressing their individual friends. The following statement highlights the importance of this point.
Linguistic diversity and multiculturalism
When children are educated exclusively in a non-mother-tongue language, they are Multilingual classes consist of students speaking different languages and are most often found in English speaking countries where students have come with an aim to learn English. Similar classroom conditions could be found in Nepalese schools also where students come to the class for learning English but are from diverse linguistic backgrounds. There are several major factors one must take into account when dealing with multilingual and monolingual classes. Students attending multi-lingual classes have come from different cultures, speak a different language and usually have no common language between them. Students attending a mono-lingual class are usually from the same background and speak the same language, allowing them to communicate amongst themselves in the classroom. This has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of attending multilingual classes are that students will be forced to speak English between themselves and with the teacher. Students speaking different languages will work at different speeds and can create divisions in the class. Hopefully the teacher is skilled enough to deal with these problems but if not, it can limit the more able students and/ or make the less able students feel stupid and cumbersome. This means an unskilled teacher in the multilingual classrooms will rather hamper than facilitate learning. Students from different backgrounds will also come across different problems in the English language, be it pronunciation, spelling or layout. These problems will be specific to each student and will take personal attention from the teacher. Explaining a problem of one student to the whole class may be ineffective as they don't necessarily experience the same difficulties. Again, with a less skilled teacher, the personal time taken to solve problems of an individual student could leave the rest of the class bored and neglected. The advantages of teaching monolingual classes are that the students are all on the same playing field, as they speak the same language, most would have similar cultures and most would experience similar problems when learning English. This gives the teacher an advantage as they generally don't have to deal with individual problems, any problem raised by one student would likely help the other students too. Students are able to intercommunicate using their mother tongue which can be a huge advantage in the classroom when the teacher sets an exercise for group work or pair work; the students are able to organise themselves together to carry out the tasks. It allows the lesson to run more efficiently. The disadvantages of teaching monolingual classes are almost the opposite to that of teaching multilingual classes. In the native country, students may often be in the class out of compulsion not out of want, which produces an environment of contempt, resulting in slow learning. Students communicating in their mother tongue can act as a hindrance as they are not practicing English in the classroom and very rarely outside the class, greatly reducing their exposure and practice of the language. Ultimately there are other factors such as preference of teachers and students, teacher experience and class objectives which may determine the success of a multilingual class. Awasti (2004, p. 3) points that "ambiguities and inconsistencies prevail between the multilingually oriented intentions of the state and monolingually dominated reality of the school. In the school system, the mother tongue of minorities seems to have been invisibilised and is seen as a handicap. As a result, the non-Nepali speaking students at the early stages of their schooling face exclusion".
Linguistic diversity and multiculturalism
As most of the teachers in Nepalese classrooms are dealing with the multilingual students. They must have experienced some of the common problems. It must be further challenging for them since most of the classrooms are large and heterogeneous. Because of linguistically plural classroom conditions even from basic level to the higher level, there seems to be a need for responding and inquiring this condition in order to help them to effective teaching. In the higher education of Nepal, there are large and heterogeneous classes and most of the teachers are bilingual (usually Nepali-native speaker teachers teaching English) and some of them are multilingual (usually other than Nepali native speaker teachers teaching English). My query here is that those teachers who usually deliver lecture in their classrooms must have felt somehow uneasy and similar conditions may have been felt by students of these classes. Finding out the real problems and their teaching strategies is one of the major goals of this research.
Objectives
The general objectives of the study were to present the overall scenario of English language teaching in multilingual classrooms. To be specific, the paper aimed to find out the following.
Objectives
• To identify the problems and challenges of multilingual classroom
Objectives
• To find out how the teachers behave linguistically in the classroom while teaching English.
Objectives
• To find out the reactions/attitudes of the students towards their teachers' use of language in the classroom and out of the classroom.
Objectives
• To suggest some pedagogical implications.
Objectives
The methodology I sampled 20 teachers on the basis of judgmental sampling process. The teachers were selected from those who have been teaching English at the intermediate and bachelor levels at Tribhuvan University. The teachers were selected from Mahendra Ratna Campus, Saraswati Campus, Trichandra Campus and Rainbow International college of Kathmandu. A set of separate questionnaires were prepared for the teachers and the students. Along with the questionnaires, the classes of those teachers were also observed and notes were taken. Similarly 30 students were separately selected from those campuses and they were requested to fill in the questionnaire. At the end of the data collection process, a focus group discussion was organized in two campuses regarding the problems and challenges of multilingual classrooms. To validate the data, the triangulation was made among the teachers' responses in the questionnaires, their class observation and finally the focus group discussion activities. Finally an analysis was made on the basis of the data obtained. Since the questionnaire had both closed and open type of questions, the data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The major findings are stated below.
Discussion and findings
Student's use of language in the classroom I found that majority of the students speak Nepali in the classroom even though the teachers were teaching through the medium of English (obtained from classroom observation). The medium of instruction was English but they interpreted in Nepali more frequently. Most of the students were found to be using the Nepali language to ask questions to teachers (out of 6 students asking question, only two spoke in English). The teachers explained or responded to the queries of students in both English and Nepali. This seems to be similar condition as found in the teaching of other subjects too other than language classrooms like Nepali Education classes.
Discussion and findings
Teachers' use of language outside the classroom in the campus premises
Discussion and findings
Regarding the question of teachers' use of language outside the classroom, it was found that almost all the teachers use Nepali as their primary language of interaction and English as the secondary language of interaction (they said that they feel more comfortable to use Nepali in interactions and use English in certain conditional interactions like if students ask questions in English only then they interact in English). A few teachers used their mother tongue to interact with those students whose mother tongue is similar to their language (for instance, a Tamang native speaker teacher of English rarely used Tamang language to interact with Tamang speaking students). Except English language teachers, other teachers used Nepali as the language of outside interaction. Some of the English language teachers used English as a medium of interaction in the campus premises.
Students' use of language in peer groups
The majority (out of 30 students in focus group discussion, 26 students responded that they use Nepali ) of the students used Nepali language as the language of interaction with their peers. Their responses revealed that even the students who are learning English as their major subject were found speaking Nepali during their interaction. Even in the classroom also, they interacted most of the time in Nepali. A few students were found using English for interaction in the pair. They responded that they feel comfortable using Nepali for interaction.
Methods used in teaching
Out of twenty teachers only sixteen teachers responded that they use different methods like lecture method, discussion and communicative method. Some of the language teachers used translation also. In a close classroom observation of these teachers, a few of them used the communicative method although most of them claimed that they teach using communicative method and discussion. From this I understand that what the teachers theoretically say and what they actually do in the classroom are largely different.
Problems faced by Non-Nepali/ non-English speaking students in the classroom
On the basis of the questionnaire and the responses of the teachers and students the following list of problems faced by the non-Nepali mother tongue speaking students is obtained.
Problems faced by Non-Nepali/ non-English speaking students in the classroom
• In the observation of the classroom condition, it was found that a few students could interact with the teacher regarding the content that the teachers were teaching. Those students who had Nepali as the mother tongue dominated the class. This has occurred may be because they felt more comfortable to say something in English and Nepali. For those students whose mother-tongue was other than Nepali hesitated to interact which would eventually lead them to obtain the bad results.
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
Most of the teachers replied that they feel difficulty while delivering the content in front of the students with varied language backgrounds. While interviewed, they clearly mentioned that because of the gaps in the use of the words (in Nepali) and the students' poor English language backgrounds, they have been skeptical whether their students actually perceive what they mean. They claimed that this type of situation is always there in every class. The physical appearance of students which shows their varied language backgrounds and ethnicity strikes at the first instance or first encounter in the classroom. This type of condition leads them to code shifting while presenting their details of the topic.
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
From the class observation also, I found that the teachers frequently translated and shifted into another language. They also exhibited some degree of hesitation while delivering the content. Whenever a non-Nepali mother tongue speaking student asked the question, then the teachers had to make deliberate effort to minimize the difficulty. In some of the cases the teachers were unable to understand the queries made by non-Nepali mother tongue speaking students ( for instance the speech of Urdu and Maithili speakers could not be easily perceived because those students were using the retroflex type of sounds). A few number of teachers tried to search for addressing the multilingual needs of the students. They claimed that though they could make reforms in classroom teaching methods, because of the setting of classrooms, varied or mixed ability students they had not been able to implement them further. The teachers suggested the following actions that could be used to address the students' multilingual needs. They were-
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
• Discussion of problems with other fellow teachers • Formation of peer group of students with the same language background
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
• Preparation of multilingual materials
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
• Using examples from many languages, drawing typical expressions from the students who speak other than Nepali language as their mother tongue.
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
• Providing translation type of home assignment for the students.
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
Though they suggested the above mentioned activities, I found that the group work/pair work activities were rarely conducted by these teachers may be because there are some other technical and non-academic difficulties.
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
Understanding from the side of the students it was found that they need to be provided with a number of opportunities for practicing contents in their mother tongue as well as in English so that they would be able to understand the local realities and think to correlate them to the wider or global understanding. There were some instances in which the teachers used different techniques to encourage the students use foreign/ second language in the classroom. The following are the ways they used for this purpose (as replied in questionnaires and got from classroom observation)
Teachers' difficulty in delivering the message
• Inviting students for group discussion Reflecting from the perspective of the students, most of them opined that they wanted to practice the English language together with their mother tongue. They said that they had difficulty in finding the equivalent translations in their own language which sometimes made them humiliated to study further.
Students' achievement and their mother tongue
As most of the campus classrooms of Nepal are highly multilingual, we have found varied groups of students in terms of their mother tongues. As the study consisted of 30 students from different language backgrounds, the researcher tried to analyze their mother tongue and the relationship of this with their academic achievement. From the analysis, it was concluded that the students who have non-Nepali mother tongue have lagged behind compared to their Nepali-language mother tongue counterparts in terms of their achievement at the academic level. There may be many other intervening factors for the poor academic achievement of the students speaking other than Nepali language, however the researcher concludes that one of the causes may be the language barriers for their attainment of the level that their counter parts have obtained. May be the Nepali language facilitates for them learning any subject because most of the reading materials are available either in English or in Nepali. Very few reading materials are available in their own mother tongues
Monolingual teaching method or multilingual teaching method
A question was asked whether monolingual teaching method was to be used in the University level classes or multilingual teaching methods should be used there. In this connection, most of the teachers responded that there should be multilingual teaching methods because only when the students get exposure in their own language then they will be able to grasp the real meaning of the concepts or information. Fifteen teachers out of twenty were in favor of multilingual teaching and only five teachers opined that for getting command in only one language (English) the teaching should be done in it only and this is also beneficial for the global opportunities and access of the students. For them the another cause for using monolingual teaching is that very few teachers are available who could speak at least three languages. The teachers responded that the use of mother tongue and translation is also necessary for the successful delivery of the content. They felt that the students always try to understand the new concepts through their mother tongue. A virtual type of translation already takes place in their mind.
Monolingual teaching method or multilingual teaching method
Similarly many of the students replied that they wanted the type of teacher who speaks many languages and could translate the words or the content meaning into their own language. In this regard they thought that this condition will encourage them to learn further and their linguistic diversity will be maintained. Almost all the students replied that only a few teachers exemplify in their mother tongues. So they sometimes feel difficulty in understanding the content. They reported that they feel happy whenever their teachers shift into their mother tongue either from the Nepali or English. Use of learners' mother tongue would be better for them to address the classroom conflicts between the students and teachers also.
Conclusion
From the study of the multilingual classroom situation of higher level education, the researcher came to the conclusion that even at this level, the students are deprived of the convenience to the right to get education in their own language. The teachers felt comfortable in Nepali and the students also felt comfortable in their own language but the goal of teaching is to make them competent in English. English language teaching situation seems to be affected by this situation also. The success in ELT also depends on the students' motivation towards it and the interference of learners' mother tongue seems to be one of the factors for poor performance in English. Because of the multilingual backgrounds of the students, it is very difficult for the teachers to devise the right type of teaching methodology. The appropriate method is that method which better fits in the particular classroom of the teachers. The orientation towards multilingual teaching methods is urgent for the present time to satisfy the students needs and to trigger the rapid growth of multilingualism in this twenty first century.
Conclusion
Prem Parsad Poudel is a faculty at the Department of English Education, Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tahachal, Kathmadu. He is a life member of NELTA. Kathmandu, Nepal.
Appendix-I:
Questionnaire to the teachers . 

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