Introduction

The Department of English Education is recognized as the centre for producing trained English language teachers; researchers in a wide range of areas such as applied linguistics, ELT, sociolinguistics, SLA, language testing, and discourse analysis; teacher trainers; and syllabus designers. Through teaching, research and related academic activities, this department serves the needs of students, wishing to pursue an M.Ed. degree in English Education, from diverse socioeconomic, ethnic, and geographical backgrounds from all over the country.

M.Ed. in English Education was introduced in 1976. The Department then was known as English Instruction Committee and was headed by late Chandra Bir Singh Kansakar. Later, English Instruction Committee was merged with Nepali Instruction Committee and it was renamed Central Department of Language Arts. After a decade, Nepali and English instruction committees were separated and the Department of English Education was established.

Since the beginning, the department has been playing the lead role in strengthening the field of ELT and applied linguistics in Nepal. Since the beginning of English language teaching activities in 1918, this department has been leading the task of English language course development for different levels of education. Collaborating with other agencies such as the Ministry of Education, British Council and the US Embassy, the department is playing a key role to carry out research studies, train teachers and organize regular academic activities such as seminars and conferences.

Faculty Members

Administrative Staff

1. Madhava Khanal
2. Hira Kumari Maharjan

Courses Offered

Currently, the department offers a variety of courses in four semesters. The courses are listed below:

Course Titles and  Description

Course Title: Phonetics and Phonology                                              

This course explores speech sounds as physical entities (phonetics) and as linguistic units (phonology). In viewing sounds as physical elements, the focus is on articulatory description: How are speech sounds made? What types of movements and configurations of the vocal tract are used to produce sounds in the world's languages?  In this part of the course, the goal is to equip students with the knowledge and skills required to produce and analyze both segmental sounds and suprasegmental features of language in general and English in particular. In the next part of the course, the focus is on dealing with different theories of phonology and their importance, phonological processes in English and formulation of different phonological rules. Moreover, great focus is given to English phonetics and phonology, exclusively concentrating on English phonology. The last section focuses on the techniques and activities of teaching English pronunciation in association with the problems which arise in the Nepalese teaching English situations.

Course Title: English Usage and Use                                                           

English in Usage and Use is an advanced-level course on English syntax that is directly interfaced with semantic and pragmatic dimensions. The Course is integrated in nature that begins with the broader theoretical perspective on the syntactic aspects of grammar and moves through English usage and its use in action and finally ends with their pedagogical extension.      

Course Title: Interdisciplinary Readings                                                 

Interdisciplinary Reading is a thematically organized course which exposes the students to content knowledge and linguistic resources employed in communication to the wider readership. Content knowledge draws on such diverse disciplines as philosophy, humanities and social sciences, science and technology and ecology, education, and so on.  This course seeks to explore the cross-disciplinary links and their relevance to the contemporary world. This course consists of seven units altogether, each containing varied selection of reading texts anchored to a broader theme.

Course Title: Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Theories and Research

This course is aimed at exposing the students to the sound theoretical foundations in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories and encourage them to engage in the SLA research. The course consists of five units. The first unit presents the fundamental concepts of SLA and related disciplines. The second unit exposes the students to the various approaches of SLA including the universal grammar and non-language factors. The third unit presents the overview of the different theories and models of SLA. The fourth unit introduces the students to the instructed second language acquisition. The last unit engages the students to the practical work of SLA research.

Course Title: Linguistics in Application                                                      

This course makes an attempt in exploring the basic ideas of applied linguistics acquainting the learners with the key issues in it so as to prepare them for continuing their studies in this field. It aims to meet the need of those wishing to apply linguistics in various professional fields; focusing upon the central aspects of the discipline and it also aims to develop learners' basic knowledge and skills in these areas. The first unit deals with the basic understanding of applied linguistics to language teaching. The second unit is about World Englishes, implication of global spread of English for ELT, English as a lingua franca and the historical context of English in relation to the Nepalese context. Likewise, unit three deals with contrastive and error analysis. Unit four, is about the various intercultural approaches and their practice in ELT. The last unit deals with the various approaches and interpretations of critical pedagogy in language learning.

Course Title: Language, Society and Power                                  

This course aims at exposing the students to the sound theoretical and empirical knowledge on language, society, and power and also encourage them to engage in sociolinguistic research. The course comprises five units. The first unit deals with some major concepts related to language and society. The second unit is on language and power with special focus on linguistic imperialism. The third unit exposes the students to the issues of language planning, policy and literacy. The fourth unit is about various factors related to language and culture. The last unit makes an overview of various sociolinguistic researches in different parts of the world and it also engages the students to carry out small scale sociolinguistic research in the local context.

Course Title: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)  

This course aims at equipping the students with the knowledge and skills of analysing discourse in different social contexts critically. This course is organized into four units. The first unit introduces the basic concepts of discourse analysis along with its relation to ideology and its discursive structure. The second unit reviews the history, principles, objectives, role of analyst and engages students in discussions about how CDA differs from discourse analysis. The third unit deals with the commonly used methodologies for critical discourse analysis. The fourth unit that is the application of critical discourse analysis provides the students with opportunity to analyze different types (genres) of discourses critically.

Course Title: Readings in English Part-- I 

Readings in English Part-I is an advanced level reading course which builds on Interdisciplinary Readings (Eng Ed 517) of the first semester. The course has eight units.  It consists of Advanced Academic Texts, which are organized under various themes, namely Education, Literature, Art and Culture, Contemporary Issues, Human Conditions, while Literary Texts organized under major genres of literature. Both types of texts expose the students to content knowledge and strengthen their linguistic resources useful for communication to the wider readership.  The course presents the best of authentic academic and literary texts by the prominent authors from diverse geo-cultural and political backgrounds. The course seeks to explore the cross-disciplinary links and their relevance to the contemporary world. 

Course Title: ELT Research and Testing              

This course is divided into two sections: Research and Testing in ELT. The first section presents glimpse (what, why and how) of different research designs in ELT. It aims at providing the students with overall understanding of research works in general, and the specific research activities carried out in English language teaching and learning in particular. This section is divided into two units. The first unit focuses on developing theoretical perspective of different research designs. For this different research articles will be used as resources. The second unit emphasizes the application of different research design discussed in the first unit. For this the students are required to produce a research article by using one of the designs discussed in the first unit.

Course Title: Dimensions of Teacher Development

 ‘Dimensions of Teacher Development’ is a course beyond methodology and it covers the key concepts of English language teaching as a professional and various dynamics of teacher development. It addresses the fundamentals of teacher development such as beliefs, maxims and identities. It also discussesthe teacher learning theories, their features and their applications to English language teaching. The course makes an attempt to empower the students to operationalize various teacher learning models and approaches. It also enables them to design and deliver training sessions. Thus, the course aims at producing professionally competent English language teachers and trainers.

Course title: Readings in Literary Genres 

Readings in Literary Genres is an advanced literature-based course which builds on Readings in English Part-I (Eng Ed 517) of the second semester. This course follows the genre-based classification of literature and its analysis and interpretation from different critical perspectives. Units from first to fifth comprise long fictions, short fictions, poetry, prose and dramas, whereas the last unit entails major schools of literary criticisms. The course offers some carefully selected fiction and non-fiction writings in English that enrich students with critical insights in varieties of the English language, its cultures, and that motive them in creative writing.   

Course Title: English Language Teaching (ELT) Pedagogy and Materials

The intent of this course is to expose the students to the theories and practices of English language teaching and help them develop materials to teach English at various levels of education. The course consists of five units. The first unit familiarizes the students with the broader and specific contexts of English language teaching while the second unit presents the overview of the ELT methodology. The third unit deals with the techniques and activities of teaching English language aspects and skills. The fourth unit is about the planning and assessment in ELT while the fifth unit provides the critical perspectives of language education and its pedagogy. 

Course Title: Translation Studies

This course is aimed at exposing students to various theories and practices of translation studies. The course consists of six units. The first unit overviews basic concepts of the discipline and the second unit deals with concepts of translation equivalence. Likewise, the third unit relates translation theories with some contemporary issues and the fourth unit gives a brief account of translation tradition with reference to the Nepali–English languages pair followed by different kinds of texts for practical activities. The fifth unit sheds light on various approaches in researching translation and the last unit tries to seek the application of translation in language pedagogy.

Course Title: ELT Seminar and Report Writing                     

The intent of this course is to provide students with opportunities to present and participate in the ELT seminars. This is a fully student-centered course in which the students take the full charge of their learning. Teacher will facilitate them to conduct and participate in the seminar. The course, first of all, introduces the students to the theoretical aspects of ELT seminars by engaging them in the process of identifying contemporary ELT issues that they would like to explore as a part of their course work. They will analyze the issue from multiple perspectives and present their observations in a class seminar.

Course Title: Academic Writing

This course is designed to introduce the knowledge and skill of academic writing to the students so that they can enter into this genre comfortably and come out with end products like abstracts, seminar papers, research articles, dissertation, etc. The course is divided into three units. The first unit introduces the academic writing, while the second unit takes the students into this genre equipping the students with various skills. Finally, the third unit involves them in writing various texts creatively and academically.

Course Title: English Language Teaching (ELT) Curriculum and Syllabus Designing

The intent of this course is to expose the students to the theories and practices of English language teaching curriculum and syllabus designing and help them develop syllabus to teach English at various levels of education. This is an elective course which can be taken instead of translation studies. The course consists of four units. The first unit familiarizes the students with the broader and specific process of English language teaching curriculum design while the second unit presents the process and approaches required for developing ELT materials. The third unit deals with the techniques and activities of preparing ELT courses and syllabus. The fourth unit is about the planning and designing ELT curriculum and Syllabus.

Contact:

     Gopal Prasad Pandey, PhD (Head)

       Reader

       Email: gopal.pandey@cded.tu.edu.np

Email: ele@tucded.edu.np

Twitter: @TUEngEdu

                                                                            Department Publication: Journal

Link to download: https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/seltal/index 

Photo: Welcoming ELF Fellow with department