ELTRA Project (Funded by the British Council)

On April 4, we held a dynamic one-day workshop in Lalitpur, Nepal as part of our ELTRA 2024 project, focused on Empowering Teachers to Adopt Multilingual Pedagogies. The workshop brought together 12 dedicated teachers, local researchers (Dr. Prem Poudel and Prof. Ganga Gautam), and online contributions from Dr. Taehee Choi, Dr. Siham Rouabah and Dr. Shuling Wang. The day featured teacher-led reflections on their experiences so far, collaborative lesson planning by subject groups, and guided sessions on integrating translanguaging strategies into classroom practice. Teachers discussed sample lesson plans and co-developed practical activities and content for a forthcoming multilingual teacher guide.

Highlights included peer feedback on lesson plans, sharing of good practices, and hands-on sessions on writing effective reflections on lesson plans—critical for enhancing participation and inclusivity across gender, ethnicity, and language background.

This was just the beginning. We are excited to continue this work during our upcoming two-day in-person workshop…

We are proud to share that our local collaborators, Prem Poudel and Ganga Ram Gautam, made significant contributions at the 29th NELTA International Conference in Kathmandu (27-29th February), one of the largest gatherings of ELT professionals in Nepal.

• Panel Discussion on Multilingualism in ELT: Prem Poudel was invited as a panelist in the discussion on “Rethinking ELT in the Nepalese Context: Multilingual Management of Nepal’s Linguistic Diversity”. The session, moderated by Dr. Bhim Lal Gautam (Vice-President of NELTA), featured leading experts, including Dr. Lava Deo Awasthi (former Chairperson of the Language Commission Nepal) and Associate Professor Motikala Subba Dewan. With 800+ participants from Nepal and 22 countries, the discussion highlighted the importance of multilingual education in Nepal’s ELT landscape. The session was broadcast live via Radio Sardul, amassing 9K views online and gaining national media attention.

• Keynote Speech: Ganga Ram Gautam delivered a keynote speech alongside Prof. Laxman Gnawali on "Navigating EL Teacher Education Frontiers through Duo-ethnographic…

Our dedicated local collaborators, Prof. Ganga and Prof. Prem, are conducting regular school visits to mentor teachers implementing translanguaging pedagogy in their classrooms. These visits provide a space for: small group mentoring, addressing teachers' individual challenges in integrating multilingual strategies, collaborative problem-solving, discussing practical solutions to enhance translanguaging practices, and empowering teachers, by strengthening their confidence to lead and support their peers in implementing inclusive multilingual education.

Through these ongoing interactions, we ensure that translanguaging is not just a concept but a sustainable, lived practice in Nepalese classrooms.

#ELTRAProject #TeacherMentorship #TranslanguagingInAction #InclusiveEducation

Our latest ELTRA Project Teachers’ Meeting focused on refining translanguaging practices in English, Science, and Math lessons. Teachers actively explored new strategies to enhance multilingual learning, including: Multilingual glossary creation, multilingual sharing & learning, and Content & Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) for Science and Math to reinforce comprehension. Our teachers also had interactive pair activities of mentorship which allowed subject teachers to analyze and enhance their sample lesson plans, integrating translanguaging more effectively, based on feedback from the teachers of English and the research team.

Next Steps: Teachers will refine lesson plans with cross-subject collaboration and tackle challenges in implementing multilingual strategies.