Abstract:
The medium of instruction (MOI) policy in education has become a burning
issue in the multilingual classroom in Nepal. Many schools shifted to EMI after
the government adopted a liberal economic policy in the 1990s. Influenced
by neoliberalism in education, many private schools were established with
EMI and gradually attracted parents from middle and high-class families. This
study explores the basic-level teachers’ experiences of implementing EMI in
Nepali community schools and the challenges they face in implementing
EMI in their classrooms. I employed a qualitative phenomenological research
design to explore the lived experiences of 12 basic-level teachers teaching
6 community schools in rural Nepal. Following in-depth interviews with 12
teachers and their classroom observations, this study presents their lived
experiences of using EMI in their classrooms. Results indicate teachers’
tension and burden in implementing EMI due to low English proficiency and
lack of pedagogical skills. However, teachers adopted EMI due to parents’
pressure, and for their professional survival because the decline of students
from their schools forced them to early retirement. Similarly, the belief in the
English language to achieve global opportunities and a better future career has
established English as a linguistic capital in Nepal and reproduced educational
inequality. Furthermore, teachers faced challenges such as linguistic and
pedagogical incompetency, an unsupportive school environment and a lack
of training to implement EMI in community schools. The findings contribute
to a deeper understanding of EMI policy in the Nepali community schools
and support in forming the language policy in school education.
