Transforming Foreign Language Grammar Classes through Teacher Training: An Experience from Nepal

Abstract

reflection of the teacher training output in the real classroom situation. English teachers commonly blame on the
unfavourable environment as the main obstacle to the successful classroom application of their knowledge and skills
needed for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) gained from professional development programmes. The
pre-training observations of a secondary level EFL teacher's four classes made the basis of a case study for this
research. Stemming from the case study, three techniques were used as a process of action research: i) the
need-based refresher training (along with other participants) as an intervention ii) the post-training class observations
(in a demonstration class), and iii) informal post-class talks. Thus, this study was an attempt to examine through
action research germinating from a case study, whether (and to what degree), the output of the Teachers' Professional
Development refresher training (TPD refresher) would be transferred to the actual classroom situation. The
pre-training and post-training observations were compared and contrasted to reach the conclusion. The results
suggest that the output would be reflected to a large degree in the classroom provided that the training is need-based.
Thus, it was concluded that if (foreign) (Note 1) language teachers are properly equipped with professional
knowledge and skills through need-based training, (foreign) language classes are very likely to be transformed as
desired.