98. Pecha Kucha: Problems faced by EFL teachers

This is me presenting a pecha kucha show during the Hetauda phase of Nelta International Conference 2014. The title of my presentation was “Problems faced by EFL teachers and the solutions”. I presented a few outlandish solutions as quick fixes.

This was my second time doing this show (along with my tutor Laxman Gnawali and my friends from KU, School of Education) and it was a great fun ride. The best part was many people mispronouncing ‘pecha kucha’ as ‘pachaak puchuk’ or ‘pyaacha kuchha’.

—

Here’s the presentation file: Pecha Kucha – Umes Shrestha, 2014

51. Photos: sessions I attended during 18th Nelta Intl Conference – Kathmandu

Teaching EL through Short Stories
Afrin Akter Shadia (Bangladesh)
[I thought she would be doing some practical session on how to tell stories but it was a presentation on her research.]

Learning Friendly Environment vs Mass Education
Vishnu Rai and Maya Rai (Nepal)
[I was quite curious to see a session by Vishnu Rai, one of the reasons being that I have critiqued on his Nenglish concept. But, somehow he didn’t show up and it was only Maya Rai doing the session.]

Teaching Writing in Large Classes
Professor William Wolf (Bangladesh)
[Good presentation on how to teach writing based on some rubrics. He could have just eased his pace though. May be a 40 mins session was a bit constraining for many presenters.]

Forgetting and Stress Management in Classroom Situation
Babita Gurung (Nepal)
[It could have been more effective if the ideas and suggestions she shared was of her own rather than reading the notes which can be easily found on the internet. Her personal insights and experiences would have been a great share.]

Critical Thinking in English Language Education
Rajani Badlani (India)
[I feel quite awful as I can’t quite remember what happened during her session. I must have been completely swamped with the thoughts of my own upcoming pecha-kucha presentation that afternoon.]

Promoting Learners’ Contribution through Elicitation
Rezvan Rashidi (Iran)
[One of the thorough and to-the-point presentations I attended through out the conference. Although the elicitation techniques were not anything new, she added ‘pleasantness’ into her methods, which was nice for a change.]

How do I teach story in EFL class?
Motikala Subba Dewan (Nepal)
[Loved her energy. She is an example of how ‘body language’ is so vital in teaching.]

Developing Writing Skills through Story Telling
Z.N. Patil (India)
[Interesting and entertaining. Experience speaks it all.]

The Power of Storytelling in EFL
Alexandra Potier (Nepal)
[Fun, activity based methods. Practical. Quite useful.]

Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend other sessions. There were almost 14 sessions running concurrently and I was having a hard time choosing which room to enter.

48. Plenary speakers during Nelta Conference

18th International Conference of NELTA

Dr Richard Smith
Associate Professor, University of Warwick, UK

—–

Dr Jodi Crandall
University of Maryland, US

(For me, this is the most important slide off Dr Jodi’s presentation.)

47. A reflection: 18th Nelta International Conference

I still remember the moment Laxman sir (my tutor/mentor at the KathmanduUniversity) asked me if I could do a pecha-kucha presentation during the conference. I did say yes, but I wasn’t completely convinced with the idea. First, it was the first time I was going to attend the conference and I was planning just to be present at some sessions/workshops and take some photos. Second, it was going to be during the plenary session. That meant, in the main hall. With all the big-guns of the ELT world (ELT ka dada haru) and foreign dignitaries right in front of me. And third, I was really really hesitant about the pecha-kucha format (20 slides, 20 seconds for each slide, one can’t stall, one can’t miss the point, additional stress).

So there would be five of us from KU presenting on different themes. I picked up the theme of various types of English that I hear in my school. This was also something that I’ve been trying to do in this blog. And thus we sat down for some brainstorming sessions, then a lot of thinking and planning, group discussions and some practice sessions.

The title of my pecha-kucha would be “Our School English” and I would use the expressions and dialogues teachers and students use in my school. I also used a lot of meme to go along with the dialogues.

However, the awkward feeling of nervousness kept bothering me (even after the few minutes of doing it). I thought it was going to be a hit or miss thing – either I would completely suck at it and the audience would not get what I was trying to say or I would be able to connect with the audience right from the first slide and give them an amazing 6mins and 40 seconds of lively session.

Well, I did give the presentation and I think I did it fairly well. I got the keynote speakers Dr Richard Smith (University of Warwick) and Dr Jodi Crandall (University of Maryland) and several people in the audience laughing and clapping.

So, what did I learn? Three very general but pretty important things.

1. It’s good to be nervous/anxious.
2. It’s good to be prepared.
3. It’s good to work as/in/with a team.

What a learning experience it was! A cliché it might be, but it was quite meaningful. Thank you Laxman sir, Mabindra sir and the team.