How can the teaching of English grammar be made more student-centred? And what does it look like in practice?
In Mathagadhi Rural Municipality, English teacher Pratikshya Rana transformed her classroom by shifting from rote memorisation to learner-centred methods. Thanks to British Council training, her students are now learning English with curiosity and confidence.
Pratikshya Rana, a teacher from Mathagadhi Rural Municipality, teaches English and Health, Physical and Creative Arts (HPE). Pratikshya shared that she struggled to make the grammar lesson engaging and learner-centred. Reflecting on her past teaching, Pratikshya shares: 'If I were teaching the simple past tense, I would write the formula — subject + verb 2 + object -on the board and ask learners to memorise it.'
This approach often left her students struggling: In the past academic year, in Grade 7, only 7 out of 20 passed the English exam in the first terminal assessment. Knowing she had to improve, the opportunity came when Pratikshya participated in the British Council's English for Teaching training, part of the Quality Education Quality Schools (QEQS) programme — a partnership between the Mathagadhi Municipality and the British Council. Alongside other teachers from her municipality, she was introduced to new approaches to teaching and learning.
During the training, Pratikshya recalls, the trainers "modelled so many learner-centred methods". Inspired, she reimagined her grammar lessons. When teaching the simple past tense again, instead of presenting a formula, she first wrote a sentence in the present tense, then wrote the same sentence in the past tense. She invited her students to compare the two and identify the structural differences, guiding them to notice how the verb form changed.
The results were immediate. Students were more engaged and confident through discovery. By the end of the school year, in the final terminal exams, 15 learners performed well in English, more than double the number from the first term.
Encouraged, Pratikshya extended her learning to HPE. With guidance from a colleague who had previously conducted Exploratory Action Research with support from the British Council, she conducted her own Action Research on teaching technical vocabulary in the subject. This was highly successful, and she now looks forward to continuing her professional development to further enhance her teaching.
Pratikshya's story is one of many from the Mathagadhi Rural Municipality, where the British Council's partnership with local governments is helping teachers reimagine classrooms through practical, learner-centred training.
Case study written by Sharda Rai Joshi, Education Consultant, British Council Nepal.