Teachers’ Ideologies on Linguistic Diversity as a Resource

Abstract

Nepal is very fertile in its linguistic diversity. A significant body of literature has recommended the use of linguistic diversity as a resource for teaching/learning of a second or foreign language. This article aims at finding out the English language teachers’ ideologies regarding linguistic diversity as a resource in English language teaching in a multilingual classroom in context of Nepal. For this, the data were collected from 8 secondary level teachers of English in Kathmandu district using questionnaire and interview techniques. The responses were analyzed and interpreted descriptively as well as intuitively. The analysis shows that the teachers’ remarks are paradoxical in that they were not aware of importance of using the students’ home language(s)to further learning of English though when they were made aware of some ways in which students’ home languages can be used as vehicles for successful English language acquisition, they not only could not deny it but also were highly convinced that students’ home languages in a multilingual classroom constitute valuable resources. It is recommended that the English language teacher training/education programmes/courses should be designed in such a way that the teacher trainees would be able to use linguistic diversity as a resource in multilingual language teaching classrooms.