Meeting Diversity in ESL Classroom: A Pedagogical Model for a Globalized Milieu

Globalization demands dynamism in English as a Second Language (ESL) pedagogy to address the needs of students from diverse cultural, educational and linguistic backgrounds. Students hailing from different countries with varied levels of English proficiency present a serious challenge to instructors. The challenge to meet the needs of diverse students from Afghanistan and Pakistan, for instance, within the same teaching faculty, prompted this study. It attempts to explore Afghan and Pakistani students’ expectations of the first module of English introduced at undergraduate level, i.e., English Comprehension and Composition (ECC) at a Pakistani university, by applying the Expectancy Disconfirmation Model of Satisfaction. Students’ expectations have been a neglected area of research despite being a significant factor in behavior and performance. This study aims to find out how far the Pakistani and Afghan students’ expectations have been met with Negative Disconfirmation (non-fulfillment), Zero Disconfirmation (fulfillment) or Positive Disconfirmation (enhanced fulfillment). The findings reveal that the Afghan students were enrolled in the Pakistani university as a result of a mutual agreement between the Pakistani and Afghan governments under the Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholarship “Award of 3000 Scholarships to Students from Afghanistan under the Prime Minister’s Directive” had concerns with the advanced level grammar and reading exercises, while Pakistani students complained about insufficient class time, consecutive lectures and lack of adequate practice provided in the classroom. The study suggests a pedagogical framework for the students focusing on Contextualized Task Based Language Teaching (CTBLT) method in combination with Input-oriented approach for the desired academic output-mentioned in the objectives of the course/module.