Family: NEB Class 12 English Guide

Reading overview

Read “Family” as factual social analysis

The prescribed text is factual writing associated with anthropologist Alan John Barnard. It does not argue that every family must follow one model. Instead, it introduces family as a social group organised through relations such as marriage, descent, parenthood, care and shared responsibility. Definitions vary because societies recognise kinship and household membership differently.

The first five paragraphs move through a clear structure: defining family, explaining its functions, describing patriarchal organisation, tracing the effects of industrialisation, and identifying modern forms. This paragraph map is essential for comprehension questions.

Core functions

Family provides care, security and socialisation

Do not present these functions as automatically fulfilled. A critical answer can recognise that family can support members while unequal authority, neglect or abuse may undermine security.

Family forms

Distinguish structure, descent and marriage

Historical model

Patriarchal organisation concentrates authority

A patriarchal family is ruled or strongly controlled by male authority. Property, decision-making and succession may privilege men, while women and younger members receive unequal power. The reading’s historical movement helps students see that family roles are social arrangements, not timeless facts.

Medieval European households could include more than a married couple and children. Servants, apprentices and other dependants might belong to the domestic unit. This reminds us that “household” and “family” have changed across time and place.

Industrial change

Urbanisation reshapes household size and roles

Industrialisation drew work away from land and household production toward towns, factories and wage labour. Urbanisation encouraged geographic mobility and often reduced large co-resident kin groups. Economic roles once performed inside the family moved to schools, markets, workplaces and public institutions.

The change is not a simple replacement of extended families by nuclear families. Migration may separate relatives physically while remittances, communication and obligations preserve strong translocal ties. Good answers distinguish residence from relationship.

Modern family

Law and social values recognise greater diversity

Modern family forms include lone-parent, blended, adoptive and other nontraditional arrangements. Divorce and family dissolution can reorganise caregiving without ending responsibility. Family courts address sensitive matters such as custody, while laws concerning child labour and abuse place responsibility for children’s welfare beyond private household authority.

Legal systems also regulate marriage, inheritance and property after death. These rules reveal that family is both intimate and public: affection matters, but rights and duties require social protection.

Nepal connection

Analyse change in Nepali families without stereotypes

Migration, education, urban housing, wage employment, digital communication and changing gender expectations affect Nepali families. Some households become smaller or geographically dispersed; grandparents may care for children while parents work abroad; elderly relatives may experience either stronger financial support or loneliness.

A balanced response should avoid claiming that all extended families are harmonious or all nuclear families are selfish. Discuss evidence, variation and trade-offs: privacy versus shared support, mobility versus daily companionship, and individual choice versus collective obligation.

Vocabulary

Learn family terms through concept and sentence

Word formation

Use prefixes to decode unfamiliar words

Prefixes change the meaning of a root: poly- means many in polygamy; mono- means one in monogamy; non- marks absence in nontraditional; dis- signals reversal or separation in dissolution; and in- can negate in inequitable.

Check spelling and meaning in context; a prefix cannot be attached freely to every root.

Grammar focus

Choose modal verbs by meaning and time

Compare: “They might live separately” expresses present possibility; “They might have moved” speculates about a past event. “You should have called” criticises an unperformed past action, while “You could have called” identifies an unrealised option.

Writing focus

Plan an essay on the importance of family

1. Introduction: define family broadly and state a qualified thesis.
2. Personal importance: explain care, identity or responsibility with an example.
3. Social importance: discuss socialisation, security and intergenerational support.
4. Limits: acknowledge inequality, conflict or exclusion.
5. Future: consider migration, technology, gender roles and legal protection.
6. Conclusion: restate the principle without claiming one form fits everyone.

Comprehension method

Answer factual and critical questions differently

• Definition question: give the term’s essential feature, not an anecdote.
• Function question: name the function and explain how it operates.
• Historical question: identify period, structure and change.
• Cause-effect question: connect industrialisation or law to a specific family outcome.
• Critical question: state a position, use a Nepal-relevant example, consider a counterpoint and qualify.

For the question on recent Nepali change, organise the answer as change → cause → positive effect → risk → balanced judgement.

Exam practice

Questions from recall to evaluation

1. What is the oldest form of family identified in the text?
2. How does family provide physical and psychological security?
3. What does socialisation mean?
4. How did industrialisation alter family structure?
5. Why are family courts necessary?
6. Distinguish matrilineal descent from female political domination.
7. Use modal perfects to infer three possible causes of migration.
8. Evaluate whether smaller families necessarily weaken society.

Review the Class 12 English revision roadmap and use the Critical Thinking exam method for evaluation questions.

Frequently asked questions

Family unit questions answered

Authoritative references

Verify content and extend the social context

Use the CDC Grade 12 English textbook record, its official textbook PDF and the Secondary Level English Curriculum. For Nepal-specific evidence, consult the National Population and Housing Census results and UNICEF Nepal’s child-protection resources.

Continue with the NEB Class 12 English complete guide. For tuition call 9846662070.