Teachers going Mad with English?
I read with intrigue about teachers in Malaysia going mad teaching subjects in English. If you’ve been following this ‘drama’, you’d know that our teachers have been complaining about how hard it is to teach both Mathematics and Science in english. If you’ve no idea what I talked about, here’s some of the news links. The latest on in The Star, one from back in December and this is another one from Bernama of a group that wants to abolish the teaching of both subjects in english.
Now, I don’t blame them for wanting to abolish this stupidity, why? It’s making them stupid and in turn, it’s making the students learning from them stupid. It’s true, how many Malay teachers you know can speak proper english? I do not know alot of Malay school teachers but I know enough to realized that only 2 out of 10 could speak proper english but then, they are assigned to subjects that doesn’t need them to speak in english. I’m not saying that I speak fantastic english cause I don’t. If you’ve followed me long enough, you know that I’ve tons of grammatical errors in everything I said or type. Not that I’m complaining, it’s a blog anyway, not something that people use as reference.
Anyway, the Malaysian Education Board should really need to buck up in assigning the right teachers for those two subjects. Why can’t they put the teachers through some ‘test’ to ensure that these teachers know what they are doing and in the right language? I spoke to a teacher from a local school recently and he can’t even understand or answer anything to me in english. I never asked him what subject he teaches in school and I don’t have any intention to find out. How will students learn anything if the teachers themselves can’t do it properly right? I’m sure there alot of disgruntled students out there that is frustrated by how their teachers fare grasping the english language. At the end of the day, students are not going to want to learn anything because at the end of the day, they’ll feel the teachers incompetent and is just plain stupid. Well, I don’t blame them when the teachers themselves can’t handle the language properly, they won’t gain any respect from their students, especially the one that speaks the english language as their mother tongue.
I feel teachers shouldn’t just complain but do something about it, to prove to their students and fellow colleagues that they know what they are doing and is professional in executing their jobs. Becoming a teacher is really more a passion than a profession, it’s not something that everyone is cut out to do. I spoke to some friends and ask them why they become teachers, and their answer to me is about passion, about wanting to help educate the leaders of our future. Which to me, is a very noble thing to do. I respect them for that, but there are a handful that just doesn’t want to do it right. If you want to educate your students in those subjects with the english language, I’d say go brush up on it and teach, not complain and try to get it abolish.
Why try to bring your future generation back to the stone age (I know, that’s abit extreme of an example) instead of leading them into the future? English followed by Mandarin (because of China’s rise in economic power) is the language of choice when it comes to communication to the world. Shouldn’t our students be heading in that direction and be on par with the rest of the world? It’s time to suck it up my dear teachers. If you can’t handle it, pass it on to someone that’s more capable and teach other subjects that doesn’t require you to talk in english. If you intend to teach those subjects, then buck up and move on with the time and not try to drag the students down like a big slab of concrete tied to the student’s leg sinking into the Klang River.
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i think the main reason why they can’t pass the torch to another is because, those who are english proficient, are not interested in the teaching profession normally. I mean come on, even in offices, not everyone speaks perfect English. And bear in mind, most office workers do earn more than a regular teacher.
So it’s a very delicate situation as the teachers felt that they can no longer teach efficiently to the students in another language that they’re not good in but there’s no one else that can actually step in and help out.
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My tutor was just saying this yesterday, about the pronunciation of flour, it is pronounced like flower, but then most people say it wrongly because our teachers teach us wrongly.
The irony is that her english is not good also haha. Only my english tutor, an Indian guy, his english is good.
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this show how bad our english standard is …
forget about pronunciation per se
but I don’t think the teachers know lots of words ,good in grammars or even in spelling..
this is bad as it is just like “blind leading the blinds”
Lisalicious’s last blog post..Do you love ice-cream??
“My tutor was just saying this yesterday, about the pronunciation of flour, it is pronounced like flower, but then most people say it wrongly because our teachers teach us wrongly.” – sherrycheah
haha I find this so funny… when instead of learning english from england the tutor takes what he/she watches on tele as the truth (cuz that’s how it’s pronounced in US and not in the majority of the world)
anyways I found it interesting cuz I am actually a science teacher and was so pleased to know science and maths are in english as it is my mother tongue, but I do realise that majority of Malaysian teachers will definitely struggle as the standard of english in Malaysia is so low that even a limbo champion would not be able to get under it. However I do respect the MoE for the effort to make a change that may take decades to actually show results. just hope people can be patient enough to see it through to the end
I read that article and I shuddered at the thought of how the public school system has changed so much since I was a student. Malaysia always boasts of wanting to be leader in this and leader in that, yet the teachers who are trusted with the task of educating our next generation show such a lack of effort and zeal.
it’s kind of the opposite in my country (Philippines). teachers here cannot teach math and science in our local language. most subjects are taught in English. this seems like a good thing right? but i really actually feel bad that kids in my province can barely communicate to each other in Filipino. i wish our government could put equal importance to English and Filipino. How can we be called Filipinos if many kids in the provinces can’t speak the local language?
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Hi everyone. I found this site by chance as I was surfing and searching on any articles as well as gathering opinions from various people on “The Malaysian English Language Syllabus”.
I am currently planning to open up a learning centre that with various curriculum and no, I don’t give tuition as I do not want students to be just scoring As. As such, I want to introduce English Language classes that are more holistic.
Kindly go to my blog which is http://earthenamber.blogspot.com and do “pen down” your opinions and feedbacks on “The Malaysian English Language Syllabus Today”. Thank you. Your opinions and feedbacks are deeply appreciated.
I am well aware that this comment is 2 years too late, but what the heck? Like Jennifer Lim, I too stumbled upon this site by chance. So, to Michael Yip and the 7 commenters, thank you for enlightening us (the stumblers) on such provocative issue. I could definitely relate to most (keyword: most) of the things that were shared here, except:
1. Michael Yip’s
“If you’ve followed me long enough, you know that I’ve tons of grammatical errors in everything I said or type”.
~No, I haven’t followed you long enough, but I certainly have no qualms on the latter part.
“Not that I’m complaining, it’s a blog anyway, not something that people use as reference”.
~What a sweeping accusation! You do realize that many of the young learners prefer reading blogs and online articles rather than “hard” academic books, don’t you? Bloggers are feeding them with opinions (like this one) and mind you, they do “refer” to you. Perhaps we should start “testing” Malaysian bloggers too? Proficiency English test would do- me thinks.
2. Robb’s
“those who are english proficient, are not interested in the teaching profession ”
~ Oh, dear. Why would they, Robb? Should one’s language proficiency determine his/her career? If I speak fluent Malay, does that mean I should teach Malay language/ other subjects taught in the language? The answer is an obvious “no”. One should first choose teaching as his/her career, then decide what their strenghts & specialization are.
3. Sherry’s
Your tutor is right. It is pronunced as “flower” instead of “flar”. True enough, we have been taught with plenty of wrong things. “Brinjal” doesn’t exist in Oxford Dictionary and “mutton”= meat of old sheep. Not those brown Malaysian goats. Renzo may want to take note. If “English” is, as he claims, his mother tongue, he wouldn’t have made the distinction between American English and British English, would he?
4. Renzo’s
Poor ol’ TVs. They get blamed for everything and anything! LOL. While expressing your gratitude to the MOE, you may also want to ask them this: Why do you send your English teachers/language instructors/teacher-trainees/teacher-trainers to USA to learn when your Education Policy states the use of British English in the classroom?
5. Grace’s
True, we should definitely strike the right balance. But here’s the underlying problem that is going on here: what exactly is the govt’s direction? Improving the child’s language proficiency or developing their knowledge in Maths & Science? If language is the main concern, why choose Maths & Science? Those two subjects are difficult to students be it in any language. Alternatives: Add more hours to English classes. Choose other areas Geography, History etc instead. If they want to develop the child’s knowledge, then the child should be given the right to learn in the language that he/she is able to learn. Should our country’s future Mathematicans & Scientists be driven by their ability to “speak & write” well instead of their ability to invent & develop resources?
Side note: the M’sian government has decided to revert the teaching of Maths & Science to Malay.
People surely have plenty of opinions. Many of us are quick to point our fingers to “blame” instead of taking the time to read, think and be wise before sharing those thoughts out loud. Now here’s a man who knows what he is talking: The Learning Teacher on Rigourous English Language Teacher Training Programmes Needed
Happy Wesak Day and *Peace*, ya’ll.