English in Schools

Anwar: Scrap use of English for Science and Maths 

The Star  
Monday, 29 June 2009

PETALING JAYA: Scrap the policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English and bring back Bahasa Melayu as the medium of instruction in the education system, said Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He also called for the return of Bahasa Melayu’s status as the supreme language, which includes using it as the medium to teach Science and Maths in national schools and also strengthening its usage in Chinese and Tamil schools.

“This issue has become a controversy for far too long. We consider this policy a betrayal of Bahasa Melayu as our official language,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Anwar, however, conceded that it was important to master English and agreed that there should be constructive steps taken to improve the usage and understanding of the language.

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The English Enigma

Pakatan Rakyat leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's call to scrap the policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English and restore Bahasa Melayu as the medium of instruction in the education system should be considered objectively and not emotionally.

For one thing, the argument that English must be used to teach Science and Mathematics to enhance the growth and development of scientific knowledge is not an absolute truth, although generally perceived to be so by many people.

Japan and South Korea, for example,  made great advance in the area of scientific and techonlogical development and innovation without having to impose the learning of English and other Western languages on their students, even at tertiary level. Germany has been a world leader in modern scientific and technological innovation but English has not been the country's language of education. Even China did not have to depend on English to launch and develop its modern technological industry.

Our students can learn and master Science and Mathematics in the national language, provided that there are properly trained teachers and adequate learning resources in the language. If the Japanese and Koreans can learn and master scientific and technological skills through their own languages, I don't see why Malaysians are not able to do so similarly with Bahasa Malaysia.

However, having said that, I disagree with Anwar that English should not be made a compulsory subject in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination, for the simple reason that, whether we like it or not, English is now the linqua franca of the world and is the medium of communication in the international socio-political and business arena.

Hence, mastering the English language is not only a big advantage in the contemporary cyber-technological world, but generally essential for the competitive world of trade and industry. It is also the common language in the sphere of intellectual research and development at the world-class universities that we would like to send our bright students to.

But to make English a compulsory exam subject requires a big pool of well-qualified experts in the language, who are not only good in the language themselves but skilled in teaching it. Sadly, this seems to be lacking.

One reason for the shortage of good English teachers and users now is, without question, the damage done over the years through our short-sighted education system which has not given adequate attention to the proper teaching of the langauge. Even the Education Minister has expressed shock recently when he discovered that grammar has not been taught in English lessons in our schools.

Grammar is essentially the foundation of the whole system and structure of a language, and is a set of prescriptive precepts on the correct use of the language. Hence, I can appreciate the minister's shock as having English lessons in our schools without the proper teaching of the eight parts of speech of its grammar is certainly unsual and even outrageous.

We can see how devastating is the current scenario when even English-langauge newspapers are using poor English. The dropping of the article "the", in front of the common nouns in sentences, and the wrong use of tense, for instance, are glaring examples of polluted English in many news reports we read each day. This, obviously, is caused by the lack of understanding of English grammar. I know of even editors who cannot write proper grammatically correct sentences.

The decline in our standard of English must be arrested fast. Making the language a compulory exam subject is perhaps the most significant major measure to do it.

But, to implement this policy, we need to put the horse before the cart, by ensuring that our teacher training institutions are able to educate and train a large pool of English language teachers. A proper scheme of training specialised English language teachers must be adopted and implemented fast.

Bascially, there should three levels in the teaching of the English language.

First, students should be taught the language from primary school level, at least from Year Four onward. This is when they start learning English words, like "A for apple", "B for ball", etc. This will help the young ones, especially those in the rural areas, to gain a basic vocabulary foundation in the language.

Secondly, at the lower secondary school level (Year One to Year Three), students should be taught the basic grammar of English, followed by the training in basic sentence writing, and a reading regime with assigned children story books like those by Enid Blyton, Hans Christian Andersen, and C.S.Lewis, etc.

Thirdly, at the upper secondary level (Year Four and Year Five), students should be started on lessons in comprehension, composition, and communcation. The schools should also organise English camps during the long year-end school holiday where only English is used as part of the training in the language usage. Such camps could be modelled after the American summer camp programme.

While plans are being made to help our students learn and master the English language, there should also be efforts taken at the same time to help the young working adults to learn and master the language, too.

I propose that the Federal Government creates a professional language skill qualification for the working adults who complete a schduled programme of studies and training in the English language.

The Federal Government should also provide incentives to the tertiary institutions, both public and private, to conduct the adult education classes on English.