The Learning Teacher

Alex, at your request! Click on the link for highlights on the forum

http://www.wou.edu.my/news_gal_4July2009.aspx

All others are welcome to view and comment.

In my last blog I briefly mentioned my fears about the idea of making it compulsory for students to get at least a passing grade  in the English language subject for SPM. I want to take up that issue a little more.

It is common knowledge that for some SPM and STPM subjects, the passing marks are ridiculously low. I wont be too surprised if that might already be the case for the English Language subject even now.

We need to rethink about the notion of grading our students. The letter-grade has become so meaningless and we don’t know what a student with an A grade is capable of doing. We need to focus on competencies and skills. One of the things that Dr. Lee Boon Hwa, Head, English Language and Literature Unit, Curriculum Development Section, Ministry of Education, mentioned at the Wawasan Open University Forum on 4th July was how the new Primary School syllabus will focus on skills development. I believe this is a step in the right direction.

We need to focus on developing vary language skills and sub-skills. We should then set certain benchmarks to gauge our students’ development and competencies in these skills. As is the case with many other examinations, including the MUET (Malaysian University English Examination), we should have bands to show what the learners have achieved and are capable of.

We don’t even have to given an overall band. We can give individual bands for each language skill. This way, it will be clear to all what the learner has achieved after 11 years of English language instruction. There is no fear that grammar and the language arts (literature) will the be ignored. The reading and writing components will incorporate these elements in the assessment.

Let us set some benchmarks for our students to achieve so that they know what skills they are competent in and what skills they need to work at in order be considered a competent user of the language. Both the student and those reading the student’s results be able to know what skills have been achieved by the student. This I believe will help raise the standard of English among students. Appropriate remedial work can be carried out for students according to the deficiencies in the specific language skills.

What good is it to claim that students have an A grade when they cannot speak well or write a coherent paragraph? Let’s just explicitly state what the student has achieved in terms of skills and competencies.

Teaching and learning of English is back  in the news again. The School of Education, Languages and Communications and the Centre for Professional Development and Continuing Education at Wawasan Open University will hold a forum to get feeback on comments made by the Deputy Prime Minister who is  the Minister of Education. Among the things he mentioned was whether to have a mandatory pass for the English Language subject at the SPM level.

Of course there is still the other nagging question of whether Mathematics and Science will be continued to be taught in English.  I have no desire to go into any discussion about the merits about using English as a medium of instruction for these 2 subjects. Nor do I want to fuel the fire to the rumours that are going around about that policy.

However, I like to consider an option. Instead of an either or policy - teach in BM or English, why not give students, parents and teachers a choice. We now have resources in both languages. Millions of ringgit have been spent on training etc. Let’s allow certain schools to teach in English and others in BM. Testing has been bilingual for a few years. In fact most teaching, I think has been bilingual despite the present policy. So teaching in either language is still viable.

This is not reverting to Malay and English medium schools as all other subjects will continue to be taught in BM.

Again there will be teething problems - which schools teach in BM or English. School PTAs can be given the responsibility of determining the choice. If we go buy what is reported in the Press, the most rural schools will pick BM. That will be their choice. Those who continue to study in English and are proficient in English will not lose the competitive edge we want to create for our students who want to be players in the global scene.

On another note, what does it mean to make English Language a compulsory pass in SPM? Are we ready for such a decision? The disparity between rural and urban schools is a major concern. But besides that, we need to ask what competencies should our students have in order to get a pass grade. Let’s not talk about marks. The cynic in me and my experience seem to fear that the passing marks might become so ridiculously low that students will pass but the standard of English might just get worse.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the forum at WOU on Saturday. I might blog on what transpires.