The English Dilemma in Malaysia

The recent call by the deputy prime minister who is also the education minister to review the English language curriculum has opened much debate by many people in Malaysia both positively and negatively.

Many people blame the lack of proficiency amongst English teachers, the system and whatnot but has anybody learnt that there are many English teachers out there whom are very proficient in English but lack of the pedagogical skills?

Some lecturers' call for strict selection will not solve the problem that the nation is having. Being able to see that future teachers are not up to the level in English during their undergraduate years, what have been done by the educators to help other than calling for strict selection and sideline those who are not proficient when both the well trained and not are the product of these educators in the varsity?

Should not we know that the younger generation of English teachers are the products of a particular university? Whether they are well trained or not, is not the responsibility of the future teachers alone but the educators who are responsible to train them. Therefore, I think NUTP president Hashim Adnan is accurate when he said about the lack of trained English teachers. He said the curriculum is not the factor for poor mastery level but teachers (“Lack of trained English teachers the cause” — NST, Aug 8).

Perhaps this is the real domino effect where some educators are not good in training the future teachers and thus the poor standard of English teachers. Many undergraduates have complained about the lack of pedagogical skills by some of their lecturers. Albeit in varsities, 90 percent of learning should come from the students’ effort, we are dealing with future teachers. Should not we think that these future teachers should be given more guidance than others when some educators complained about their own products?

Being a teacher in school, whether the students are weak or not, the teacher should be there to cater for both. The same should be adopted by the educators. Some educators are not. They are not bothered as long as they have entered the lecture hall and graded the test and assignments.

Proficiency in English teacher should not be seen as the only problem to the poor mastery in English amongst students. There are bigger issues to be addressed.

Having harped on the low proficiency amongst English teachers as the source of poor mastery in English amongst students, perhaps educators should start looking at ways to improve the proficiency of their students- the future teachers. In dealing with this, educators should start reviewing their methods in training the future teachers, I believe. Having given the right motivation and training, I believe all future English teachers will improve tremendously in terms of proficiency during their varsity years.

The educators perhaps should ask themselves why albeit their students have been told of their low proficiency in English, there is still no improvement in them? Have the educators given them the right motivation to boost their intrinsic motivation in them? Or the educators are there to continuously putting them in embarrassment during lectures? Teachers come from being learners themselves and the process of learning by teachers is the most important because what they learn, how they learn, and why they learn will in turn reflect into the classrooms when they are teachers.

English teachers in school should not be continuously victimised in the poor mastery of English amongst students because that will not help in boosting the intrinsic motivation in them being dedicated teachers who put continuous effort in teaching the students- our children.