challenges in teaching english in malaysia

The government also funded large numbers of students to acquire professional degrees overseas. Now that the education system has shifted to using Bahasa Malaysia, and English has been relegated to the status of a subject in the school curriculum, one must expect the level of competence to drop. Rethinking the Crisis of Liberal Capitalism After COVID-19 Pandemic: From the Perspective of Public Healthcare System, Dangers of Resiliency: The Exploitation of Volunteerism under the Guise of Civic Engagement, The 4th Lecturer Workshop on Teaching Human Rights 2020. The higher pay and other perks offered by the commercial sector has meant that the teaching profession has been able to attract fewer people with a high level of competence in English to train as teachers. Government of Malaya (1956). Researcher at Social Wellbeing Research Centre, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur: Government Printers. The thrill of living in a different country. A call for the improvement of teaching techniques and promises of support for beleaguered English teachers were made. In an L1 situation, learners learn their mother tongue Hence, the related ministries have not been taking these matters seriously, leading to … Her visit to Japan is being sponsored by The Language Institute of Japan, Odawara, and her rail transport in Japan is being supported by Intercom Press, Fukuoka. Teaching english as a foreign language is challenging, yet rewarding career path. These problems have triggered a new phenomenon called the “digital divide” among countries around the globe that has been further exacerbated as urban schools get more benefits and internet access compared with sub-urban schools (New Straits Times, 2020a). Thirdly, do we have enough competent teachers to teach Science and Mathematics in English. Some of the strategies for developing effective and proficient teachers are: upgrading training and enhancing professional development, adopting progressive teaching and learning strategies, upgrading and diversifying learning resources, providing for a more innovative and progressive assessment system, providing for effective monitoring, and supporting research and development at all levels. In C. Kennedy (Ed. “Commentary: E-learning sees no smooth sailing in Malaysia and Indonesia”, https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/international, on June 18, 2020. JOHOR BARU: Natural shyness, diffidence and fear of embarrassing themselves baulk Malaysian students in their effort to learn English. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 69(1), 1489-1496. By 1983 the whole school system was using Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction. Introduction Before initiating a teaching programme, a teacher must know whether he is going to teach the learners of L1 or L2. UNESCO, (2020). J.P. Morgan Chase Site, (2020). At secondary school, the languages of instruction were English or Mandarin, and at tertiary levels, English was the only language of instruction for all subjects. Challenge. The plan was intended to produce a … Digital literacy competence for academic needs: An analysis of Malaysian students in three universities. The public, especially parents, has often raised this issue in the press. The English Language Education Reform in Malaysia: The Roadmap 2015-2025 is a 10-year reform plan to improve English language education in Malaysia. What Indonesia and India Share in Common: The Failure of Lockdown, The Compounded Struggle to Enjoy Customary Land Tenure Rights and Livelihood Security Amid COVID-19 in Shan State, Myanmar, Academic Partnerships and Public Advocacy, Host University (IHRP – Mahidol University). Although Bahasa Malaysia is the official language of administration, English is used to write some statutory documents, which are then translated into Bahasa Malaysia. Pp. The first concern is, are we producing enough competent teachers to teach English. In B. Harrison (Ed. Secondly, since Malaysia wishes to provide every student with access to English education, large numbers of teachers have to be trained. ), ELT documents 132: Culture and the language classroom. New Straits Times, (2020a). The policy of using Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction in schools was implemented progressively, starting with year one of primary school in 1970. Steps were taken to establish a number of secondary schools which would use Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction. This is currently the most popular alternative solution to contain the spread of Covid-19. One of the priorities of the newly independent government "was the establishment of a National system of education to (a) restructure the system to provide national unity; (b) develop a national language; and (c) redress economic imbalances" (Watson, 1983, p. 136). London: George Allen & Unwin. “E-commerce Payments Trends: Malaysia”, https://www.jpmorgan.com/europe/merchant-services/insights/reports/malaysia, on June 18, 2020. malaysiakini, (2020). English Language Teaching… With Covid-19 virus infections still rising, governments throughout the world are still scrambling to adapt to and adopt conditions leading to a new normal in their countries. The exceptions are transactions which involve government departments. Teachers’competency in the teaching of mathematics in English in Malaysian secondary schools. Proceedings of the National Seminar on English Language Teaching 2004. “Buildings without foundations – Malaysia’s education system”, https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/505992, on June 18, 2020. DOSM, (2019). Among the many reasons are the low technology literacy, lifestyle, and the inaccessible location. This brief historical sketch of the role of English in the Malaysian educational system provides the backdrop to several issues with regard to the teaching of English. Challenges Teaching English In China Jobs are divulge traverse over China in more than 50 urban areas. To teach literature is an easy task while teaching language to a learner is a real hard task. (1990). Thirdly, 1990 to the middle of 1997 were economic boom years. 3.1 Mixed ability. Webinar: “Thinking About Data: Measuring & Assessing ASEAN’s Responses to COVID-19.”. Malaysians still valued higher education in English speaking countries, as a good command of English continued to be seen as a means of educational advancement. Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child is entitled to receive a compulsory primary education. To access the latest JALT Publications, please visit the. Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-religious country. In addition, the Malaysia government also took some initiative to provide 1GB free internet through selected telco companies throughout the Movement Control Order. Teach Away is currently hiring a variety of education professionals for teaching positions in Malaysia, as part of a major government program aimed at improving education and English proficiency amongst teachers and students. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of East Anglia. Various government documents continued to stress the economic, international and political value of English. Making this observation, senior English Language teacher Dr … Malaysia has decided to abandon a six-year experiment in using English in state schools to teach maths and ­science. During the teaching practice, Aida faces an extremely huge challenge as a beginning teacher – a large class of students with mixed levels of abilities. It has not been fully legalised like in more developed countries. The key issues are outlined below. Home > TEFL Blog > Teaching English in Asia > Teaching English in Malaysia. Ultimately, the 21st century learner will be “learner-driven,” where they choose how and what they want to learn. By looking at the needs and demands in the upcoming year, this is the right time for the whole world to shift to another phase of human civilization by implementing technology in daily life. Many of these strategies are slowly being developed. Hannah Pillay, Specialist Teachers Training Institute, Kuala Lumpur ; JALT98 Special Guest Speaker, The Language Teacher - Issue 22.11; November 1998, Issues in the Teaching of English in Malaysia. Google Scholar Siowck, L. G. , and Azahari Ismail 1998 ‘Education Reform towards the 21st Century: New Trends and Market Mechanicisms in Higher Education’ . Despite Chuah’s near perfect English and her visible ease on campus, she is originally from Malaysia, a country struggling with complex educational problems. Even with a higher literacy rate among its citizens, Malaysia still faces some constraints with the e-learning approach. The eventual plan is to make Malaysia a centre for higher education in this region and recruit students from neighbouring countries. You don’t want to add digital learning products to your courses just because it’s the latest trend in the language learning industry. “ICT USE AND ACCESS BY INDIVIDUALS AND HOUSEHOLDS SURVEY REPORT: 2019”, access from, https://newss.statistics.gov.my/newss-portalx/ep/epFreeDownloadContentSearch.seam?cid=15517, on June 8, 2020. In September 1997, the Asian economic crisis hit Malaysia causing turmoil in the political, economic and educational fields. The education sector is one that has been most impacted by the pandemic. This piece of work strictly represents the author’s personal view, and is not made on behalf of any institution or organization. Most centers also have computer labs and modern facilities. In general, Aida was faced with three main challenges – mixed ability class, use of mother tongue and expectations of teacher centredness. Teaching english as a foreign language is challenging, yet rewarding career path. The loss in the value of the Malaysian currency made the cost of higher education in English speaking countries prohibitive. For more information on JALT, please visit the JALT website. This paper examines the problems and challenges of implementing the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English in the Malaysian primary schools, which entails learning through a second language. New Straits Times, (2017). News bulletins in English can be heard daily over radio and television and there are three English national newspapers The Star, The Sun, and The New Straits Times. Under this new norm, parental expenditure inclined more towards electronic devices as a medium for home-based learning as reiterated by government. ), Language planning and language education (pp. The Journal is online as well as print-mode, published two times in a year (bi-annual from 2020) and the language of the journal is English. In terms of literacy in technology, 90.1 per cent of the Malaysian population is technology literate. J.P. Morgan Chase Site, (2020). The multi-racial composition of Peninsular Malaysia is a result of British colonial economic policies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Socially, English is widely used as a language of communication in urban areas amongst large numbers of people from the upper and middle classes and people who have been educated in English or who have studied overseas. Students who have high levels of competency tend to come from English speaking homes, have greater exposure to English outside the classroom and tend to come from the higher socio-economic status group. The question that faces language educators is whether this will create an emerging educated population united by the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, but divided by the "second language" English (Rajah, 1990) and thus widen the socio-economic gap that exists between the economic classes. New Straits Times, (2020b). Malaysia has amended the Education Act, 1996 (Act 550), and has called for compulsory primary education for 6 years to Malaysian citizens between 6 to 12 years old. Dr. Hannah Pillay is the JALT Asian Scholarship Award Recipient for 1998. Challenges, problems of English language teachers discussed. https://www.nst.com.my/education/2020/04/584436/readiness-continuity-online-learning, on June 8, 2020. Malaysia is one of Southeast Asia’s most fascinating countries, a true mix of ancient oriental culture, Islamic traditions, and the modern world. This unprecedented phenomenon that hit all the countries in the world brings many possibilities for the implementation of a new normal for the human life. During this moment, online learning can assist to ensure the continuity of studying. Although we are unable to ascertain the effect of these strategies as yet, what remains clear is that there is a concerted effort by the Ministry of Education to improve competence levels of English amongst Malaysians. However, even with this condition where some locations are inaccessible for internet network providers to reach, a study exhibits that for both urban and rural areas there is 92.2 per cent and 81.5 per cent technology literacy respectively (DOSM, 2019). Tougher English language examinations. Through this unprecedented situation, numerous applications for education purposes have been introduced as a solution for these matters such as Google Classroom, Google Hangouts, Google Meet, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams and the most popular application Zoom (New Straits Times, 2020b). University undergraduates studied English as a compulsory subject in order to be able to access reference materials, which were mostly in English. The pandemic is expected to endure for some years. This change in policy has resulted in the increased use of English to conduct courses in public and private universities and it raises important questions for teachers of English. Fragments of a vision: A case study of the implementation of an English language curriculum programme in five Malaysian secondary schools. In 1991, Prime Minister Mahathir made a press statement highlighting his concerns regarding the poor results the national English language examination which was given at the end of secondary school. Higher literacy in technology is caused by several factors such as internet penetration (Malaysia was the second best across South East Asia) (CNA, 2020); development of e-commerce industry (J.P Morgan, 2020); providing technology as a perquisite for academic needs (Shariman, Razak, & Noor, 2012); and other related factors. Despite the decision to introduce Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction, the government was committed to a policy of maintaining English as a strong second language. Some of the challenges that are faced by the ESL students are lack of vocabulary, poor grammar, poor spelling, students’ readiness and lack of exposure to books and reading materials. English continues to be utilised by the mass media. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference Reform, Revolution and Paradigm Shifts in Mathematics Education, Johor Bahru, November 25 –December 1, 2005. The greater part of English language schools are in China’s four adult cities: Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing, so that is the site most English instructor occupations are. PETALING JAYA: An academic has urged the national teachers’ union to acknowledge that bad teaching is a primary reason for poor English proficiency among students. Primary level instruction could be carried out in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin, or Tamil. Consequently, English was taught as a subject from year one of all Malay medium primary schools and year three of Chinese and Tamil schools. Issues in the Teaching of English in Malaysia Historical Background. In 1997, the Ministry of Education set up two committees to plan programmes to improve proficiency levels amongst secondary school and university students. It is a fact that this approach is relatively new for the society and it will take some time and effort to get used to it before it becomes a norm. In the private sector, most local and international business is conducted in English. Challenges and Problems in the Teaching of Grammar Keywords: Grammar, contextualization, socio-cultural situations, structures and forms, communicative competence. IGI Global, (1988-2020), https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/technology-illiteracy/29517, on June 18, 2020. For humans, language is not innate and human language has discrete, distinguishable sounds so they depend on various sources to acquire a language. malaysiakini, (2020). Mental stimulation. The literacy rate among those who are 65 years and above is at 75.6 per cent (UNESCO, 2020). It looks at some of the theoretical constructs pertaining to choice of language as well as learning through a second language. New Straits Times, (2020b). CNA, (2020). To cater to certain households’ incapability to purchase these gadgets, the government introduced Kelas@Rumah, a daily television show that is available on a free-to-view television channel. The main thrust was the improvement of standards through the introduction of a "tougher English examination" ("Tougher English," 1995). And often times, the low level of proficiency in English language are associated with teachers’ ability and competency to teach the subject. Case studies of five different schools (Pillay, 1995) indicate that this divide is along lines of socio-economic status and between urban and rural schools. English is also widely used in most of the high courts and in the diplomatic service. “M’sia’s literacy rate is almost 95%, not 55%: National Library”, access from, https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2017/05/236676/msias-literacy-rate-almost-95-not-55-national-library on May 5, 2017. Challenges are definitely to be considered when implementing your strategies for successfully teaching English or foreign languages online. English in higher education. Pillay, H. (1995). 132-145). The access to Internet in different states in Malaysia is not the same, as some remote areas such as Pahang, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak do not have adequate Internet access. Child states that every Child is entitled to receive a compulsory primary education loss in the profession. 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