ENGL 4070: Learning and Teaching English SEMESTER I 20011/2012

Written Assignment

Name Section Lecturer

: Nor Hazirah Mohd Ghazali :1 : Dr. Maimunah Abdul Kadir

0810676

Malaysia has its own stance when it comes to the debate on the importance of English. As for me, growing up in a family that prioritizes education more than anything else, learning spelling is done as early as 3 years old. I grew up and spent most of my times with my grandparents. My grandfather is a Mathematics and Malay Language teacher when he was still working teaching in high schools. He has always been the one we referred to when we were in school because he has broad knowledge about all. Compared to my mother, my grandfather upholds Malay more than English. He only spoke to me in Malay until I was 5. He said, in order for me to be eloquent in Malay, he decided that it matters most to speak it when children was still in their toddler years. Later on, my mother provided me with English spelling books when I was 5 years old. I was still at my grandparents home and did not go to pre-school yet. I was only exposed to English cartoons when I was young. There were tapes that my second aunt brought for me those are mainly childrens tapes that have English nursery rhymes with words underneath them. During that time, there were not many cartoon programs that were available to be watched. It was during those times when the technology was using video tapes hence I only watch tapes that were brought by my parents or my aunt. For an example, Disneys Classic Movie Collections like Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast etc. These movies have helped me gained new vocabulary and helped in further enhancing my imaginations. Based on my earlier days of being exposed to English language, I was given a huge support from both my mother and my aunt who are fluent in English. They have been speaking to me in English and giving instructions in English to help me familiarize with the language. I believed that because of the support from both of them, I have been able to feel at ease when I listened to English songs, watched English cartoons and tried to speak English to both of them. The exposure of giving more English cartoons video tapes has helped me to being able feel at ease when I was being surrounded with English. However, my mother stopped giving me video tapes of cartoons after I was 6 years old. It is believed that she did not want me to continue with learning English through entertainment anymore. She claimed that by 6 years old, I should be able to speak for communication rather than imitating the scripts and characters from the cartoons that I have watched. In my opinion, there should not be such limitations because by putting a total stop to something that can help in

adding more vocabulary and knowledge may distort the brain development of a child. A child needs to be exposed to what are the things around them and things that are beyond their circle of visions. When I first started going to kindergarten, most of children my age are formally introduced to learning English. However, I was sent to an Islamic kindergarten which teaches Arabic and the medium of teaching was never English, but Malay. I never had the chance to converse English with my friends when I was in kindergarten but my mother continued encouraging me to speak and use English at home. The problem was I never use English in school with friends and it would be extremely weird when someone speaks English in the kindergarten. I was de motivated to speak English to the fact that I did not even count one, two and three in English. Looking back during those days, the reason why I was very afraid to use English was because the environment had never welcome English. Everybody thought that once you start to speak English, you are not Muslim enough. This typical overgeneralization was extremely famous during that year particularly among people in my area. Due to this problem, I was not able to speak well and was very intimidated to use English in kindergarten. My mother could have changed me to another kindergarten but because in that kindergarten I was able to received Arabic learning as a foreign language, she did not send me to another new kindergarten. Later on when I finally enroll into the primary school, I was able to receive proper education for English language. In my primary school, the percentage of Malay pupils was the least among three races, the other two being Chinese and Indians. If a class consists of thirty pupils, having seven Malay pupils is the most number that can happen in a situation. That means in a batch, there might be only thirty out of 150 pupils are Malays. Hence, the use of English was very important as an act of communication with other pupils; the Chinese and Indians. This was a big of a shock to me because during my kindergarten day, which was only a month before I entered the primary school, I have been speaking only Malay to my friends but because of the sudden change of environment I would need to speak English with my primary schoolmates. It was hard to believe that there were people who really did not speak English at all in school. It is because the pupils were also aware that Malay language is more important than any other languages when we were in school. In school, Malay and English were used

interchangeably to ensure that the pupils aware about the importance of using both Malay and English in our country. My mother has been buying me books that I could read when I have free time at home. When I was seven years old, my mother would go to the bookstores and buy Enid Blytons book for me to read. However, children being children, I never really liked the books and some of them were rarely read. I have never liked reading English materials. The reason why I became that way was because when I entered primary school, my mother stopped me from watching cartoons. When this happened, a child would be very provocative wanting to get to watch cartoons. Due to the lack of interest in reading English books, I somehow became one of the Malay pupils who did not use English in class, even during the English period. I never intended to be disobedient to use English in class or with my friends but I purely had no intentions to learn English. To some of the pupils, learning English was very simple and fun for them because they are born in a family that everybody uses English but not mine. The torture that I received from school to speak English consistently was never seen as a serious matter to me at all. Being someone who always do things whichever and whatever that I want, even during my primary school years I was never serious about anything at all. Hence, learning English grammar, spelling and vocabulary was only an activity that I just had to finish as homework but never intended to implement them in my communication skills. My mother was not aware of this because she was too busy with work. Hence, I was left further behind in English classes because of my lack of interest in English class. It continued until I was in Standard Six when I finally realized how I really need to start to take the language seriously. I was called by my teacher and she was very angry with me looking at how bad I did for my examinations. She said there is no use of being pretty and nice if you can not use good English and have bad brain. I was insulted by my English teacher in front of the class, and it was the turning point of my fate with English. I started to take English very seriously. I began having intensive English conversation with my own made friends in order for me to speak the language well. I watched a lot of football matches with my grandfather and started to become the commentary of the football match and many more that I tried to impersonate and sound like native speakers. I started to sing English songs only and remember the lyrics and tried to analyze the grammatical elements involved in

each sentence. After a month, I was able to speak English which later gave a shock to my English teachers who praised how much I have improved in English. I gained confidence in speaking English after that and started to be more serious in class and became independent during English class. I regret that I took for granted the given environment that most of the people around me speak English. I should have taken the chance and be serious in enhancing my performance in English when I was in primary school. I have wasted five years of learning English and I only realized towards the coming of UPSR examination. I should have been better when I was in the environment where everybody converse in English because after my primary school years, it was when I came to the situation I received when I was in kindergarten, I can not find people who speak English. When I was in secondary school, I was very good in English but I was sent to a religious boarding school and it was very hard for me to find people who speak English. Nobody really likes those who speak English because for them those who speak English are snobbish and stuckup and arrogant. English was only used in English class but even then, nobody really speaks in class. Being in boarding school and especially in my school, girls are not recommended to talk or give opinions out loud. However, I was determined to change this hence with some of my fellow good friends we tried to change this culture by joining the English debating club. English debating has helped me a lot in improving my English and boosted up my confidence level speaking English in front of public. English debate has been the only platform that I really work on until today to improve and enhance my language and thinking skills, it is like killing two birds with one stone. I am very thankful that I realized it sooner on how important English skills in our daily lives are used after our school years. We managed to change the culture of the school to be loud and vocal not only by using Malay but also English and Arabic particularly among the girls who the school expected to be soft-spoken, obedient and poise, have become loud, strong and vocal in expressing logic and arguments in platforms like debate, public speaking and forum. I believed that during the years in secondary school, the process of learning English was very entertaining because they separate students by grades. Good grades students were grouped in a set and the later sets have lesser number of students so that it will be easier for the teachers

to cater to the weak students need. It was very effective for a certain point but not to some students. Being in the first set, where everybody speaks and writes well in English, the competition was quite high between the students. But it was good that the quality of essays and work given by the teachers are high in its value. Hence, producing students with high motivation and very well equipped with English skills. When I have debate trainings, the training with my seniors were done in English and if one Malay word came out from anybodys mouth, one should pay twenty cents as a punishment. We worked really hard not to code switch and continued speaking in English only. This was a good training for the debaters and I because we learn to think in English rather than in Malay. When you start to think in English, it is easier for you speech to be smooth and quick because you do not need to translate you thoughts into words from another language but just have to use the same language. That is the reason why I was able to speak and use the language very well later on when I debate. Learning English in formal classroom are boring however there are ways to be taken into consideration if you are teaching good English students. Even though they are already able to use the language perfectly, they need experience in answering questions for the examinations. As for communication wise, most students were assessed by their individual and group presentations that are included in English syllabus across the country. It is very entertaining to watch friends talking and sharing stories and it helps the students to boost their level of confidence up because they can finally share their stories and speak in front of the class. After finishing secondary school, I entered Matriculation Center in Penang, and starting from that place, English was the medium of learning, where the subjects like Chemistry and Physics are taught in English. Since my result for SPM exam for my sciences subjects were not very satisfying, I managed to pull through during my days in the Matriculation Center because the learning process was done by using English and I was able to understand better than other friends. However, science was never my passion so I left the school and went to IIU to further my studies in English Language and Literature, something that fits me. I was given the chance by the university to experience life in England because I had to represent IIUM for a debate tournament in Oxford where later I met a lot of ESL speakers who came to debate too. There I learned the culture and listened to the accents that are used in the

country. It was very fascinating to see how from the North to the South region of the country differs in their accents. Staying there after two weeks, I came back bringing the accent with me. I spoke with my friends and do presentations and debates with the British accent however it faded away after a month after I used it. Based on my opinion, it is because I have less resource to continue to listen and use the accent in Malaysia. It is very hard to find Malaysians who use British accent when they speak English and that is why I gave up speaking with the accent. I have learned that the accent is no longer important if nobody around you uses it and without having to stay in a native country for a long time, one is not able to adopt the accent of the country for a long time. I believe it is the same theory for any other foreign languages too. You need to be there longer for you to be able to grab and adopt the language yourself. When I was in Korea for a short visit, I was able to make friends with English natives who live there and during this period of time, I learned something else in regard to English. I learned what the proper ways to say few things are; the appropriate words, pronunciation and euphemism. I learned from an Australian and American friends who initially thought I received education in the United States because they thought I sounded like an American so much. I learned these three items in such an informal way because they corrected me while we were conversing. I experienced a new experience that can not be bought but I treasured it as much as I treasure my own teachers. It depends on the individual on how to learn a language and particularly English, the language that everybody in the world concede that has the influence in education and political relations between countries. In order for a learner to acquire the language, learners themselves need to know what are their learning styles and methods that can help them to understand and to acquire the language faster than usual. It is mainly the motivation that comes first because, in my opinion, without motivation, you can never have the gut to learn the language just like I have stated before earlier in the essay during my primary school years that I did not have any will to learn English. There was nothing to motivate me learning the language anymore hence I took the class for granted. There are many theories that can be used in order for a teacher to apply one concept of teaching. The most important thing is to seek the different background of students that a teacher needs to clarify first before taking into action which theory is the best to be used in the

classroom. If a teacher over generalizes students and students learning styles, it may bring side effects to the learning outcomes. Hence, teachers should initially prompt to understand and does a background research on what styles of learning do the students mostly use. I believe in learning language there is a need for the learners to first understand the concept and technical things such as vocabulary, spelling, grammar and pronunciation. After having good understanding and knowledge of these items, the learner should start to interact with the other learners of their level and other people too. Every theory that we learn needs to be practiced in order for it to be able to generate and enhance and later on acquire the theories that have been learnt. This brings us back to the idea of Interactionism which allows the classroom to interact most of the time. Learning language needs to be practical in order for the instructors or teachers to see how the language is used. Interactionism allows two or more party to involve in societal afflictions and communicate by using the learned language. Hence, it will further improve the skills of a person in acquiring the language that has been learnt. Rather than debating on whether or not Malaysia should change teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science in English to Malay language, Malaysia should focus on whether or not teaching Mathematics and Science in English will help to improve the English skills that are related to it. Is it a good choice of using Science and Mathematics to ensure that English language can be used and conveyed by using these two subjects as the medium where we can both learn knowledge and also the use of English. This is the matter that is very crucial. If they are debating on the need to have English to be the medium to teach Science and Mathematics because it can improve students English skills, then think again. Is there any connection of the use of English in Science and Mathematics can be used in daily lives of students? These questions should be aroused whether or not the subjects chosen are perfectly fitted for the students to learn English language skills as well. For the conclusion, there are several needs to be taken into consideration of the government on what is the main focus of choosing to learn it either in English and Malay and even if we need a subject to be taught in English, there should be subjects that can help to improvise the language skills, not just to add knowledge and vocabulary but mainly the interactions among the students in class while learning the subject while using English.