Malaysia: Is the present English language curriculum preparing students for the new literacies of the 21st century?

[Harold Schiffman]

Literacy now

Is the present English language curriculum preparing students for the
new literacies of the 21st century? NOT many people would use a line
from Hamlet to make a link between the present state of English
language teaching and learning in Malaysia and what it should be in
the future. In his inaugural lecture, following his promotion to full
professor at Universiti Malaya, Prof Dr Moses Samuel did exactly that.

Prof Moses used a quote from Marcellus, a secondary character in
Hamlet, who urges his friend to speak to the spectre or ghost that had
appeared, by saying, "Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio." PROF
MOSES: It is perhaps time for a broad-based curriculum review. In
drawing this parallel, Prof Moses asked a pertinent question: Is the
English language curriculum in Malaysia speaking to our youth? "We are
called, collectively and individually, to speak to the subject English
and to interrogate it, so that in and through the interrogation it
will acquire new relevance and new meaning and new power for the next
generation,'' he said.

His contention is that English in schools must be radically
reconfigured because of fundamental changes arising out of
globalisation and the advent of information and communication
technologies.

In his lecture, Reconfiguring English in the Curriculum, he gave some
suggestions on what should be included in the English language
curriculum.

"Historically, English had to clarify its role following a rethinking
and a re-examination of fundamental concepts of nation and nationhood,
of identity and the role of language in shaping national identity,''
said Prof Moses, who is also head of the department of language and
literacy education at the university's Education Faculty.

The introduction of the communicational English syllabus in 1978 was
indicative of a new role for English, where it was envisaged that it
would become a foreign language rather than a second language for most
Malaysians.

In the succeeding years, some of the excesses of communicative
language teaching were modified in the Integrated Secondary School
Curriculum (KBSM), and this included the re-introduction of the
literature component.

Prof Moses argued that there was a lag between the English subject
taught in schools and English in the world.

"Definitions of what it meant to be literate, what would constitute
minimal competencies to survive, and what literacy competencies and
practices were needed to thrive in the new economies, must be
radically different."

He highlighted four aspects that the English subject in schools would
need to address if it was to be relevant and meaningful for tomorrow's
citizens: critical literacy, exploration and analysis of new text
forms, integration of content and language, and the notion of verbal
play.

Critical literacy is needed, he said, because of the sheer scale of
information available.

"Consumers of text have to weigh and make decisions about the
trustworthiness of information and the ideological underpinnings of a
text.

"While mere decoding of text would have been sufficient in the
pre-industrial or industrial age, it is clearly inadequate for the
post-industrial era,'' he said, adding that interpretative literacy
and critical literacy are the new basics of the knowledge economy.

Students also need to be initiated into new text forms that are
emerging as a result of technological change.

"We are seeing a fusion of multiple modalities; words, audio, still
images, moving images. The new technologies have introduced new
elements in the composing process and new ways of reading texts,"
observed Prof Moses.

The third dimension is content integrated language learning, as is
practised now through the teaching of Mathematics and Science through
English.

Prof Moses said: "It is perhaps time for a broad-based curriculum
review to ensure a better fit or bridge between content and language."

He also made a case for greater use of verbal play in the classroom as
an antidote to the utilitarian focus on language.

Prof Moses concluded his lecture by stating that in a knowledge
society, these were the fundamental pre-requisites for survival, but
recognised that inequalities would exist.

"But the solution is not the lowering of standards for that only
creates the illusion – or should I say the delusion – of success, for
standards are not determined by examination boards alone but by
society at large, by global, multinational employers, by citizens
groups both within and beyond the nation state."

Prof Moses interspersed his talk with slide shows, anecdotes and
findings of a case study from a research project he did in a
semi-rural school in Banting, Selangor, to illustrate how the
approaches he outlined could be implemented in a challenging language
environment.

In essence, teachers need to break free from the "habits of mind," to
challenge students and use real-life examples from students'
surroundings to make the language come alive.

"Like Hamlet standing on the battlements in Elsinore, engaging with
the spectre, the teacher of English, along with the curriculum
developers and policy makers, needs to engage with the spectre of
English so that it will be reconfigured to serve the future," he said.

http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2008/2/3/education/20197836

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