Malaysia: Taking the learning of English seriously

[Harold Schiffman]

Taking the learning of English seriously


I READ Azza Azmi's letter "Go all out to make policy work" (The Star,
June 4) with mixed opinions. While I agree with the writer that we can
be good in English without having to study Science and Math in the
language, I do not fully agree with her opinion that mastery of
English should begin and continue to be polished at home. The writer
should note that we have lost a generation of people who would have
been proficient in the language. Many times, I have heard parents
speaking broken English to their children, or parents who do not speak
the language at all. Moreover, not all parents can afford to buy
reading materials in English because of the high price of books.

The mastery of English should, indeed, begin at school and colleges,
especially teacher training colleges. Since not all teachers have the
knowledge and skills to teach the language even though they are
qualified, and students are not able to string a proper sentence in
English despite getting an A, it is clear that we need to have exams
of a higher standard. We can implement lots of policies (one of them
being the teaching of Science and Math in English) but if there is no
quality measurement, there won't be improvement.

Let's make the English exams (both in schools and colleges) tougher
like the good old days so that everyone will be serious in learning
the language. Better still, make it compulsory for students to get a
strong credit in English in order to obtain a full SPM certificate.
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

S.W. LOW,
Port Dickson.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/5/focus/21456456&sec=focus

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-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************