I Don't Kechek Melayu
I don't use Malay with my students ...
though it takes me all that I have just to send a simple message to them.
When I started teaching in my school, my students could barely differentiate 'class monitor' and 'class teacher'. It took me a while to make students understand the difference. Yeah, it took me a while for I was explaining the difference in English, not in their native language, Malay.
As I am an English teacher, the first English specialist that the school has ever had, I try to bold my presence in school by bringing in some changes. The most apparent change is the usage of only-English as the medium of interaction between students and English teachers.
The first time the only-English being implemented, there was not a lot of problems except that teachers were required to constantly exercise their para-linguistics features besides having to simplify their English to suit students' proficiency level. However, after a few months, as when some students were getting bored with teachers' excessive usage of para-linguistics features which sometimes look like teachers and students were playing charade all the time, students tended to persuade teachers to use Malay. They brought up valid reasons to settle down with Malay or to just use Grammar Translation method in lessons yet teachers' persistence is never a subject to be discussed.
Months after the only-English was being introduced, there is an improvement in students listening and spoken English. Though students written English is as poor as before, they have made a big improvement in their ability to understand English instructions and are now able to speak a little English.
Despite the belief that the only-English is not suitable for low proficiency students, only-English is proven to bring significant impacts on the students of my context.
When I started teaching in my school, my students could barely differentiate 'class monitor' and 'class teacher'. It took me a while to make students understand the difference. Yeah, it took me a while for I was explaining the difference in English, not in their native language, Malay.
As I am an English teacher, the first English specialist that the school has ever had, I try to bold my presence in school by bringing in some changes. The most apparent change is the usage of only-English as the medium of interaction between students and English teachers.
The first time the only-English being implemented, there was not a lot of problems except that teachers were required to constantly exercise their para-linguistics features besides having to simplify their English to suit students' proficiency level. However, after a few months, as when some students were getting bored with teachers' excessive usage of para-linguistics features which sometimes look like teachers and students were playing charade all the time, students tended to persuade teachers to use Malay. They brought up valid reasons to settle down with Malay or to just use Grammar Translation method in lessons yet teachers' persistence is never a subject to be discussed.
Months after the only-English was being introduced, there is an improvement in students listening and spoken English. Though students written English is as poor as before, they have made a big improvement in their ability to understand English instructions and are now able to speak a little English.
Despite the belief that the only-English is not suitable for low proficiency students, only-English is proven to bring significant impacts on the students of my context.
Assalamualaikum teacher , I dont know either you still remember me or not; your ex student from SMKBinjai . Im interested with your fully-english blog . Im not so confident to use english in my blog so im using manglish . Can you share any tips to improve my english ? *Sorry for my bad english
ReplyDeleteI do still remember you. Will try my best to one day come out with all the tips to improve English for currently, I'm still researching on the tips that are relevant to the context of Malaysian students.
ReplyDelete