Here, we are talking about English which is already well used internationally and easily available on television and films shown. Audio visual aids are also available and even Astro has programs teaching it too.
When my daughter was offered a chance to be an international exchange student in Japan, I bought an audio visual aid on learning Japanese. At the time, I knew some Japanese words and she knew next to nothing. But having to enroll in a Japanese high school where Japanese is the medium of instruction, she had no choice but to learn. When one was forced to speak, one had to practise more and naturally would pick up faster. I can still remember she was supposed to take Level 4 test first, but to make it more challenging, she wanted to go for Level 2, and the Japanese teacher discouraged her. That discouragement served as a challenge to her and she insisted on taking the more difficult test. She was lucky to have the assistance and support of her then host mother who encouraged her by saying that by doing the more advanced workbooks, even if she were to fail, she would have learned more than those who passed the easier test! She was home before the results and we were so glad she did it! Maybe she has a flair for languages. When she was in University of Essex, she got permission to skip the elementary level for Spanish by travelling in Mexico during summer!
The moral of my story is that the students should be made to be aware of the advantages of learning English and that a pass is also a means to gaining much more knowledge, especially via the internet. The standards set should be high enough so that those who passed are actually able to communicate well later on in institutions of higher learning and at work, in business or profession. By being half-hearted our leaders seem to mollycoddle the students until God knows when. All because of political expediency which means not upsetting the mass of Malay supporters. But I would be surprised if the Malays themselves are still unconvinced about the importance of English language.
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5 comments:
Making it compulsory to score a pass in English for the SPM certificate is but a tiny step. As I recall, it's very, very easy to get a pass. Creating an acceptable standard or benchmark is something else.
I agree with you. You should know, having been a teacher before. An English teacher in a private institution resigned rather than agree to lowering the passing mark. But they could find people who are willing to do so. We can fool people with a certificate. But we still need to deliver in the course of applying for a job or in our daily work. Lowering standard is merely delaying and shifting the problem which most local graduates are facing now. Again, as HR GM, I am sure you meet many in the course of interviews!
In all the years of my career, I've been involved in only teaching and HR work. One of the most "memorable" incidents was during a recruitment drive for my company. We insisted on a certain level of English proficiency level which the candidate would have to prove, in speaking (the interview was conducted entirely in English) and writing (the candidate was required to write a short composition in English). One candidate showed me a copy of an application letter and his resume (not very good specimens, as I recall), saying that this was his final year project for his undergraduate course. I think he was an economics graduate from a local institution. What horrified me then was his obvious pride in his "piece" which he took to be proof of his proficiency in the English Language!
Yes, he was relying on his 'piece' and seemed to be resting on his laurel, when he was supposed to be tested on the spot which was more relevant.
As for the 'piece' example, I cannot help but compare it with the example in my comment in Masterwordsmith's post, The Curse. In my daughter's case, her English was incorrectly assessed based on her poor results in Economics which happened to be a subject she disliked when she was doing an LSE course! Imagine despite having distinction in English in SPM as well as in the external 1119! So she provided a 'piece' of her work (an article in Suara Anum) which helped to convince the Admissions Officer. I am actually feeling self-conscious using her example too often! But it was too fortuitous under the circumstances to forget.
Obviously the declining standard of English throughout our country has a more significant adverse impact than our education authorities would admit.
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