Here I am again trying to make sense of the blogging world. What do I want to write about? What else but something close to my heart. For those who have school-going children, the current debate about teaching science and mathematics in English seems one of the most important topics nowadays.
I was one of those products where English was the medium of instruction. You may say that I'm biased towards the language. Don't get me wrong. To me it doesn't matter whether both subjects are taught in English or Malay. It pained me to watch my 2 elder children struggling with the language during their school years. It hasn't stop since I still have 3 more school going
children.
English is a world knowned language. Like it or not, you have to master it in order to be successful in life. Not just successful but to get by in this world too. So, how do we go about it. Read, read and read more English. Here's how we can do it.
1. Have at least one hour a week to read stories. Bring the students out in the open [ preferably under the cool shade of a big tree], sit in a circle and read a short story aloud. Make sure the
pronounciation is clear and correct, and make sure the students understand every meaning of the words.
2. Then let each and every student tells those stories in their own words. This is to make sure
that the student understand the storyline. This too will make the student more confident of having English conversations.
3. Collect some fund for buying story books. I know it's expensive but hear me first. A RM10 is
collected from each student. A class of 35 will have RM350. Buy 35 books from this fund. If more money is needed, I'm sure some generous parent will contribute. All the teacher has to do is ask. Ask each student to read a book a week. He or she has 35 books to read and for just RM10 a year. Elect a class librarian to handle the the lending and returning of books. To make sure the students read their books, pick at random 3 or 4 students each week to tell the class on
their stories. Just imagine, at the end of their school year [ 11 years ] the students have read 385 books in total. At the end of school year the student has the option of giving his book to the school library or take it home. Thank you Mrs. Chai for doing this in 1969. What a very brilliant idea.
4. Have an English dictionary in the classroom for everybody to use.
And then the English teacher can teach the students Grammar. Piece of cake.
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I guess those years were more easy to pratice these ways. But teachers nowadays need to complete their syllabus as being told.
ReplyDeleteAnd worse, teachers of std 6, form3 and form 5 have to focus more on exam exercises.
That's the system now. Can't blame the teachers entirely though.
Dear Me, I know the teaching profession is not the same like before.Ours was the only class back then using the method above. My teacher, Mrs.Chai took a few minutes before the class proper to spend time with us on reading. After a few months, reading became second nature and she didn't ask us about the books anymore. To start was the difficult step though.
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