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Why do learners face problems when learning English in Malaysia? Malaysia is a multi ethnic and a multi bilingual country. Why I say this, is because it comprises mainly of 3 races. They are the Malay’s, Chinese and Indians. It’s a peaceful and harmonious country. Our education system, during the pre-independence era, primary schools were available in four medium of instruction, mainly English, Malay, mandarin and Tamil. After several race riots, that occurred in May 1969 which brought about a change in the education system where all English schools were instructed to phase out. The Third Malaysia Plan 1976-1980 was a government policy which stated that Bahasa Malaysia (Malay language) is the basis for National Integration and English is taught as second language. Schools adopted a few approaches in teaching English but certain problems were not looked into for example the teaching of English. Now when kids begin their schooling, the medium of instruction of the school depends on the type of school. There are two different national schools in Malaysia. The national type schools will have a mix of all the 3 main races and medium of instruction is in Malay language. Meanwhile the National-type school comprises of two where, Chinese schools are for the Chinese and the Tamil schools are for the Indians with their respective native language as their medium of instruction. Regardless of the type of school learners learn English as an additional language subject. Therefore, students can either be bilingual or multilingual. Due to the fact that the education system had numerous times changed its policies, we tend to see problems which indirectly or directly effect the learners and the teaching staff as well. Let me point out some of these problems. In 2003, when the government of the day made the decision that the Science and Mathematics subjects be taught in English (the project known as PPSMI) was done in a haste with the results that there was insufficient time to plan or prepare for the change, especially the teachers retraining aspects. Learners were literally struggling to get a grasp of these two subjects in English. There were many who were for this move because they believed that now there were more subjects taught in English and many who opposed this because most of the students from rural areas and a certain ethnic group was failing these subjects badly. Finally, this program was phased out. . Secondly, the duration spent for English lessons in national – type or national schools is only 40 minutes a day, which comes to 200 minutes a week. Anyone can see that insufficient time is spent on the subject. And after 11 years of primary and secondary education, it would add total up to just a little over 120,000 minutes contact time in the student’s entire schooling career. During a English lesson, teachers are the ones doing most of the talking and you see less interaction between teacher and student. Grammar, pronunciation are not addressed meaning no explanation is given as students are told to go home and do their workbook or ask help from parents or their tuition teacher. I used to teach to both these types schools and the most difficulty my students had were lack of knowledge on basic grammar, pronunciation was bad and they could not write a proper sentence in English. Rather than trying to upgrade methods or strategies in teaching the language it would be more effective if more time was spent on the language and more subjects are taught in the curriculum in English. Thirdly, learners are poor in the English language because the lack of reading, speaking and writing skills. Reading provides a logical understanding of the English language and it also improves one’s ability to speak and write the language. Like I mentioned earlier, most of the reading and talking is done by the teacher in the class. So, this would most definitely make a student either not interested in the class or feeling bored. In the end, all the student wants is to finish his homework and pass it up the next day in order not to get punished. The communication skill, most students prefer and feel comfortable speaking in their native language (either Malay, Mandarin or Tamil). The reason they don’t speak English in school is because they feel ashamed if they make a mistake while speaking and others may laugh at them. There are usually 20 to 35 students in each class and the teacher will not be able to give her attention to each and every one of them. The stronger ones would be able to grasp what the teacher is saying but the weaker ones will keep quiet and just copy their friends work because they fear the teacher might reprimand them for not paying attention in class and also the fact that they are too embarrassed to admit they don’t understand the language. The school should take more initiative to tackle these issues by giving more attention to these students and probably lessening the teacher’s workload, so that teachers have more time to help these students improve on their understanding of the language. In conclusion, improving proficiency in English language merely through a subject called ‘English’ in the school curriculum is insufficient as educational planners at the Education Ministry and teachers in schools have realized over the years. Indeed, Malaysia does need a considerable number of her citizens to be able to communicate in English in order to be at par with our trading partners in cross- border trade negotiations, to be teachers and lecturers using the English language and to be successful in the service industry. Therefore, the Education Ministry needs to look into these issues and take steps to ensure the standard of English does not deteriorate any further and find ways to upgrade it.
