It’s been a while since the last time I strained myself to learn English. I don’t know when English started to be a tough subject to learn for me. Reminiscing the good old days back in primary school, learning English is so much fun – except the part when we have to write essays. Maybe I don’t like writing essay because I’m not good at it. I’m always running out of ideas on what should I write. Plus, my grammar is still not upgrading since I’m in high school. I still feel like I’m at the same level all the time. I should be working more on it. Well, I did actually. I read books! I mean LOTS of books. Well, maybe not books, they're novel.
For this semester, we are having another course for English which is English for Language Teacher. After reviewing the topics listed, I feel that it is convenient for us as English teachers to take this course because it contains all the basic skills to teach kids at younger stage, especially Primary school kids to learn English. If we as teachers could not be a good role model for them, they will grow up with the wrong ideas that they learned from us.
For the first topic, Language and Communication, we had learned the meaning of language and how does it related to communication. From my understandings, language is a code to represent thoughts and ideas and this will happen through communication. It can be either verbal or non-verbal communication. There are thousands of languages used all around the world. During lecture, we have been shown with some examples of various languages. Among these are Tamil, Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese. Different language has different sentence structure. But mostly are same as English as in S-V-O order.
We had been working on our tutorial which requires us to discuss on how Malaysian culture affects English Language. There are four factors listed which are:
1. Multicultural society – major ethnic groups & dialects groups
2. Urban and rural settings
3. Political / historical influence
4. Educational policies
I will my reflect more on my group’s discussion which is considering the urban and rural settings. From our discussion and several references, we found out that settings really play important roles in learning English. For students in rural areas, they seldom get the chance to use English. Plus, lack of facilities is one of the major factors that lead to poor achievement in English learning. Compare to the students in urban areas, they have a lot more exposure to English language. Magazines, entertainment, commercials, television shows, all of it are in English. As we can see, in Miri alone, children speak English everywhere. It is rare for us to hear children speak in other languages. If in rural areas, people will say that you are crazy or trying to show-off if you speak English. They only speak English during English class.
Based on my experience, I might say that it is true. I was schooling for Primary school in rural area. The facilities are not upgraded and teachers tend to use chalk and talk teaching method. Lots of the time, the teacher will use mother tongue to do the explaining. We also didn’t have the enough chance to communicate in English. So, when I moved to an elite school in urban area in Kuching for Secondary school, I was having a culture shock. The English teachers are all overseas graduated and the facilities are advanced with high-tech. There also 24-hours internet access. With such advantages, the English learning can be more effective.
Other subject from other groups that attract my attention is PPSMI. I strongly disagree with the government’s action to abolish PPSMI. I mean, why do we have to learn Maths and Science in Bahasa Melayu from Pre-school till Form 5 while in the upper stage such as Form 6, Matriculation and Universities we have to use English? Isn’t it such a head-twister for the students? Anyway, I’m not in any position to choose.
Another matter is Manglish. Unconsciously, Manglish is in our soul. Whenever we speak English with Malaysian, we tend to use Manglish. The weird thing is, if I speak to foreign people such as tourist, automatically my Manglish is all gone. There I am, speaking the grammatical English. It occurs because of the slang of diverse culture in our country. So, slowly and without us noticing, it became a language although it is unofficial.
Besides, we also had done a lot of activities for this topic. The first one is to be creative with language. Individually, we had composed a poem and my poem sounds like this:
I can give you the stars
I can give you the seas
I can give you anything
But just give me a kiss.
It’s really fun but need ideas. It is not an easy work. I’m always running out of ideas.
The next activity is to prepare a dialogue and role-play it during lecture. It is a group activity. The main idea is to let the other groups to identify the language functions that we had used in our dialogue.
Group members:
Graciella (Grace)
Lydia Suzzance (Lydia)
Mohd. Khairizan R (Ijan)
Mohd. Khairuddin R (Dent)
Dent : Wow, look at her! She’s so hot. Don’t you think so?
Ijan : Yes, it is so true.
Dent : Look at her long legs.
Ijan : I can’t take my eyes off her. She’s just too good to be true.
Grace : Hey guys! What’s so interesting here?
Dent : No, no, nothing.
Lydia : You guys are interested in that hot lady, right? Don’t try to fool us.
Ijan : No, we just think that her dress is really nice. That’s all.
Grace : Is it her dress or herself?
Dent : I think both!
Lydia : Then, why don’t you try to ask for her phone number?
Grace : Yes, let’s see if you can, Casanova!
Dent : Well, maybe next time. The weather today is too hot to be in action.
Ijan : Yes, I totally agree with you! Hahaha.
Dent : Me too. Hahaha.
Lydia : You two are such losers!
Grace : Let’s move before we miss the bus.
Finally, we had done a non-verbal communication activity. We had prepared a mime dialogue for us to act out. During the lecture, our group had mime the dialogue and other groups had identify the situation that we acted out. Our situation is a depraved teenager who came home late and been slapped by his father. Our class member were able to guess correctly. :)
Group members:
Graciella (Minah)
Lydia Suzzance (Mother)
Mohd. Khairizan R (Mat)
Mohd. Khairuddin R (Father)
Two teenagers are hanging out, drinking alcohol and smoking.
Mat : Ahhh..these things taste like heaven. (Sipping beer and cigarette)
Minah : Yeah, we should do it again sometimes.
Mat : It’s late already. We should get going now before my father found out.
Minah : Haha..loser! Okay then, same place tomorrow.
Mat : Sure!
At home.
Mat opened the door slowly, hoping that no one will hear him.
Father : Mat! Where have you been at this hour? Are you going to smoke with your friends again??
Mother : (Folding clothes)
Mat : Err..I went to Minah’s house to do revision. (Showing his book)
Father : Revision?? Don’t try to deny it Ahmad! (Throw the book aside). Hah! What is this smell? Are you….are you… Don’t tell me that you drank the alcohol Mat!
Mat : No…no, dad! I’m not!
Father : Liar!!! (Slapping Mat, angrily) who teach you to be like this? Who? I told you not to mingle with the street kids! They are rubbish mat! Rubbish!
Mother : Abangg!!! What are you doing? Don’t hit him! (Protecting Mat from being hit by his father)
Father : What have you become son? Are you one of them now? The street kids? You are supposed to be an excellent student now. Not like this! (Frustrated).
Mother : No, Mat. Tell your dad that all he said are lies son. Tell him.
Mat : No, mum. It’s true. I screw up.
Mother : (Crying, frustrated)
We are having so much fun doing these activities. it feels like we were in the school again. Summing up, language is very important for communication. Without communication, we weren't be able to get to the level we are positioned now. :)
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