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Posted: 17 Nov 2013 09:21 PM PST

Kee Thuan Chye

Two months ago, I wrote in this column about the issue of English and asked whether our government would give the language the importance it deserves and get our students to learn it wholeheartedly. Since then, we've heard the good news that the Government has decided to make English a must-pass subject at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations from 2016.

This is a good start. At the very least, it sends out the message to students to take the language seriously when at present many of them don't. The official sanction should also get things rolling and prompt education planners to prepare for the 2016 target. It may be only three years away, but a short deadline can sometimes be as effective as a longer one, if not more so. It's all about having the will to do it. And speaking of will, students are more likely to find the will to improve their English when they are pushed to do it than when they are led to believe that English is irrelevant to their daily lives or even harmful to their own culture and identity.

Even so, supporters of English are sceptical, and understandably so.

Uppermost on their minds is whether standards might not be compromised to ensure that the percentage of students who fail is kept to a minimum. We have heard stories of the passing mark for difficult subjects like Additional Mathematics being pushed down to as low as 15 or so; would this not be done for English as well? And if it were, what would be the point of the must-pass exercise then?

"If too many students fail, the Malaysian Examinations Board lowers the passing mark as a matter of course," my friend, a retired English-language teacher, assures me. "Our SPM certificate is now not worth the paper it is printed on."

She says if we were to look at a sample of the SPM English paper, we would realise that a pass counts for less than nothing by international standards. "That is why candidates with distinctions in English who turn up for job interviews cannot answer simple questions in English."

Another friend attributes the malaise to what he calls the "rottenness" of our education system. He says it has become rotten because it has been made subservient to political agendas.

"The entire Education Ministry is filled with 'yes men' who merely implement policy," he explains. "One day, I was at a meeting in the ministry and it was suddenly called off because the officers and heads of department had to put in place the machinery to implement a policy that they had read in the morning papers being announced by the minister.

"They were learning about it for the first time and already they had to work out the policy's implementation! No research, no study, no academic rigour goes into it. No statistics, no projections did they quote to support this latest move. Zero. That's how things work in our country!"

He fears this may be the modus operandi for implementing the English must-pass policy.

Yet another educator-friend feels the Government is rushing things to start the policy in 2016. He thinks everyone will not be ready by then because many teachers are not equipped to teach English – and certainly not properly. This is simply because they themselves are not proficient in the language. Many who graduated with a Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) degree can't even get the basics of the language right.

Last month, a parent complained to me that her son spelt the word "heavy" correctly but his English-language teacher marked it wrong and insisted it should be spelt "h-e-a-v-e"!

When I was editing the page 'Mind Our English' for the newspaper The Star, one of the most unforgettably hilarious – and most depressing – letters I received was from a parent telling about an English-language teacher saying to the class, "Chindilella very pooth thing." Try and figure out what that teacher meant, and think of the scary prospect of having someone like that teach your children English. If your children don't know better, they are likely to end up with half-past-six English.

Of course English-language teachers need to be well selected. But for a long while now, it seems that many people do not want to study to become English-language teachers. Most people mark other fields of study in their applications for university entrance; it is mainly those who can't get into courses of their choice who end up studying TESL.

At one time, our universities were accepting TESL candidates who obtained as low as Band 3 (signifying a modest grade) for their Malaysian Universities English Test (MUET). The highest is Band 6. One would think that TESL candidates should get no lower than Band 5. In fact, this should be the measure for applicants from now on to ensure that standards are maintained. We cannot simply accept students for TESL because they don't know what else to study or are unable to get into other courses.

I think part of the problem with our current generation's lack of proficiency in English is due to the emphasis being given to teaching English primarily for communication, as opposed to the traditional method of teaching grammar and vocabulary. This has been going on for at least three decades, and it has produced learners who don't know the basic building blocks of the language. Without such knowledge, they often can't string correct sentences together.

At a writing workshop I conducted recently, I was appalled, although not surprised, to discover that Malaysians in their forties and younger were not sure what an adjective or an adverb was. Don't ask them what a phrasal verb is; they didn't even know the basic sentence structure comprising subject, verb and object.

I admit that learning grammar may be dry and boring to some, but there is no substitute for learning the language well. How else would they be able to understand, say, the confounding, confounded past perfect tense?

My Canadian friend disagrees, however. "In a perfect world, teaching grammar may be the right thing to do," she says. "But in this country, at this time, with these people in power, with these demographics, I believe that the communication skills needed in most workplaces today – clarity, organisation of thought, collaborative problem-solving, clarification-seeking, concise e-mail writing, etc – are not as dependent on grammar and rich vocabulary as many believe. Confidence and a sense of the language as a mere tool to be used are much, much more valuable."

And how would they gain this confidence?

"When they are exposed to and motivated by the power of what language is supposed to be: a vehicle to exchange important, interesting and useful ideas," she says.

I suppose if this is to be accomplished, the Education Ministry must think of innovative and creative ways of immersing our students in English. It will certainly take more than the number of classroom hours allotted to the subject. It should also include promoting the habit of reading English texts. And what better than texts culled from the rich storehouses of literature written in English – not just from England but also from other parts of the world, including Malaysia?

When I was in lower secondary school, my classmates and I were introduced to literary works in English. I recall reading, as part of our syllabus, abridged texts of novels and poems from the anthology entitled Poems for Pleasure. Many of us derived pleasure indeed from reading these, and I for one improved my English while doing so.

Much, then, has to be done to improve Malaysians' standard of English proficiency, and that does not stop with just passing the subject at SPM. But I still maintain that we're on to a good start by making that compulsory. It's important for the Government to finally show that it recognises the importance of English, because in a society like ours which is feudalistic, such recognition must come from the top before the minions will accept it.

Now comes the hard work of implementing it right.

Dirty tactics they play on social media

Posted: 17 Nov 2013 08:28 PM PST

Campaigning via social media has arrived in PAS but not everyone is happy about the way it has been used to accuse certain leaders in the run-up to the PAS election.

Joceline Tan,The Star

IT is strange but true – Karpal Singh has joined the fray in the PAS election campaign.

The DAP chairman has drawn a barrage of attacks from PAS politicians for his view that race and religion-based political parties and groups are not in the national interest. Karpal, who is famous for his "over my dead body" stand against hudud law, has always had a testy relationship with PAS but he was merely speaking his mind.

However, PAS politicians were not letting him off, especially with the PAS election just days away.

The most vocal voice from PAS on this has been Dr Raja Ahmad Yaakob, a young politician from Perak who is going for the deputy Youth chief's post. The issue has been like a ripe and delicious mango dropping onto his lap. He has weighed in on Karpal and they have resorted to calling each other "liar".

Dr Raja Ahmad had been struggling in his campaign because his rival, Mohd Khalil Abdul Hadi, is an ulama figure and the eldest son of their party president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang. But the Karpal issue has given his campaign the oomph! that he needs.

Dr Raja Ahmad is the running mate of Suhaizan Kayat, who is vying to be the next Youth chief. Both of them belong to the Erdogan group whereas their rivals are backed by the ulama group.

The Erdogans, as the professionals and activists in the party are known, have often been accused of being the tali barut or lackeys of their DAP and PKR partners.

In defending the party against Karpal, Dr Raja Ahmad is basically saying that he is no apologist or lackey and that he will criticise DAP and Karpal if he has to.

The issue of hudud law for Kelantan has also been a godsent issue for some of the candidates. Hudud law is an ultimate goal of PAS and it would be a dream come true for them if Kelantan takes the lead in implementing it.

Even the Sunday weekend became a campaign issue for some. At present, only Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu have a Friday weekend. Some candidates have urged the Friday weekend be implemented nationwide so that Muslims can perform their Friday prayer obligations without hassle.

But nothing has been as controversial as the way some of the party's young Turks have taken the campaign to Facebook and blogs.

Top party leaders are quite alarmed that some of the campaigners have adopted the dirty tactics used in the general election against Umno.

These include attacks and character assassination via blogs, Facebook and SMS. Deputy president candidate Mohamad Sabu has been the target of an SMS campaign claiming that he has Syiah links although he has denied it.

"There is a lot of fitnah on the Internet. But we should not be swayed if we follow what we have been taught in Islam," said former Wangsa Maju PAS chief Dr Rayney Ali.

PAS information chief Idris Ahmad has asked party members not to believe everything they read on the Internet. But if people could actually believe that Bangladeshis came to vote in the general election, there is no reason to think they will not believe some of the things being said about their own party election.

There is no denying that negative campaigning has made its debut in PAS. Party members have been both appalled and intrigued by some of the stuff posted on several Facebook fan pages that were obviously set up to campaign on behalf of the ulama group.

These Facebook accounts have been promoting the cause of the ulama candidates which is fine. The disturbing part is the way they have targeted the Erdogans, implying that they have caused the party to lose sight of its Islamic state agenda.

READ MORE HERE

Dirty tactics they play on social media

Posted: 17 Nov 2013 03:11 PM PST

Campaigning via social media has arrived in PAS but not everyone is happy about the way it has been used to accuse certain leaders in the run-up to the PAS election.

Joceline Tan, The Star

IT is strange but true – Karpal Singh has joined the fray in the PAS election campaign.

However, PAS politicians were not letting him off, especially with the PAS election just days away.

Dr Raja Ahmad is the running mate of Suhaizan Kayat, who is vying to be the next Youth chief. Both of them belong to the Erdogan group whereas their rivals are backed by the ulama group.

The Erdogans, as the professionals and activists in the party are known, have often been accused of being the tali barut or lackeys of their DAP and PKR partners.

In defending the party against Karpal, Dr Raja Ahmad is basically saying that he is no apologist or lackey and that he will criticise DAP and Karpal if he has to.

But nothing has been as controversial as the way some of the party's young Turks have taken the campaign to Facebook and blogs.

Top party leaders are quite alarmed that some of the campaigners have adopted the dirty tactics used in the general election against Umno.

"There is a lot of fitnah on the Internet. But we should not be swayed if we follow what we have been taught in Islam," said former Wangsa Maju PAS chief Dr Rayney Ali.

The Erdogans have also been painted as "parasites" and kambing hitam (black sheep) who have compromised the party's Islamic agenda for short-term political gains. They have also been accused of kow-towing to DAP and PKR.

For instance, a trip that one of the Erdogans took in a private jet with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was held up as proof of his divided loyalty.

Those behind the Erdogan-bashing campaign have mocked the Erdogans for making empty promises. They are demanding answers for the proposed RM27mil party headquarters in Putrajaya. The project was launched by Hadi in 2008, the foundation stone laid by Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat but until today, there has been zero progress.

Even Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, an ulama who is part of the Erdogan group, has not been spared. He has been labelled a "liberal Muslim", which, by the way, is not a compliment for any Muslims.

Have those campaigning on behalf of the ulama candidates gone too far in their tactics and allegations?

Academic Dr Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, who wrote a thesis on the PAS ulama leadership, said the tradition in PAS is that those who campaign too much will lose and those who have been working for the party and get along with the members will do well.

"The dirty campaigns via Facebook will not have much impact on the outcome of the party elections. If at all, it will backfire. However, the healthy culture of debate among the candidates is really good and needs to be continued as it will enable members to vote in a more informed way," said Dr Kamarul.

But the negative campaign tactics has come under fire from Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad.

Khalid, who is seen as a leading Erdogan, has lashed out at those behind the campaigning as "stupid" and for misleading the delegates and causing a rift in the party.

Khalid asked delegates at the muktamar to vote for status quo if they want the Pakatan Rakyat coalition to survive. He said the agenda of the pro-ulama group is to take PAS out of Pakatan and if their candidates win, they will want to review ties between PAS and Pakatan.

The jury is still out there as the most intense election campaign in the history of PAS draws to a close.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Isnin, 18 November 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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