First of all, I would like to thank my group members for the best commitment and cooperation throughout the process of preparing the PowerPoint slides on given topics. Through this activity, it helps me to recall back on what I have learned about historical development in Malaysia. We learned about history since we were in secondary school. However, I almost forget what I have learned before since I have left secondary school for many years. This activity has gives me the opportunity to revise back on development in Malaysia especially in educational field. Not much of us will bother about the changes in educational policies in our country as everyone is more interested with political issue. Based on my observation, I found that not much of us care about the educational issues in our country except for those who serve for our ministry of education especially the educator and some parents who concern about their children’s education and those communities who were educated.
The development and reformation of educational system in Malaysia have always been regarded as by the government’s efforts to adapt education to national development needs. The concentrate of educational development and reformation, as in other developing countries, has always been curriculum development, to provide education for human resource development in order to meet the needs of the social, economic and political development of the country.
Malaysians have been greatly influenced, especially during the British colonisation periods which use English in their main daily transactions. The English language is being used extensively in Malaysia, in commercial, social settings or even in political setting, formal or informal situations. For some communities, it has become the second language which is used in everyday conversation among family members and friends.
Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to express my opinion on the development of our educational policies nowadays. I am really interested with the PPSMI programme which was introduced by our former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir which aims to make sure that all students are able to proficient in English language. I found that PPSMI programme is actually a good medium for Malaysian students to master English better since it was taught in Science and Mathematics. I also do believe that the rural area students also can excel as urban students are. I think that the topology is not the main factor that should take as the main reason on why they abolished the programme. Let’s take SK Ulu Lubai as example, this school is very excellent in academic and all of the students in that school have a very good of proficiency in English even though the school was categorized as the rural school which located far away from the city of Limbang. I think that the administrator of the school and all the teachers n that school have made a great effort in making the school famous with the good academic achievement. I also really impressed when I heard that the teachers in t hat school are willing to teach their students regardless of time and place. I am sure that not much of us willing to do so unless if we are really committed with our profession. Therefore, we must model these kind of teachers so that our future students will be able to achieve well in their academics as well in other aspects of life. In my opinion, it is also depends on the effort of administrator of the school in making sure that all of the students are excelled in English language especially in the four main skills which are reading, writing, speaking and listening. I also think that the parents also must take part in making sure the programme is successfully done. This can be done if the parents are willing to study about English language so that they will be able to replace the teacher’s role in teaching their children during school break or weekend.
However, I do believe that our ministry of education has their own reasons on why they abolish the PPSMI programme. Fortunately, our ministry of education has introduced a new policy which is MBMMBI (To uphold Bahasa Malaysia and to strengthen the English language) which replaced the previous PPSMI programme. By doing so, I hope that all the future generation will be able to master the English language better and have a very high level of proficiency in English language. I also agree with the effort made by our ministry of education in hiring the foreign expert in English to monitor the English lessons which are carried out by our local English teachers in order to improve the English proficiency among teachers as well as students.
If we revise back all the policies that have been implemented by the governments, we can see that our government are really concern about the English education in our country so that our citizens are able to compete in nationwide. Even though the history may sound boring, we must remember that everything that we achieved today is results from the history.
Through the presentation on the topic of how Malaysian culture affects the English language in Malaysia, I have gained a lot of information about the educational policies that implemented by our ministry of education before and presently as they were presented through this task as well as the information given by our lecturer throughout the presentation. I think that this is the best way to learn something that is fact. Every information that presented by us were explained briefly and further by our lecturer. This also contributes a lot in helping me to digest the information easier. Other than that, I also have the opportunity to watch few interesting short clips that presented by the other group which contains many meaningful message. And I found that it is easier for me to understand the fact or examples if there are some short clips included. I also have inserted a short clip about MBMMBI Programme which is the new policy that implemented by the government to enhance the proficiency in English among English language teachers as well as the students. This short clip is in Malay version. It is useful to us as it provides various clear information about that policy. As a future teacher, it is compulsory to know this programme better so that we are able to improve ourselves by joining the various activities which conducted under this programme such as
I am glad as I have finished presenting the task even though some of the words that I spoken are not pronounced well. But, I think lot of my classmates are able to verse well in English. This has motivated me to improve my speaking skills in English language so that I could be a good model of English speakers for my future students. Sometime, I also made some efforts by speaking to them in English language and it is really works in term of making me more confident in speaking English language. I do agree when people said that we learn from the mistakes as from the mistakes, we will try harder in order to improve ourselves better rather than no improvement at all. While presenting the materials, I can see that my friends are really paying their attention towards what I am presenting. This has touched me and motivated me to present more confident in front of them. Therefore, I also would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thank to my classmates for being supporting and willing to lend their ears and minds in listening to what I am presenting.
As conclusion, I hope that all of us should aware the importance of English language in our country. Even though we learn more in English, our official language, the status or importance of Bahasa Malaysia, has never been threatened. It will always be our national language. However, it is not sufficient to only learn Bahasa Malaysia and neglect the other languages. Therefore, English is becoming a necessity if our country would like to compete in nationwide.
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