Keywords: teaching maths in english, english teaching debate
Is it necessary for our government to implement learning Mathematics and Science in English? This has been a major issue among students lately because it is said to disturb their routine lifestyle of studying. Basically, we realize our Malaysia's education system encompasses education beginning from pre-school to university. Pre-tertiary education (pre-school to secondary education) is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education (MOE) while tertiary or higher education is the duty of the Ministry of ADVANCED SCHOOLING (MOHE). The vision of the federal government is to make Malaysia a centre of educational excellence. The implementation of English language in Mathematics and Science has made a new aim inside our education system now. Why don't we look back again to our main point, which is why the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English has become a controversial issue, and many recommendations are created to resolve the problem.
Malaysia is a multicultural and multilingual country with Malay as the state national language. To be able to unify the nation, a national education system with Malay as the medium of instruction has been adopted for many primary and secondary schools. In 2002, the federal government announced the implementation of a new policy in the national education system; English is made the language of instruction in schools for the teaching of Mathematics, Science and technology subjects. These subjects had formerly been taught in the Malay language. English as the language of instruction for Mathematics and Science (ELIMS or PPSMI as it is known in Malay) was implemented in stages, starting in 2003 for standard one (first grade of primary school), form one (first year of lower secondary) and the low six (first year of upper secondary school). The decision to utilize English was based on the rationale that mastery of English is undoubtedly an important mechanism for direct acquisition of knowledge in the field of science and technology (Ainan, 2003).
The first controversial issue is the fact learning English in another language sometimes appears as unsuitable when children come across difficulty in interpreting the meaning of Mathematics and Science discourse. The goal of teaching Science and Mathematics in English is to permit students to acquire proficiency in English while learning Science. Many educational issues are necessary when learning takes place in students' second language. In Malaysia, most learners come across English for the very first time in school. They think it is harder to adapt the new change inside our education system. This inadvertently impairs students learning abilities since learning in these subjects may be compressed in a complex linguistic classroom. The problem of learning Science through a second language is compounded by other factors, such as teachers who are not experienced in English and the lack of good Science textbooks (Ong, 2004). The federal government can't come up with a good explanation when the problem of teachers who are not experienced in English were debated in the parliament because these were too busy in governing the economy of the country.
The second most controversial issue in implementing English in teaching Mathematics and Science would be that the non-Malay students who will be the majority residence in urban areas indicated their preference of the utilization of English in learning Mathematics and Science while the rural students, weren't supportive on the utilization of English language. Malaysian students and teachers are multicultural and also have multilingual backgrounds. The implementation of PPSMI created great concern among parents and educators on the quality of Mathematics and Science education as both teachers and students are not experienced in the English language (The Star, 2006). This is expected as Malay language has been the language of instruction for more than four decades. Moreover, the teaching of non-science and Mathematics subjects in schools continue steadily to use Malay language. In a report to provide some baseline data for this concern, Juriah Long and colleagues (The Star, 2006) discovered that 60% of Mathematics and Science teachers were not fluent in the English language while only 45% said they are comfortable in using the language to teach. The students from the rural area find difficult to adapt and score in Mathematics and Science subject compare to the students from the urban areas especially the non-Malay student can do better because they are more desirable in the second language compare to Malay language. If these matter continue, it'll create havoc on the list of people in our country and this time, it'll be worse than the '13th May' tragedy.
The implementation of English in teaching Mathematics and Science should be perform and the government have come up with some solutions in increasing this policy to overcome these problems. In order to compensate for students' weakness in English language, the teacher must take on the role of the translator in class. The teacher describe the teaching in the class as using first in the English, then repeat the explanation again in Malay for the benefits associated with those who have low English proficiency. More time will be had a need to convey the same concept compared to when Malay language was used as the medium of instruction. Teaching time for Science and Mathematics may need to be increased. It is recommended that teachers continue to perform code switching when conducting their Science and Mathematics lessons. Furthermore, teaching strategies may need to be modified so that students will never be denied an excellent Science and Mathematics education. So far, much of the thrust of this policy has focused on upgrading the linguistic skills of teachers and providing them with tech support team. Even extremely proficient and experienced teachers cannot teach their subjects completely in English if the students are not capable of understanding them. This finding is supported by the information released by the Ministry of Education predicated on the mandated national level public examinations for those form three students (The Star, 2005). They discovered that despite learning Science and Mathematics in English for 3 years, only 33% of the Science individuals and 27% of the Mathematics prospects used English to answer questions. Most of the candidates, however, preferred to answer in either Malay or an assortment of both languages. For valid assessment of Science and Mathematics, the utilization of dual-language test-booklet as a language accommodation need to keep to ensure students are evaluate on the Science and Mathematics achievement and not their language ability.
The government should maintain positivity minded in boosting the knowledge of the future students by implementing the policy of teaching Mathematics and Science in English so that our country can produce better and dedicated students who are saturated in knowledge and good proficiency in English language. Thus, the linguistic skills of the students are crucial in deciding to what extent teachers can implement PPSMI. All of the teachers show their priority when teaching in English, ensuring students could understand the lesson. It really is almost a reflexive action among teachers that as soon as their students look lost or seem unable to comprehend, they resort to translating the terms or specific portion of that lesson. Therefore, in classes where the majority of the students are academically able and linguistically proficient, the teachers must teach their lessons totally in English. Meanwhile, with weaker classes, these teachers should use more Malay in class, by way of translation. Because of this, instead of teaching Mathematics and Science in English, many teachers will finish up teaching these subjects in English and Malay. This pedagogical response has much regarding the pressure that teachers feel about "within the syllabus" within specific timelines so that students will be ready for school exams and mandated public exams. These exams happen at set times during the school year. This being the case, at that moment translation offers them the quickest route to attaining their goal of increasing students' comprehension.
