Hope everyone is happy n enjoying their life..
Today, I would like to discuss a bit on PPSMI..
PPSMI in Malay stands for Pengajaran Pembelajaran Sains & Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris,
or in English, teaching Science & Mathematics using the English language..
This has started by stages since 2003 and is still a practice in schools in Malaysia..
Since then, many Malaysians have voiced out their dissatisfaction of the policy..
First, we need to know what are the objective of the Malaysian government of implementing this..
From what I heard, it is aimed to increasing the fluency and capability of students to speak in English..
In my opinion, this is a good vision by the government but I'm not really happy with the approach of PPSMI...
My reasons are:
1) Many teachers themselves are not confident in teaching Science & Mathematics in English.
If this is the case, then how can we expect the students to understand the subject thoroughly???
2) In my opinion, I don't think that by learning Science & Math in English will help in improving the quality of English among students. This is because Science & Math are both technical subjects while English is a language subject. Aside from learning the scientific term in English (which we rarely use in our conversation), we are not improving English in any way.
3) During my time in my secondary school (SOKSEK), I was regarded as among the best student in English. But to be honest, I didn't become good in English because of what I learn in primary school. I was lucky because when I was 7 years old, my mother did her PHD in Sheffield, UK and I stayed there for 1 year. So I was able to communicate in English and hence learn the language. If a person comes to me and asked about grammar, I can help him give the answer. But if he then wants to know why I answered in that way, then I would reply "Sebab aku rasa cam sedap ja bunyi" or in English "because it sounds correct". The point I want to make is that in school during English classes, we are given the teacher would come in and explain about grammar. To me, that is not the most effective way of learning English. I didn't learn English through knowing when to use the past tense, the past participle tense and so on. I learn the language through reading n communicating in English. By doing that, I learn how to construct sentences and use correct grammar at the same time. So I think if the government really wants to improve the fluency of English in school, they should change the system i.e. the way English is tested, exams, lessons in class, syllabus.
Encourage students to read and communicate using the language. That is the best way to learn English.
To conclude, I think the PPSMI should be abolished.
That is all I want to say. Plzz give me your thoughts on this issue.
