FATIMI ESTAR

Two important factors in promoting English Language Acquisition are input and practice. PPSMI (Teaching and Learning Science and Maths in English) provides both. First of all, the students vocabulary is widened when they learn about terms and concepts of maths and science in English. Especially when they start as early as in Standard 1. Being introduced to names of things, terms and concepts in English has made the students grown accustomed to them that when people mention these things in Bahasa Melayu, it would require some effort for them to understand. Sufficient input in English promotes better acquisition of the language. Apart from that, in PPSMI students are forced to use English (either speaking or writing) in classroom, while writing report and doing homework and most importantly in exams. Moreover, not only the students but the teachers will also benefit from it as well. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. As a result, students' performance in English subje

English is a second language for the majority of Malaysian. Of course there are some people who have English as their first language since they are born in families who communicate in English in their daily lives. This is commonly found in urban areas where parents are mostly professionals and well-exposed to English. Having English as our second language, we will usually think in our first language (BM, Chinese, Tamil, etc) and later translate our ideas into English while speaking or writing. Therefore, the interference of the first language will always be evident in our discourse. Most of the time, we will struggle before we could actually speak or write. Don't take this as a weakness. Now that we have already identified the problem, just accept this fact and adapt to the situation. My suggestion is to be simple and straight forward. Bare in mind that we are translating from our first language. Imagine how difficult it is to translate something like this: "Memandang

Sarah and the gang (my favourite group of students because they are very close to me). They are happy go lucky, but very smart. They did well in SPM and are now furthering their studies at tertiary level. One thing that make me proud is my students not only benefit from my teaching, but also able to use the knowlege they gained via me to help others. Sarah and Syafiqa (the cute girl on my left) gave English tuition to primary school students during their long holidays while waiting for SPM results to come out.

Education is a two ways process; teaching and learning. It involves two parties, the teachers and the students. I personally believe that improving students’ performance requires efforts not only by the students but also by the teachers. An effective English teacher (good teachers are sometimes not very effective), should be a MASTER in the language. Let me define the word MASTER; a person who has great skill at doing something. Students expect their teachers to be an expert, who could answer all questions and solve any problem. Sometimes teachers become their walking dictionary, providing meaning for words that they are too lazy to look up in dictionary (never let this become our students habit; make them bring their dictionary to school everyday). The question is, can we arrive at their expectation? It is acceptable (I think) if we are not very fluent, or having accents of certain dialects in our speech. This is obvious when it comes to teachers from Kelantan or Terengganu.

Most of these students did well in SPM 2007. Some are going to further studies overseas soon, while many are studying at local universities, polytechnics, teaching institutes and colleges. The rest are doing their form 6 and will sit for their STPM at the end of this year. I taught all three classes during their batch, with 88 students all together. 57 of them scored A for English and out of 57, 42 scored A1. Alhamdulillah.