Thursday, November 15, 2007

English Language to teach Maths and Sciences

What language should Maths and Sciences be taught? What would be the best policy? Should our country allow the teachers the freedom to choose? Should primary school students' Maths and Sciences be reverted to mother tounge?

How about for Secondary School? What is the benefit of learning Maths and Sciences in English? Help the students to learn English better? I seriously doubt so. However, having the foundation of Maths and Sciences in English would help students seek help and look for reference and reduce the effects when students go to universities.

My opinion would be for students to learn it bilingual for primary school, but for secondary school, it should be done fully in English. For primary and secondary school, efforts should be made to strengthen the language command. Would literature help? Should students be encouraged to read more? Can the rural folks cope? Are the teachers well-trained to do so? How about the students' motivation? Would the students be encouraged or discouraged to speak English by their peers?

A more important question, is learning English crucial? Can our Malay language or Mandarin be as important? Isn't it that developed nations like France, Germany, Japan, Korea have a developed status for their language. Can our national language be so?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think it will be best for students to learn math and science in their mother tongue, as this is the language that they are most proficient in, since students are not showing signs of improvements in the current teaching in english. wanna improve the standard of english of Malaysian students? why not try upgrading the current english syllabus and employ more GOOD english teachers to teach the best of english to our students. i don't seriously see anything wrong in learning maths in BM or chinese as the japanese have been learning stuffs in their mother tongue and still be technologically so advanced. IMHO.

-ave-

Chen Chow said...

Thanks for your feedback.

In terms of English language, I would say that indirectly, the quality of english language among those in these few batches have improved compared to previous batches. At least among those that I have interacted with.

It is true that we need to strengthen our English language syllabus and improve it. One of the good ways would be to hire the retirees, which many of them have very solid foundation of English to guide the younger generation.