English - setting Malaysia up for success

Recently, the teaching of science and mathematics in English has drawn flak from various quarters of society and has become a controversial topic. As I am hardly one to shy away from controversy, here's my bit on it all.

Personally, I think that it is interesting to note that the vast majority of the argument against the teaching of science and mathematics in English stems from this notion of 'protecting that National language' or 'protecting our culture'. I find it interesting because I personally see these notions of 'heritage' and 'culture' as mostly unrelated to the topic at hand. I think that these concepts and arguments have been drawn into the issue inappropriately, to make the argument against the teaching in English to seem stronger than it actually is. In other words, I think people are against the policy for the wrong reasons.

I think that there are two reasons why people are really against the teaching of science and mathematics in English. The first is because they have experienced first-hand that this adjustment from Malay to English is not going well - in other words, they are finding it hard. And of course it is hard - I think most educators can agree that the manner in which the switch was made was not the best. The second, is that these individuals prefer speaking and communicating in Malay. The notion of speaking a language other than what they, or the generations before them, were using is an odd proposition. It's hardly surprising that such individuals would be hesitant to support the shift.

It has also been pointed out by some that one does not need to master English to be successful. This is only a half-truth, and therefore a half-lie. What it should read is that 'one does not need to master English to be successful in certain areas, but in others, he/she will probably benefit from doing so'!

You see, detractors of the shift to English happily make the 'mastery of English = success' connection, because it is a generalization that cannot possilby hold up upon closer scrutiny. The truth is that it is language fluency, or some measure of communication skills, that makes success (in any area - think about it) possible. English does not hold a monopoly over the act of 'achieving success'.

But if we take the global context into account, it is clear that being able to communicate in English is a huge boost. In the global context, it does not really matter if you can speak or write in Malay. This may be a painful truth, but it is true nontheless - Malaysia is the only place in the world where Malay is spoken. That's 25 million out of 6 billion people. If my math is right, that is 0.4% of the world's population. Now, that does not mean that the other 99% are masters in English. What it does mean though, is that English is a language that is far more spread out than Malay. This will always be the case. More than that, unless Malaysia finds itself somehow taking over a significant part of the world in the distant future, the usage of Malay is not going to spread beyond our borders. All over the world, however, English is going to continue to spread.

There is a principal in Behavioral therapy, an approach in causing desired change in individuals, which I think is relevant here. This principle is basically that "You want to set people up for success". Basically, it means that it is always good to set up a system that is designed to allow people to succeed, and indeed does do so as often as possible. If we look at the place of English in the global context, I see the teaching of Science and Maths in English as a positive step in this regard - we are setting ourselves up for success.

You can whine and gripe about how much you hate English, or how much you love Malay, but the facts of the global context remain. The better we can speak English, the better off we are globally.

Some individuals have pointed out their experiences of studying overseas, and how they did not need to have mastery of English to succeed in a foreign university. While that may be true, it is besides the point, because the aim of the switch to English was never to create masters of the English language, but to improve basic fluency! Think about it - if mastery was the goal, we would have switched the subjects that actually required demonstrating one's mastery of English to succeed - like History, for example. The goal has never been to place English one step above Malay - it has clearly been to place English higher than it was before. There is no logical reason to look at the issue as a zero-sum game.

And as someone who has experienced both sides (teacher and student) both locally and in foreign universities, believe me when I say that the observation is always the same - people who can communicate better in English tend to get more out of their study experience (in English-based institutions, of course).

There is also something important here that many people seem to have overlooked. If the cultural and/or heritage arguments are true, that is, if the switch of teaching math and science in English is having a negative effect on the status of the national language, shouldn't that mean that children's fluency in malay has been decreasing? Shouldn't this, and only this, be the fuel in these arguments against the teaching in English? What do the scores from school exams tell us - are more people failing malay now, than ever before?

Detractors of the shift who sprout the 'heritage' and 'cultural' sentiments would be better served to colour their arguments with these kinds of facts. My guess is that they cannot - because they are non-facts. Citing the stats will instead reveal something else - that more and more people are failing English than ever before. What we need to do is to set up a system that encourages better fluency in English then - doing the exact opposite (switching everything back to malay) is a set-up for failure in the global context.

I do think that the switch was not made in the best manner possible. I don't think the government would readily disagree with that notion. But surely, we must all agree that 1) English fluency is at an all-time low in a world that requires us to be fluent in the language and that 2) nobody is implying that we should be speaking English as our first language in the first place. The policy to switch math and science to English, was certainly made in the best of interest in the long-term. What we need to be voicing are our specific problems with adjusting to or fully implementing the policy. If children from rural areas are finding greater difficulties making the switch, what can be done? If teachers themselves are not fluent in the language, what can be done? These are the issues that should be raised, because these are the real barriers to success. Sentiments of culture and heritage, while they do have their place, are beside the main point - the main point being, how can we set Malaysians up for success?

Fin.

Slipperyhead

The Perak happenings - technically legal yet wrong?

In a few letters to Malaysiakini, I have repeated the notion that the take-over of the Perak state's governance from Pakatan was democratically wrong, even if it may not be technically illegal.. This reflects a deeper sentiment that our Malaysian politicans in power may seem to embrace - that "If it's not illegal, then it is alright to do it!"

I, of course, find such notions superbly flawed.. The law is only there as a socially constructed tool to attempt to ensure justice - the law itself is not justice.. The law is a path to a higher principle - that everyone be treated with equal dignity where possible, and that their rights are protected.. If following the law means that this principle (and others) gets violated, then you know that something seriously wrong is happening.. This is the story in Malaysian politics at the moment:

BN's take-over has not broken the law, as there are not enough provisions or prohibitions in the constitution or law.. But nonetheless, the process of democracy has been violated.. The laws of a democratic nation should aim to maintain the principle and state of democracy - if this princple gets violated, then ditto to the above.. And democracy HAS been clearly been violated - forming a new government through defections of dubious circumstances is clearly ethically problematic and undemocratic because we do not know if these defectors continue to represent the voices of the people who voted for them in the first place!

On a deeper level, though, I wonder whether I, as a Malaysian, am alone in this way of thinking - that, things can be legal, yet wrong.. Perhaps our local policians in power, such as Najib and Pak Lah, truly believe that following the law is all they need to do, or that what they have done is right.. I doubt that they can think that it was a democratic act - democracy is not 'majority wins!', but that people's voices are represented as best as possible.. Unless, of course, they have some warped perception on what democracy really is.. Or, that in the larger scheme of things, that what they allowed was for the benefit of the nation? If only we could sit down and chat with em', you know, drill em real hard to truly find out what on earth they were thinking when they allowed what happened in Perak over the last month.. Perhaps time will tell..

Fin.
Slipperyhead

Prologue

As Pilate once asked one greater than I, "Truth? What is that?", I dedicate this blog to answering the same question..

This serves as the first chapter of a new blog.. This address was previously an attempt to get into the blogging world and habit - an effort that inevitably failed because I dared not write what I really wanted to - truth.. While the author of that old blog is the same as this one, the current blog shall be different.. This blog shall serve as my outlet against the perceived lies of the world, and for the discussion of truth.. In particular, it shall serve as a voice against the lies of Malaysian politics, though this shall admittedly be a current fad - I ulimately intend for this to be a collection of my opinions of truth for a broad range of topics..

For now, most of the opinions here will likely be posted as letters on the Malaysiakini website.. So check out postings by me (Slipperyhead) there or in other parts of Cyberspace if you would like to see my previous posts - I've got a small, but growing collection out there..

A disclaimer - I'm not arrogant enough to assume that my way of looking at things is the only way of doing so.. What I promise is that I will offer how I view matters, and that I will try to always be fair.. I shall always try to speak the truth in a fair, non-patronizing and respectful manner.. If I cannot live up to this, or if you disagree with something (and you have every right to do so) - drop a comment to let me (and hopefully others) know..

Here we go.. Fin.
Slipperyhead