Language is important in our lives. It helps to create cultural ties, friendships, and relationships. Most importantly, it allows people to communicate.
It is reported that there are more than 7,000 languages spoken around the world, with the topmost spoken languages being English and Mandarin.
As emphasised many times, English is an important language to be mastered because it is spoken and understood by majority of the population around the world.
So how can the public master the English language? Here Professor Dr Ambigapathy Pandian who is the dean of Faculty of Language and Communication in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) shares his views with SARAH HAFIZAH CHANDRA.
NST: How do we measure level of proficiency?
Prof Dr Pandian: It is in fact tricky to measure the level of proficiency in a language, including English. What do we measure?
In most cases, we would look at students’ result in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) and Malaysian University English Test (MUET).
There are many students who unfortunately do not know why they are taking the English language as a subject nor understand the use of it in the Malaysian and international context. So, English as a subject is viewed as something that they merely need to pass and fulfil the syllabus to complete school or university.
Moreover, it is equally tricky to decide which form of the English language do we use when measuring the level of proficiency. There are British English, American English, and Malaysian English, so level of proficiency in which English are we looking at?
The culture in Malaysia is to talk, talk, and talk. When we talk, it is colloquial English which does not put emphasis on the use of correct grammatical constructs and sentences. Even though some people may have the ability to speak English, it does not necessarily translate in their ability to write in the language.
Is it more important to choose and learn English as a second language compared to other languages?
We should not say or view that one language is more important than the others. All languages have equal roles and importance; it should not be compared against one another.
Secondly, languages should be acknowledged as equally important with science and mathematics. People often forget about language, without language there is no science or mathematics – how do you communicate to convey the knowledge or information if you do not have the language?
I always say that we die with our mother tongue, but we live with many languages. After all, the more languages you know the more of the world you will see. This allows you to have a different worldview too.
At one point Mandarin was thought to be the world language, but today everyone including the Chinese, Indian and Japanese are learning English. Thus, the whole world would be in English and we need English for survival whether we like it or not.
While most would think that English is a second language to majority of our people, there is a need to relook this. This is because there are some places in Malaysia where English is in fact a foreign language.
For example, there is a school in Selangor where the first language is Bahasa Jawa and Bahasa Banjar, then the second language is Bahasa Melayu therefore offering English a foreign language to students.
As such, the education syllabus in our country cannot be centralised with a one-shoe-fits-all concept. This approach can kill the interests of students and affect their mindset as well as attitude towards learning English.
The status quo is whether you are a student in the urban, sub-urban or rural, you are learning the same syllabus. By right we should measure students’ abilities and capabilities in English through pre-test or assessment once they complete certain stages in their education journey.
The syllabus should be formulated based on the result of the pre-test or assessment instead of what is given from top down. This is something that we need to relook in the 21st century and after 65 years of independence.
Students may not be able to see the importance of mastering the English language. What can we do about this?
There is a great urgency to change students’ mindset and attitude towards the subjects or courses that they must take to complete their syllabus. Students must realise and understand that all subjects or courses including electives are equally important as it will enhance their knowledge and contribute to their future undertakings.
In the university context, most students are taking courses outside of their major like Academic English, English for Professional Communication and English for Occupational Purposes among others just to fulfil the university’s requirement. This is something that needs to be changed as all courses at the university level, whether it is part of students’ major or otherwise, are important.
Students need to see the importance of courses like this because it significantly contributes to their marketability once they are out of the university and looking to be employed. When they can speak and write well in the language, they will do very well in the employment line.
In this regard, students must be informed on why it is important for them to study English like other mandatory subjects or courses. Educators need to tell students that they are taking English or other languages which will help them to write and speak well to communicate both in university for assignments and outside of university when they are working.
Moreover, there is a need to continuously place emphasis and focus from the pre-school level to primary and secondary school and then in university that English is very important. If at the school level students do not see the importance of English, the same attitude and mindset will follow when they enter university.
Some students are good at English because they use the language and vice versa. Language is a skill that needs continuous practice, as the saying goes ‘practice makes perfect’.
Does good reading habits influence and contribute to the level of proficiency?
Of course, the lack of good reading habits among students contributes directly to their level of proficiency in a language, may it be Bahasa Melayu or English. While schools do partake in reading awareness campaigns, students’ attitude and mindset towards languages must be taken into consideration.
When students have a mindset and attitude as well as intrinsic motivation, only then they can see the importance of reading which will prompt a good reading habit. From reading comes the ability and capability not only to speak in English, but also to write.
If you want to be a good writer, you must be a good reader as reading is something that is caught rather than taught. We cannot deny that many students find doing assignments difficult, this is because they do not read.
We must bear in mind that colloquial English is not the same as writing, so you need to read English newspapers and books to have good grammar and be able to write beautifully. How one gets the experience and better oneself as a writer is simply through reading.
Furthermore, students’ peers and environment can have positive influence on their reading habits. Most of the time you find students who read have friends who are reading. This group would share reading materials with each other and would not view buying books as expensive. We have many libraries nowadays and borrowing books is free, so it is not an issue.
There are educators who are having problems with the English language themselves. How can we overcome this?
If teachers themselves are having this problem, then what can we expect from students? I’ve presented a paper on this in a conference many years ago and one of the main reasons why students do not read is because teachers themselves do not even read.
We need to be a reading society and one of the ways to improve this is teachers must start reading as it will encourage their students to read. When you ask students why they like a subject, 99 per cent will associate it with the teachers.
In teachers’ training institutions, student teachers must enrol in intensive English programmes to improve their language proficiency before going into learning about pedagogy and so on.
It is understandable that institutions do not always get students who have good command of English, but those who have the interests and willingness to improve themselves must be nurtured.
Moving forward, what are your hopes?
As a firm believer that motivation conquers all, students should be motivated and have the motivation to be good at the English or any other languages.
It cannot be denied that there are many challenges to improve and solve this problem, however I must stress that it begins at the school starting from pre-school.
In this 21st century, students should not be bilingual but rather multilingual. It is scientifically known that young children pick up languages at a faster rate. Thus, different languages such as English, Malay, Tamil, and even native languages like Iban and Bidayuh should be introduced at the pre-school level.
Having said that, all students may not come from a good home, but they have the same opportunity to go to a school. It does not matter if it is in the urban, suburban, or rural, a good school is with good teachers.
I have always encouraged my students to take and learn as many languages as possible. The language skills will set them apart from other fresh graduates or job applicants.
