Lately , it seems that there are certain group who are unhappy with the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English , especially when they protested today in front of the Istana and to give a memorandum to our King. For me , its fine as this is democracy , folks can have rally to protest and this is what is democracy all about. Police would be there as usual to protect people and to prevent them from going overboard. Not to forget that they too have to protect our King.
Anyway , what I think that is Maths and Science should be thought in English because it provides many benefits for the student. I am not against Bahasa Malaysia (the Malay language) and I do know that its our national language , but what I am saying that if we want to give our students the x-factor that they need when they want to say study aboard – then certainly maths and science in English would do the trick. Plus on top of that , we need folks who are well verse in both of the languages if you want to contribute something to the country. For instance , if our command of the language is poor in Science and Mathematical terms , it would be hard to negotiate a deal or work with foreign clients and so on. As for protecting the Bahasa or the Malay language , I am sure that we do have other ways – for instance History , Geography are thought in Malay. Not only that , basically you can’t forget Malay nor its status would ‘degrade’ as its stated in the constitution that Malay language is the official language
Secondly there are lots of reference books which are written in English then any other languages. This makes it students easier to refer whenever they want to find something. Its even possible to find YouTube videos on how to solve mathematical question and such. This makes it easier for them to gain knowledge and to understand more.
Maths & Science in English has more advantages then disadvantages
These are just some of the advantages of teaching maths and science in English. What I am suggesting to the government is that in order to satisfy these groups , Maths and Science should be thought in Malay – give it as a extra class for those who think that they want to gain this extra knowledge in Bahasa. It would satisfy both the parties. I’m not sure about you , but certainly I’ve benefited from learning Maths and Science in English. Otherwise , trust me I’ve heard horror stories from my lecturer that students do face the hard time when they are in Universities or in Colleges whereby medium of instruction is in English. These students get confused with the English term as keep in mind that they don’t know the terms in English.
Anyway , I’ll blog about this tomorrow after reading the papers tomorrow on what our ministers and the public say about this. My question is how far do you agree with my statement that Maths and Science in deed do have a lot of advantages and it would actually make it easier for Malaysia to be a developed country ?
salam.. i dont think so. my class (maths) never had the prob with maths in english although we learn in malay during school time. since we're grown up, we can learn the new way of thinking easily and better than younger students in school. they need to master the concept of maths first. so, they hv to learn them in their on language to master them easily. once they had mastered them, they can apply the knowledge in other language although slowly. that time, they already hv the ASAS of maths... (maths teacher-to-be.. insyaAllah)
salam to all of you... for me, teaching and learning in english gives a lot of benefits to students and also to the teacher. I have a brother that learn sc and m3 in english since he in form 1. Now, he already in form 5. But, what can i say is, he can speak english better than me... hahaha.. his vocab also is good. Can you see, what happend to him after this. When the PPSMI is not implement yet... i hope that the government will think again about this issue...
I agree with Azrena. I have came across many students who can't answer the math questions because of not understanding what the question is requesting (in English).But once I let them see the Malay version of the questions, they can actually understand what is required. It would be better for them to master the knowledge and answering techniques first then the English language. For the purpose of effective learning, students should not be burdened with both mastering the English language with the math and science knowledge at the same time.Things should be done one at a time as they are still young learners
it's a lot simpler to teach someone something in their mother tounge.
it is undeniable that some students gain a lot from learning science and maths in english. but, there are even more who lose out