A general decline in the usage of English in Malaysia, spoken or
written, is hardly a deniable fact these days. I remember reading an
article quite a number of years back about an Australian Law Professor lamenting the drastic (in his view) deterioration in English proficiency of his Malaysian law undergraduates since the early 70s, through the 80s, going on to the 90s approaching his retirement. He was appalled by the lack of English mastery among the Malaysians compared to their early counterparts who were not only much more competent in expressing themselves lucidly in English, but also displayed greater confidence in conducting themselves. Notwithstanding that I am neither a professor nor a native English speaker, I have personally encountered many instances of poor command of English among Malaysians. They hold positions whereby one would expect a more than superficial grasp of English that is deemed necessary, with the like of custom officers at airports, tourists information kiosks operators, museums information officers and such to whom, sad to say, a huge majority are in the rote, as far as conversational English is concerned. Although I am not an English major, I have been an Anglophile, immersing myself in all things English, or should I say American popular culture, in the forms of pop music, TV series and movies ever since very young. From the earliest combat TV series to the latest Walking Dead TV series; from the earliest Christopher Reeves Superman to the latest Henry Cavills Man of Steel, I enjoyed watching them all. However, as a secondary school English teacher (non-optionist, teaching English for 4 years) to 7th and 8th graders, the question for me
is: how do I impart the love of English in my students, to whom English
is just another subject to be had. They do not see English as a vehicle to take oneself into the land of imagination and reasons, beauty and discipline that can be had from mastering English. They may enjoy the movie Transformer visually, but are totally ignorant of the puns and the superfluous dialogues etc.; they may enjoy the TV series Walking Dead visually- the gore and all, but totally disregard the bigger philosophical questions raised. I sincerely hope by enrolling in this English Teacher Program (dubbed E-Teacher), I may channel my passion for English into more profitable teaching practices. There are three main answers to the questions about English teaching, which I hope would emerge from participating in this venture, namely: 1. Methodology in casting English as an imagination vehicle, rather than just a subject to be learnt; 2. Booster kits in eliminating conversational English shyness; 3. Meaningful English essay writing that preclude students tendency to directly translate from their mother tongue, chiefly Bahasa Malaysia.