Non-benefits of MBMMBI — Hussaini

Abdul Karim
Published: 24 September 2011 8:07 AM

SEPT 24 — The Ministry of Education must realise that whatever

has been said as summarised in the article “Benefits of MBMMBI”
in the New Straits Times yesterday is insufficient to make our
younger generation and the future generations of people of this
country fluent in both Bahasa Malaysia and English. It may work
for the former but definitely not the latter.

Let me relate to you what many people of my generation and I went through in
the late ‘50s and ‘60s as students of English schools right from primary school
through university with some starting at kindergartens with English as the
medium of instruction.

Preparing for the Cambridge OSC O-level, (British) English was our first
language and Malay was our second language. The syllabus covered English
language as a subject by itself, thoroughly, from studying basic things about
the language such as “alphabets” and “numbers” to “grammar” to “reading and
writing” to “comprehension” to “spelling and dictation” to “writing
compositions and essays” to “precis writing” to “writing critical analysis” and
“writing book reviews” to reading, understanding and writing “poems and
poetry”, among others.
Practicals included acting in plays of works by Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw and
others, and plays written by local authors, students and teachers. We were required to speak
English all the time and we were punished if caught speaking in our own mother tongue. To
top it all, we must at least score a credit in English in order to obtain the prized Cambridge
OSC O-level pass and the certificate that came with it.
In spite of all that many, including some who scored credit in the subject, were
still not fluent in the language even after they left university. The reason
basically is that these people lacked practise such as reading and writing on
their own and practising the language at home, in public and in their
workplaces.

Essentially, the English language syllabus in MBMMBI is on “communication

English” so, with only just that, how can that make our students fluent in
English?

I asked some local public university students majoring in English language

whom I met at a recent seminar a couple of very simple questions: “How many
parts of speech are there and what are they?” None of them could answer my
questions and all the students I asked just gave me a blank look!
A lot more needs to be done to make our people and the people of the future
generations fluent in English. Several suggestions, proposals and ideas have
been written about the study of English in national schools from people of all
walks of life as well as some foreigners who saw the need to change and
improve the way English, including several suggestions from me arguing for
the need to re-introduce English-medium schools, which the ministry people
can use, consider and implement.

* Hussaini Abdul Karim reads The Malaysian Insider.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian

Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
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