If you go to the movies in France to watch a Hollywood blockbuster, I could guarantee that the movie would be dubbed in French with no subtitles.
If you go to the movies in Malaysia to watch a Hollywood blockbuster, I will guarantee that the movie would be in English with Malay subtitles.
So in France the opportunity to learn English could be from other sources but in Malaysia the opportunity to learn English is everywhere.
Advertisements are in English.
We have English dailies.
Fast food menus are in English. Even if you enter a Chinese restaurant – there are separate menus in English.
English songs blaring from Malay radio stations.
Doesn’t the above situation provide the conducive atmosphere to ‘acquire’ English?
Yet, the kids whom I taught back home, have difficulty understanding simple instruction in English.
Have difficulty articulating simple sentences in English.
They told me as if their tongue became too heavy and stiff when trying to speak English.
There is an obvious difference between the kid from urban and rural areas.
The English level of the kids doesn’t sit along the language competency spectrum rather the level sits at either opposite end of the competency spectrum – beginner’s to lower intermediate.
Have to make this clear – the language focus is for communicative purposes.
So who do we point fingers at?
How do we help these kids to see the importance of learning a different language?
There was a kid who asked me once – ‘Miss, why do you speak English when you are Chinese? Don’t you feel strange speaking English instead of Mandarin?’
I told him then the importance of being bilingual.
He acknowledges the fact but in reality – he only needs to master two major languages – Mandarin and Malay because he knows he is not going to move out of his hometown and he is going to take over his dad’s garage enterprise. To him – where does the need to use “English for Communicative Purposes” come in?
I sympathize with this boy (and other kids) because he is put in a situation where he has no choice but to learn a language which has no immediate benefit except to fulfil certain academic criteria.
Ideally, it would be a revamp of the language curriculum and a strong push by authorities to promote the importance of language learning (meaning not only EL but Mandarin or Tamil or other FL).
Realistically, it is up to individual language educators to bring those small changes to the classroom to provide the kids with necessary information to make that important decision on language learning.
