History of Language Learning in New Zealand

• purpose of literacy before the age of decoding
• literacy brought from England

Four discernible ages of reading theories = identified, and we´re entering the fifth. They´re the ages of reading (Turbill, 2002):

1. ~ as decoding
2. ~ of meaning making
3. ~ of reading-writing connections
4. ~ of reading for social purposes
5. ~ of multiliteracies

Decoding

1. fom late 19th century – 1940´s
2. syllabus, reading material, workbooks, etc – highly prescriptive and structured
3. focus on skills n drills: ABCs, sound/letter, rel, decoding word recog.
4. theories =>reading process emp. the graphophonic cueing system
5. techers beieved – decoding preceded comprehension – once know alphabet n how to syllabify you could read a sentence n then para. and then text
6. reading, writing, sp. n handwriting taught separately – as separate subjects
7. debates exist – history always full of change. New method appear in NZ – ´Look & Say´ method.
8. Decoding type text example: Kit the cat, sat, kit sat in a bag of rags…. // B -> Br -> Bri -> Brick, etc <= Phonic type.(note to self: look it up. look at the rhyme). Is it still relevant to the way we do things now?
9. if you look at the word long enough and say it long enough, you will remember the whole word. Method: introduce high freq, text
10. the problem is – the new method overthrow all previous methods – many disagree while others agree = debates

Meaning Making

1. from the 1960´s in NZ
2. NZers keen to develop a national identity – reflected in the first real series of books for n about NZ children, places n exp.
3. increased immi. = classes often very diverse n many children arrived at school with langs. other than English
4. language acq. models – used to inform reading n writing processes
5. teachers believed reading n writing should be child centered, lit. based n meaningful
6. reading seen not only as grapho. but also syntactic n semntic = MAKE SENSE . always in the process to make meaning
7. learning to read viewed as lifelong proces n reading to learn = goal
8. debates focused on phonics vs ´whole language´ approach this theory became known as
9. teachers prob. instructed to forget abt some decoding aspects – decoding = hinder ´whole meaning´ process.
10. whole lang. era – very lit. based era

Word of the day

Proliferate

–verb (used without object), verb (used with object), -at⋅ed, -at⋅ing.

1.	to grow or produce by multiplication of parts, as in budding or cell division, or by procreation.

2.	to increase in number or spread rapidly and often excessively.

multiliteracy – text on the computer

Integrating the sources of info. in reading n writing

Knowledge n exp, lang. structure, shapes n sound, meaning – related

A reader has to…

• use knowledge of lang. n know how it works
• translate letters into sounds (children use alphabet books, soundcards, spelling patterns (e.g:´or´ sounds like for, port, four, pour, aw, etc.
• recog. patterns in words
• have some knowledge of the topic – imp. for older readers esp. ESOL learners
• link/relate the text to own bg knowledge (schema)
• predict what the text will be about using word and world knowledge

So, um, yeah… Sorghum Stenches translates to circumstances. Sweet as. Grain murder= grandmother. Ladle Rat Rotten Hut – Little Red Riding Hood. ROFL.

Looking forward to next week. Yes, I’m actually looking forward to lectures

© 2009, Adlina. All rights reserved. Please link back to this page if quoted.

- Winter in Full Bloom a.k.a Spring is Coming -

The picture has nothing to do with the post; it’s just my habit of posting pictures I took. So… Disregarding the fact that I’m a teacher trainee, I was a student taking SPM five years ago and I am still a student today. I’m simply sick and tired of random speculations and whatnot regarding the Malaysian government’s decision of reverting back to using Bahasa Malaysia in the teaching of Mathematics and Science. As a student, I don’t favour this change mainly because of the implementation.

Even if this change is inevitable, I think it is a lot better to take it slow. If it’s 2012, then make it so only Year 1 students of primary schools (or whatever year they start learning Science in full force) learn Mathematics and Science (MT) in English. Let them be the pioneers of the change. Why bother confusing the students who have studied MS in English for six years in primary schools so soon as they enter secondary schools? Let them study MS in English as they had for the past six years all the way to the university. I talked about this with my Mom (a retired English teacher) on the phone and she said, ‘Nah, they won’t feel the heat much. You know how in our place they don’t even teach Science, Maths and even English language in full English.‘

Guess what I think about this MS in English thingie? It’s somewhat of a non-issue in various places in the country, mostly the less developed parts where you often get remarks like ‘Berlagak la kau!’ or ‘Macam bagus je cakap orang putih. Tui’. Ironically, strong protests usually come from the same area. Before you go throwing bricks and attempt to kill me for calling it a non-issue, I’ll just share with you the outcome of my observations. I’ve been to a few schools (in Malaysia, including the short school-based experience in my first year), stopping by to observe how classes are taught. My observations were of course done discreetly.

Outcome of Observation: Most of the classes I’ve observed were bilingual in nature, meaning that the teachers and students used both English and BM.

It’s rare to see MS classes being taught in full English. Heck, even the standalone English subject isn’t taught fully in English. If you’ve been trained as a teacher, surely you remember the teaching approaches? I’m not exactly an A student, but I can refresh your memory if you’ve forgotten. So what are the principles of second language learning?

1. Grammar-Translation Approach
2. Direct Approach
3. Reading Approach
4. Audiolingual Method
5. Community Language Learning
6. The Silent Way
7. Communicative Approach–Functional-Notional
8. Total Physical Response

Look at the first approach on the list. When I learned about this, I immediately thought, ‘that kind of sums up the teaching of English in whatever subject I’ve learnt’. Maybe it produces minimal and slow effects, but it’s still the best way to deal with students who lack the commands (and vocabularies) of English.

In a way, teaching English in Malaysia couldn’t be worse than teaching English to second language learners (ESOL students) in native English countries. Take New Zealand for example. The English teacher in the classroom does not share the same mother tongue as his/her students who might be native speakers of Thai, Japanese, Chinese or Korean. Grammar-Translation is absolutely out in this case, so he/she must find other approaches to teach English effectively to ESOL students. Taxing, no?

People keep saying ‘few teachers are competent in English to teach the subject in that language’, but I call that opinion a total bullcrap. Teachers are not perfect, and so they seek to get better and better most of the time. With time and practice, teachers improve for the better.

I’m talking about teachers whose souls are into teaching the minds of the young here. I’m not talking about people who chose teaching as a profession because they couldn’t get anything better, or because it guarantees them a job. In plain Malay, ‘Habis dah tak ada pilihan, nak buat macam mana lagi?‘ or ‘Aku jadi cikgu ni sampai habis kontrak je. Lepas tu aku blah la‘ or even ‘Jadi cikgu la best. Banyak cuti‘ and so on so forth. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but if you’re offended, I’m not sorry. It’s just that to find a truly dedicated teacher is a bit of a task. The word ‘dedicated’ is not simply an English adjective for ‘berdedikasi’. Oh wait, wasn’t ‘dedikasi’ derived from English as well? What happened to the glorious term ‘berhemah’? In use in frozen documents, mostly.

Now back to the point I was making. It says something about our educators if teachers aren’t competent in English. They are in no way not competent. That’s like saying they don’t know how to use English in basic conversation. Some of them only lack the command of English. LACK is the proper word to use here. I wonder though… I always thought you learn those critical subjects mostly in English in universities (now where are my brother’s old notes, hm?). Defensive, am I not? It’s my thoughts and it’s my profession in about less than two years, so suck it up

To those who protest or rejoice, or whatever, I hope you have at least attempted to read the curriculum specifications and the syllabi of English, Mathematics and Science before actually stating your claims. A little bit more research on how the subjects are actually taught and learnt would help your debate points. Trust me.

This post may or may not have a second part. Chances are… there will be a second part as I’m still inspired.

p.s/ Bahasa Inggeris tak boleh, tapi bahasa pinjaman yang makin berlambak (dan agak merepek, juga tak sedap mulut menyebut) tu boleh lah pula ya? Ironi, ironi.
p.p.s/ Oh my, what a long entry. I refuse to put it under ‘read more’ tag, though XD

© 2009, Adlina. All rights reserved. Please link back to this page if quoted.

© 2009, Adlina. All rights reserved. Please link back to this page if quoted.

Apesal korang anak Melayu susah sangat nak tulis dalam bahasa sendiri ha? Sana sini soksek soksek alih alih tulis dalam bahasa orang putih. Ada bahasa sendiri bt la cara ade bahasa sendiri. Konon ade kelas la kalau guna bahasa orang putih tu. Boleh jalan la.

I don’t know who this person is. Maybe I don’t want to know who he or she is, because there’s a nagging feeling at the back of my head telling me that this person is no stranger to me.

EDIT: So I found out who he is. Thank God he isn’t anyone important in my life. He just happens to be a guy my friends and I were arguing with in some educational forum.

So why do I only write in English? I have good reasons for this.

1. I’m a teacher-trainee majoring in TESOL, and that is teaching English to speakers of other languages. I need to be able to use the language at ease before I can teach others.
2. I don’t speak much at home, not in English and not in whatever language. During the holidays, I am confined to the comfort of my bedroom. I don’t like going out and hanging out with friends. With limited opportunities for verbal communication, I choose to practice my English online.
3. When I do speak English, it’s usually only with my parents. Since school, people look at me like I’m mad if I speak English. I just happen to live in this small community where 99% of the locals are Malays.
4. My English is FAR FROM PERFECT and I am well aware of this fact. I promised my coordinator to improve my command of English and to not let it be taken down by lack of practice during the holidays.
5. I have trouble writing in casual, conversation-like tone without sounding like a total prick so excuse me for writing blogs like an old lady.
6. I have many non-Malaysian friends who obviously don’t speak my language. What better way to make them understand if not by writing it in the language they’d understand?

Just becauseI’m writing in English doesn’t mean I don’t like my mother language. I have unpublished novels written in Malay to prove it. They were written in what you’d call ‘puitis, berbunga dan gramatis‘ language (that’s poetic, flowery and grammatical to some of you who know who you are =D )

I ask you to eat back your words, whoever you are. Stop being so narrow minded, and stop being a prejudist. You have no right to make such claims. In crude English: Stop being a total prick because your badassery and mindfuckery won’t work on me.

© 2008 – 2009, Adlina. All rights reserved. Please link back to this page if quoted.