Something worth noting.
Give present teachers a chance
07 Feb 2007NAZREEN T. A. Mersing
ALLOW me to offer my two sen worth on the issue of "incompetent" English teachers by Michael Shum ("Use this aging resource", NST, Feb 2).His suggestion to use retired teachers who had their training at distinguished colleges in the United Kingdom, though plausible and recommendable, reflects badly on the present English teachers who are still learning their way and trying to satisfy everyone concerned.This "deplorable decline in the teaching of the English language" has indeed become a problem, but there are still a lot of competent teachers like me who were also "tutored by native speakers during their teacher training days in Britain".Give the present teachers a chance before turning to instant solutions like hiring native speakers, resorting to the "use of the aging resource" or even putting in extra hours into English lessons.Students from this Internet and technology-savvy generation are sometimes more resourceful than the teachers themselves.Don't let them look down on teachers even further by always blaming them for the decline in English competency.
TEACHING ENGLISH: Hire right teachers
08 Feb 2007MICHAEL SHUM, Kuala Lumpur
WITH reference to the comments on English teaching by Nazreen T.A. of Mersing ("Give present teachers a chance" — NST, Feb 5), I have to give her the benefit of the doubt about giving present teachers a chance provided such teachers take the trouble to improve their command of the English language in the first place.I have come across applications from potential English teachers and lecturers who can hardly string a decent sentence in English. Can we entrust them to teach English? It would be like the blind leading the blind. They have done a lot of harm. My suggestion to use competent retired teachers is in line with other proposals like hiring native speakers and extra hours for English lessons.
Everyone is out and about talking about the declining of English among students and how it is related to the incompetency of the current English teachers. I hope those two letters will enlighten us and prove to people what we are not and that we certainly can do it.
07 Feb 2007NAZREEN T. A. Mersing
ALLOW me to offer my two sen worth on the issue of "incompetent" English teachers by Michael Shum ("Use this aging resource", NST, Feb 2).His suggestion to use retired teachers who had their training at distinguished colleges in the United Kingdom, though plausible and recommendable, reflects badly on the present English teachers who are still learning their way and trying to satisfy everyone concerned.This "deplorable decline in the teaching of the English language" has indeed become a problem, but there are still a lot of competent teachers like me who were also "tutored by native speakers during their teacher training days in Britain".Give the present teachers a chance before turning to instant solutions like hiring native speakers, resorting to the "use of the aging resource" or even putting in extra hours into English lessons.Students from this Internet and technology-savvy generation are sometimes more resourceful than the teachers themselves.Don't let them look down on teachers even further by always blaming them for the decline in English competency.
TEACHING ENGLISH: Hire right teachers
08 Feb 2007MICHAEL SHUM, Kuala Lumpur
WITH reference to the comments on English teaching by Nazreen T.A. of Mersing ("Give present teachers a chance" — NST, Feb 5), I have to give her the benefit of the doubt about giving present teachers a chance provided such teachers take the trouble to improve their command of the English language in the first place.I have come across applications from potential English teachers and lecturers who can hardly string a decent sentence in English. Can we entrust them to teach English? It would be like the blind leading the blind. They have done a lot of harm. My suggestion to use competent retired teachers is in line with other proposals like hiring native speakers and extra hours for English lessons.
Everyone is out and about talking about the declining of English among students and how it is related to the incompetency of the current English teachers. I hope those two letters will enlighten us and prove to people what we are not and that we certainly can do it.
posted by me @ 7:11 pm
2 Comments:
scary jugak nk jadik english teacher ni, salah sket grammar sume org nk dok betolkan.. hahahha.. but michael shum had a point there, you cant have "the blind" leading "the blind", it'd be disastrous..
but then again, it depends on what kind of approaches english teachers are going to use, i.e. stress on pronunciations?, stress on grammar?,or using whole-based approach..? huhu...
besides, i think it's the scenario in malaysian educational system that stresses on grammar, as a result, many students (spm, undergrads, post-grads etc..) who can score in english paper and are able to write academic essays, but when it comes to speaking english.. huhu.. they're doomed~!
guess there's no easy way out, we HAVE TO polish our speaking skills (english!)..
lalalalalala
Well, practice makes perfect! Go english teachers! wee~
And to science teachers, we have to master both english and science! go! go!
Hidup cikgu!!=)
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