English class

Actually its been some time since I wrote about my English class. THis time I've got a bunch of kids from China, mainly. What can I say about them? They're fairly hardworking, even the boys (unlike our Malaysian boys I'd say). Some of the girls are quite passive - quiet, with few ideas and fewer words. One or two are quite loud and always ready to give their views. But my favourite is Zhang. She's quiet but is actually one of the better ones - fairly good English, clear pronunciation and always comes on time. Her partner Li Yu is the same, though Li Yu can be talkative at times. I had Zhang last semester too and she was the same - does her work and hands them on time, sometimes quite brilliant ideas but fairly quiet, as if she'd rather hide her light under a bushel.

When we started early last month, most of them had never read a full novel and all of them had never heard of any of the old classics. We didn't have time to do a whole novel but I did a number of excerpts and entry points with a few really good novels - Steinbeck, Dickens and Hemmingway. I hope that they can get on from there. If only we had more time... there's so much I want to do but we have only 7 weeks since its a special semester. That's the best I can hope for. However they really loved the poetry class and when I asked them to write their own poem, at first they all said - How can we... but after I showed them that they could write a poem, they were surprised to find that they  really could. It's so satisfying when they get excited about their own work and we even managed to build a folio so that they could have a collection of  all the poems written by their class.

THis is the last week of class - next week is the exam and after that they start their holidays. But since this is the special semester, they get only one week break before class begins for the next semester. I loved the previous group - Simulated Teaching. That was a lively bunch of girls. The only boy in the class was Kudret from Turkey. And the girls loved to bully him but I think he kind of enjoyed it too. I do hope I get to teach the Simulated Teaching again - really enjoyed the experience of training young teachers.

End of Literature class

Its the last day of class and I invited my 'children' for a bit of home cooked lunch. Dilshore, Kudret and Ikram came in their own car but Isil, Liang and Marilynn came with me. Tim could not make it because he was working. A pity that. I wanted to keep in touch with him because he interests me, that boy. I like his quirky humour, his irreverent personality and his independence, which is quite typical of the average American boy I think. The Turks are close knit and shy but always tries to take advantage of you when you least expect it. Liang the girl from Beijing was very shy at first but warmed up towards the end but her poor English and worse pronunciation made it difficult for her to be understood. I wonder what she'll do if she fails this semester. Dilshore, from Uzberkistan is very hardworking. He's older than the boys from Turkey and more mature too in his attitude and thinking. We had a number of interesting discussions while waiting for the others to turn up in class because he is always early. One topic we talked about is the attitude of many Malay students - he could not understand why so many still find it difficult to speak and understand English after learning it for 11 years. Well,neither can I - its something I've questioned time and again. And now that the government is emphasizing English once more, the Malay zealots are once again protesting - to protect the sovereignity of the Malay language it seems! When will they realise that without English we cannot go far in trade and commerce and that to progress we all need to be proficient in English?

Tea party for my English class

Tomorrow being a holiday and most of my students saying that they may not come next week, I decided to give the tea party today after all. So after 4pm, having made my order to Halle Catering earlier, I stopped the class and told them we're having a surprise party. They seemed surprise anyway, especially when the caterer came in with the tea and cakes. But after the initial surprise they tucked in and we all had a jolly good time, with tea, doughnuts and currypuffs. Even the shy and quiet Afiq came out and helped himelf. Latimin and Azmi chatted up the ladies, cracking jokes and generally enlivened the atmosphere. Most of the women in my class are quite shy actually but opened up as time went by. This can be seen especially Zaiyah, Siti Zawiyah and Hasimah. I really enjoy teaching them - they seem quite eager to learn and to want to speak English. And I think they are improving too - if only we can continue the class.

This will be a kind of farewell for me - I may not see some of them next week for they said they are taking their annual leave.

UM class

Oh we had a terrific time today in class. For once most of the students came - 26 of them. Towards the end of the lesson I introduced another word game, a bit like scrabbles but using cards on which the letters had been written. They were organised into three teams with the team forming the most words (the longer the word the more the score) winning. They enjoyed it so much that we went into "overtime". That was a fun day - for me because I could see them enjoying themselves and for them because they felt they had accomplished something too. For 30 and 40 + - for once I think they really let down their hair and behaved like students - trying to beat the other teams in getting the longest words. Jeering at the other teams and cheering their own - they seem to enjoy themselves.

Teaching is so satisfying when I can get my students to enjoy themselves. It's easy to do that with kids, because I think the younger they are the more eager they generally are to learn a language. And for this group - working adults - they have been forced to take up this course mainly to meet the requirements of their service. Civil servants have to fulfil a set number of hours every year to upgrade their skills and for many civil servants in Malaysia, they are required to learn English as a foreign language. This group of students at least have the basic level - they can converse in English, albeit with some mispronunciation and language errors. I think that they are so much better than some teachers that I've talked to. At least they can use words like "enhance my vocabulary" which gives me a warm feeling. And when they show their interest and ask me questions, I feel good. I wish we had more time though. No doubt their bosses can't really spare them for two hours a week for a month , but if we can have this for 6 months, maybe we can make some real inroads. So far I've been empahasizing on the spoken part of the language - pronunciation and lots of speaking exercises, getting them to give short speeches, explanations etc. But I do think they have improved. Or at least they are more confident. Zaiyah once said that at work or at home they hardly spoke English which is why it has deteriorated so much for many of them. I told them - use it or lose it. It's the same for any language.

Connected to this topic is the current debate in parliament about retaining or rejecting the teaching of Maths and Science in English in primary schools. For 5 years Maths and Science have been taught in English at the primary or elementary level. So far, as results from the Primary School Assessment (UPSR) shows, it has helped students improve their English. Statistics also show that students prefer to answer the questions in English rather than Malay, the national language (53% only but its early days yet). I think the powers that be should not intefere in education and detractors against this policy are only trying to gain political mileage, or maybe as in the case of the Chinese school Council, afraid to change and lose their power over the Chinese. When I was in school English was the medium of instruction and I never felt that my own language (Malay) was at risk of being lost. English is a powerful tool in any international business enterprise - whether you like it or not. Being able to communicate and better still manipulate terms in this language would be an advantage. And as a nation we are slowly but surely losing this advantage as our children's usage of the language decline. There are other advantages too - I think it levels the playing field in a big way. No one can say that this or that person scored because the test is in his own language. This time the language is neutral.

Work

Back home at last and back at the grind. My other half has gone off to another assignment, this time at Bukit Tinggi Resort. Another workshop.My English class expanded today (3 new students) and four came back from an extended holiday. Teaching adults who are working is so different from teaching young adults who know that getting a job depends on their English results. These students don't really care that their English is not good, especially the men. They come and go as they please - especially when they are already 40 years old and not going anywhere in their jobs. I have a tough time getting them interested - they don't like grammar and yet its so essential. They enjoy the games I do with them, they're quite competitive too. But we can't be playing games all the time can we? No doubt some of the games are based on grammar but we have so little space in the class and we can hardly move. If we had the seminar rooms at the Linguistics Faculty it would be better.

Yesterday we played a board game introduced to me by Alby. Its a little like monopoly, only difference is we buy vowels and consonants to form words. The person with the most number of words wins. Its a great game to teach vocabulary and the class enjoyed it. I think next time I'll introduce Boggle to them. But I'd have to have at least 4 sets of Boggle which would not be cost effective.
Today I have to teach them writing. The syllabus says I had to teach them only business letter writing, but since most of the students do not write business letters they want ordinary letters. I told them we could do stories instead and they agreed. So it'll be story time today.

UM English class

I finally saw the video that Wan did of my pre -employment class - the last class assignment when they had to simulate an interview and a meeting. It was quite good - imagine that this was the group which was shy and would not open their mouth at first.

This present group is naughtier and more active in a way but the other was more reliable. I like them all however. On Saturday they're going to sing "All my love" by Westlife and its a pleasure watching them practising - so enthusiastically. Like most teenagers they enjoy singing and jazz chants. But you can't be singing all the time can you? So lessons on verbs and tenses and prepositions have to be injected, interspersed by more singing!

Today SKET showed a CD of Pride and Prejudice - the one in which Kiera Knightley acted. However I didn't get to watch it coz I had a toothache. Went to see Jijah instead.

Just another ordinary day

Had session until late night yesterday. Very very tired but I think the students were happy. But I really think the Orientation committee kids were great. If not for them, I think, Renu and I would have had a hard time. The kids organised everything for us. All we had to do in the end was sit and watch. We played a short game - something about walking across the hall creatively. I did it in class the first day and my class enjoyed it but with bigger groups we could ask thme to do in groups so it was more fun and we got to observe their teamwork and creativity at work.

Late yesterday evening I went to Rizal's place. They're here for a while or at least Pohling and Sophie are. My grand daughter has grown in the past month. She's smarter and know what she wants and asks for it. Recognises a few words for example "No" and Mamam which means eat. So if she wants food she'll just say mamam in a loud no nonsense voice and everyone knows she's hungry. Clever girl. Can also climb stairs but cant come down by herself. Pohling says she loves water - cries if she's taken out of her bath and recently when they took her to Bali, enjoyed playing on the beach so much, she refused to be taken in.

English class

How fast the time flies. By the end of this week I would have finished the month with my Pre-employment group. I can see that they are more confident in presentations and simulations but are still weak where grammar is concerned. I guess for that they'd have to read more, and we'd have to have at least six months of intensive English. I hope by now the kids are more confident when speaking in English. They've been groomed and polished and given soft skills, entrepreneural skills, exposed to EQ and SQ sessions apart from the intensive English they are doing now. I know from my own class that they have improved vastly. Even Afzan speaks English confidently now and they are all good in team activities.

Anyway we're ending this class by the end of this week and next week a new class will begin. Still not sure whether I want to continue. Rohani has also asked me whether I want to teach at Genting. Hers is a group of security guards - just conversational English. Should be interesting I think.
The class gave a really great presentation today. When I arrived this morning the boys were there looking smart in dark shirts and ties. I watched them practising their interview and it was good. I feel like a mother duck looking at her little ducklings successfully swim across a river. The feeling was great. They had practised so hard to and they did everything themselves. Then came a nice surprise - they gave me a surprise party! It was so sweet of them. There was KFC and lots of other goodies. The SKET team came and caught them on video. I also called Wan who brought our videocam and took a video of the whole process - the interview as well as the meeting. Ali was a great CEO - so confident and natural. He even joked and teased the other committee members! He's a great guy I think and will become somebody important one day I think. See pictures above of students doing group work.

My English class

My first class which was on Tuesday 11 March went splendidly. The students, mostly 20 year olds, were involved, active and sometimes quite cheeky. I did vocabulary with them and enjoyed their antics in the groupwork. The second class also went well - we had reading comprehension this time - the passage that Rohani mentioned might be too tough for them. Actually it was a bit difficult I think, but we managed, with lots of guidance. The boy Aliff still did not come to class. I really wanted to see what he looked like because he sounded interesting in the essay he wrote. The other boys in the class were also active and energetic, and sometimes very cheeky too. The girls are really sweet. I think I can easily love them.