After my initial reaction on the demonstration by the Anti-PPSMI movement, I was prompted to elaborate further on my stand regarding the teaching of mathematics and science in English in Malaysian schools after reading Tun Dr Mahathir’s comments on his blog. Now, before I go into my views, let me tell you a bit of my educational background. My primary school education was in a Chinese-medium school (SJKC) in Kelantan and at that time the English language subject only became part of the school official curriculum when I reached Standard 3 (9 years old). Then, I moved to national secondary school (Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan) where the medium of instruction is Bahasa Melayu. The transition didn’t affect me as my command of Bahasa Melayu is good. I spent 7 years in secondary school (including 2 years in Form Six) and was in "science stream" since Form 4. Right after I left Form 6 in 2002, the government decided to introduce the Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English policy in all Malaysian schools.
Now, you must be wondering why i’m telling you my educational background. I need to make clear of the schooling environment I was in before making my points. I have to admit, when the government (then led by Tun Dr. Mahathir) introduced the policy 6 years ago, I was rather sceptical not because of trying to protect the status of Bahasa Melayu but from my own principle that the best medium of learning is by using our mother tongue or the first language that we’re brought up with (or at least familiar with). I still uphold this principle but realise its "real meaning" after entering university (majoring in English language teaching). Indeed, we learn a concept or a knowledge best with our mother tongue (or to be precise the language that we’re really familiar with) only if the language is capable of "transmitting the knowledge" and science and mathematics are two realms that cannot be easily transmitted with just any language (by mere translation).
A good example is mathematics in Chinese schools. It is an accepted norm (though not solidly proven by empirical data) in Malaysia that a majority of Chinese students do very well in mathematics even though they learn the knowledge using mandarin in primary schools. Why are they successful? Because being a language of one of the earliest civilizations in the world and pioneers in mathematics, the Chinese language contains its very own terms and values in transmitting the knowledge (in fact most of the terms are not translated merely by imitating the sounds like Bahasa Melayu). The same goes to the Japanese, French and German. These countries are very active in the development science and technology even before Malaysia appeared on the world map! They don’t really need to teach their young ones the scientific and mathematical knowledge in English because their languages are capable of doing it thanks for the hard work by their academicians ages and ages ago.
Bahasa Melayu, whether we like it or not, lacks this dynamism and the agency given the responsibility to expand its use is not doing well (a total revamp would be good!). A quick check on the scientic terms in Bahasa Melayu, you’ll see many are direct imitations of English pronunciations/spellings. But this is still okay, considering many other languages in the world are doing this, English included. What causes the problem is the lack of translation activities in Malaysia. We lack researchers or academics who are capable of translating academic works in science and maths. Even if they do, you can see the big difference between the translated version and the original one be it in English or other languages. I used to see a translated version of an medical book published 4 years after the English version. Imagine if our doctors or scientists are not capable of reading and understanding in English, by the time they waited for the Malay version, they would have been like 4-5 years behind.
Maybe many won’t realise this if they confined their perspectives of PPSMI merely on primary and secondary school education because we all know that what we learned in schools are NOT really academic works but only books preparing us for exams like SPM or STPM. The books are easily comprehensible be it in Malay or English because they are facts based. If you used scientific journals (in English) in STPM level, you’ll see how half of the students failed becase they don’t have the capacity to understand them in English. This is even clearer in universities, especially in public universities. Not just the students, the lecturers themselves are struggling with English. I struggled during my first year in university as well, despite wanting to major in English language because it’s totally a different cup of tea when you move higher on academic ladder. When I attended scientific conferences, I can see how many researchers from Korea, Japan and Arabs are trying to improve their English because they said the language give them better access to the world’s rapid scientific development (very fast until they are urgently thinking ways of improving the computer systems to do the translation for them!), to wait for translation, they would have been far behind.
Some have argued the point that to address the language issues, we should improve the teaching of English and not by using these two subjects. Sounds logical but I have to disagree with this because by allowing maths and science to be taught in English, students are indirectly getting more exposure to the language. With increase exposure, they can learn the language better. For Bahasa Melayu, even if it is not a medium for these two subjects, students are still well-exposed to the language because it is used as the main medium of instruction and communication. I could see students learning science in English during the classroom hours and converse heartily in Bahasa Melayu after that. Ask the students and teachers, then you’ll get proper feedback. I don’t see why Bahasa Melayu would be threatened because of PPSMI, as other subjects like History are still being taught that language.
The only point is perhaps that not many are into Malay literature lately. Everyone is emphasising on science and technology. Many younger generations couldn’t be bothered about Malay literature. So maybe, this prompted certain people to act because THEY feel THEIR POSITIONS are threatened and not the language. If this is true, then they should address the teaching of Bahasa Melayu in schools and not blaming it on PPSMI. So far, I don’t see any solid proof that teaching of science and mathematics in English has given disadvantages to the students. In fact, many of them who are going through the system are enjoying it!
I do hope the government does not flip-flop again on this matter just to please certain parties. And stop equating learning science and maths in English as anti-nationalism! Just because you learn a subject in a foreign language, doesn’t mean you lose your national pride! I love Malaysia, that’s why I want to learn better (be it in whatever language even if it’s not in Bahasa Melayu) so that I can help the nation move beyond the limitatied boundaries of Vision 2020.
Updates:
Refer to these studies by TIMSS especially the one by Dr. Noor Azina Ismail and Dr. Halimah Awang.
This is solely my views and it doesn’t reflect the view of any organisation or institution that I represent. You may choose to agree or disagree for as long as you came with an intellectual mind and not solely overwhelmed with emotional views.
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