My language learning and teaching experiences

          My language learning and teaching experiences                          25/12/12

          English is taught as a second language in Malaysia.  It is not the language widely used here.  Ask yourself how often  you use the language and how confident and at ease you are to use it.  The question here is:  Can you use the language accurately and fluently?  Yes, I can. / No, I can’t / 30%, 40%...........  What language do you speak to express your ideas, feelings, opinions and thoughts?  Do you use several languages at the same time to express yourself in informal situations but you can use a single language if needed at will and with no problem?

          Well, personally, I use Foochow, Chinese, English and some BM to express myself in my daily conversations in informal situations.  I use either Chinese or English in writing.  Which language to use depends on how dominating the language is at the moment of thoughts.  I sometimes make the shift from Chinese to English  because I find the Chinese language is hard to express in words to write on computer.  To write an article about a page may take me 3 – 4 hours whereas I only need an hour or less to write in English.  This is the main reason why I write English more often. 

            Actually, I find writing in Chinese enables me to express myself more clearly, concisely, precisely and even creatively, especially in response to some statements in Chinese.  It is because the Chinese language is so rich culturally and philosophically.  I can have even more fun with the language.  Foochow is the dialect I have used since small.  I picked up the Chinese language when I learnt the language in both the spoken and written forms in school and I had plenty of chance to practise them.   Since Foochow is the first spoken version of speech sounds I acquired, it is going to stay with me for life.  I still have the chance to use it most of the time. 

        I am also constantly exposed to the Chinese language through reading and listening to the radio or other sources in my daily life.  Foochow and the Chinese language are close at heart to me as I live in them and they live in me culturally.  It is the language which tells the meaning of its forms in sight.  In English, I  can only know the meaning of the words in context and I hardly have any idea why the word has the spelling for the meaning.  For example, the word ‘pear’ has the word ‘ear’ in it for the name of the fruit.  What about the words “bear, clear, dear, ear, fear, gear,  hear, near, spear, sear, tear, wear, pearl, ……………”?  Though the words ‘hear and heart’ may have some connection / related to the word ‘ear’.  To know the meanings of  English words, we have to go through the contexts. 

         Unlike the Chinese words, most of the words carry the meanings alone or in clusters, we do not really need to go through contexts to know the meanings.  For example, 工具 (tool)，仁爱 (compassion)，贪污 (corruption)，污染(pollution)，饭碗(rice bowl)， 收音机 (radio)，电视机 (TV)，电脑 (computer)，电器 (electrical product)。。。。。。。。If you know the Chinese language, you will agree with me that this language is so economical in expression in comparison with the English language.

      Since English is learnt as a second language in Malaysia, I would like to repeat here that we need some deliberate effort to learn it.  We need, for sure, to learn the English grammar and the sound system properly.  Since language is systematic/ has a system, we can learn the grammar and the sound system systematically.  The English grammar and the sound system are the language knowledge.  A learner must have this knowledge in order to use the language properly as they are the tools.  These 2 components of the language are the foundation / basics.  Without a good knowledge of them, you are always at a loss on how to express yourself properly to the understanding of your listeners / readers. 

          Language is meant for both spoken and written communication purposes.  For example, my Foochow dialect enabled me to express all my needs in life in my Foochow family when I was small.  So, I survived well.  When I learnt the Chinese language, I had the access to the literary works in Chinese and thus explore the world of knowledge.  It is through a lot of reading and listening in the input and speaking and writing in the output that I have acquired the language.  Foochow and the Chinese are the two valuable dialect /language assets as my language knowledge of them help me learn English in terms of words in parallel / equivalence and the sounds. 
         I studied in an English medium secondary school from Transition to Form Six.  There, I had rich English Language experiences as all my subjects were in English except the Chinese subject. At first,  I had a hard time with the language for at least 3 - 4 years though I got used to it gradually.  I could not express my points using my own words accurately. though I might express fluently in writing as a result of my language experiences / exposures through different subjects.  It was rather language sense/ intuition to use the language without a full grasp of language knowledge:  grammar.  
     I learn the pronunciation of English words by ear rather than the knowledge.  Thus, they might not be the standard English speech sounds, for example:  the letter 'H' instead of / eIt∫/ was pronounced as
/ het∫/; spanner /spænә/ > /spanar/;  owl /aUl/> /Ɔ:l/, courier /kUrIә/> /kɒrIa/, onion /ˈʌnIən/> /ˈɒnIən /............   There were a lot of mix-ups, for example:  doctor Vs daughter;  pen Vs pan;  tin Vs thin; pin Vs bin; sin Vs sink /sing...........  
      Unless you are taught and drilled to create the awareness of the similarity and differences, I bet you are blurred to the sounds.  You can only say it based on what you heard.  With the knowledge of English speech sounds, you know what the speech sounds for each word without much difficulty.  It is because each speech sound corresponds with the characteristic spelling(s).  It has high rate of regularity.  For example:
          The letter clusters 'ea' may have / i: / in "eat, beat, feat, heat, leak, meat, seat, cheat, peat, neat, weak,........" or / e / in "bread, head, health, wealth, thread, spread, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,"  However, 'ea + r' may have    / I ә/ in "ear, fear, hear, gear, near, smear, tear, sear, rear, dear, ....."; / eә/ in "bear, pear, wear, swear,  "  and /  3:  /in "pearl, earl, early, earth, ........"   You will find that other spellings may have: 
          / I ә  /  speech sounds like "ere >>>here, mere, sphere...........; eer>>>deer, cheer, peer, sneer, steer,......; ier>>>bier, fierce, pier, peirce.....; ia>>> aria, anaemia, bacterial, media......; ion >>> million, billion, pillion, opinion, onion" 

          You will find the speech sound / eə / in other other spellings like “are >>>bare, ware, stare, glare, .....air, chair, stair, pair, ......... ” 

          There are quite a number of Chinese words match well with those in English.  For example:  talk (说), walk （走）, run （跑）, eat （吃）, hear （听）, smell （嗅）, taste （尝）, touch （碰）…………… I find that if learners got enough stock of vocabulary in  English and a good grasp of English grammar and speech sounds.  They have no problem to engage in the language use in speaking and writing.   Languages are universal in nature though “each language is unique”.  I believe you will agree with me that most languages classify words like English into: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Prepositions, Exclamation and Determiners.  The knowledge of these word classes in Chinese enables me to learn the English language more easily as far as forms and functions (grammar) of the language are concerned.  Is it true?  Just compare the languages BM, Chinese, Tamil, Iban…….. with English and see? 

          For speech sounds, let’s compare the speech sounds of the Chinese and English languages: 

Vowel phonemes

No.     English vowels        Helping words        Chinese vowels       Helping words

1.           / i: /                       E                                i                   一 （yi）                                       

2.          /  I /                        it

3.          / eI /                        A                                ei                 卫 (wei)

4.         /  e /                        egg                             ê                欵

5.         / æ /                        cat

6.       / ɑ: /                          R                                ɑ                 阿

7.        / ɒ /                          dog

8.       / ʌ  /                          up

9.       / u: /                          blue                             u                  无  (wu)

10.     /  ʊ /                         book

11.     / əʊ/                          O                               ou                欧

12.     / ɔ: /                          awe                             o                 哦

13.     / ɜ: /                          sir                               er                 耳

14.     / ə /                           ago                             e                  俄

15.     / aI /                           I                                ai                  爱

16.     / aʊ /                        cow                            ao                  凹

17.     / ɔI /                          oil / boy

18.     / Iə /                         ear                              ie                 也  (ye)

19.     / eə /                         air

20.     / ʊə /                        tour                             uo                我  (wo) 

          For consonants, you will find that the 2 languages are more or less the same.  With this understanding,  learners can learn faster and find it so familiar and easy to grasp.  And teachers know  which speech sounds they have to emphasise to help them learn the concepts.  For consonants, you will find that the Chinese speaking learners have problems with such speech sounds not found in their language.  Such speech sounds are clear (一目了然) （in sight）in the table where there are no equivalences. I believe in the whole picture approach to teach learners who are ready.  The skills of comparing and contrasting help you to learn and store the information in an organised way.  Hence it is essential to present the lesson in an organised and systematic way for easy teaching and learning. 

Consonants

No.      Phonemes   Helping Words                           Chinese                 

1.           /  p  /       p --- pen                                       / p /         排      (pai)

2.         /  b  /         b --- bed                                      / b /          拜      (bai)

3.        /  t  /          t ---  tea                                        / t /                   他      (ta)

4.        /  d  /        d ---  desk                                    / d /          大      (da)

5.        /  k  /          c (uncle) / ch (mechanic)              / k /           可      (ke)

6.       /  g  /           g --- girl                                     / g /           哥      (ge)

7.      /   ∫    /        sh(she) /t(patient) /c(ocean)          / x /           许      (xu)

8.       /   ӡ    /        s -- leisure                                   / j /            觉      (jue)

9.      /  t∫     /        ch – chair                                   /ch/            车      (che)

10.     /  dӡ    /        ge(orange) /dge(bridge)/ J(June)  / zh /           这      (zhe)

    

11.     /   f  /            f(fly / gh(rough) / ph(elephant)    / f /            发      (fa)

12.   /   v  /             v – vase             

13.      /   s  /           s(sea) / c(cell) / x(box)              / s /             思      (si)

14.       /   z  /          z(zoo) / s(boys) / es(houses)     / z /             字      (zi)

15.       /   q   /         th – three

16.       /   ð    /        th – father

17.       /   h  /          h --  hat                                  / h /             和      (he)

18.       /  m  /          m – mother                              / m /            妈      (ma)

19.       /  n  /           n – no / n – on                        / n /             那      (na)

20.      /  ŋ  /            nk – sink / ng – sing                 / ng /           恩     (eng)

21.               /  l  /              l – all /  l – like                         / l /              乐      (le)

22.              /  r  /              r – red                                    / r /              热      (re)

23.               /  j  /              y – yes                                    / y /             一

24.               /  w  /            w – we                                    / w /            我      (wo)

       Due to the space constraint, I can only compare the two.  You may include BM, you will find that BM speech sounds are more or less the same, too.  BM language is easy to learn because the speech sounds always match to the spellings of the words unlike English.  Exploring the prior knowledge of the learners will make teaching and learning of the second language so much so much easier, believe me.  My Foochow dialect helped me to learn the Chinese language at ease.  With my Foochow dialect and the Chinese language, I set off to learn the English language though it is very different from the Chinese language. 

          Well…….. how is English taught in Malaysia?  How are the English teachers guided to teach by the ministry of education?  Are our English teachers qualified enough to carry out the lessons?  Do we have an English progamme like the one in Singapore, England, Australia……?  The programme that will give our students a lot of practices in the 4 skills i.e listening and reading in the input and speaking and writing in the output.  What they learn in the English lessons is the question.  There should be a reading programme for our pupils / students to go through.  After all language is an experience / exposure to acquire.   You are what you learn!  (You are what you eat.)  Do the survey to find out which schools in Malaysia do not use commercially produced English  workbooks with exam format to LEARN English.  How can they learn English properly in this manner though these materials may put the pupils / students  at ease in the exams as they are familiar with the stuffs they have repeated all through the years?

          Who cares about the process of learning as long as they can get As?   Who cares whether As result in English means anything for practical purposes to engage in both spoken and written communication?  Everybody is obsessed in A results in mad-rats' race for nothing.  Thus, we have many and many students after 9 or 13 years / more of learning English are not able to use the language at will in speaking or writing.  At the end of the day, these are harsh facts they have to face up to.  Why?  Ask our ministers and those high ranking officers in the ministry of education and see if they have any ideas or not.

          Education in Malaysia ( Why is Education in Finland so successful?) has not been done properly since the independent day?  Why?  I think we should find out for them and do the flushing when the time is ripe.  This is the only solution in my opinion.  Do you have better ways?  Share!  Education in Malaysia is too wide a scope for me to deal with alone.

          Here I can only focus on English education in Malaysia based on my personal experience as a learner and teacher,  my informal studies and observations for the past 21 years. 

          Do you believe that the following  4 factors are the way to command a language?

1.    A good English programme that has enough emphasis on the various grammatical items to be learnt in context and in isolation through 4 language skills>>>>>listening, reading, speaking and writing practices. 

I believe in drilling each grammatical item so that learners can get familiar with the forms especially.  For example, let our students know each verb tense form well.  This will create the kind of awareness and it would be easier for them to understand how each tense works in context.  In this way, they will grasp the concept easily.

2.     There must be a good reading programme so that our students will have the chance to go through different language experience to reinforce the grammar and acquire the vocabulary.

                  The best way to acquire the vocabulary is through reading.

If a person has a good knowledge of grammar, a wide range of vocabulary and knowledge through language experience / exposure, he / she has more or less mastered the language.

3.    We also need good and qualified teachers to help, guide, inspire and facilitate learning.

4.    A good system of examination to gauge the teaching and learning of English is also very important so that both teachers and students know they are heading in the right direction to command the language.  After all, nowadays, learning is very much exam-oriented.  But make sure learners are oriented to the right direction and right channel to prepare them for life-long learning.

If our students have enough input, there is no reason why they cannot speak and write accurately and fluently. 

All the best!