SOME of the reasons for the poor standard of English among rural students are: ad-hoc training of teachers who are not proficient in English to teach the language; allowing teachers who are not proficient and untrained to teach the language; and the absence of an English-speaking environment in schools and the excess workload of language teachers.

For these reasons, most rural students were able to score not more than Band 2 in the Malaysian University English Test (MUET). These students may find it tough to cope with their studies when they enter university and could end up becoming mediocre graduates.

It is important that those who are recruited to teach English are themselves proficient in the language.

The pedagogy in teaching can always be taught as this does not involve language proficiency.

It is also not necessary that only those with an arts background be recruited as teachers, assuming they are more proficient in the language. Those with a science background should also be considered.

The concentration of trained English teachers is in urban areas. In most rural schools, there is a dearth of trained English teachers.

For instance, a secondary school in Keratong, Pahang, has only two English teachers for more than 800 students.

As a result, teachers from other disciplines are made to teach English. With this constraint, teaching and learning of English in the rural setting cannot be implemented effectively.

It is also an uphill task to create an English-speaking environment in most rural schools though some teachers are coming up with more ways to make students use the language. In the absence of a natural environment, these schools need to be better equipped with teaching and learning facilities.

One approach is to use audio-visual technology, the Internet, television and other commercial gadgets on language learning, besides conducting formal school activities in English. Students can be drawn to appreciate movies, plays and documentaries presented in English.

It would be better if some of these teaching and learning processes are approached in small groups.

Allowing a reduced work load for English teachers helps in rural areas, as this would help them come up with better preparations for students to improve their proficiency. It would help if language classes had a smaller number of students for learning to take place.

One way to overcome the shortage of trained teachers is to engage retired English teachers and place them in rural areas. Depending on local talent is better than employing English teachers from overseas for rural students.

At times, these students are lost when English is spoken to them, and local teachers can use the translation method or contrastive approach to language learning to help them comprehend the language.

DR M.A. NAIR, Bandar Muadzam Shah

Source: NST – May 8, 2008