Language: It’s like sex

(Malaysian Mirror) CONTINUING THE ENGLISH DEBATE Comparing language education to sex can be an outrageous thought. Not so, judging by the heated public debate and soaring temperatures across the political divide among educationists, politicians, community leaders and parents who seemed to know best.

Robert Kaplan and Richard Baldauf, who co-authored the book entitled: “Language and Language-in-education Planning in the Pacific Basin,” metaphorically made that comparison.

“Language issues have some of the characteristics of sex: Everyone does it, and consequently everyone think they are an expert.”

“However, it is neither teachers nor parents who teach most adolescents about sex; rather it is a cadre of other adolescents mostly characterised by knowing little about the matter.

“From there on, it is largely a matter of on-the-job training. It is not until one reaches maturity that one even discovers that there are real experts who might teach one something about the subject.”

They concluded: “So it is with language issues. Every segment of society has language and individuals competently use language for a variety of purposes. However, when users engage in talking about language, which they frequently do; that talk is largely marked by profound ignorance.”

The language debate: Choices

So what is so special about the English language? Is it just a language of communication or a country’s asset? Indeed, “asset” is an important word in the sentence.

Do we, as a society value education highly enough to opt or seek literacy in a language other than our national language to strengthen our global trading and economic competitiveness?

Or should we choose the outrageous option of an ideological heretic in wedging politics of fear that the English language will jeopardise the sense of nationalism and national unity.

The choice is ours, as a nation.

Recently, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said the government aims to see Malaysians proficient in English and master it to enable them to compete in the global arena. “The aim remains the same. There is no change. Only the method in reaching the objective is now different,” he said.

Consensus on the divide

However, the decision to revive the old policy of teaching science and mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia or in the mother-tongue in vernacular schools from 2012, also invited vocal protests mainly from urban parents including former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

With hindsight, some critics felt that failure was inevitable. “The policy itself was first class but the delivery system was fourth-class,” said Dr Mohamad Ali Hassan, national president of the Parent-Teacher Association in 2007 at a forum organised by the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (Melta).

Even as the decision was made, the “pros and cons” public debate continues with no clear-cut consensus appearing on the horizon. While ethnic-based political parties are somewhat feeling relieved that finally young children could make better progress learning in their mother-tongue on the two subjects, there are still reservations on the policy relating to the secondary level using Bahasa Malaysia as the teaching medium on the same subjects.

Beginning 2012, the subjects of science and mathematics will be taught in Bahasa Malaysia at national schools and for national-type schools, the medium of instructions in the respective mother tongue.

Why did the policy to teach in the English language on the two subjects failed?

Linguist David Nunan who wrote the best-selling publication, “English Language” best summed up the reasons for failure on the educational policies and practices in the Asia Pacific region by governments on the English language.

He said: “While English as a global language is having considerable impact on policies and practices in all countries, it also reveals significant problems.

“Problems including confusion and inconsistency at the level of policy, particularly regarding the issue of age of initial instruction, inequity (i.e. rural-urban in the case of Malaysia) regarding access to effective language instruction, inadequately trained and skilled teachers and a disjunction between curriculum rhetoric and pedagogical reality,” observed the renowned author.

Politics of Language: Obstructionists

To some political demagogues in the country, the English language is considered a threat to our national language.

There are yet others, egg-headed policy makers who are keen to turn back the pages on the old politics of race against race, peddling their distorted or perverted sense of nationalism.

Believing in the myth that our national language is the “one-and-only” determinant towards national unity, It is also tragic that our country is never short of “jug-heads” who refused to acknowledge that the English language has consolidated its dominance in global usage.

Like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, both egg-heads and jug-heads fail to realise and accept that one-fourth of the global population communicate in English.

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