Surinderpal Kaur, a senior lecturer at Universiti Malaya, told FMT there were many local talents who could produce resource materials.
“We should work with them and produce high-quality learning materials for our students,” she said. “These materials will then not make students feel like they are in an alien or unfamiliar environment.”
She was commenting on the government’s decision to make schools use imported English textbooks from next year as part of a move to align the curriculum with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Several books have been suggested, and these include the Cambridge University Press’s Super Minds for primary school and MacMillan’s Pulse for secondary school.
Surinderpal said her main concern with the textbooks was that the context would be too foreign for Malaysian students, especially those from rural areas.
“Context and familiarity are very important in the learning of a language,” she said. “The more unfamiliar the culture, context and environment in the textbooks, the harder it will be for students to identify with them.”
On whether the books would improve English proficiency, Surinderpal said it was too early to tell.
“Textbooks are resources which can be used to help improve language skills, but there are other more important factors involved in improving English proficiency.
“These are, chiefly, the skills and proficiency of teachers, the modes of teaching and learning, the creativity and interactivity of learning activities, the attitudes of students and the availability of supplementary resources, among other things.”
Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, who heads the Parent Action Group for Education (Page), lauded the move to use imported textbooks, but she said there were concerns over whether teachers would be capable of following a syllabus requiring the teaching of a higher standard of English.
But she also said parents would have to participate in the education of their children if they wanted to see the level of language proficiency go up.
“Parents need to speak to their children, read them bedtime stories,” she said. “The reading culture has to come back.
“It all starts at home. The teachers are there to fill in the gaps.”