The Ah-Ha Moments

Today I did an activity with my lower stream, form one classes to help the students prepare for their mid-term exams next week. It was a simple activity to aid in correct sentence structure. The students were divided into groups of 3-5 students (depending on the class) and were instructed to make grammatically correct sentences using the words provided. I had prepared twelve sentences which I cut up on small sheets of paper and put in individual bags. The students were to take a bag, unscramble the words, and rewrite the sentence using proper punctuation, etc. before selecting another bag.

As the students were working, I went around to the groups to help the students deduct why the order of their words was correct or incorrect. And I would also make sure they understood the meaning of the sentence. In my orientation in January, all of the ETAs were told only to speak English, “absolutely no Bahasa Malaysia” in our classes. This is how we were taught in our BM classes – only BM, no English. I remember how frustrating this was for the teachers and for us as students since our grasp of the language was not strong enough and our vocabulary was very limited. When I speak only English with my lower stream students, I, more often than not, receive blank stares and looks of utter confusion in return. I know how they feel.

Thus, my teaching method has changed. I don’t believe that using a minute amount of BM hinders their English language learning, but rather that it enhances it. The students are able to learn additional vocabulary and better understand my instructions.

Yes, of course I use English most of the time. And whatever I say in BM, I also say in English. But every once in a while, a little bit of Bahasa Malaysia helps the students immensely. For example, some of the sentences today used future tense, a tense which many of the students are not very familiar. “Will”? What is this word? Teacher, I don’t understand. Well, there happens to be a word in BM that indicates future tense. Will = Akan. OOOHHHH!!!! The light bulbs go off. And then they can find the verb and correct the sentence.

During class today, I heard so many “Ohh!!”s and “Ahh!!”s and “Teacher, I understand!” accompanied by happy laughter. I know the students understood the structure and the meaning of the sentences. I can only hope that they carry this knowledge with them and apply it to their exams as well as in their daily English speaking.

These are wonderful moments to be a teacher.