(credit The STAR, 26 September 2012)
Sunday September 23, 2012
English — the way to go!
By AMINUDDIN MOHSIN, TAN EE LOO and KANG SOON CHEN
All parties at a recent forum organised by The Star,
were unanimous that young graduates who joined the workforce needed to
engage and communicate in English if they wanted to move up in their
careers.
EVER wondered why we put so much emphasis on
English when countries like Japan and Germany seem to progress just fine
without focusing on the language? That mystery was unravelled at The Star’s
free public forum on the importance of English in the workplace after
lively talks by forum speakers and the Q&A session that followed. The forum held in conjunction with The Star’s
English For More Opportunities initiative, featured experts in English
and those in the employment markets, and was moderated by former
Education Ministry deputy director-general Datuk Noor Rezan Bapoo
Hashim.
Registration: Early birds all excited as they sign up for
the forum at Menara Star.
Forum
speaker, Albukhary International University (AiU) deputy
vice-chancellor Prof Emeritus Dr Omar Farouk Sheikh highlighted the
peripheral role of English in certain progressive nations.
“I’ll
begin my talk with a short story of a Malay College Kuala Kangsar boy
who went to Japan for a month-long cultural exchange programme.
“The
student was having an acute dilemma, he wondered why the Japanese knew
so little English and yet could still be one of the most scientifically-
and technologically-advanced countries on earth.
“So while he
was there he posed this question to me, ‘Why do we have to learn Science
and Mathematics in English back home?’,” he said.
Prof Omar, who
had served at Hiroshima City University for 18 years, went on to
describe how he had been travelling a lot and was not up-to-date with
Malaysia’s education situation.
“So the only answer I could give him was, ‘that’s the Malaysian way’. In this instance the importance of English is contextual.
“English
is not as vital in Japan as it is in Malaysia and even here we can
argue that in certain situations, English is critical while in others,
it may be trivial or even irrelevant.
Full attention: Members of the audience listen
intently to panelist Sam Ayton as she presents her views.
“But
since I’ve been out of the loop for awhile, I’m looking forward to
learning a thing or two about the situation of English here in as much
as I’m looking forward to contributing to discussion,” he added.
Prof
Omar said it was not unreasonable to expect the importance of English
to be debated upon continually in a variety of contexts.
“I think
this is healthy because at best, the importance of English can only be
relative. It’s difficult if not impossible to argue that the importance
of English is absolute.
“More often than not, the argument for
English is not just about English. We need to be aware of the political,
psychological, social and cultural perspectives that influence our
attitude towards the language,” he added.
Sharing the story of
what he called “the AiU experiment” where a large number of
international students were successful in mastering English through an
intensive programme, Prof Omar proposed that there were five factors
which affected language learning.
“Eighty percent of our students
are foreigners and most of them struggle with English. Within months,
those who were not able to speak even a few words of English became
confident speakers thanks to our intensive programme,” he said.
He
explained that the five factors behind the programme’s success include
detailing the incentives of learning English to students, providing them
with motivation to learn, having the proper facilities for language
learning, properly planning and strategising the programme to have clear
goals and offer positive recognition to those who excel. The
revelation of why English was key to our progress instead of following
in the footsteps of the Japanese paradigm came from TalentCorp Malaysia
CEO Johan Mahmood Merican.
Digital assistance:
Young employees often seek
online help when they are assigned to
projects
that require reportwriting in English. —Photo posed by model.
“I
often hear arguments that Japan and South Korea have managed to become
developed nations without English, this is a very dangerous line of
thought because it doesn’t look at the situation historically. “Countries
like Japan have always been developing their own indigenous
technologies, so they do not rely as much as we do on foreign direct
investment and innovation from outside. “It would be easier for
us to get our English sorted out than become a country that develops
indigenous technonologies,” he said.
The four C’s
He
added that with our reliance on trade and foreign investment, and
historical ties with English, we should leverage on the language as a
source of competitiveness. Johan elaborated that apart from
competitiveness, there are three other C’s related to the importance of
English in the workplace and beyond.
“Convergence is another C. It’s cliche to say the world is flat, but it’s true. The world is coming together and its lingua franca is English. It is the language of trade and learning.
“It’s
like Microsoft’s programs, they are so widespread that almost every
computer uses them. Our education system will have to move beyond just
teaching knowledge of English to teaching English for communication,
which is the other C in the equation,” he said.
He questioned the nation’s readiness to teach its children the soft skill they will need in a globalised world.
Language concerns: Prof Omar says that English is not as vital in Japan as it is in Malaysia.
“Do we necessarily have the platform to teach communication? Are we really doing that in schools?” he asked.
The final C is about the community, said Johan.
“If
young Malaysians do not use English regularly, they will only have a
limited proficiency in the langauge and cannot reap its full benefits.
“It is common for children in rural areas to be belittled and ridiculed for trying to speak English.
“This
is counterproductive and has to change, the community must encourage
the use of English and it must be promoted as a means of advancement in
life,” he said.
He added that one of the key strengths of
Malaysia is its ability to influence its wider society to accept new
ideas through education.
A British applied linguist said
proficiency in the English language would eventually become a generic
learning skill acquired in all schools. British Council (BC) language
services director Sam Ayton cited this research finding at the start of
her talk. The research commissioned by BC and published in 2006
by British linguist David Graddol, revealed that there was already a
massive increase in the number of people learning global English, said
Ayton. Graddol projected that it was likely to reach a peak of around two billion in the next 10 to 15 years, added Ayton.
“He
was talking about global English, English spoken by non-native
speakers, that is ousting the language of Shakespeare and becoming as
the world’s lingua franca.
In 2006, non-native speakers outnumbered native speakers by three to one,” she said.
She
illustrated the changes through graphs which showed the projected
proficiency age for education entry requirements will drop from 20 to 14
years (see charts).
The global norm
“Education
systems worldwide are emphasising English and as a consequence,
children are becoming proficient at a younger age, English proficiency
will eventually become a global norm,” she said.
“To give future
generations a competitive edge, it would require individuals to be
proficient in English plus one or two more languages.”
She also
spoke about work skills and mentioned the McKinsey report published on
June 12 which, based on current trends, projects gaps in skills to drive
21st century economies. She said that there was a need to
address the imbalance in both advanced and developing economies through
education and training. She added that based on the interviews
with more than 100 organisations, employers said many Malaysians lacked
business English skills.
“About 57% of employers felt that English proficiency was important for employees, and 67% for the service industry,” she said.
This number is aligned with Jobstreet.com (a job portal) surveys that show 56% of employers viewed poor command of English as a reason for not hiring. Surprisingly, only 23% of fresh graduates shared that view. The Jobstreet.com
findings was presented by Malaysian Employers Federation executive
director Shamsuddin Bardan who said employers not only wanted staff who
understood English but also communicated well in the universal language
too.
“Knowledge of English is insufficient, the employee needs to
be able to communicate well in both written and spoken English.
Companies are reluctant to train for fear of their employees being
poached by competitors.
“So they expect secondary schools and
higher learning institutes to produce fresh graduates who are already
proficient in communicative English and ready for the labour market,” he
said.
He added that even if 90% of students score a minimum
credit in SPM English (against Cambridge 1119 standards), as aimed by
the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, it still would not meet the
manpower needs of the workforce.
“A credit in SPM English doesn’t
mean you can communicate well. Even if you increase the number of
students who pass with a credit, only 30-40% of them would be able to
communicate well and thus be employable,” Shamsuddin said.
He
added that the perception among youth that English is unimportant in
landing them a job needs to change because communicative English is one
of the most sought after skills by employers.
“Fresh graduates
need to know this fact and bridge the perception gap, so they can take
up the initiative and build their English proficiency through retraining
and other means,” he said.
At the end of his talk, Shamsuddin
quoted Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi who said that:
“It was agreed upon by education ministries of 54 Commonwealth countries
at a recent conference in Mauritius that English should be the medium
of communication not instruction.”
In her welcoming speech, The
Star deputy group chief editor (II) Leanne Goh said the newspaper had
always been at the forefront of championing English language learning.
“Over
the years, we have publications such as Newspaper-in-Education,
Stuff@School and the education pullout on Sunday which support English
language learning,” she said.
Ayton said it was interesting to
find out that, in recruitment processes, very few employers conducted
any form of formal assessment of language skills.
“Assessment of
language skills was generally based on one-to-one conversations with a
good speaker within the company who is not necessarily a language
specialist,” Ayton said.
She added that oral and written communication were the most sought-after skills in English language proficiency training. Ayton added that 92% of Malaysian employers who provide English language courses conducted in-house training.
“Addressing
proficiency issues in English require deep and wide innovation in
teaching the language not just in education systems, but also in
individual learning programmes and corporate recruitment and training,”
she said.
English For More Opportunities
English is
more than just the universal language of diplomacy, business, science
and technology. It opens the door to more job opportunities, good
universities, career advancements and increased earning power. English for More Opportuni-ties is part of The Star’s on-going efforts to highlight the importance of the language in helping people get ahead in life.
The Thinking Teacher
