Thai, Malaysian Educators Share Research Studies

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Thai, malaysian educators share research studies

By Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

Selangor, Malaysia

Learning foreign languages seen as a key way to boost access to world community, global interaction

Languages are really essential skills that help people open the door to other parts of the world. With the advent of mass air travel, the world has become more connected, and skills with foreign languages allow people to learn from others in different countries.

Malaysia is trying to open up to the world. So, it is trying harder to teach more students English to connect to people across the globe, including English speakers in the West. Also, students have to study Arabic to connect with the Arab world.

Thailand is also trying to promote better English teaching among its students so Thais will be able to communicate better with people in other countries.

While teachers' awareness of other languages is being raised, teachers and researchers from both countries are trying to maintain their local dialects among young people as well.

Malaysia announced a Preschool English Policy last year, to encourage teachers to teach kindergarten pupils in English 50 per cent of the time along with the national language. Meanwhile, other preschools whose medium of instruction is Chinese or Tamil will have to teach one third of the time in English.

Other schools have been found to teach many languages - Malay, Arabic and English.

In Thailand, international or English programme education has been expanded. Courses once favoured by students from families with high incomes are becoming available to students from lower income families, who are now getting a chance to study bilingual education for the basic education curriculum at state schools.

With growing awareness that languages are a crucial tool for boosting "human capital", Malaysia and Thailand have agreed to learn from each other and how they develop their human resources, especially language enhancement.

During the third MalaysiaThailand Joint Educational Research Conference 2011, most of the research papers involved English language. But both countries' local dialects were also the subject of discussion.

The conference was held last week under the theme "ResearchDriven Education Reforms: Education Transformation and Human Capital Development" in Subang Jaya in Selangor. More than 100 Thai and Malaysian educational researchers and teachers who have done classroom and other research attended to exchange findings and experiences.

A total of 28 research papers were presented. Out of this, eight papers, based on conventional research were presented during the single sessions. The remaining 20 papers, based on active research were presented during the parallel sessions.

Khair Mohamad Yusof, deputy director general at Malaysia's Ministry of Education, said: "In an era of globalisation, driven by demands for a highly sophisticated and competitive workforce, the theme chosen for this conference is pertinent because educators today are faced with the challenge of producing a skilled workforce, equipped with analytical and problem solving abilities.

"The first step towards achieving this is by revolutionising the kind of education provided to our children. By getting involved in educational research, educational practitioners can play decisionmaking roles in revising the curriculum, improving the teaching and learning environment, and in developing educational policy."

Aside from policy research and classroom and other research about English language and local dialect learning and teaching, since maths and science play a key role in increasing quality of human capital, some research papers showed Thai models and projects that collaborated to improve science and math education. Meanwhile, Malaysian teachers' papers showed simple but effective teaching techniques and activities to help students learn science and languages.

The conference also focused on underprivileged students. Research about Malaysian Orang Asli - indigenous - pupils, plus Thai children with moderate cognitive disabilities were presented to reveal problems that some teachers face, and gave recommendations to policymakers and relevant people working with such children.

Hanita Othman, a Malaysian schoolteacher, said she learned a lot of new ideas and teaching methods from the conference. She got information from Thai delegates about a teaching technique, on how to help pupils read and write more easily. The "Traffic Light" method to help overcome problems of punctuation in sentences by a Malaysian teacher, as well as checking pupils' homework from a school website were also interesting, and things she could apply at her school.

"It was really an eyeopener, as both countries can use ideas from each other to promote education and increase people's skills. We can exchange knowledge and use it directly in our classrooms," said Marzita Omar, assistant director of Penang's Education Department.

Prasong Mateapinitku, a Thai researcher, said the Traffic Light method was useful as it could help students write better.

"Thai students have similar problems when they write English. The technique should be used with them also," he said.

"Since I'm specialising in the field of psychology and cognitive ability of children with disabilities, the first thing that comes to mind is using technology as a medium to deliver lessons to the students.

Thai lecturer Pareyaasiri Manason said: "There are a lot of examples in this conference that showed the effectiveness of using technology in grade school. It helps students learn faster and easier."

The next joint research conference will be hosted in Thailand.

Prof Tongthong Chandransu, secretarygeneral of the Education Council of Thailand, said although a memorandum of understanding to jointly host the conference would end next year, the two countries would explore the opportunity to extend activities beyond the things done over the past two or three years.

-- The Nation 2011-08-01