Maths and Science: To be taught in English or Malay?

After the occupation of the British in Malaya, later became Malaysia as we know it today, we have inherited English as a medium of teaching up until 1970. This was the turning point in history where all subjects were then taught in the national language, Malay. What happened as a consequence of this? Well, this change from English to Malay medium happened after the May 13^th riots in 1969. With the New Economic Policy, Malay language was used to promote unity amongst the different races in Malaysia. In this article, I would like to draw points together to show the pros and cons of using either language as a medium of communication and teaching tool.

One would argue that the language that you learn as a kid will remain as your main language in which you think, construct sentences, count and ultimately express yourself. The last element is very important in order to create an effective communicator as well as being able to understand the meaning behind sentences/articles/texts that are presented. Having said this, it is thus vital that children are exposed to both English and Malay at a young age. On top of that, many Malaysian minorities also have their mother tongue i.e. other Asian languages. The problem that many people are foreseeing with the current system is that English is not emphasised and this makes it difficult for students pursuing higher education, where the medium and materials are mostly in English. The main reason is because English standards are low, given that only one subject is taught in English as opposed to all other subjects being taught in Malay. Past experiences have shown that some students do struggle to relearn every scientific and mathematical jargon in English for their tertiary education. Is this enough to justify the switch of teaching medium?

In all fairness, many students actually do struggle in English due to the lack of emphasis. However, many methods can be used to overcome this barrier such as encouraging students to speak in English on specific days of the week. This should be done early on in their education time, before the ‘shy-ness’ element kicks in once students realise that their command for the language is not good compared to their peers. The problem is ‘Is switching the medium of teaching justified and does it ultimately help the students?’ Well, studies and projections can be made but at the end of the day what matters is the willingness of the students to learn and the quality of education provided by schools these days. Below are a few advantages and disadvantages of having the medium changed to English:

Advantages	Disadvantages
Better preparation for higher education Less translation of books needed from English to Malay It is assumed that students will have better command of English The scientific aspect of the national language will deteriorate, without any improvements to the jargon and efforts to enrich the vocabulary in this area will not be worth it	Teachers are not trained properly and this does not provide quality education to the students Expensive to change the teaching force, revamping the syllabus and to translate texts from English to Malay Scientific and mathematical English usage does not help improve English as much Creates a nation that is fluent in the National language in all subjects

I still remember that I had to learn everything in Malay and I really enjoyed it. It was a challenge to learn all the jargon in English when I started my A levels. However, at the age of 17, you are expected to still be sharp and able to adapt to changes. The national language does actually bring everyone together and it would be a shame if Malaysians in the future can’t speak or worse still can’t understand Malay. As it is, many of the Chinese and Indian community do not have a good grasp of their mother tongue. Without getting a grip on the national language, are we all heading towards just being monolingual? How competitive can we be especially in today’s era where language skill is growing in importance?