IF you want rural students to master English, try involving parents and the community in the learning process, writes HARIATI AZIZAN, who recently checked out several programmes implemented by state education departments.

THE afternoon sun was scorching hot but it did not seem to bother the groups of Year Four and Five pupils from SK Seberang Ramai, Perlis, who tore up and down the jetty excitedly, with their notebooks and coloured pens.

The children from the four fishing villages along the Perlis River were on a mission – to explore their community, using English.

The pupils concentrated on their fact-finding task, interviewing the villagers about the economic activities in the community, especially fishing and making salted fish.

As the pupils asked questions in halting English, and the villagers “played” along, answering in (sometimes broken) English, the pupils’ initial awkwardness vanished as they slowly gained confidence.

The pupils were involved in a project implemented by the Perlis Education Department to get students in rural areas to use English in real life contexts.

Much has been said about the poor performance of rural students in English, particularly after the switch to English as the medium of instruction to teach Science and Mathematics.

One factor cited for this is the lack of opportunities to use English which has resulted in a lack of motivation to learn the language.

In an attempt to address this problem, the Perlis Education Department came up with programmes to bring the English language to life by getting students to use it in real life scenarios, making connections between the classroom and the community.

SK Seberang Ramai was chosen for various reasons – its location, the high concentration of children in the small fishing community, plus the fact that it was labelled an under-performing rural school, not only in English but across the curriculum.

English language coordinator with the Perlis education department Steve Procter said: “After many visits to the school and after listening to comments made by the headmistress and teachers, it became apparent that the school needed to connect with the parents and the community.

“The school faced problems such as low parent attendance at meetings.

“Additionally, the parents, community and children seemed to be disinterested about English.

“People were asking, 'well, what can we do?' so I stepped in and suggested that we take the school to the parents.”

With the collaboration of the Education Ministry’s Curriculum Development Centre and British education services provider CfBT Malaysia, the English Classroom in the Community project was then conceived.

Touching base

Procter, who is also attached to CfBT, shared, “It was important that the activities made a link between the children's school lives and their lives at home so that they learn English in a real context.

“The idea was to get parents and the community involved so that they could understand what children were doing.”

It did not take the team long to sell the idea to the school and the community.

First, discussions were held with the school head and teachers to thrash out ideas and the potential benefits of the project.

Procter then developed an outline of the activities and objectives, which were later presented to the school’s Parent-Teachers’ Association and representatives of the community, including the local Imam, for their views.

Once an agreement was reached, the teachers involved went to the villages to meet the locals so as to enlist their help for the project.

Finally, sometime in June this year, the four-week programme was piloted.

For four consecutive Fridays, a group of Year Four and Five pupils went to one of the villages to undertake group activities at different “stations” – the fishing jetty, the riverside, the Kampung Tengah Mosque and selected villagers’ houses.

The activities were based on topics in the school’s syllabus and focused on the children’s world – their community.

The pupils were given tasks, ranging from labelling real objects in the village to learning about various economic activities carried out by the villagers.

They also had to interview the villagers about their environment (which some did in Bahasa Malaysia) and record their comments in English.

For every task, the pupils were guided by teachers and Procter himself.

‘Excuse me, makcik, can you help me?’ A pupil practising his interviewing skills on a villager.

The pilot project culminated in an exhibition of posters, showing the work done during the kampung visits, and the follow-up work. There were even photo-documentary displays of each day, with accompanying descriptive texts written by the pupils.

All the preparatory work was done by the pupils, including the final selection of materials and design.

In the end, the quality, and quantity, of work done surprised the teachers who discovered new things about their pupils in the process.

“The students were so interested in the project despite the fact that in the past, they seldom got the chance to use English outside the classroom.

“I was surprised by how well they worked together. They were so disciplined.

“But the biggest surprise we had was when the parents themselves became interested in learning English,” said the school’s English Panel head Norleila Ali.

“It was good that the parents saw how the children carried out certain activities as this helped them to understand how children learn.

“This was important as children still need plenty of guidance from parents.

“Many were actually proud to be involved in the programme. We even discovered hidden talents. For example, we found one boy who could draw really well while others could describe things beautifully in English.”

According to Procter, the nature of the pilot project, which required the pupils to work in groups on tasks, made it possible for everyone to participate despite their different abilities.

Going out of school and being in their own kampung community with familiar faces also made it more interesting for pupils and motivated them to learn.

“They wanted to show their community what they could do and how they work,” said Procter.

Procter also credited the success of the project to the interest and enthusiasm shown by the school’s four English teachers and its headmistress.

“Persuading the headmistress that the project would bear fruit and that her teachers could organise the project effectively was a challenge. She only agreed after I assured her that I would oversee every aspect of the project.

“However, the teachers were very capable and did a much better job than I had envisaged once they were given the responsibility,” he said.

SK Seberang Ramai headmistress Jalilah Ali, who was initially uncertain about the project, said that she was happy with the outcome and hoped that the project could be expanded to include other subjects.

She added that the teachers had benefited tremendously from the project as they not only saw the value of group-based learning in a mixed ability context, but also realised the important psychological and learning effects the learning process had on children, particularly under-motivated ones and those from backgrounds where English is more a foreign language than a second language.

“My pupils are now not afraid to ask me questions. I enjoy being with them. This project has brought us closer together,” said teacher Che Dah Ahmad.

Her colleague Wan Aliza Wan Ali shared: “I only came here in January, so I am new to the school. But the project has really helped me to get to know the children better; they now respect and accept me.”

As result of the success of the programme, the children in the school as well as those in nearby villages, are asking to do it again, said Norleila.

Consequently, last month Norleila and Che Dah presented the project to other primary school teachers at the Perlis Teacher Development Conference.

The state education department has agreed to sponsor the project in other schools in Perlis next year. A CDRom outlining the whole project has also been produced to help disseminate information for this purpose.