Reader response (Draft 2)

“Malaysia drops English language teaching”, reported by Max de Lotbiniere, regarded to the fact that Malaysia has phased out the use of English for teaching Science and Mathematics. English was once the medium in most schools in Malaysia; being poor in English will affect graduates competing for their work against people from other countries, such as neighboring Singapore. However, Malaysian government decided to abandon the use of English to teach math and science after eleven years of practice in 2013 and English will be taught in a separate class. One of the reasons mentioned was the dominance of the English language will undermine student’s grasp of their first language. Others, especially the parents in urban areas, felt disappointed at the government’s decision. In my opinion, the Malaysian government should review and reconsider their decision to have a better solution for both parties.

Today, in Malaysia, some families are spending large amount of effort in sending their children abroad or paying for expensive private schools to learn English, thus there is no doubt that having a strong foundation in the English language, which in turn offer them a competitive edge over their peers in this globalized world. Singapore as a very small neighboring country insists on using English as their first language. Therefore, the gaps between the rates of economical and the medical development are remarkable. However, as stated in the article, “the education authorities outside the major cities failed to find enough staff to teach in English. (Lotbiniere,2009) ” This will eventually cause gaps between urban and rural areas in Malaysia, thus people who were not getting benefits from this English teaching program will exert pressure against the government. One option could be offering a good paid teaching job for the teachers who are willing to teach in the rural areas, as a result, this will increase the probability of teachers who are willing to teach in the rural areas dramatically. However, there are more people benefit from this English teaching program, as this group of people have strong believes in that English is a critical factor for the future. This can be proved from the article, “84% out of 40,000 people agree with the post in Dr Mahathir ‘s blog, that they felt disappointment and even anger towards the government’s decision.(lotbiniere,2009)”






In conclusion, English is necessary as it plays a crucial role in allowing partners from different racial groups to communicate with one another effectively. Therefore, the abandonment of this English teaching program will eventually cause Malaysia lose out economically.