The teaching of science in english in the Malaysian classroom

Abstract

In 2003, the Malaysian Government made a purposeful decision to change the medium of instruction for the teaching of Science and Mathematics from Bahasa Malaysia to English. This change was made as a step towards preparing the nation to face the economic globalisation (K-economy) as well as to develop the nation to be on par with the advancement of science and technology globally. This change poses a challenge to teachers who have been trained in Bahasa Malaysia and even for those who have been trained in English, as a large part oftheir professional experience involved the use of Bahasa Malaysia as a medium of instruction. What is more, teachers who were the products of the KBSM syllabus have learnt the subjects in Bahasa Malaysia and might be less familiar with the subjects in English. This unfamiliarity with the new medium of instruction might cause a gap in the fluency ofspeech during the delivery ofthe content. In spite of the directive given by the Ministry of Education that the entire teaching and learning process should be conducted in English, Science teachers may face difficulties in expressing himself/herself and thus, resort to the use of another language so as to "compensate for the deficiency" (Crystal, 1987).