Analyzing Malaysian English Classrooms: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening Teaching Strategies

Abstract

This paper firstly examines the historical context of Malaysian curriculum in regards to the teaching of English, and moves on to dissect the present context of Malaysian English classrooms. This paper is primarily focused on analyzing English classrooms in three Malaysian schools: National School, National Chinese Type School, and National Tamil Type School. The analysis is planned out by looking at how teachers teach reading, writing, speaking and listening English in each classroom and proposes a revision of said teaching strategies. The outcome of this paper proposes that there should be a much deeper approach to teaching English by creating more meaningful English lessons rather than the surface level approach of teaching by rote memorization and repetition. Finally, in order for Malaysia to become a contender in the global workforce, global academia, and global economy, Malaysia students need to be sufficiently proficient in the English language first through meaningful English lessons in schools.