KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 — The controversial Dual Language Programme (DLP) has improved school students’ English proficiency after it was launched in January 2016.
Sunday Star reported that based on Education Ministry statistics, between 18 per cent and 95 per cent of students in over 1,200 primary and secondary schools which implemented the DLP, a programme that allows the teaching of science and mathematics in English, had improved their grades in English.
“Their vocabulary, grammar and speech have gotten better. I see it in their grades,” SMJK Kwang Hua principal Law Choon Lee was quoted saying.
Three-quarters of these DLP students were reportedly at, or above, the target level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which is a guide developed by the Council of Europe to test foreign language proficiency, according to the Education Ministry’s 2016 annual report.
The DLP was offered to Year One, Year Two, Year Four and Year Five students, as well as Form One and Two students. There are now reportedly almost 40,000 students throughout the country taking the programme.
Sunday Star reported that as of June, 629 secondary and 585 primary schools, or about 10 per cent of schools in Malaysia, offered DLP classes.
In another article, the English daily reported that the DLP has not only improved grades in English, but also in science and mathematics for vernacular school students.
“It’s much easier to do research on the internet with English,” 13-year-old SMJK Kwang Hua student Goh Aik Hwi was quoted saying.
“There’s no need to translate from Mandarin to English when using the search engines.”
A Tamil school science teacher, N. Batmadevi from SJKT Simpang Lima, reportedly said both teachers and pupils were enjoying science and mathematics classes more now under the DLP.
“It was a struggle to teach in Tamil when the PPSMI was discontinued in 2012,” she was quoted saying, referring to the Policy of Teaching Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI).
