The education ministry’s launch of the English Language Education Reform in Malaysia: The Roadmap 2015-2025 signifies the kingdom’s determination to bring about vast development in our students’ proficiency inside the English language.
Although the roadmap has been inside the implementation process for some years, there have been a few serious misunderstandings and much inaccurate information about both it and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
The English Language Standards and Quality Council (ELSQC) has written this newsletter a try and gift a clear and concise photo of the reforms as mentioned within the roadmap.
The roadmap turned into produced to address essential trouble confronted by using our younger human beings these days. They should deal with a rapidly converging and increasingly globalized international and job marketplace which calls for them to talk efficaciously in English at a much better degree than before. They want to be aware of the wider global wherein they’re growing up and want sufficient support to enable them to achieve the necessary ranges of English proficiency.
There is presently a extensive range of English language (EL) talent among our young people. Some have high-quality English, while others have little ability to apply English efficaciously or at all. Among are the many young individuals who can characteristic at a preferred normal level of English. For example, they can communicate basic records at a shopping center, make simple inquiries on the smartphone, or send brief messages via social media. The trouble for a maximum of these younger humans is that their stage of talent will now not be enough after they go away from faculty to search for jobs or to enter tertiary education.
The wishes of our younger humans were acknowledged in 2013 when the Malaysian Education Blueprint (MEB) called for urgent motion to allow our students to expand their knowledge and abilities to grow to be global residents of the twenty-first century. The schooling ministry set up the ELSQC to provide a roadmap to cope with the problem. The council, in the end, advanced an integrated, complete, and timetabled plan for EL education reform, commonly recognized in reality as “the roadmap.”
The roadmap is essentially a 10-12 months reform plan to enhance EL schooling in Malaysia and permit our younger human beings to become powerful and gifted EL users. It considers EL training as a continuous studying journey from preschool to college.
Considering the prevailing learning environment and the predicted communicative wishes of our kids, it describes in element what needs to be executed to improve teaching and to study at preschool, primary, secondary, submit-secondary and college degrees, and trainer schooling.
The most profound change added about through the roadmap is the adoption of the CEFR, which represents the global popularity for describing and measuring language talent at every level of schooling. The adoption of the CEFR leads to modifications in curriculum, coaching, and gaining knowledge of and evaluation.
All of those, which include teacher training and schooling, are being aligned to the CEFR. Teachers want to know approximately the CEFR. As part of their continuous expert development, they may be given CEFR-related education to familiarise them with the CEFR and appropriate approaches to teaching and gaining knowledge of and learning materials. Particular attention is being paid to the upskilling of instructors, each in phrases of their English talent and their expertise in teaching.
The reform plan also requires more scholar engagement with English outdoor the schoolroom as a crucial part of the academic experience supplied through the school (e.G., The incredibly immersive program). This is carried out with strategies consisting of a boom in EL activities and programs and accelerated mastering time. With the aid of getting members of the network concerned informally as stakeholders.
The roadmap sets the target skillability stages for every stage of education. These targets have been installed with the assist of CEFR experts from Cambridge English, UK, who carried out a baseline examination in 2013 to measure the CEFR levels attained with kids in our schools at that time. The effects enabled us to set practical targets for 2025.
A observe-up has a look at changes conducted in 2017, and a few minor modifications were made. These objectives may be revised once more upon completion of the reform plan in 2025, depending on how much we have performed through that point.
In addition to the aspirational CEFR objectives for all levels of schooling, the roadmap includes a timetabled action plan. The plan covers 3 levels consistent with the MEB and is presently being implemented and monitored.
Since producing the roadmap in 2015, the ELSQC has been monitoring the plan’s implementation, contemplating ministry movements, participating in the various training classes, attending assessment meetings, and taking part in discussions with CEFR specialists, similarly to presenting recommendations, remarks and hints as required.
