As a pure Chinese school boy born in the Chinese slump residential area since young , English is use to be the unknown language in our community , the hate and repulsion from the relatives and schoolmate grow from the English educated system have created a unseen glass wall among us , because our group is the outcast among our relatives ,and beside this , we are no a church member , this is SOME sort of like " Languages and cultural Apartheid " in our Malaysia Chinese society . Sub-consciously , I never like English until I am looking for ways and means for picking up IT knowledge after I fail to get into any local colleges ,then, I realized how important English was ...

As we known , A lot of Chinese are very sensitive to the economical value of knowledge and Language , in order to join the so called " English spoken elite group and the high society " proficiency in English is a much . So the demand for English way of education is in great demand .

Backed to 70s , most of my classmate from the elite school are good in English , both written and spoken , ( This is more obvious after I join IBM ) because English is a compulsory subject at LCE and MCE level , but , after the ministry change the education policy during the 70s , English no more an important subject ,and it became an option paper ! this is the first downfall of our Malaysia education system.

In order to raise the standard of English in Malaysia , a very straight forward way ~! make it a compulsory subject for all government examination , remove all the religious interference to the education , employ all the good English tutor like what we have those day . I am assure that Malaysia will the country with the highest English standard in the whole of Asia again ! like what those glory days we use to have back to 60s and 70s !

Thanks for your contribution. Let's wait to see what other ResearchGate members say; I am sure many are from a similar condition to us as Malaysians whose first language is not English.

I personally think that it requires effort from all quarters to have an effective solution, to improve students' proficiency in English. Our RG friends may be able to see things from a different angle. Thanks again.

In Nigeria, English is the official language even though during the military rule a ruler made French the second official language. I really don't think that idea caught up with majority of Nigerians. Families make various efforts to ensure their children learn and speak English correctly. It is one of the two compulsory subjects that must be passed at credit level(no matter what one wishes to study) before admission into a higher institution in Nigeria. In recent times there have been complaints that spoken and written English have been negatively affected by social media as students carry over styles of writing from social media to spoken and written English.

Thanks Felix. I have also observed that my students assignments and Biology experiment reports contain a smattering of social media (email and sms) language.

Dear Miranda

Although I consider my casual and workplace writing to be acceptable, writing a scientific paper is challenging. Striking a balance between thinking creatively about the subject and putting it in writing present two set of challenges. Sometimes, I find my thought process wanders off and the writing suffers. So far, I have developed and used a template so that I could spend more time thinking about the subject matter. One also needs to focus on the audience and their expectations.

Hi Tze Leong, your template sounds very interesting! One of my colleagues in this college, Mr Ramesh, who teaches English mentioned to me that he uses a template for our students to do creative writing.

May I ask for the softcopy of your template? Please use my email address below. Thanks.

[email protected]

Hi Miranda, I would love to share with you but unfortunately, this template is not for general use. It is used only for my intended publications. Anyone can develop their own template based on a systematic analysis of best practices.

Thanks, Tze Leong. I have started using a template for my writing. It has the advantages that you mention:)

@Yew Chin and others, recently the Education Blueprint (PPPM) was launched. Students are required to pass English at SPM level. Hopefully when this is implemented, it will be a stimulus for Malaysians students to be proficient at English.

I hope that when students see the importance of English as an international language and vehicle for scientific communication, they will put more effort to improve their proficiency in English.

Hi Miranda! Some say application is quite different compared to passing rate or passing mark. Hopefully, the ability of the new graduates speaking and thinking in english is appreciated by future employers.

Dear Miranda , We have no worry about passing both Bahasa and English 1119 subject . For the past 10 years , about 40 % of my F5 KIDS can score in 1119 ,and 55 % can score in Bahasa . Now , I am focusing on my new plan - " Manhattan Project" - To produce the first ever Harvard kids from my school . Right from senior middle one , they have to do extra subjects on social studies , US literature studies ,English public speaking , new US SAT subject and add on leadership training program . Most likely will kick off from year 2014 onward .

Cheers !

Good! I was teaching many years at an SMK in Serdang. It was a chinese majority school, but all 3 races were present. That was before I joined Matrik.

At that time, my students used to say, their grades are 1,2,3. 1 for BM, 2 for English and 3 for BC. Because BC at SPM level is so very difficult!

Dear Miss Yeoh ,

I know , the standard for SPM Mandarin was set sky high ,and they barred the marks at only certain % of student can score As out of the total population ,and the marking was totally in doubt ! how can my school kids can score Mandarin at UEC Exam without much hard work , but merely get a credit in Mandarin at SPM level ? all the academician know what is the mandarin standard at UEC level, and we can just make use of UEC result to get into Peking University linguistic faculty with no problems , but why all these kids fail to get a good grade in Mandarin at SPM level ?

But some time , I can tell you directly , the system use to do all these are sit on our IBM system 4381 during my time ,and the application are developed by IBM Malaysia . I join IBM as a trainee back to 1983 . I know what happen very well !

Have a look at REF-N-WRITE scientific paper writing tool. This tool allows you to import text from previous papers relevant to the subject area in MS word. While you are writing your paper, you can just search for similar statements from other authors and inherit their vocabulary and language to improve your paper. It also comes with a library of academic phrases that you can readily use to polish your paper. Here is the link for the site.

http://www.ref-n-write.com

They have some nice tutorials here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf7qyyKtbyQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hlXzqO3r4