Native English speakers help teachers and students

Giving a fresh perspective: Eljeddi assisting Year One pupils during their English lesson at SK Jenderam.

DENGKIL: The 360 native English speakers seconded to schools nationwide have helped to improve English proficiency among teachers and students.

SK Jenderam teacher Fauziatul Durra Ahmad Fauzi said the mentoring sessions with Kathleen Eljeddi had enhanced her confidence and helped create a more engaging environment.

“She provides a helping hand when needed,” she said, adding that Eljeddi was very supportive of her ideas to create a livelier classroom.

“It’s no more chalk and talk,” Fauziatul Durra, 31, said, adding that action songs and multimedia usage were utilised.

Mohamed Suhairie Jamaluddin, 32, said he was apprehensive to speak English initially but now his confidence had grown.

Both the Malaysian teachers noticed a difference in their pupils’ performance as well.

The 40-year-old Eljeddi, an American, said the pupils had also shown more confidence to speak in English.

She said the programme began in SK Jenderam last year and “we try to keep the same teachers so that we can monitor their progress too”.

Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said the 360 mentors, who came from countries such as the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, were here to coach local teachers nationwide.

Speaking to reporters after visiting the mentors in SK Jenderam here, he said each mentor was assigned to five schools. They would visit one school every weekday.

“They will be covering 1,800 primary schools with 6,500 local English language teachers (to be mentored),” Idris said.

These mentors, he said, would also be sent to urban and rural schools including Chinese and Tamil schools.

Idris said the programme focused on Year One, Year Two and Year Three English Language teachers.

He said the ministry was also carrying out the Professional Up-skilling of English Language Teachers (ProELT) to enhance the proficiency of 22,500 English language teachers by year end.

The ministry, he said, was also running the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) programme where 100 participants would spend 10 months with students in eight states throughout Malaysia.

Besides this, he said the Government would hire retired English teachers, adding that there were now 76 of them working on a contractual basis.