Emergence of Asian Educational Hubs

Until 1997, several Asian countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea were riding high, attracting high foreign interest investment and maintaining good currency exchange rates. Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea were nicknamed the young economic tigers. Suddenly, almost without warning, at least to the man on the street, interest rates started tumbling and naturally the currency exchange rate followed suit.

What was affordable was now exorbitant and this was particularly true of western education. Parents found themselves unable to support their children's education abroad and many had to return home unable to complete their tertiary education.

Many who had aspired to go overseas for further studies thought they would never see the chance of ever owning foreign degrees. Fortunately for them, they were wrong. Private entrepreneurs in the education industry turned the financial disaster into a blessing by introducing twinning programs which allowed students to still own foreign degrees but at a lower cost through the 2+1 program or its equivalent option. The 2+1 means two years of study in Malaysia with the final year at the related western university.

At the same time, these private institutions gained experience through their exposure with their western counterparts and were soon able to conduct their own bachelor’s degrees. Some have even been able to offer master's degrees.

This was followed by changes in the Education Act which allowed for liberalization in the education field to allow for the establishment of more private universities which were allowed to recruit foreign students since English was allowed to be the medium of instruction.

The flourishing of Asian educational hubs was aided not just by the lower cost but as an outcome of 9/11 which made obtaining a student’s visa from the US or UK almost impossible. This accounted for not just the large number of students from the Middle East but those from China as well.

What does this reversal in trend imply for foreign universities that previously had strong foreign enrollment? Every adversity in business can be turned into an opportunity. Several Australian universities have stepped up on their research strengths, reinforced partnerships with local Malaysian institutes. In the recent past, some have even set up branch campuses.

English Foreign Teaching and Learning

How old are you? How much do you make a month? Are you married? What's your weight? Ask these to a westerner and you're likely to lose a potential friendship but pose the same questions to Asians and very likely, you'll receive a good natured response without any fear of the question being misconstrued. That is one key difference one encounters in multicultural linguistics. Today, we'll raise this issue in the light of EFL teaching and learning in an Asian context.

Traditionally, students from Asia would go to English speaking countries to pursue tertiary education. But 9/11 , the Asian economic crisis and globalization seems to have reversed the trend -or almost. These days, educational hubs in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and India attract their own people as well as foreigners with degrees from Western universities through twinning programs at half the cost. Not only do these institutions offer western courses, they also have their own courses which are just as competitive and taught by well qualified lecturers.

The presence of foreign students is a totally new form of dynamics for both teachers and students in the host country. Apart from knowledge content, how will the EFL teacher convey his lesson effectively? How will the learner respond to the teaching? As we know, language is more than just knowledge of grammatical rules and how to say this and that. A lot of culture goes into the nuances of a language as we saw in the taboo questions above. Does an EFL teacher in Malaysia teach western culture or Malaysian culture in the classroom context? How does one compromise with the way certain things are expressed? Malaysians like to say "let's tackle it this way." Some of my western friends say that's not the way they would express how to deal with a problem. Then of course, there is the issue of the different Englishes- Malaysian English, Singlish, Qinglish and what have you. You here an Asian speaking with an Australian accent and you know he's had his education from Down Under. What happens when you hear a non Malaysian speaking English with the 'lah,' at the end of each sentence. What would your reaction be? Malaysians know when to speak proper English to a westerner and to revert to our own lingo among ourselves. Would our foreign students know how to do the same? Any comments?

Venting my frustration!!!

My exam paper was finally done, so I thought. What a relief! No sooner had I submitted it, I was told we had to design the paper based on the new syllabus. How frustrating can it be! Why couldn't they have told us earlier? Such a waste of man hours! Urggh!!!!!

College should be fun!!!

It is so sad to find students coming to college, unprepared for the skills of college reading. Life must be one uphill trudge. Think of the reading assignments! And having to do it, word for word, looking up the meanings of words that should have been part of their vocabulary in school. I feel sorry for them. Many drop out unable to cope with such curriculum demands.

How do we conduct remedial work in the midst of lesson preparation, grading and administrative work? No wonder teachers are washed out by the end of the day. No wonder they are compared to the flickering candle that blows out by the slightest waft of the breeze.

For weak students, the college would have to prepare remedial courses to teach the skills of reading and writing and assign supervisors to monitor assignment in stages until the students can handle complete assignments on their own. Students shouldn’t have to go through such misery if their teachers had taught them the skills of reading while in school. College out to be fun!!!

Newspapers for speaking, reading and writing

It is well documented that newspapers are an effective means of teaching a language. In many ESL environments, students read newspapers in their own language. How then can teachers turn this situation tinto an asset in order to teach English?

It will be to the teacher’s advantage if they know the students’ language. But this is not often the case. However, not all is lost. The teacher can either get the best student in class to translate the selected news item for the lesson. At the same time, the teacher can read the same piece of news in the English newspaper. Of course, this has to be done in the preparatory stage.

Then the instructor can write up her lesson plan and objectives. In my personal opinion, it is more effective to discuss topics that are nearer home to the students and of greater interest to them. Since lack of vocabulary is the main stumbling block for oral discussion and writing, the teacher would need to work out the vocabulary. Much of class time will also be spent on how to use the new words in different situations.


The activity involves reading, speaking and writing as well as word building. As a spin off, it can be turned into a drama, a mock trial, a debate etc depending on the story.
gbc708@yahoo.com

Of American Idol and ESL Music

Music is a universal language. Long before they could speak English fluently, many Chinese students I knew were belting out current hits like professionals! No doubt, their foreign teachers provided some impetus. However, these days with American Idol, music videos and karaoke, students do not need adult motivation in this direction.

Since students learn more effectively if they are interested, why not take advantage of this to stage song competitions as part of language learning? Certain songs can be turned into dramas. I remember teaching my students Nat King Cole’s “Bicycle Built for Two" – an oldie but goodie. I then divided the class into different groups to present stories out of that song. I was pleasantly impressed by their performances! Trust young people’s imagination with romances! The most important thing is that the students are learning the language the fun way! A song can also be turned into a comprehension piece or a ‘fill in the blank’ passage.

American Idol as well as other reality shows can be used as the basis for oral English discussions concerning young people, trends, culture and new technology. Or it can be turned into a debate on the judging criteria, talent versus looks, comparison of American and Asian singers, comparison of the various contestants, an appraisal of the three judges and many more issues!

How to get students interested in reading

Weak students often drown under the weight of college reading assignments due to lack of vocabulary, poor grammar and poor reading skills. Lack of interest in the subject matter too plays a part. The teacher is unable to give such students easier reading tasks because they have a syllabus to complete.

To overcome such problems, I often get my students to read the night before and to find out the meanings of difficult words. During class, I would have a quiz on synonyms or antonyms related to the assignment at hand. Very often, I would go over the meaning of words with them, illustrating their meaning by making sentences or by giving examples. Sometimes, I use cloze passages to test their new vocabulary.

I remember one particular reading assignment that was related to baby snatchers. It coincided with front page news about a senior government official who had just married a woman, more than twenty years his junior. We turned that topic into a debate and it was one of those rare moments for a teacher to see disinterested students suddenly becoming enthusiastic about their reading. Their ability to relate the reading text to what was happening around them was the reason for the change of mindset.