Feeling insulted over English issue
Well! As LSM would say, lets dissect this frog!
I believe you must be one of the narrowest minded Bruneian residents I have ever heard from.
Inflammatory. Note to those who wish to be taken seriously: Never start a letter with an insult.
How can you say that most of the O /Level English candidates fail every year? How can you even think that the Cambridge exam is "wrong", and the students "have no hope of passing it"?
First of all, because it's true. The Cambridge exam is not wrong, Linguist said, "the students were doing the wrong examination". Therefore you have taken his/her words out of context. The exam, my dear informed reader, is as I have said, targetted for only 20% of the students who are deemed to be "high ability students". Technically, the statistics are leaning over towards Linguist's side. However, there are exceptions, how little they may be.
That is not true at all. The students don't need this kind of disheartening and insulting statements.
Yes it is true. But yes you are right, the students do not need this kind of negative thinking. But it is okay, it is nationally known that they don't read newspapers that much anyway. The ones that do are already quite good in English so they are part of the "high ability" clique who will pass.
Please have some faith in the younger generation, or at least pretend to, because if you do not put any faith or trust in this country's assets, then the students may just as well not go to school.
Why don't you have faith in them? Stop sulking and giving pointless ultimatums and prove that Linguist is wrong!
As a student myself, I am horribly insulted that Brunei still has backward-thinking people.
Well! You should read Hear Your Say! If backward-thinking people insult you, wohooo, it should be interesting to see what you think of this site. It's borderline blasphemous.
Besides, where's the statistics to prove your absurd claim?
Oh yes. Try the UBD Library. I can tell you now though. Only 16% pass the exam every year.
There is nothing wrong with the O level English exams. It is already in fact, at a ridiculously low standard. What is all this "academic, native speakers of English"? English is English. There is no academic class or normal class or Brunei class English. Furthermore, English is everywhere.
No, nothing wrong with it except for the format.
Well, if you must know, "academicians" are people who work at a University, do research and publish a whole load of books and a million journals.
"Native speakers" of English are loosely defined as those whose first language is well, English. Note that I am not using the term "mother tongue" to describe the first language. The first language is in simple terms, the language the speaker deemed most comfortable using and often this is one's mother tongue. However, in a lot of cases, it is not.
English is not just English. There are many varieties of English and this is an accepted theory made by Michael Long, a current world reknowned expert on second language acquisition and applied linguistics. There are for example, English for Business, English for Lunchtime, English for Chemistry, English for Blogs, English for Academic Journals and so much more. The English Language come in a variety of contexts. Universities in Australia, and UBD itself is utilising this theory in making second language acquisition for students more meaningful. So you are, wrong. English is not just English. To illustrate: please compare your own writing, to an article written in an academic journal. Different yes?
Yes, English is everywhere. But that does not mean, that it does not come in various forms.
It is offensive to say what's used outside the classroom is limited. Bruneians speak English. If we didn't then why in the world is English compulsory in the school curriculum.
Since when is it offensive to say the truth? It is true! A major portion of the population speak only Malay and switch to English only when they absolutely have to. Saying Bruneians speak a limited amount of English, does not mean they don't speak the language at all. They do, but very little. There are more dominantly Malay speaking people than English speaking people.
English is made compulsary because it is illogical not have an English Language subject when a majority of other subjects are conducted in English. It is crazy not to have it as a compulsary subject because without it you never be able to access knowledge in higher education. And a whole load of other reasons (which I am sure will take up 95% of this blog post if I don't stop here).
We need the English Language to take us to places, we need it to succeed in the world today.
Wow. Go figure, you must be very smart. (Yes, inflammatory, hehe. I apologise.)
And for us to take a step forward in succeeding is to make sure that our generation is up to a certain standard that has been set.
Why lower this standard?
No one said anything about lowering the standard of English. Merely suggested another examination that will not be biased to those aspiring to be academicians. For example, the IGCSE O' Level English Language, which, is also from Cambridge? ISB and JIS are both utilising those examinations. I don't see any complaints about them having poor English. Are you saying Cambridge is a producer of low standard exams and that people from ISB and JIS have bad English speaking skills?
Why should we take this opportunity from the students who want to improve themselves? We don't sit for O/ Level English exams just to pursue an academic career.
Of course not. No one said you were pursuing an academic career.
Last but not least, it is especially foolish of you to state that few Bruneians are suited to an academic future.
Well, you can count how many lecturers in UBD are Bruneians. Then divide it by the total number of people in Brunei's workforce (who are Bruneians). Multiply by a hundred. Insert the answer in the blank in this sentence.
Bruneians in an academic career reach a total percentage of _____%.
My sister (yes, a Malay Bruneian) is actually furthering her studies overseas in the hopes of working as an academia in the near future!
GASP! A MALAY BRUNEIAN??? NO!!! Oh my goodness! We must alert the Ministry of Internal Affairs at once! A MALAY BRUNEIAN as an academia! What absurd thoughts! (Yes, inflammatory again. Sorry.)
People like you should be forced to go to school all over again. Education is everything. You are implying that most citizens will work as labourers and be unskilled in reading or writing, much less doing research and contributing to the development of the country!
Well, no, no one implied that most citizens will work as labourers.. But you did. Most citizens will work as teachers, lawyers, nurses, waitresses, restaurant managers, receptionists, laboratory assistants, accountants, spa owners, tv anchorpeople, business consultants, permanent secretaries, car salespeople, businesspeople, journalists, and anything not to do with being a lecturer, researching and publishing the research.
The MoE should not even consider your proposal. I don't think I even need to say why. It is so obvious, its ridiculous. And students, don't give up. Nothing is difficult as it seems. Ignore discouraging people like Linguist.
Clueless.
iammaurina 
I think you should reply to that person. I think he/she is the one who should go back to school. Many of our population out there could not even understand and WANTS to talk English (call me a snob i dont care). So where to we stand with this? If we cont. to be like this, its is stil a very…very..very..very (may I EMPHASIZE the word VERY!) long way to go for our country to be as very developed nation. Sigh~ Talk abt narrow minded.
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I recently made a visit to the archives section of my school library, and it was very clear to me that the quality of language of the English section of our annual school magazine was much better 30 years ago than it is now. Clearly, this cannot be a step in the right direction.
While I am fully aware of the high failure rate in O-Level English, I do not agree with the view that the examination should be ‘replaced’, as stated by Linguist in his letter. In recent years, Brunei has published its own English textbooks for the primary and secondary levels to replace textbooks which were published in other countries. It is obvious that quite a lot of dumbing-down has occured. I actually see this change in a positive light because the textbooks are now more accessible than ever to that much-touted 80% segment of the population. However, let us not forget about the other 20% of the population – a sizeable percentage – who will not benefit from this.
Perhaps the best solution would be to have a two-tiered system, and have the O-Level English Exams continue to run alongside a newer exam suited for the masses, for whom dumbed-down textbooks are their only source of English literature. Students on the track to a more academic career should not be deprived the option of taking the English exam that they will find more gratifying.
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The textbooks that you are talking about, is an embarassing development for Brunei’s Education. It has been dumbed down (and in this case this phrase is appropriate!) to the level of English as a Foreign Language. That cannot be a good thing can it?
I guess it can be seen in a positive light. But, why dumb down? Why not optimise the textbook so it can actually test the skills of each student fairly so that the ones who are… rajin… can get high marks.. and the ones who are lazy, will get low marks.
Perhaps the two tiered system will be beneficial. Perhaps.
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Dee. SNOB! Hehehe. But yes, actual English usage is limited.
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So let’s see here…you are for the idea of ‘scaling’ the english o level exams to suit the general population as well as having the regular said exam. But it is impossible to deny that some people would just take this as an encouragement to not work as hard, so my question is: is it really feasible to introduce such a design? (Much like Malaysia’s scaling system of the SPM) Take studying overseas for example, one needs to take English tests such as TOEFL and IELTS unless one has taken GCE O Levels. It is obviously more than the hassle of tests when going overseas but it is just one of the many consequences of actually having a two-tiered system (remember the doomed N-levels?). True, not many people appreciate the language in Brunei but we can’t continue to ‘dumb-down’ the subject (the Bruneian set textbooks are definitely appalling). Excuses shouldn’t be made for them. Life shouldn’t be made easier for them. This is not the sort of attitude that will help national progress. If anything, we should all just buck up.
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Nomad, plus, a two tiered system will encourage this two layered society. The higher echelons and the lower echelons. Hey, that is one of the reasons why Britain dropped the GCE O’Levels.
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Not that we need anymore of this social stratification, subtle or obvious *heh heh heh*
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and people think the world circulates around Brunei… and Bruneians. No offence, but people, please have an effort to wake up and smell the coffee… when it comes to international standard competitions (when i say this, i mean the competition of survival), changing the environment to SUIT your inability to cope up with something that is pre-required in this modern world is ABSURD! talk about multi-million dollars contract, and that it requires your proficiency in that language(some people maybe arguing that not every single contract concerns English, but dude, think again… are you REALLY sure…?)…….
I just cant stand people crying foul over thing kind of things in Brunei. Instead of finding time to complain over it, why not putting an effort to improve in it.
In the end of the day, the problem still lies with you. Ask yourself, how good are you to compete in the international arena? How well will you then be, when the examination is CHANGED to suit your need?
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[B], I don’t think you understand what is going on here. This is not a complaint as you might have thought. This is a move towards changing the current system of testing which does not work. As I have said earlier, the reason why we are using the GCE O’Levels is because it is the system that the British was using eversince 1951. But while they have changed to the GCSE and other countries have changed to the IGCSE in 1986 because it was unsuccessful, we remain to use it until the present day of 2006 because of the supposed “prestige” we attach to it. This, is an effort to improve what is left of the very unfortunate education system in Brunei. Hopefully, one day, my small voice, and other contributors in the blogosphere, will be heard by people and will pressure change which is 10 years overdue. A long shot but hey, a chance worthwhile taking considering how many will be affected?
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Ask yourself, the reason why Brunei still sticks to GCE ‘O’ Levels… is it really because of the ‘suppose “prestige”‘ as you may put it, or because, its of its standard? A standard that is trusted by everyone. Singapore for instance, is still sticking to the system GCE ‘O’ Level.. so why didnt they took the ‘move’? Because it works.
And you mentioned that the current system of testing does not work. Can I imply from that line that GCE ‘O’ Level is a waste of time and effort for the students in Brunei? While you may think Bruneians need a whole new system of examination, have you ever considered that the new system might not even work? Take for example, PCE ( the previous primary 6 examination ) which is now known as PSR. Can you imagine what kind of stupidity can actually appear in the paper? And that is the result of all the moaning from the people saying that the paper does not suit ‘Bruneians’. And believe me when I say this, the MoE of Brunei is still incapable of handling such task of setting up papers. And then you may suggest to ask som foreigners to set the papers… So can you take the insult to ask them to set a paper to suit your need? You might as well as them to ask the students what kind of questions they would like to see in the paper. That way, the paper will suit their need.
You cant always get what you like. But some of the best options are there for you. While you wish to have some stuff, you should keep on reconsidering, whether what you have now is a bad option. And whether the step that you are gonna take is the wrong one…
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First of all, do you debate that the IGCSE O’Level is a non-standard form of examination? I did not imply at all that the GCE O’Level is non standard, I only asserted that it is a system whose methods of testing does not really show the full level of a student’s language competence. I also, did not say anything about other subjects and I cannot, because my expertise is in English language training and testing only.
The first point you brought forward is with regards to Singapore. Singapore, tailors their paper by themselves therefore your comparison is irrelevant. They have first hand intervention in what goes on with the paper. We don’t.
The next point you brought up is, considering how the new system will not work. There are case studies of hundreds of countries changing to the IGCSE system. In fact, JIS and ISB have been utilising this exam for a long time. Those schools do not have low-standard results or students.
However, I do agree with you with the point about PSR examinations, that is what you can appropriately call “dumbing down”. However, I hope the paper will always evolve to better itself. But I am not an expert in primary education, so I wouldn’t know.
Remember [B], policies on education, are made by politicians. Not people with background in education.
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I *would* debate whether the ‘O’-level, and its anachronistic
“summary” and “directed composition”, is truly the standard in
language education in the English-speaking world.
Is it really a “standard that is trusted by everyone”? It seems to be
the standard that is trusted by Singapore, and maybe Mauritius. That’s
a pretty tiny corner of the English world, wouldn’t you say?
A problem with the test is that our teachers teach to it nearly
exclusively after PMB. If the skill isn’t demanded by the ‘O’-level
exam (critical analysis? argument and debate? inspiration? joy through
learning?), it probably won’t be happening to any sustained extent in
the classroom in those years. How could it? The teacher is most
interested in increasing test scores, so precious class time is
focused on the set of skills the ‘O’-level wants: comprehending
readings on random topics, picking out arbitrary points from a
passage, and structuring an essay.
These skills have value, but are they really all the English we want
students to learn? So long as a test dictates the curriculum, perhaps
a test can be structured that requires a wider range of skills of our
students – skills most of our students will actually use in their
lives.
And that will produce a payoff that will benefit everyone: more
articulate HYS postings. 🙂
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Well said, Kij.
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