The Kuala Lumpur Tower stands
prominently above the school as I walk up the concrete road towards Bukit Nanas
Convent 2, an all girls school ranging from ages in kindergarten to primary 6. I see a group of
smiling faces bunched together, looking out the window as I approach the front
gate, all trying to get the first view as to who is teaching the special
English program for the day. I turn to the guard at the gate, give him my ID,
tell him my business, and he instructs me to go in.
As a former private catholic school, the architecture seems to not fit in with the rest of the city. As I enter into
the hallway, I notice there are no doors into the school, just open arches and long hallways. I realize that the outside temperature is going to be the same as the
inside temperature, hot and humid, and roll up my sleeves as I walk through the
first hallway. A teacher greets me and directs me towards the multipurpose
room. It seems awfully quiet for a school full of children and the echoing high ceilings and empty hallways leave me wondering if there are any students
at the school today.
I near the end of the hallway
and see a beam of natural light shining into the multipurpose room ahead of me.
It is less of a room and more of a large open space with tile floors, no walls
on either side, completely open to the courtyards on both ends. A group of
roughly one hundred students is sitting quietly waiting for the English program
to begin. My shoes tap on the floor as I pace through the hallway. The students heads whip up when they hear me approaching and they all change from a silent group into small, whispering chatter boxes. I can see that
these are some of the most excited students I will ever teach.
“Students, quiet down
please,” one of the teachers says into the microphone, hoping the noisy students will hear. A moment or two of waiting later, the students are dead silent. “Today we are
privileged to have Mr. Ben Bradshaw here as our English teacher. Mr. Ben, I turn
the time over to you.”
“Terima kasih cikgu,” I say. The students laugh as they realize that I can also speak the local
language. I can sense their excitement building even more. After a small introduction of myself and where I am from, I begin: “Today I am going to
help you improve your English. I have heard that many of you, although only 10
or 11 years old, are very good in English. So today we are going to focus on
your spoken skills! I know that each and every one of you has learned English
since you started school and some of you may speak English with your
families. I am confident that your reading and writing skills are fairly good! So today I want to focus on your speaking and listening skills. Are
you ready?”
“YES!” the students scream in
unison. Their response was so quick and loud that I see it as a sign that they
must have understood everything I just said. Their listening skills are already
up to par. Now time to test their speaking skills.
“Great. So rule number one
with me is only speaking English! If I hear you speaking Malay, Chinese, Tamil,
or anything else, you are in big trouble! Rule number two is that you cannot be
shy and cannot make fun of other students! Now everyone, pretend you have a hat
on. This is your ‘shy hat’ as I call it. I want all of you to follow me.” I
lift my hand to the top of my head and pretend to be taking off a hat.
“Now,
take off your shy hat, and throw it out the window!” I yell as I make a
throwing motion towards the window. The students laugh as they follow my lead
and throw their ‘hats’ out the window. I glance around the room and try to read
the students faces, hoping that they are ready for the activities I have
planned.
“Let’s start out with a game!
Games are fun right? Each of you is sitting in a row. That row is your team. Now
stand up. The game is called ‘two truths and one lie.’ Everyone in the team
will take turns telling three things about themselves. Two of them will be true
and one will be a lie. I will start: My name is Ben. I have blue eyes. I love
eating onions. Now guess which one is a
lie!”
“The onions!” one of the
students yells out from the back.
“That’s correct. OK, now your
turn! Everyone take turns telling two truths and one lie with your group.”
The students seem confused a
little at first but at least a couple of students per row understand what I
have said. Those that understand motion to the other students to stand up and begin to explain the
instructions again.
“Remember, everything is in
English!” I reiterate over the microphone.
The multipurpose hall gets
loud with young voices creating truths and lies about themselves. For a moment
I question the effectiveness of having students create a lie, but I remember
that it is simply to spur creativity and to help them think outside of what they
normally would say about themselves. I walk over to one of the groups and hear
one of the students telling their three points.
“My name is Amira. I like to read. and.... I like eating fish.” She says quietly but confidently. From her
pronunciation, I can tell her parents try to speak English with her at home.
The other students look at each other in confusion. The girl right next to Amira
laughs as Amira says she likes to eat fish.
“You don’t like to eat fish!”
one of the other students in the group yells out. Amira admits that was her one
lie and tells the next student to go.
I walk over to the next group
and see a bunch of students not talking to each other. They must have not
understood what I instructed them to do. I try explaining again but they do not
understand. I give them my three examples and they still sit there puzzled. I
try asking a particular student to give us three things about herself, two
truths and a lie. They seem to not understand what I am saying so I try
explaining it to them in Malay. I see their expressions turn from confused to enthusiastic
as the first student in their group begins telling their two truths and a lie. I
tell them to continue and I move on to the next group. I see the next group is
having success and let them continue.
I then make my way to the
front of the room and quietly observe the students. I listen closely for any small
mistakes in pronunciation, sentence structure, or emphasis. This way I can
bring up these mistakes later and not have to embarrass the students in front
of the rest of the class. I plan to have the students practice avoiding these
common mistakes after I teach them. That way I can ensure that all are getting
the proper instruction and improving.
“My dad is a photoGRAPHer,” I
over hear one of the girls say to his group. Another student says, “Chicken
rice is the bess food.” I make a mental note of their errors, wait for them
to be finished, and direct their attention back to me.
I walk to the computer that
is linked to the projector. I pull up Microsoft Word and type in the word,
“photographer.” The students mouth the word as I type it in. I can already hear
them all emphasizing the wrong syllable.
“How do we pronounce this
word?” I ask them. They all say it to me with the emphasis on ‘graph’. I tell
them that is incorrect. They are surprised because the Malay word for
photographer is fotografer, with the
emphasis more or less on the ‘graf’. I instruct them on the correct English
pronunciation and direct them to create a sentence with the word photographer
and write it down in their notebooks. I wait for a moment and let the students
create a sentence. I tell them to then turn to their neighbor and read the
sentence to them. I walk around listening to the students and tell the other
teachers to walk around and listen to the students' pronunciation as well. I begin to see how
quickly the students learn and how much they must trust me to so quickly change
their pronunciation of this word!
I move on to the next mistake
and type in the word ‘best’ onto the screen. They all read it and start saying
it to each other.
“BesT! Everyone. You need to
enunciate that ‘T’ on the end! BesTTTT.”
They all start over emphasizing
the ‘T’ and I hear a wave of ‘Teh’ sounds fly through the room. I instruct them
to write down a sentence using the words “best” and “photographer”. I ask for
volunteers to come to the front of the class and read their sentence in front
of the entire class.
“Mr. Ben is the besT
phoTOGrapher I know,” the first student says as she reads her sentence and clearly
pronounces both newly learned words. She smiles as all the students and
teachers reward her with a round of applause.
I look at the head teacher in
the room. She nods and smiles as I instruct the next student to come forward
and read aloud their sentence. At this point, we know that the students are
having a good time and actually improving.
I get lost in thought while the next student reads their sentence. I feel overwhelmed with joy as I see these students learning while having fun and feel privileged to be a part of their English education. I can see a bright future for all of the students and know that English fluency will help them in the years to come.
Later, students created group cheers and cheered simultaneously to a clapping beat.
The entire school could hear them cheering at the top of their lungs.
