Wednesday, March 26, 2008

SCIENCE AND MATHEMATIC SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN ENGLISH

The general purpose of writing this composition is to inform the reader that science and mathematic should be taught in English. In addition this composition specifically tells the readers the history of the implementation of mathematics and science in English, the background of English for Teaching Mathematic and Sciences (ETeMS), the description about ETeMS programme, the importance of mathematics and science in English as well as the problem.

As we all know, the learning and teaching science and mathematic in English has been implemented in our education system. In June 2002 a dramatic shift in the Malaysian education policies was announced. The minister of education informed the public that from January 2003 Science and Mathematic will be taught in English in standard one, form one, and lower six in all fully aided government school. The policy to change the medium of instruction in the teaching of mathematics and science from Bahasa Melayu to English is an important innovation affecting Teachers of Mathematics and Science (MST) generally. It poses special challenges not only for teachers but also student who have been trained in the Malay medium but also for those trained in English, whose professional experience has largely involved the use of Bahasa Melayu as the medium of instruction..

The English Language Teaching Centre, Malaysia (ELTC) proposes an English language enhancement programmer known as English for The Teaching of Mathematics and Science (ETeMS). The overall aim of ETeMS is as follows to enhance the English language skills of Mathematics and Science teachers to enable them to teach effectively using English as the medium of instruction. In developing the ETeMS programe the following assumptions are made. The MST undergoing the ETeMS already possesses the content area knowledge and the pedagogical skills relevant to their subject. The MST have, at the very least, a basic level of English language proficiency acquired through instruction received in their primary and secondary schooling ETeMS draws on these existing competencies to encourage the language development of MST in 3 broad areas.
The first areas talks about language for accessing information. This component aims to enhance the information getting skills, especially through reading. Teachers will develop these skills by engaging in a variety of mathematics and science texts. These texts used will include content area topics, curricular materials such as syllabuses, handbooks etc. and texts dealing with methodological issues. It must be emphasized that the focus of instruction is to develop the language skills needed for accessing information in texts, and not to provide instruction in the content or methodology of the subject. It is hoped that as they develop these skills the teachers will be motivated to access on-line and print material to extend their knowledge of current content and pedagogy, and thereby positively impact the delivery of their subjects in the classroom. The second area is about language for teaching mathematic and sciences. In this component the teacher will develop language for use while teaching in the classroom as well as the language needed for out of class activities related to the subject. The focus of instruction here would primarily involve speaking and writing skills, and will be supported with adequate grammar input and practice. This is the major component of the ETeMS programme. Last but not least, the third areas define the language for professional exchange. As professionals the MST would conceivably wish to communicate with peers in the wider discourse community through English. A small component of the ETeMS programme will take into consideration this need of the teachers.

The rational of changing the medium of instruction of learning and teaching mathematic and science from Bahasa Melayu to English is one of the steps taken by the government towards the human resources development to become the first world country and also as the early preparation at the beginning year of school to compete in this globalization. As far as we concern, science and mathematic now is the medium of development of ones country. There are so many innovations and new outcome occurred subconsciously and all of these are in English. Besides, English is the international medium of communication and the high proficiency in English will make the process of acquiring knowledge become easier for the students if they have the basic in schools. Furthermore, when the students further their study in tertiary level, most of their references are in English and they will have problems if they don’t have the basic knowledge. It will cause them a tough situation if they want to start to learn all the terms while they are in the tertiary stage.

Although the implementation of mathematic and science in English has a lot of advantages, but it still has some problem. Some students in the rural areas still cannot cope with taking these two subjects in English although these are the same students who have been taught these two subjects in English for 6 years. It goes same to those in Chinese primary schools! The decision not to have an 'English only' UPSR exam for these two subjects sends a signal to teachers in rural areas as well as those in Chinese schools that they can 'revert' to teaching these two subjects in BM and Chinese (and for those in Tamil schools to teach in Tamil). As far as I know, there's no 'monitoring' or 'policing' mechanisms in schools to ensure that teachers actually teach these two subjects in English. Furthermore, while implementing the 'English only' policy would have some short term consequences in that the scores in some of these 'vulnerable' areas might be affected, I fear that the medium to long term consequences would be greater. I wouldn't be surprised if in 2 to 3 years time, an announcement is made that the policy to teach Science and Math in English would be stopped because it was found that it had not achieved its objective of improving the standard of English.

As a conclusion, we totally agree that science and mathematic should be taught in English because the new era of science and technology nowadays are in English. To be announced as one of the well develop country in science and technology, education in Malaysia should follow the flow of other well develop country like Japan. As for the preparation, government has sent 93 students to further their study at the most top University in the world so that after their graduate they will work with the government as the expertise teacher in teaching mathematic and science. Bearing in mind the limited duration of interaction, ETeMS is not to be regarded as a complete language development course, but rather, one of several support mechanisms introduced by the Ministry of Education to encourage the MST to further develop their English language competence to a level that will engender optimal performance in and outside the classroom.

Teacher as a Role Model to your Students

“Teacher as a Role Model to your Student”


The purpose of writing this composition is to let the reader know that teacher carry a big responsibility as a role model to their student as teacher is the most well-known community in society. Just pointed at someone who carries the profession as a teacher, everyone will look with high perception. So, teacher should be in a good manner to play a role as a role model to the society generally and student specifically.

First of all, I will define the meaning of the title of this composition. According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, teacher is someone whose job is to teach especially in a school. Teacher is also someone who enables a student to learn, gives him the tools, the explanations, creates the learning circumstances said eslHQ Enthusiast. Moreover, as in wikipedia teacher is described as someone acknowledged as a guide or helper in processes of learning. A teacher also learns from his or her students. A teacher is consequently an eventual progenitor (or possibly epigenitor) of situations involving the experience of teaching.

Second, according to WordReference.com, role is the actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group while in Merriam-Webster online, role is a socially expected behavior pattern usually determined by an individual's status in a particular society. Model means someone or something set before one for guidance or imitation said Merriam-Webster online. Model applies to something taken or proposed as worthy of imitation.

Finally, according to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English student is someone who is studying at a university or school while according to Brainy Quote, students is a person engaged in study; one who is devoted to learning; a learner; a pupil; a scholar; especially, one who attends a school, or who seeks knowledge from professional teachers or from books; as, the students of an academy, a college, or a university; a medical student; a hard student. From these two definitions, it clearly shows that students are the people who usually deal with educational institution.

From all the definition that have been given above, I can wrap up that teacher who is someone whose job is to teach especially in a school hold the socially expected behaviour that will encourage someone who is studying in that particular school to make him or her as a guidance or idol.

To conclude my composition, teacher should model polite behaviour, acceptable ways of resolving conflict and inspire students to reach for the stars. A good teacher notices the strong points of each student's personality and enables that student to get to know himself and appreciate himself. A good teacher should enable students to become happier persons who live in harmony with themselves and those around them. The good teacher and his/ her students share bonds of love. From the acknowledgement that the teacher gives to the students, it shows that teacher can be role model in producing a quality and successful student.

Monday, February 18, 2008

4 Steps To Having the Life You REALLY Want!

Many of us are incredibly frustrated at not being able to reach our dreams and have the life we want. I believe there are 4 simple (not easy, but simple) techniques for getting there. You really can achieve your goals and live your dreams!

1. CLARIFY EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT! Many of my clients have never defined what “better” or “happier” really means. How many dollars do you want to earn? How much time together as a family? Working from home doing what? What, precisely, would a better relationship look like? This can be hard work, and it involves tough choices.One client wanted to stay home with her children, improve her marriage, and make more money, but also wanted to break the “glass ceiling” and be recognized in a profession that is notoriously competitive and involved traveling several times a month. All of these are worthy, wonderful goals, but to some extent they were mutually exclusive and she had avoided the process of choosing and writing down what she wanted most. We worked together (with her family’s help and input) to design a clear and attainable balance that she was able to pursue very quickly, ending years of frustration!

2. COMMIT TO PAYING THE COST IN ADVANCE! Any worthwhile project is going to cost a lot. An Olympic medal will require hours of training every day, and that means paying costs in terms of social life, postponing a career or education, and “blood, sweat and tears.”Whatever you most want in life will require that you say “NO!” to other things. Making money means less recreation, writing a book means watching less TV, being closer with your partner or children may mean changes in your work, hobbies or social activities. A few years ago, many people were talking about the frustrations of women who felt that a part of the feminist message was that they could “have it all”. Well. None of us get to have it all! A recent client quit coaching when he realized that his dreams of being “the kind of father I never had” and spending time with his wife and children conflicted with pursuing his career the way he had always done it. He “couldn’t” turn down a call, and was “out there” developing leads and closing sales seven days a week. Unwilling to choose, we decided coaching wasn’t useful for him at this time.

3. RE-COMMIT TO YOUR GOALS EVERY DAY! Every day, remind yourself of your priorities and re-commit to them. For some this means time to meditate or pray. For others, it means a quick call to their coach, a friend, or members of a mastermind group. I encourage clients to start their day by writing a brief statement of where they are going and what they value in life.Every day, 1001 minor tasks and distractions will interrupt you. The phone will ring, the boss will give you a “special” project, the kids will interrupt. Life will get in your way. Count on it! Plan for it and innoculate yourself. Every pilot and ship’s captain knows that winds and currents will take them dangerously off-course. This is a natural process, something they know about, expect and plan for. It is not a surprise or source of frustration! Every day, plot your location, check your direction, and make sure you stay on course! It only takes a few minutes, and it is essential.

4. EVERY DAY, TAKE ACTION! This is perhaps the most difficult step. Rarely, does life give us a “big choice”. Most of the transforming moments in life start as a chance meeting, a casual conversation, or an article in a magazine. We all know this, and yet when it comes to pursuing our most important goals we wait for that “big moment”, that magical day when the stars are aligned and everything is “just right”. For most of us, that means we will never reach our dreams or have the life we want.To become fit, go for a walk. To create the business of your dreams, call someone today. Want to be a better parent and have a more satisfying family life? Tuck your kid into bed tonight, hold hands with your mate, and tell them how much they mean to you. Want a promotion or a raise? Make that extra contribution today! We’ve all heard the saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”, but no one ever adds that the journey also requires, according to my math, 5 million, two hundred and eighty thousand additional steps after that first one! Every day, take one step closer.QUICK TOOL: Every morning, get a 3×5 card. On one side, write a brief statement of your biggest goals and most important dreams. Jot it down using whatever words seem right at the moment. Then, on the other side, list one or two specific actions you will take TODAY that will bring you closer to your goal. Make them specific, do-able, and clear. Put the card in your pocket, purse, or on the dash of your car, and go about your day. In 30 days, I promise you will be astonished at the changes in your life!IN SUMMARY: Life will distract you from achieving your dreams. It will blow you off-course and you will be confused and frustrated at times. So what? Today, and every day, declare your commitment to what you really, REALLY want. Write it down and talk about your dream. Understand, and agree to make the necessary sacrifices - you must pay the costs of developing the life you want - and take action! In the end, only action counts! You can have whatever you want, when you decide to pursue it intelligently, with all your heart and with all your passion. Just do it!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Your Health: Men are from Mars, women from Venus

WOMEN respond differently to drugs compared with men.

A clinical trial in 2005 shows that a low dose of aspirin taken regularly, which seems to help middle-aged men avoid heart attacks, does not offer the same cardiovascular benefits for middle-aged women - although it does lessen the risk of stroke. Diagnosis and treatment are different for both men and women. The traditional test for detecting heart disease in men is far less reliable when performed on women, for they might not show the same symptoms.Hormones, for example, profoundly affect how men and women metabolise medication. Therefore, epileptic and asthmatic women often suffer attacks before having their periods. Drug dosages need to be adjusted accordingly.

During a heart attack, men usually feel pain in the chest or left arm, but 20 per cent of women suffer pain in the upper abdomen or back, shortness of breath, nausea and sweating.Because women are more sensitive to the carcinogens in cigarettes, those who smoke the same amount as men have a 20-70 per cent higher chance of developing lung cancer. To compound that, women's tumours tend to appear on the lungs' periphery, so their cancer is often noticed much later.Some basic bodily responses are different between men and women.Men often react to pain with a rise in blood pressure, but women may experience a rise in heart rate, and sometimes even a drop in blood pressure.Yet, after surgery, doctors often gauge levels of pain by blood pressure, not heart rate.Indeed, men and women differ at all behavioural level and engage in different risk-taking behaviours. These are probably related to their traditional gender roles.Men are greater risk takers, in that they face more serious and lethal consequences. They are also more likely to smoke, drink, use drugs and engage in risky sports.Women, on the other hand, are likelier to engage in " health protective" behaviours, including going for health screening (eg, breast self-examination, pap smear screening, regular check-ups). They are also more likely to eat right and exercise more. Yet, women are also the fastest growing risk group for HIV/AIDS, although it is mostly an invisible epidemic among them.The primary routes of transmission for women are sexual activity (64 per cent) and intravenous drug use (11 per cent). Women and men do not receive the same (or similar) medical care even though they suffer from the same conditions and this is not just in poor countries. The entry of more women into the field of science and subsequently medicine has started a quiet revolution and a reassessment of accepted notions of what it is to be a woman. Women are not the second sex but a separate sex. They are female to the bone and to the very cells that make up those bones. This "equal but different" stance is crucial to modern gender studies. Most, if not all medical and psychological research, was done on men, and the conclusions recklessly applied to women. The birth of gender-specific medicine, which is the science of how the diagnosis and treatment of disease differs as a function of gender, can be linked to Marianne J. Legato, who founded the Partnership for Women's Health at the University of Columbia. Dr Legato, who practises in New York City, is also a professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons and the editor of The Journal of Gender Specific Medicine and Gender and Health. Interestingly, traditional medicine has long understood and appreciated the differences between men and woman. This is more so in Asian traditional medicine. Certain herbs were specifically designated for use on the fairer sex. Woman had different meridian and hence, acupuncture points. Women had also subtle and clear difference in the flow of the life force - prana or chi. Clearly, the Asian traditional medicine has a lot to offer in healthcare. That is why Malaysia is playing host to a conference and exhibition called "Woman's Health And Asian Traditional Medicine (WHAT Medicine) for the third year in the row. This year, the event is held in collaboration with the Council For Scientific and Industrial Research of India and the National Centre for Natural Products Research of the United States. Among the speakers are the FDA programme director for natural products and the director of the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine. For information, log on to www.whatmedicine.org or call 03-7965-2888.

YourHealth: Get educated, not medicated

SEX and sexuality is not a common topic of conversation in our society or even among family members.

Therefore, people, especially teenagers with their raging hormones, will seek other means of seeking information, i.e. from pornography, friends, and magazines. These may not necessarily provide correct information about sexual behaviours. Human sexuality in its broadest sense encompasses numerous social, biological, cultural, political, religious and ethical aspects. In many societies, complex issues relating to sex and sexuality exist. The interpretation of normalcy in sex and sexuality varies from society to society.

Sexual behaviour can spread sexually transmitted diseases. The link between sexual activities, disease development and unwanted pregnancies is well documented.Safer sex practices can lead to a reduction in the incidence of STDs and unwanted pregnancies and the spread of HIV and AIDS.The United States Centre for Disease Control estimates that a teenager becomes pregnant every 30 seconds and a teen contracts a sexually transmitted disease every 13 seconds. This shows how ineffective sex education presently is in the prevention of STDs and unwanted pregnancies even in an "open" society. What more Malaysia, which is comparatively conservative when it comes to sex education.People affected by STDs often resort to looking for treatment from general practitioners. Some will even self-medicate.There are a number of infections that are classified as STDs; some treatable, others incurable.Every individual must know and be informed about the deleterious effects of these infections on himself, his family and to society.There are at least 14 sexually acquired infections known.Their symptoms vary from pain on passing urine, increased frequency of passing urine, pus discharging from the private parts, especially in men; or in certain cases, they develop a sore which can be painless or painful.The many varied symptoms make it difficult for the lay person to know what he/she is suffering from. It is imperative to seek medical advice instead of self medicating.Self medication can lead to the spread of infection throughout the body. Since the epidemic of HIV/AIDS began, the linkage of unsafe sexual activities and various STDs to the spread of HIV has been more openly discussed. The rapidity of the global spread of HIV has become a hot topic for the last 20 years. However, recognition that effective control of STDs may prevent the spread of HIV is still wanting. Effective STD prevention programmes will require concerted effort from all sectors of society, public and private, including the government and the medical profession. There is need for nationwide awareness and preventive education programmes. An integral part of the national strategy in HIV prevention is to strengthen the STD control programme nationwide.A concerted effort in tackling this problem would be for the clinicians and the public health personnel to work together in providing a holistic strategy.. Improving healthcare services and ensuring they are easily accessible to the public will allow better diagnosis and treatment of STDs. The provision of counseling will also to minimise the infection rate and the spread of STD/HIV.Public education is the key to ensuring that rampant spread of these infections is curbed. Sexual transmission occurs when a person has unprotected sexual exposure to an infected person. Limiting the number of sex partners or having a monogamous relationship should be practised by all. Children are exposed to nature's ways. They are curious and with the influence of the electronic and print media, the children of today need correct information. This also applies to sex education. Where better than to provide sex education than in the safe environment of a loving home, given by parents.It can start when a child asks questions. A parent can give simple answers that the child is able to comprehend. This should continue as a subject in schools; in the early years, discussions on sex and health education should be in tandem with the maturity of the student. Rokiah Ismail is professor of medicine and consultant dermato-venerologist at the Faculty of Medicine, UiTM.

writing a blog......

hello everyone...
welcome to my blog...for your information this is the first time in my life writing a blog...
before this i am not so interested in writing a blog...for me it is the boring thing to explore on..
but when my ethics's lecturer ask me to do so..i just realize that it is quite fun writing a blog...so for those who view my blog..
hope you have fun in reading my blog...
i will try to update my blog time by time..
thank you..bye...