The Standard-Based English Language Curriculum for Malaysian Primary Schools was introduced by the Malaysian Ministry of Education in 2011 beginning with the teaching of Year 1 pupils. The curriculum is modular in design comprising the Listening and Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Language Arts modules. An innovation introduced in the curriculum was the teaching of early reading skills using phonics as a method in the Reading Module. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the Year 1 English Language teachers participating in the study understood the innovation, the problems that they faced with regard to it and how they implemented it in their classrooms. A survey questionnaire was distributed to English Year 1 primary school teachers and case studies of selected teachers were conducted. The data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings showed that the respondents rated themselves at varying degrees of understanding. The problems that they reported concern.....

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Pupils who had undergone four years of primary education were found to lack vocabulary knowledge in learning English. Thus, this study aimed to examine the views of English as  a Second Language (ESL) teachers and pupils on the use of pupils’ first language (L1) in the  teaching of English language vocabulary. It also investigated the teaching practices in particular  the strategies employed by an ESL teacher to teach vocabulary using the pupils’ L1. The  participants were an ESL teacher and 24 Year Five pupils in a rural school in Perak. The sample  consists of 9 boys and 15 girls who were all Malays. In addition, 30 ESL teachers in Perak answered  a set of questionnaire. This study employed a combination of descriptive case  study  and  survey   method  whereby  the  study  comprised  of  classroom observations,  interviews  with  teacher  and   selected  pupils  and  questionnaire administered to pupils observed, and questionnaire  administer.....

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