The A to Z of English - Small steps to big gains

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."
– Henry Ford
LEARNING is a lifelong vocation and a commitment and the day anyone thinks he or she is too old to learn, that day spells the end of his or her life. We go through the rigmarole of a formal education between 11 and 13 years depending on when one starts formal school and during those years the frenzy and focus are on examinations. Chasing education has become tumultuous these days.
I would think it is when one leaves school and college or university that the realities are learnt and that stays with us in our adult life, making us better individuals.
The enthusiasm to enrich self with lifelong learning is a matter of attitude and of course, provided opportunities are created.
In this context, we probably need to look beyond the educational institutions in the grind to improve the English proficiency in our pool of school leavers and graduates.
We have been harping on the government's lacks and mismatches between policies and real needs for too long now and it is time now for us to veer the mast into new direction with renewed energy.
While the big boys are battling it out on DLP (dual language programme) and related matters, the corporate organisations' role in providing reprieves while waiting should be explored. Small steps can lead to big gains.
I know of a blue chip construction company that has built into its existence a systematic way of uplifting the standard of English in its employees which is generating positive outcomes.
First and foremost, the action plans are top-down with the senior management driving the initiative. It begins with the Cambridge English Placement Test for all employees for diagnostic purposes. Participants are assessed on their listening and reading comprehension skills following which they are streamed into the six bands with band 6 for highest scorers.
Those in band 4 and below are then enrolled for short proficiency courses, beginning with Level 1. Before the students begin the class, another test is imposed to assess the four basic language skills.
I am told that this initiative is run with a dedicated budget and people and there had been marked improvement in the grammar and proficiency of those who had undergone the short-term English language courses.
According to the course coordinator, the simple and the most important objective of running this course is to have a common language which would benefit the company and the individual. It is assumed that a good grasp of the language would lead to better work performance with employees' increased ability to draw and grasp new work-related knowledge and understanding from varied sources.
Parallel to this, the regular short courses on grammar, writing and presentation skills are carried out for those with high proficiency but needing specific skills.
If we had the larger corporate organisations pool their resources to internalise the English language learning programme in their system, we will see working adults, young and old being given a second chance in improving their English language proficiency.
It is no secret that language discrimination, alongside discrimination of varying kinds, is a bane to employees and the employers in the long run. It is common to see those with high proficiency remain in the limelight and hand-picked for career advancement.
Loosely termed language discrimination, it is the unfair treatment of an individual solely because of the interference from their native language or from other characteristics of speech, such as accent, size of vocabulary, and syntax.
Perhaps it is again the government that could provide incentives for such corporate organisations to come forward with tangible plans to see observable results.
The writer believes that the Malaysian education system will reach greater heights with a strong antidote to revolutionise just about everything. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com