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Institute for Global Network Innovation in Technology Education

Toyohashi University of Technology,
Institute for Global Network Innovation in TechnologyEducation

News from Penang（Vol.9 2016/3/3）

Reports

English in Malaysia
Yuko Ichikawa, National Institute of Technology, Tokyo College
When I was a new teacher I had an opportunity toProf. Chew talked me about Malay Education.

teach an exchange student individually. I talked with

They have Malay school, Chinese school and Indian

my student a lot. She spoke Malay and English andschool as primary school. Each school gives classes inshe was also able to speak Japanese through her study

each language. Moreover there are primary schoolsin Japan. One day I said to her “I envy you because

whose classes are held in English. Children go one ofyou speak a couple of languages,” then she said “Wethem with their choice. But the classes in thehave a history that make us use English.” I was struck

secondary schools are held in English. Children areby her words. They have an inevitable reason that theysometimes confused. It is difficult. He said thatspeak English.

Japanese were lucky to have all classes in Japanese.
thActually the education system has been changing andSince we got to Penang on Jan. 17 , I sometimes

2spoke English at restaurants and shops. I figured out

is more complicated.

that all of Malay don’t speak English and English isEngland occupation and many Chinese abroad moved

the second or the third language for them so theyto there. As a result of the history Malaysia became

sometimes made grammatical mistakes. This fact

multiethnic, and English had been the national

made me feel at ease to speak English. In New York

language for long time. After 1970, Malay became thespeaking English is a complete away game for me.

National language and the classroom language was

But in Penang it is an away game for both of us, so I

changed from English to Malay. I heard that younger

could speak English without getting nervous. At first Ipeople are comparatively not as good at English as

couldn't catch their English with Malay accent.

elder people. In higher education such as universities

Actually I couldn’t understand the Indian accent

the classes are conducted in English. But somethroughout staying in Penang.

teachers do in Malay because of their poor English.

The last two weeks of my stay in Penang, I worked

Malaysia had been under

Their English is based on the long history.

in USM and had two 120 minute lectures. Teachers

USM students listened to my lectures withand students in USM warmly welcomed me. When I

earnestly. Having lectures is different from one-to-one

opened the door of my room, some staffs talked to me

conversation; I have to speak most of the class time. It“Oh, are you a new staff?” and made me a cup of tea.

is still very challenging for me. But a student said,I talked a lot with Prof. Chew who arranged my“Some teachers are not good at speaking English. Solecture. He said to me “Do you have any problems tohave lectures?” I said “No. The biggest problem is my“Educational Policies and Education Systemin Malaysia”, Yumiko Kanegae,
http://sucra.saitama-u.ac.jp/modules/xoonips/d
ownload.php/KYO-KJ00000054458.pdf?file_id=20513

2English.” “Your English is good. There is no problem.
I can understand what you want to say. We cancommunicate now.”5

no problem,” and a teacher said, “It was an honour tohave you in the School of Educational Studies, USM
and thank you very much for your kind contribution oftwo lectures that really enriched my students'
knowledge and understanding of mathematics and its
application in real life!”
In Penang, I learned not only English skill but
more fabulous and precious thing “tolerance”, it is themost important for globalization.

With USM students

Life and Training in Malaysia
Hideaki Yanagisawa, National Institute of Technology, Tokuyama College
When the training period in Malaysia is finished,
theone-yearprogram,Long-Term

Therefore, we took a taxi every day.

Faculty

The hotel does not have a washing machine.

Development Program for nurturing global education

However there is coin-operated laundry near the hotel.

and research abilities, will be completed.

There also is a convenience store near the hotel.

In this report, I would like to talk about my life inMalaysia, activity in Politeknik Seberang Perai (PSP)Activity in PSP

and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

I gave students two lectures. The first one wasassembly

language

andthesecondone

wassingle-cycle processor. And I attended consultation

Life in Malaysia
We stayed at RECSAM International House for 5classes.

weeks. RECSAM is an accommodation for a foreigner

I could not prepare teaching materials well because

who comes to Penang for training. You can use Wi-Fi

I did not know what students had learned. After I gavein your room however the speed is slow. In my sense,

students the first lecture, I was able to know it (Photothe room is ,,,.

1).

There is a cafeteria near the accommodation. I

Consultation classes are a class in which students

often went to the cafeteria for dinner from Monday toThursday. I sometimes went to a food court in a
shopping center for dinner on weekends, because thecafeteria was closed.
We stayed at a hotel near USM engineering
campus for last two weeks. The distance from thehotel to USM engineering campus is not far. However
the distance from the gate of USM engineering

Photo 1: Instruction Set Architecture (AssemblyLanguage)

campus to the room, which we stay at is a little bit far.
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explained something they made. Each group consistedof two or three students. I regretted that I could notgive students a good advice.
Activity in USMAfter meeting with USM professors, I wasassigned to two lectures in the Microprocessor
Architecture class. The first lecture was introduction

Photo 2: Microprocessor Architecture

to Intel 8085 processor and the second lecture was

I attended Microprocessor Lab and IC Designbasics of assembly language. It was impossible toclasses. These classes are related to the subjects,

make teaching materials within one week. Therefore I

which I teach. I had a good time because I was able toused teaching materials, which a professor prepared.

learn how to teach the subjects in English.

After I gave first lecture, I received a lot ofcomment such as voice was not clear. Therefore I
spoke slowly and loudly as much as I could duringsecond lecture. As the result, I did not receive thecomments related to English (Photo 2).

Toyohashi University of Technology
Institute for Global Network Innovation in Technology Education
Center for International Education
1-1, Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan
Tel: +81-532-81-5161
Mail:unireform@office.tut.ac.jp

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