The Method Module

The content of the module represents a selection of materials designed with a remedial cum enrichment approach that seeks to screen students in the four areas of language skills, i.e. listening, reading, writing and speaking. It is an "interventionist” curriculum that would ensure all the gaps in skills, gaps produced by the examination/testing approach in schools, are now filled. It basically employs a student-driven, peer learning approach geared to solve the "stuck on the language/sangkut atas bahasa" malaise that is the product of years of distorted language teaching.

The method module for schools in turn is designed to resolve classroom problems in teaching English to a big and mixed ability crowd of 40 students by using the big numbers to advantage. The key idea behind the method is firstly, to get the students to read as many books as fluently as possible via a graded reading programme consisting of books and audiocassettes. It is an enforced reading programme conducted on a regular basis by 4 coaching teams per class under the teacher's supervision.

The method of coaching is called coach-a-coach because it is peer teaching with effort as part of the evaluation and grading component. The reading practice is conducted by groups of ten students on a read aloud take-a-turn reading, with the coaches continuously correcting each and every mistake. The stress on frequency for fluency, or fluency from frequency, produces the necessary reinforcement needed for retention of subject matter in a tongue-tied environment prone to the disincentives caused by the rule of disuse (lidah dah berkarat) and issues of cultural permission (bahasa kapir) of the English language.

And with the daily diet of written exercises completed in each session, to be peer marked and corrected on the spot, parents need no longer worry about present state of affairs where teachers are too busy to mark and supervise pupils’ written work, and where mistakes get uncorrected and undetected for life.

The assigned teacher/head coach will be supervising 4 coaching teams, each team ensconced to a component of the content module, competing to complete and move on to a higher level, or switching to a different component, say from reading to storytelling to writing mode. The flexibility is there to maintain group dynamism by allowing students to excel by having games and competitions, using the underlying content-woven 3000 word corpus target.

We propose a minimum of 2 sessions per week, each lasting 90 minutes (1 hour of reading + 30 minutes of writing, spelling & other exercises per session), so that each student does 6 minutes of reading while being read to for the remaining 54 minutes, strictly speaking. Thus on a weekly basis, each student would have actually read for 12 minutes and listened for 108 minutes, making a 2 hour weekly diet of ongoing reading practice and 1 hour reinforcement activities. Compare this to virtually zero hour reading in most schools, where language is taught sans the sounds!

Non-English teachers or even volunteers from amongst parents (e.g. where it is done off school hours) could conduct the supervision of the coaching. Thus from one perspective the method should be able to produce a pool of English para-teachers who would have acquired enough reading skills to be able to run the programme from constant repetition and contact with the language.

An interesting spin-off could be an impact on the tuition business run by teachers in their spare time as there are bound to be parents prepared to pay for private tuition operators simulating the CERAP programme. And Terrabaca management is willing to offer franchise opportunities to the aspiring entrepreneur.

Since the nature of the sessions requires actual reading and active participation, the excitement and joy of competition provide the impetus for students to excel. This we have been able to observe at close range, the paradigm shift produced by the CERAP way. Compare that to the staid, passive and multiple-choice rote manner English is being taught!