Student 1: Thank you miss chairperson.

I think that English is definitely important for a

student. English is a global language that everyone speaks today. English language is the
basic medium of global communication with people around the world. In education aspect,
there are many reference books out there are written in English language. If we
understood English, this will benefit us with the knowledge. As a graduate, English will
help us to pursue and obtain more career opportunities as most of the business are
international. These days, the job market is global where many companies need
employees who can communicate with the clients all over the world.

Nadine: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to today’s forum First of all, I
would like thank all of you for attending the forum for today. Our issue for today is “the
implementation of Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) in the Malaysian education system”.
First of all, as the representative of principals’ association, I would like to introduce two
other panels for the discussion today. On my left is Miss Tan Jia Qi, a businesswoman,
founder of Amway Sdn. Bhd.. On my right is Tea An Qi, a student representative from SJK
(C) Chung Hwa. Welcome to our forum for today.

Nadine: Ladies and gentlemen, the Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) is a programme

introduced under the To Uphold Malay Language And Strengthen The Command Of
English (MBMMBI) policy. It is aligned with student aspirations highlighted in the Malaysia
Education Blueprint (MEB) 2013-2025 and supports five shifts of the MEB. The aim of HIP
is to improve the English proficiency of students through increased exposure to English
and to inculcate positive behaviours towards the learning and usage of the English
language, provide equal access to quality education of an international standard and
develop values-driven Malaysians.

Nadine: For further detail about different perspectives from stakeholders about this topic, I
would like to seek information from the first panel on my right, Miss Tan Jia Qi. Generally,
do you think that Malaysians have a good command of English language?
Jia Qi: Thank you, miss chairperson. I think the employees that I have interviewed have
poor command of the language. Since most of them are from vernacular schools, they only
converse in their mother tongue. When they came for the interview, some of them even
used mixed language and broken English. According to the EF English Proficiency Index,
Malaysia has also shown a decline in their English language proficiency. Compared to our
neighbouring countries like Singapore and Philippines, I would say that Malaysians need
to work

Nadine: Thank you, miss Jia Qi. I see that you find that English proficiency level among
local Malaysians are gradually deteriorating. Here, would also like to ask An Qi, our
student representative. Do you think that English is important for you as a student and for
your future?

An Qi: Thank you miss chairperson. I think that English is definitely important for a student.
English language is an international language that everyone speaks today. English
language is the basic medium of global communication with people around the world. In
education aspect, there are many reference books out there are written in English
language. If we understood English, this will benefit us with the knowledge. As a graduate,
English will help us to pursue and obtain more career opportunities. These days, the job
market is global where many companies need employees who can communicate with the
clients all over the world. Thus, I totally agree that English is crucial to our education as
well as our future.

Nadine: I do agree with you An Qi. As a school headmistress, I see that English mainly
acts as a global lingua franca, a language that is used to as an international
communication tool used among different people from different countries. Hence,
excellence in English has become a high demand in the global qualified workforce and
plays a vital role towards international interactions, including economic relationship among
countries, international business relationship and global trading. So, the HIP is hoping that
students are interested in learning and mastering their English to enable them to travel,
work and study worldwide without facing language barriers as it is the most commonly
spoken language across the globe. Well, moving on, I’m sure both of you have heard
about the recent change of our curriculum from KSSR to CEFR-aligned curriculum.

Jia Qi: Yes, I have heard about it and was curious about it. As I have been in the business
industry for a long time, I have heard about CEFR from my business partners. If I’m not
mistaken, it is called Common European Framework of Reference Languages Learning.
Am I correct?

Nadine: Yes, you are.

Jia Qi: Alright, thank you miss chairman. To my surprise, not only the European countries
are using the CEFR, but also partners from Japan, Vietnam and China as well. I think up
till now, we still don’t have an establish standards for the English proficiency within the
Asia countries and ASEAN region. That is why most of the countries have decided to
adapt and modify the existing CEFR European Framework for English. I was mostly in
shock when I heard that Malaysia is going to implement it in our primary school because
prior to their announcement to implement it, little pilot test have been carried out to ensure
the suitability to implement this CEFR-aligned curriculum. I heard that the foreign master
trainers are directly involved in the process of designing this curriculum together with some
of the teachers which is great.

Nadine: Thank you, miss Jia Qi. I've got all your points down. How about you, An Qi? What
do you think of the CEFR-aligned curriculum in your school?

An Qi: From my point of view, the implementation of CEFR-aligned curriculum was

established in Malaysia education system aims to boost the level of our education to
international standards. As a Year 4 student, I am using the CEFR-aligned textbook and
workbook. Even our five communication skills namely listening, reading, speaking, writing
and grammar assessments are mapped against CEFR with six levels of grading scales
which are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. From my point of view, with the standardized
grading method, it enables us to track our progress along a continuum and compare our
own learning development, rather than against the performance of other students. CEFR
also benefits students with low proficiency level by giving the leeway of controlling their
own pace and learning which catered to individual preference.

-benefit of HIP

An Qi: As a student, I believe that English language is an utmost language for our future.
The implementation of HIP in our teaching and learning session is better than the
traditional teaching method. The traditional chalk-and-talk should be replaced with new
teaching methods carried out in HIP for the z-generation students so that we will be more
engaged in the learning task. Involvement of discussions, performance-based task,
projects and e-learning system which transform from individual delivery to mediating help
enable students to practice the language in real world situation. When students are
interested in the learning task, they will be motivated and fully engaged themselves in the
activities. This indirectly shape their positive mindset and attitude towards the CEFR-
aligned curriculum.

-challenge

An Qi: From the HIP activities carried out in school, we found that some of the activities
were not at par with our English proficiency level. Some of the low proficiency students
might find it difficult to understand some of the tasks or messages being conveyed by the
teachers. Therefore, I suggest that teachers may take into account the target language
skill and the students’ language proficiency level. Adaptation and adaptation of materials
are needed to fit the needs of the students. When a learning task is related to students’
prior knowledge or experiences, we will be more engaged and able to reach the aim set for
the HIP activity.

-comment on challenge (infrastructure)

I do agree on Miss Jia Qi’s point that the infrastructure in school is not enough to cater a
class of students. I remembered there was an activity where students need to use
computers for the HIP learning task given in our computer labs. However, some of the
computers could not function. In this subject, some of my friends need to share the
computer to complete their task. In my opinion, using the ICT for teaching and learning has
become an increasingly common practice in educational settings, especially given that
ability to use ICT is a requisite skill in today’s digital age. I hope that school could be aware
of the problem in order to provide well-equipped labs so that the teachers and students
could perform lab activities more effectively.

-comment on challenges low contribution from parents (busy working, low educated)

I agree that the parental involvement will affect students’ performance towards English
language as parents is the dynamic force which influence students’ academic success
concerning motivation to learn in a long-term run. For many students like us, we think that
parental involvement is important for gaining recognition, demonstrating, raising self-
esteem and self-respect. Parents who did not have access to education particularly could
encourage their children or provide positive advice to raise students’ academic self-
efficacy in English as well as the intrinsic motivation towards English. With that, students
will enrol armed with a sense of intrinsic motivation to learn in the HIP activities.