Interview Transcript

Interviewer 1 : Good morning, Madam Kanageswari. Thank you for allowing us to

conduct an interview with you today.
Interviewer 2 : We are here today to gather information and data for our coursework for
Culture and Learning (EDUP3073i). Therefore, we will be asking a few
related questions to the topic of the aspects, effects, and implications of
sociocultural diversity in Malaysia.
Mrs. Kanageswari : It is my pleasure to be share my experience with the both of you today.
Interviewer 1 : For the first question, what is the level of proficiency of the class teacher
is teaching?
Mrs. Kanageswari : I am teaching Year 1 class. They have just started schooling for two
months, and there are good ones but they are very few. Like in one class,
there will only be one or two, so most of them are very weak. Actually, I
just came in into this school last year, October so I’m still new in this
school. For average pupils, there are many. They are lacking in
vocabularies actually. That is the main thing that they are having
problems with. That is why their level of proficiency is very low. For their
mother tongue, they speak Bahasa Malaysia or they speak their Asli
language. Like us, when we teach we have to use Bahasa and if let’s say
we use fully English, they won’t understand. So, we have to use English
then we would have to translate, if not they won’t understand. 70% of the
medium will be in Bahasa. But, for the good ones, they would be able to
understand.
Interviewer 2 : Before this, which school was teacher teaching in?
Mrs. Kanageswari : I was teaching in Perak, and I came here because my husband is here.
Interviewer 2 : Before this, it was an SK school too?
Mrs. Kanageswari : Yes, all the while SK school starting from my first posting.
Interviewer 2 : How is the experience like teaching in Perak and here? For example, do
you have to adapt teaching methods and such?
Mrs. Kanageswari : I was teaching in Level 2, Year 6 when I was in Perak, and here another
teacher is teaching that year. In Perak, it was the same cause I taught in
a rural school. So the level is the same, but there is better because the
students are all Malay. But if you ask me out of ten, what is their rating in
 terms of English proficiency, here is maybe 2 and there is maybe 3.
There’s a slight difference. Since I was teaching in this school, I can see
that the level is more or less the same because over there they use their
mother tongue too and not English. Unless if I taught in urban schools,
then it would be different.
Interviewer 1 : Teacher, you mentioned there all of them are Malays, and here is a
mixture of Malays and Asli. So does that difference inhibits their learning
or doesn’t it make much difference?
Mrs Kanageswari :It doesn’t make much difference because the interference of mother
tongue is the reason why they are not so good in English. Even there, it’s
the same because they use Malay and here they use Malay and Asli. So,
the difference is only a slight one but there I can produce results because
English teachers are very strict. I used to be very strict, so they are very
scared of me. Even those who can’t finish their homework will finish it. I
don’t mind if it’s wrong or right, as long as they finish it. I’ll make sure I get
them to finish their work.
Interviewer 1 : Does the environment affect the teaching and learning?
Mrs. Kanageswari : It’s the same because the facilities are the same. It was quite hard for
me to adapt when I first came in because there was a difference in a
sense of the environment and not the teachers or the school. Even up to
now, I am still learning to adapt but we as teachers we need to adapt to
whatever situations.
Interviewer 1 : Besides using bilingual to teach, what else can catch their interest in
English?
Mrs. Kanageswari : Now we are using the Supermind books and it is a book from overseas.
It has colourful pictures and they will have more interest to see the books.
The UK accent when we play the song, they have to follow that.
Somehow rather, the better ones they will follow, while the weak ones just
follow. For Year 1 and 2, I will use pictures and songs because Year 1
and 2 have to do more activities like songs or colouring activities for their
age. In my opinion, they have to do activities and songs - activities they
like. Teachers are dancers and singers. They will just practice English
during the five days. Even after school holidays (CNY), they will forget
everything. All the rural schools are the same so we have to refresh them.
 They forget totally. They don’t do their homework so they forgot
everything.
Interviewer 2 : We are observing in schools and this is our 3rd time we are going to
schools. We found out that they are shy to answer, due to their lack of
vocabularies.
Mrs. Kanageswari : They are very shy, even when we answer we have to use Malay.
Because they used to see us every day, and suddenly when they see a
stranger, they will be very shy. Even when they answer, they have to say
in Malay.
Interviewer 2 : Do you have any suggestions because we teachers are the only agents
for them to use the language. So how can we at least slowly let them start
using language in classroom first because now, they don’t event speak in
classroom.
Mrs. Kanageswari : It’s not that we don’t want to teach them English, but when we ask them
to say “Teacher may I go to the toilet, they will say “Teacher tandas”. In
the class they will use but after that they will forget and neglect
everything. I cannot fully use English in classroom, I want my students to
understand what I teaching. 60% I use English but I translate. If I keep on
using English, they won’t get what I say. I will give them task or work and
then the next day I will ask them. In urban areas, you don’t have to worry
because they speak English all the time.
Interviewer 2 : Actually our 3 class cohorts came here for our culture assignment to find
out social diversity can affect their learning and we can see here that it is
not that diverse here because theres only 2 races here. So, we want to
find out how, this school for orang asli is different from urban schools.
Even the Guru Besar here say that the school here is the same.
Mrs. Kanageswari : if you go to rural schools. Its more or less the proficiency is the same. If
you go to a rural area, the force has a positive influence. When I taught in
rural schools I thought I had to lower my level but instead it’s still the
same.
Interviewer 2 : If we are teaching in a rural school, how do we teach about other
cultures? Maybe the topic is on unity.
Mrs. Kanageswari : It’s quite difficult actually. For example, I’m Indian and I want to
introduce my cultures to them, they do know that. Actually they know
 about the cultures in Malaysia. They will learn through visual and they
won’t learn without pictures. If you teach about culture, we will need to tell
them about whatever these cultures do to make them understand. They
can already identify names and they can identify whether that name
belongs to a girl or a boy.
Interviewer 1 : Lets say, for orang asli students. If you mix them with the mainstream
students, do you think it is better for them?
Mrs. Kanageswari : I think they will do better because its sort of exposure to them. They can
easily learn how to make friends and even if they cant learn much they
can still learn about the culture about others. They are so used to living
with the same culture where it would be difficult for them to mingle with
other students. It’s the same as Chinese schools and Tamil schools. They
would take time mixing with other cultures but they can learn about them.
Interviewer 2 : That is all. Thank you, teacher for spending your time with us for this
interview.