ACADEMIC ESSAY

Sampson, O.C (2018) defines remedial education as a learning process that happens after
the initial, primary instruction of a theme or skill. He also adds that remedial education is
meant to enhance skills that appear deficient in an exceedingly particular subject or area.
Remedial educational programs are designed specially to assist give these remedial
learners a bit more individual attention, in smaller groups and often at a slightly slower pace.
According to Hamilton, D.W (2013), remedial learners are pupils who have temporarily fallen
behind in their studies or otherwise need short-term support in their learning. Although the
Remedial
Education Program was initiated in Malaysia 30 years ago, but still it has not been fully
effective as the trained teaching are facing quite a few challenges.

One of the issues in remedial education in Malaysia is the lack of exposure and training
about remedial education among the English teachers. Lack of training guides to very limited
knowledge and exposure among the teachers on remedial teaching and learning. This ends
up in making them to fail to produce teachers who are committed to the task. Failure to
expose the students to the use of English in prolonged periods leads to the erosion of the
new ideas that they learn in class (Wang, Shang & Briody, 2012). According to Zainal (1989)
remedial teachers are responsible for planning and implementing activities for remedial
learners. This becomes a challenge as teachers could not uphold the responsibility when
they do not have enough education on remedial teaching and learning. Hence, this proves
that Malaysian teachers still need more training on remedial teaching programs as in order
to extend its efficiency.

Besides, lack of motivation is also one of the issues of remedial education in Malaysia.
Ortega, L (2014) depicts that learning a new language requires patience and the learner
should be motivated to continue pushing harder to progress their knowledge in the use of the
language. This inner motivation among remedial learners is quite low in Malaysia as they
tend to overlook the benefits of English Language. When a child understands the importance
of understanding a language and can see how it directly applies to his life, he learns faster
(Yang, C., 2018). This verifies that remedial learners are not updated with the importance of
understanding English language as their intrinsic motivation is low. The interaction between
the teachers and the remedial learners should be very close in order to acquire the intended
results. Therefore, it certifies that remedial education could be more effective if the issue of
lack of motivation is worked on.

Furthermore, the next issue of remedial education in Malaysia is language is not requisite in
their society. This shows a great impact as most pupils in Malaysia are either bilingual or
multilingual. Remedial learners in school are given a lot of extra tasks to be completed
outside the classroom. It gets rather hard for the pupils to start using English as their default
language because they prefer using the mother tongue outside their classroom. The
effectiveness of the remedial courses is also influenced by the negative attitude developed
by the students towards the English language (Elmetwally, 2012). Remedial learners should
be encouraged to use the English language outside the classroom because language
learners have the ability to translate skills from one language to another because they are
able to recognize the rules and patterns of language, even if the vocabulary is different.

In conclusion, although the remedial programs are being implemented in Malaysia, it still
requires a lot of attention and improvement. The issues in remedial programs need to be
taken seriously in order to create an effective education for remedial learners.

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References

Elmetwally, E. E. (2012). Students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward the use of learners’
mother tongue in English language classrooms in UAE public high schools. Doctoral
dissertation, British University in Dubai.

Hamilton, D. W. (2013). Contextualized learning may redefine remedial education.

Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 37(12), 1016-1020.

Ortega, L. (2014). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.

Sampson, O. C. (2018). Remedial education (Vol. 44). Routledge.

Wang, Y. J., Shang, H. F., & Briody, P. (2012). Exploring the impact of using automated
writing evaluation in English as a foreign language university students' writing. Computer
Assisted Language Learning, (ahead-of-print), 1-24.

Yang, C. (2018). A formalist perspective on language acquisition. Linguistic Approaches to

Bilingualism, 8(6), 665-706.

Zainal Abidin Mohd. Deen. (1986). Pentadbiran dan Pengelolaan Pendidkan Pemulihan di
Peringkat Negara, Negeri dan Sekolah. Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. Bahagian
Sekolah-Sekolah.