Benefits of Being Bilingual.... :)

  Political and economic concerns play a major role in the nation’s perception of the value of learning a second language (Met and Galloway, 1992). Moreover,  there is now a growing appreciation of the role that multilingual individuals can play in an increasingly diverse society, and there is also a greater understanding of the academic and cognitive benefits that may accrue from learning other languages. First and second language acquisition promotes cognitive development.
     
  Personal Benefits
  if we know more than one language is having expanded access to people and resources. Individuals who speak and read more than one language have the ability to communicate with more people, read more literature, and benefit more fully from travel to other countries.Despite that, knowing a second language can also give people a competitive advantage in the work force by opening up additional job opportunities.

   Cognitive Benefits
   Some research suggests that students who receive second language instruction are more creative and better at solving complex problems than those who do not (Bamford and Mizokawa, 1991). A persons with full proficiency in more than one language outperform similar monolingual persons on both verbal and nonverbal tests of intelligence. 

 
  Societal Benefits
  Bilingualism and multilingualism have many benefits to society. A person who are fluent in more than one language can enhance the economic competitiveness abroad, maintain its political and security interests, and work to promote an understanding of cultural diversity of their country. For example, international trade specialists, overseas media correspondents, diplomats, airline employees, and national security personnel need to be familiar with other languages and cultures to do their jobs well. In addition, Teachers, healthcare providers, customer service representatives, and law enforcement personnel also serve their constituencies more effectively when they can reach across languages and cultures. Developing the language abilities of the students now in school will improve the effectiveness of the work force later.
 



  

Eye Opening Experience About SMPKV Shah Alam

We have visited a special needs vocational school at Shah Alam which is named as Sekolah Menengah Pendidikan Khas Vokasional Shah Alam. That was my first experience going to a special needs school. It was a good experience and exposure to me. Ms Pravina, one of the teacher from that school welcome all of us.

  The school cater different disability children such as Deaf, Slow learners, Blind, Physically Disable, and so on. When i went into the school, the first thing that i observe is all the students interact using sign language. They use KTBM ( Kod Tangan Bahasa Malaysia) to interact which is a Malaysian sign language. This sign language is taught in special needs schools in Malaysia.  

  First of all, we went into the meeting room of the school to hear welcome speech from the principal of  Sekolah Menengah Pendidikan Khas Vokasional Shah Alam. After that, we had a Q&A session with Ms Pravina and Ms Saras, they are the teachers from that school. But Ms Saras has more teaching experience, if i am not mistaken it is more than 5 years. During the Q&A session, everyone from Nottingham was shocked to hear the word that utter by the teacher. She refers the children there using double D words. I think that maybe the teacher have difficulties in translating Malay terms into English. 

  After the Q&A session, Ms Pravina takes us a tour around the school. I was amazed by the some of the courses that they had there. I dint expect that a special needs vocational school can have lots of skill traning courses such as hair saloon where they learn how to cut hair and many more. This course is mainly for girls. Moreover, they also have courses such as house keeping, batik painting, motor workshop, portrait painting and drawing, cooking, graphic design  and many more. I was amazed by their talent everything.They are using hi-tech in graphic designing course. They are using use Mac computer for the course which is sponsored by government.

   The years that these children study at special needs school is same as us which are primary 1 until primary 6 and then continue to secondary until secondary 5. These children can extend their studies for two years no matter whether is it primary or secondary level. This extension is for those who need it because of a certain reason. I am not sure of the reasons.

  I heard from the teacher that these student will have an internship program. After they finish their studies, they can get a job. They do not need to go and apply for a job. They can get job in hotels, and many other places as well.

  I am so happy that School of Education had arrange a trip to special needs school which i have never experience it before. This trip was very meaningful for me. I learned a lots of things about special needs school such as their education system, how the teachers there teach them, how is their environment, how the children there interact with each other, what kind of courses they have and many more. I hope that we can visit more different types of school in the future which will give all the students in School of education a good experience. 

An experience from refugee's visit

  Last week's visit by refugees to our campus gave me an good experience. We get to know each other very well by introducing my names and theirs. Our Education school students had arrange a lots of fun activities for them. We had scavenger hunt, musical chairs, caterpillar games and so on. The refugee kids had a lot of fun and we too.

  When we interact with each other was quite different from how i interact with my other fellow friends. This is because their first language is not English. Moreover, they also do not have a proper environment to speak English. Since other groups have a translator where i do not have it. So I had to use very simple English and say it in a simplified way and clearly. They was quite hesitate to be friendly and engage with us at the beginning of the day. Sooner, they started to get more friendly with all of us. Then, we all had such a fun time playing together.

   The day after the visit, Kay and i met Dr.Tida during our lunch time. We had a long conversation about the refugee kids and our education pathway. Dr.Tida told us that the refugee kids do not have a proper classroom as all of us had. Their classroom meant for them is located at the abandon building somewhere near to their housing area. The classroom size is not even big as our campus's cafeteria. The small space itself will be separated into few section and that is where their lesson will be conducted. Despite, they do not even have a fixed and professional teachers to teach them. The teachers whom come to teach is just a volunteer teachers. The qualification of the teachers is if they can speak English,understand English and got some knowledge about what they are teaching. These kids will be sitting down on floor without tables and chairs. In their class, there will be mixed of different ages of students such as 4 years old kid and 12 years old kid in a same class. Moreover,the lesson plan is not proper. For instants, if there were two teachers who came to teach English, they do not know what did the previous teachers had taught them. Thus, sometimes the refugee kids will be taught the same topic twice.  

  Now i know the reason why the kids were refused to be friendly at the beginning, they did not experience this kind of exposure in their life before. However, they had a lot fun through out the day. I can see them having fun, laughing, being friendly to all my fellow friends.

  As a future teacher, i want to help them in education wise by making them successful. They need a  good education, professional teachers, proper lessons, proper classrooms and so on. Dr too, i have a question for you. How can i help them as a teachers after i have complete my UG programme? I mean in education wise.

A Letter Of Appreciation To Ms Ho

Dear Ms Ho, you  have taught how to be confident  because you showed me that you are successful in life  eventhough you're Deaf.  I learnt from you that no matter what obstacles we met in life, we must strive to overcome it. The talk that you gave was so interesting, I have gain quite some knowledge about Deaf. Before this, I was wondering that  how can a Deaf people lead their life with this hearing disability. I also get to know that, even hearing parents can have a Deaf child.  Through your talk, I have change my perspective about Deaf people and how they lead their life. Moreover, the traslator was amazing. I was amazaed by her sign language. Ms ho, I learnt that different country uses different types of sign languages. I'm so grateful that you have make your time free to visit our university and gave us a great talk. Thank You so much, Ms ho. :)


Regrads
Saraniya

Amazing experinces and information from a Deaf lecturer.

   On ( 19/2/2013), we had a special, talented, admirable guest speaker on our first day of second semester. She is a deaf person whom have succeed in her career and educational life. she is named as Miss Ho Koon Wei. she talked to us about the types and classifications of hearing loss, causes of hearing loss, impact of hearing loss, language of the deaf, learning a second spoken/written language and factors that effect the learning process.
  she explained to us that hearing is not a disability where previously i thought that a deaf person is a person with disability. she said that  society treat them as a person whom are disable which she declared that it is not true. She also claims that the deaf person are people who cannot hear whereas people who can hear are hearing people. Thus, the fact is she cannot hear and we can hear. That's the only difference between deaf people and hearing people in the society. She also said that they can lead a normal life as other people does such as can study, go outing, married, have kids and etc.
  I also learned that there are many types of deaf which are conductive hearing loss, sensory-neural hearing loss and mixed hearing loss. To make this terms simple, there are deaf people and hard hearing people.
  I get to know that deaf people's language such as visual language and a language that created by deaf people and use it among themselves. There are two main sign languages which are ASL ( American sign language) and BMI ( Bahasa isyarat Malaysia). BMI is a sign language that only used in Malaysia's deaf communities. More importantly, i learned that Deaf people do not sign the whole sentence when they need to say something. This is because some verbs and grammars does not carry any meanings in their conversation and sign language. For example, we hearing people will say "I am going to the shop" whereas Deaf people will sign" I go shop". In their sign language, present continuous tense, past tense and etc doesn't gives any meaning. Their main aim is to sign what they are going to do and going  to say. They do not concentrate on grammar errors. That is Deaf people's language. I also learned that for A Deaf child, family support is very important.
  From the article titled "learning about hearing people in the land of Deaf: an ethnographic account" by  G.Audrei , I get to know that ASL is very important to communicate with Deaf people.  Moreover, hearing people has the compulsory of learning ASL instead of speaking English to  hearing people. However, even ASL proficient hearing people rely more on speech reading during their communication with ASL users. G.Audrei stated that ASL is very important in interaction with Deaf society and culture, hearing people's language use and attitudes about its use are important indicators of social identity.