A Research On Development Of English Education In Malaysia

English education in Malaysia can be traced back to British colonization era, which began in 1786 when British East India Company occupied Penang Island in the northern peninsular Malaya. As early as 1815, London missionary John Robert Morrison set up the first bilingual school "the Anglo-Chinese College" in Malacca. The next year in 1816, another missionary established "Penang Free School" in Penang Island. Then in 1823, Sir Stanford Raffles sponsored the third English school in Singapore on behalf of the East India Company. Later, more similar bilingual schools were opened. All these schools were generally controlled by the British church, who prescribed Bible as the sole course book in order to spread Christian culture, but in essence not to teach Malays English. Therefore, the earliest bilingual education was of low quality.From the 1780s to the 1870s, Britain expanded its colonial rule in Malay peninsular quickly; British colonial administration was increasingly in need of native English-educated officials and bank clerks. To cope with this, since the 1870s, British colonial administrators founded some government-financed English schools in Malaya, which cultivated quite many administrative officials and civil servants, who were originally offspring of Malay nobles and educated in western way so as to serve the British colonization. After that in 1903, British colonial administration adopted English language policy and encouraged private philanthropic organizations to set up more English schools with government providing subsidies. To sum up, the earliest English schools in Malaysian history were either government-established or privately-sponsored with the intention of serving the British colonization; nevertheless, they also subconsciously facilitated English education as well as private schooling in Malaysia.The 1942 Japanese conquest of Malaya temporarily terminated English education in Malaysia, In no time, English schools were replaced with Japanese ones. And in 1945, Britain returned to Malaya after Japan failed the war and withdrew. English education in Malaya was restored. The next 12 years was the tough period when Malayan nationalists strived for national independence and finally in 1957, national independence was gained and a new nation----Malaysia was officially founded. Naturally, Malay was prescribed as the national language while English only remained to be official language for next 10 years. Actually, English lost its supreme status; however, it was still the language of communication. Then 1969 ethnic riot was a turning point for government's attitudes towards English and made administrators aware of the significance and urgency to build a unified, stable nation with the common language (Malay) and one uniform education system. Consequently, Malaysian government resolutely decided to unify the education system and transform all English-medium schools into Malay schools from 1970 to 1982. In the end, until the 1980s, all English-medium schools were completely eradicated, In a word, English was no longer the language of instruction, but a compulsory subject. Malaysians who attended schools after the 1970s had a lower proficiency in English. The post-independence period witnessed the diminishing status of English and the decline of English education in Malaysia.In the 1980s, Malaysia embraced fast development under stable domestic politics. Then in 1991, Malaysian administration set forth to emphasize once-neglected English education and implemented the 1991 Education Act, demanding English to be one of three core subjects (Malay, English & Math). But Malaysia was still not exempted from the 1997 economic recession, which alarmed Malaysian government that English, as the lingual Franca, has assumed supreme significance in the 21st global economy. Thus, Malaysian administrators set to further promote English proficiency nationwide with the target of gaining a firm foothold in world market. Consequently in 2002, suggested by the Prime Minister Mahathir, the MoE proclaimed that Math and Science-related subjects should be taught in English in all levels of schools, which was actualized since 2003 and several billion Ringgit was allocated to ensure its effective implementation. This policy is universally acknowledged sensible and far-sighted but came out in a haste, without fully considering the difficulties and barriers ahead, so it didn't work out well and it's reported that MoE will abandon it in 2012.Though MoE's 2003 policy aborted, overall, Malaysia has still made great progress in English education. In the new decades, people become keen on English acquisition. Preschool English education in international schools initiated and achieved accomplishments. Private English language centers were opened and flourished throughout. Hundreds of private colleges were established, adopting English as the language of instruction. Moreover, many private colleges developed "2+1" or "2+2"twinning programs with foreign universities in US, UK, Australia, etc. In line with this, online English education system was developed either, catering to individualized English learners. The most popular e-learning tools are ICT, ICA & NICENET.