Most people in teaching field have known about Standard Curriculum for Primary School or Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah which will be implemented starting next year 2011 for Year 1 kids. As usual..new syllabus, new textbooks, new activity books.. everything is new.
I went for a course regarding this new improvised curriculum for English Language. Although I am not teaching Year 1 next year, but this course benefited me as I know which direction this new curriculum will bring our kids. In my personal opinion, I think we will produce pupils with better English Language acquisition.
By using the modular approach, pupils will be taught starting with basics literacy skills, then language arts and grammar. The phonic strategy, which I like the most since I was in college, is introduced so that the pupils will read and speak with correct English pronunciation and enunciation. However, I think teachers might need more time to practise using the sound or what we call the phonemes when spelling out the words vocally.
Many hands-on activities are highlighted to be conducted in Year 1 classes which will be more fun and interesting for the kids. In the previous textbook, hands-on activities were suggested as additional or enrichment activities but in this new textbook, the activities have been put as main activities to learn the language items. Instructions and rubrics are given for teachers and pupils to do the activities in the classroom. So, there is no reason for any English teachers not doing the activities or claiming that they don't have time to do those activities in the classroom.
However, I do think that teachers might need more time in adjusting and adapting this new improvised ways of teaching into their own style. There will be lots of complaint about which way the kids should be taught. And for sure, adjustment and improvisation should be made according to the impact that we will get after implementing this KSSR. I hope this new improvised curriculum will bring a brighter change to our future generation in terms on other language acquisition.