PHASE 2 TEACHER INTERVIEW Introduction MdmFarizabintiHamzah, a MUET teacher from SMK Datuk Syed Ahmad was chosen as a teacher

r informant for our project. As a teacher with a teaching experience of more than 10 years and graduated from abroad (Auckland University, New Zealand), her track record is overwhelming whereby she managed to maintain a zero Band 1 of all of her students for three years in a row. Through this interview, we are hoping to extract some insights of her teaching engagement. Interview Report When the first question of whether she practices bilingual in class, she said that she only uses BM to explain certain new terms and enhancing her students vocabulary. But, she also said that her usage of bilingual approach is dependable on certain situations such as making jokes, motivating her students and (maybe) scolding them. From our point of view, we agree with her to a point whereby in order to get the message across, the bilingual approach is also necessary to avoid miscomprehension from the students. Krashen (1996) believes that if a teacher is able to make his or her classroom instruction comprehensible through bilingual approach, the learners will not only learn about the subject but also they will acquire the English language simultaneously. The ability of learning English subconsciously will prevail although the teacher uses bilingual approach in classroom context whereby the students will be able to compare and contrast between BM and English contextually. The second question was about her exploitation of the English language beyond the classroom compound and she answered that she normally uses simple
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sentences whilst greeting other students simply to make sure that her students know how to respond. We reflected that students need a lot of exposure to the language and it is a good tactic of her to create an environment for the use of English language outside the classroom walls. John Dewey (cited from Kliebard, 1992) believed that education must have strong link to the environment of the learners for them to engage and expand their experience. By creating a natural-like environment, the teacher fosters the learning environment to practice what they have been taught in class beyond the classroom compound. This act will strengthen the concept of ..the teacher should play with the process. by Dewey (1929). The teacher practises student-centred learning and cooperative learning in the classroom as to prepare her students for MUET examination in Form 6. MUET examination requires reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. She prepares the students toward the examination. When practise student centred learning, it helps the students to enhance their four primary skills. She practises cooperative learning as well. This principle helps the students to participate in classroom discussion. It encourages and creates opportunity to speak in the classroom. It is to prepare the students for their speaking test in MUET. The teacher does not particularly believe in any of the guiding principles or theories in her teaching but she follows what she was taught when she was in teaching college. She believes that what was taught is useful for her and she is applying it in her daily teaching. She practises the theories in the activities in the classroom to meet the objectives of lesson. According to the teacher, she believes that textbook alone is more than sufficient to bring up the students to achieve flying colour result. The

teacher practises cooperative learning in order to achieve the classroom goal. Teacher decides the goal structure to implement with each lesson. According to the Johnson & Johnson model, cooperative learning is instruction that involves students working in teams to accomplish a common goal. The teacher practises this theory to achieve the goal ( Felder, Brent. pg 2). Furthermore, the teacher also practises student-centred learning theory by Carl Rogers. Students centred learning theory works well in classroom.The benefits of learner-centered education include increased motivation for learning and greater satisfaction with school; both of these outcomes lead to greater achievement (Johnson, 1991; Maxwell, 1998; Slavin, 1990 cited in Blumberg, 2013). This theory helps the students to achieve higher grade as it promotes freedom and comfort among students whenever they learn using this theory A person cannot teach another person directly; a person can only facilitate another's learning (Rogers, 1951). She believes that student centred learning would help her students to prepare themselves towards the examination. They could not teach each other but they could facilitate each other with their prior knowledge. For instance, the high achiever facilitates the low achiever. Teacher believes that goal can be achieved when we closely follow the curriculum design that has been already implemented. For instance, textbook is sufficient to prepare the students for the examination and even her previous batch of students achieved good result with the help of textbook alone. She does use different materials which is newspaper to encourage students to speak and participate in the discussion among students. She thinks that when promote cooperative learning students feel comfortable and free to speak. They are able to express their ideas. Students learn more in cooperative learning theory compared to teacher centred
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learning theory. The teacher believes that student centred learning theory helps the students to learn faster and effective as it promotes facilitation among them. Students may use the simple language that they used to with other students which makes them understand even better compared to teachers proficiency level which may hard to understand or sometimes requires translation. She also believes that Form 6 students need to be independent more than dependent because they are grown up teenagers who no longer prefer to dependent on teacher so much. This theory also helps them to prepare themselves for their tertiary education level. We think that the teacher well organizes and well prepares the lesson according to the objectives of lesson. She tries to achieve the objectives of lesson even in next class if she is not able to achieve on time. She ensures the students participation I the classroom. She practices two theories which are cooperative learning and students centred learning even though she does not particularly believes in any of the theories. She prepares the students for their MUET examination which is very important for their future tertiary education. She concerns about the students grades compare to other aspects as the grades determined her success of teaching. This is what requested by their boss. She believes that textbook is good enough for students to achieve good grades. As she stated in her lines, ...so, if its not broken, why fix it? She believes that textbook helped her previous students to achieve so it will do the same thing to her current students. So she prefers to use the textbook compare to other materials. She stick to and practises what was taught to her in her teacher training college.

References Dewey, J. (1929). My pedagogic creed. Journal of the National Education Association, 18(9), 291295. Extracted online from constructivism_(learning_theory)#cite_noteP.W._Jackson_.28Ed..29-15 Krashen, S. (1996). Under attack: The case against bilingual education. Burlingame, CA: Language. Education Associates. Extracted online from esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/krashen.htm Kliebard, H. (1992). Constructing a history of American curriculum in Handbook of research on curriculum. pp. 157184. Extracted online from constructivism_(learning_theory)#cite_noteP.W._Jackson_.28Ed..29-15