Journal Practicum Week Date Title of Journal

1 Week 1 30th March 2014 - 3rd April 2014 First Week of Practicum in SJKC Ai Chun (1)

On the morning of 30th March 2014 I start my first practicum in SJKC Ai Chun (1). This is a new experience for me. I went to the school with 5 other teacher trainee from IPTHO. My partner and I are from TESL meanwhile the other 4 teacher trainee is from Bahasa Cina and Pendidikan Seni Visual. I met my mentor teacher on the first day. Her name is Madam Yeow, and she has 30 years of experience in teaching English. In addition, I was also given my timetable on the first day. The class I will be teaching is Year 3S. I was very excited and nervous. I asked my mentor for yearly scheme of work too as it was a part of the requirement for me to do my lesson plan. Luckily, madam Yeow was really nice and helpful. She lend me her yearly scheme of work, text book and also activity book. This helped me a lot in planning my lesson plan as I have a guide how to do it. Problems/Event: On the first day I entered the class, my focus was to get to know the students, recognize their name and also their attitudes to learning. I realized one of the big problem in the class is that they like to speak in their mother tongue with me. I noticed that this problem doesnt only happen in English lessons, even in Bahasa Melayu classes they were also speaking in their mother tongue with the teacher. Analysis: I think this problem happen because they are comfortable interacting in their mother tongue. Usually, mother tongue defines the first language we were exposed to, our L1, the first language we speak, the one we grew up with or that our parents did speak with us. And usually people tend to speak this language for a long time. According to a survey done by ( Oxford University Press ELT , 2014), teachers were asked to vote on their top speaking challenge. The problem that received the most votes was in group or pair speaking activities, my students chat in their mother tongue. I think this is because students feel more confident and comfortable speaking in their mother tongue. They can express their thoughts and ideas better if they are speaking in their mother tongue too.

Literature review: The level of development of children's mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language development. (Cummins, 2001) By having a strong foundation in mother tongue language helps the students to grasp the second language better. Therefore, both the mother language and second language nurture each other when the educational environment permits children access to both languages. Suggestion for improvement: As Malaysian school culture often makes students scared to make mistakes, students are afraid to use English to communicate with each other because they are scared of making errors. So, I, as an English teacher to be should provide a safe and conducive classroom environment for the students to learn English. I should encourage the students to speak English, and let them speak out their mind. I should not correct them while speaking, as this will demotivates them from participating in class. The correct way is to note down their errors and correct them later. This allows students to learn from their mistakes. Duration I will try to carry out this solution in a month, and see whether they are any improvements in students participation and speaking in English. Further Actions I discussed this problem with my lecturer, Puan Kurotol Aini. She gave me a suggestion that even though the students speak with me in their mother tongue, I should respond to them in English. This way, they will learn better. Conclusion This is just the first week I carry out my practicum. I hope that I will be able to be a good English teacher, not just teaching the students English but also educating them into a better person.

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