There is growing concern about the rapid decline in the standard of English in

Malaysian schools which if left unchecked would lead to the country losing its competitiveness
(Gill 2002). This triggers me to review on the article I chose entitled From Trash to Treasure:
Grammar Practice for the Malaysian ESL Learners by Puspalata, Sathiyaperba and Angelina.
Grammar belongs to a stereotype family of boredom and challenging. As stated
above, the writers highlighted an issue that can be seen widely in national type schools in
Malaysia; Lack of communication in English language. It is undeniable that our countrys
sociocultural system provides a wide gap on the influence of mother tongue in daily
conversation. Besides, medium of instruction in these schools be the reason pupils use Tamil or
Chinese language often except during English classes. To add, less number of teaching hours
for English leads to a situation where pupils seldom practice English. The overall view is that
pupils in national type schools fail to relate English to the real world because of less emphasis
given on grammar practice.
Thus, the three ladies provide two strategies which I think can be a great solution for the
issue stated. As pupils do not practice English, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
approach could be an ideal approach. Teachers can create a platform for pupils to communicate
in real life situation using English. The advent of CLT has a tremendous impact on the way
language should be taught and learned. Language teachers should shift towards a more
communicative approach of teaching grammar because the goal of teaching is to develop the
ability for communication (Celce-Murcia, 1991). Thus, this approach works best with correct use
of materials.
Moving on to the next strategy that is to use authentic materials for grammar practice.
Herrington and Oliver (2000) suggested a new pedagogical term, called "authentic learning".
This term is directly related to the students' real life and prepares them to face and deal with
real world situations. From my point of view, authentic materials are ordinary texts not produced
specifically for language teaching purposes, but can be motivating because they are the proof
that the language is used for real-life purposes. The sources of authentic materials that can be
used in the classroom are infinite which includes newspapers, magazines, pamphlets,
brochures, TV programs, movies and songs. These materials can be presented through the use
of pictures, diagrams and photographs helps to put the text into context. One of the main ideas
of using AM in the classroom is to expose the learners to as much as real language as
possible. Authentic materials help to motivate learners learn the language by making them feel

that they are learning the 'real' language. From my point of view, the purpose of learning second
language is to be able to benefit from using it in the real world, in real situation. Thus, I feel AM
can be the best teaching aid acts a catalyst to learners to practice English.
To conclude, the use of authentic materials in the classroom is obviously benefiting via
the exposure to real language being used in a real context. Other aspects which proved positive
when using authentic materials are they are highly motivating, giving a sense of achievement
and fun. As less number of hours the pupils have to practice English in classroom, AM creates
safe and controlled language learning environment on the real use of English. The role of the
teacher is not to delude the language learner but to prepare him, giving the awareness and
necessary skills so as to understand how the language is actually used. Finally, It is not that a
text is understood because it is authentic but that it is authentic because it is understood.
Everything the learner understands is authentic for him.