Question: In your opinion, which curriculum development model is more suitable for the

Malaysian context? Justify your choice by analysing the strengths of the model and its
possible contributions to our education system.

In my opinion, the Academic-Subject Design is the most suitable curriculum development

model for the Malaysian context. This is due to some advantages and contributions that
have been outlined from this design. This Academic-Subject design is regarded to be the
common and the most preferred design being used by most of the educators to suit with the
Malaysian context. In fact, Nguyen (2007) claimed that in an English as a foreign language
context, textbooks can be regarded as the only source the basis for language practice that
occurs both inside and outside the classroom. Furthermore, the teachers should use the
learning materials that can be a good reference for the children in order to help them to be
more familiarized with the structures of the language. In teaching the English language in the
classroom, most of Malaysian teachers prefer to use the English textbooks provided by the
Ministry of Education in their English lessons. They rely more on the textbooks as they
believe that the Ministry of Education has produced learning contents and learning activities
that are suitable for the Malaysian students’ level of English competencies and proficiencies.
In this design, it will be advantageous for the teachers to keep on track with their students’
level of learning development as the teachers will focus on using the simple level of
language skills before going into a deep and complicated language skills levels. For
instance, the teachers will introduce the main part of speech to the students before teaching
them how to create a sentence by using those learnt part of speech, as has been focused in
the English textbooks in Malaysia. However, this design does not concern with the students’
rights in choosing their preferred learning contents based on their interests. Thus, it will
demotivate the students to learn at their own pace as they do not have the chance to create
a learning environment that they would love to. To conclude, any learning materials being
selected by the teachers should be carefully evaluated before being used in the English
lessons. Hopefully, the teachers can be creative to adapt some beneficial learning materials
and contents that can cater the students’ learning needs aligned with the needs of 21st
century education.