KUCHING: Educators, researchers and academics need to be innovators and engineers of best practices to ensure that the younger generation love and enjoy their journey of learning.
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| Abdul Karim (centre) receives a gift from Unimas board of directors chairman Datu Dr Hatta Solhi. Also seen is Kadim. |
Assistant Minister of Youth Development Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah pointed out that teaching should not only be learning-centred but also learner-centred.
“As educators in challenging times, you need to acknowledge that students are becoming meaning-makers who possess different personal experiences, backgrounds and expectations. When they are acknowledged as such and realise that their experiences matter, learning will be fun and meaningful,” he said prior to launching the International Conference on Language Studies 2014: Best Practices in Teaching and Learning yesterday.
“Malaysia prides itself in being multilingual. While Malay and English languages are very important, our government firmly believes that other languages and dialects are equally important and need to be taught in schools.”
Abdul Karim said the government is aware of the challenges face by schools in the interior.
“However, given the importance of literacy and language to every child, we need strong willpower from all concerned practitioners to pull together existing resources and knowledge to meet this challenge.
“I hope papers presented at this conference will inspire all to nurture new ideas into actionable outcomes with results to benefit learners worldwide.
“This conference is a good platform to establish networking among participants around the globe as educators for best practices in language learning and teaching,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi said the conference theme on effective practices in learning and teaching of languages is very much in line with the aspirations of the Education Ministry’s blueprint.
“Much has been said about the declining standards of English in Malaysia not only among students but even professionals working in their respective fields. This is a serious threat to the country’s ambition of becoming an industrialised nation by the year 2020.
“It is imperative that we all work together to face this challenge. This conference will hopefully be an avenue where issues like this can be discussed and knowledge gained from the discussions shared with our peers from the world over.
“Papers that are deemed credible and appropriate should be published so that they are made more visible. Research findings that are worth further investigation should be highlighted for further exploration,” he said.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and University Tanjunpura (Untan), Kalimantan, Indonesia jointly organised the two-day conference, which aimed to highlight issues relevant not only to educators, researchers and academics, but also individuals and agencies directly or indirectly involved in education.
A total of 120 participants took part and 95 papers were presented.
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