The first cohort from The University of Auckland’s initial venture into an offshore twinning programme recently received special recognition at a ceremony in Malaysia. The initial cohort of 24 students who graduated with a Bachelor of Education TESOL* in the May graduation ceremonies were among those further honoured by the Malaysian Secretary General for Education at a completions ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.
The BEd(TESOL) programme was initiated by Professor Rod Ellis from the Department of Applied language and Linguistics and is a joint venture between the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Arts. Students study half their courses in Education, and the rest in Arts including papers in linguistics and language teaching. The entire programme is supervised and moderated by The University of Auckland, who also oversee the teaching in Malaysia at the International Languages Teacher Training Institute (IPBA). Staff development is also included with training of Malaysian education lecturers in Auckland and in Malaysia.
The programme is also a wider joint partnership between The University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington, Queensland University of Technology, Macquarie University, and University College, Plymouth, England. Each student received a full scholarship from the Malaysian government for the four-year degree programme, and were among 124 graduates who had the opportunity to study at one of the five international partner universities.
International scholarships are highly sought after in Malaysia, with more than 100,000 applicants this year for just 5,000 places. There are a total of five cohorts in the University’s contract, with the final cohort beginning this year. These students are presently completing their first year of study in Malaysia and will come to Auckland to continue their studies in 2009.
The University of Auckland programme is taught in Malaysia for the first and final years of the course under supervision of the faculties of Arts and Education, and students come to Auckland for the second and third years of their study. According to Dr John Hope, the education director for the programme, this provides an invaluable opportunity for total immersion in not only the English language but also another education system.
"The Malaysian government send their best students here," says Dr Hope, "in the anticipation that they will be the future leaders who will be able to contribute to education in Malaysia over a period of time by coming back with ideas on how to improve education at home, generated by seeing another system in action."
University of Auckland graduate Cheryl Ng received one of five Excellent Student Awards for her academic and teaching achievements during the programme, and was also selected to present the valedictory address on behalf of the 125 student group. She is now teaching English in an upper secondary school in Malaysia. She says her time here was an invaluable chance to see the best aspects of two different education systems.
"Our lecturers always told us to observe how things are done in New Zealand," she remarked, "and then see what is best for our country. They reminded us to adapt the methods we’ve learnt to suit our local classes."
Examples of innovative teaching adaptations generated in their first six months of teaching were presented by two Auckland graduates at a recent international conference. Teaching English to reluctant urban teenager students, one Auckland graduate utilised construction of Facebook pages to motivate students to write in English.
Another graduate described teaching the indigenous Orang Asli people in an isolated jungle environment where the students did not want to attend school to learn the official Malaysian language Bahasa, let alone English. He found that he could initiate learning by joining the students at the local fishing hole after school and introducing Bahasa and English terminology to the fishing context.
* The Bachelor of Education (TESOL) is a specialised programme offered by arrangement. We also offer the Graduate Diploma (TESSOL) at The University of Auckland.
Photo: From left Professor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Raewyn Dalziel, graduate Cheryl Ng, and Associate Dean International John Hope.
