| James Kon |
TEACHERS in preschools now have access to a new and dynamic approach to helping young children build solid foundations in the English language following the launch of the “Magic Moments…. in the preschool English Classroom” teaching resource by guest of honour Haji Abdul Rahman bin Haji Nawi, Director of the Curriculum Development Department, Ministry of Education at the Amar Pahlawan Primary School yesterday.
The “Magic Moments… in the preschool English Classroom” English education resource is the result of a collaborative effort between local English teachers and expatriate English teachers from CfBT.
The resource provides preschool teachers with key skills and innovative strategies in their teaching of English, complimenting preschool English programmes in Brunei’s Government schools. The programme notably makes use of a variety of interesting and engaging techniques to improve the children’s written and spoken English skills.
Haji Abdul Rahman during his speech highlighted: “Since 2009, the Ministry of Education through the Department of Schools and the Curriculum Development Department has worked collaboratively towards improving preschool children’s competency in the English language.
“A joint partnership of teaching English through the Preschool English Programme between preschool Malay and preschool English is still being actively carried out in all preschool classes throughout all government schools in Brunei.”
The literacy programme, he said “is the only one of its kind making use of the similarities and relationships between our national language of Malay and English, our second language.”
The Director of Curriculum Development noted that the new English teaching resource has already seen some success: preschoolers who have previously been unable to speak or write any English have shown significant improvements within a year; many are now able to hold basic conversations in the language, use phonetics to spell basic English words, write simple sentences, and read a series of sentences.
Haji Abdul Rahman bin Haji Nawi, Director of the Curriculum Development Department presenting a copy of the ‘Magic Moments…. in the preschool English Classroom’ resource to one of the teachers . – JAMES KON
He added that teachers have an important role to play in improving the children’s grasp of English and teaching them effectively. In order to achieve this, teachers need to be supported by giving them access to useful teaching materials; these are pivotal to the improvement of the learning outcomes.
The launching ceremony, organised by the Curriculum Development Department, Ministry of Education through its early childhood education unit and CfBT Education Services (B) Sdn Bhd, was also attended by Haji Zulkifli bin Haji Muhammad Yusuf, Acting Assistant Director of Curriculum Development; Steve Munby, CEO of Education Development Trust; and Dominic Morley, Country Manager of CfBT Education Services (B) Sdn Bhd.
Haji Abdul Rahman later presented a copy of the “Magic Moments…. in the preschool English Classroom” teaching resource to representatives of various preschools. A presentation on the teaching aid was then given by Alisa Gin, CfBT’s Head of Primary.
The guest of honour also visited two of Amar Pahlawan Primary School’s classrooms, taking a closer look at the teaching sessions and meeting the students and teachers.
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