Accuracy and fluency are one

Pre-schoolers learning English words at the learning centre for Kachin refugees from Myanmar.

MY heartfelt thanks go to Samuel Yesuiah for his honest arguments in his letter “Fluency versus accuracy in English learning” (The Star, Jan 26). Apparently, he sounds more down to earth in his comments. I can feel the disappointment and sadness he feels as, I believe, he has been a witness in the line of duty to the cold reception given to the numerous projects introduced by the Education Ministry to arrest the rapid decline in the standard of English.

He states that under the present education system, English language teachers are confronted with two major tasks in the classroom – to teach children to acquire language accuracy on one hand and teach fluency in communication on the other. The adoption of this approach in teaching English appears to have its setbacks, caused primarily by treating both the tasks as separate entities.