Mulla Nasrudin stood up in the market place and started to address the throng. “O people! Do you want knowledge without difficulties, truth without falsehood, attainment without effort, progress without sacrifice?” Very soon a large crowd gathered, everyone shouting: “Yes, yes!” “Excellent!” said the Mulla. “I only wanted to know. You may rely upon me to tell you all about it if I discover any such thing.”
~ “The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin” by Idries Shah

Sometimes when I think about Indonesian schools and their attempts at improvements, I am reminded of this story. Too often schools want quick ready made solutions to launch them into the world. Often also they think that to become a Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional (SBI) all you need to do is shop.

And all too often, there will be snake oil peddlers promising them this! Today, the snake oil that is being peddled to Indonesian schools include “Singapore education” or “Singapore syllabus”, “ICT”, “English language” and “international examinations”. Indonesians will do well to heed Mulla Nasrudin.

For more Mulla Nasrudin stories that gets you pondering, click on the book cover.

I often get appeals for help to provide private tuition for English Language for a young child. Sometimes I do want to help especially if the child is very young. However, usually my offer to help will get turned down.

This may seem strange since the parents of these children were the ones who had asked for help. The truth is that many of these parents seem to think that only private tuition is the answer. In Singapore, by private tuition, it usually means drilling children on examination-style questions. This is what parents want. There may be a place for that somewhere, I seriously doubt it will be of any good when a child is trying to pick up a second language, English in this case, and he is still only seven. I strongly believe that providing him with only the usual drill-and-practice approach will only put him off the language and stifle his learning the language.

But every time I suggest another approach to these parents, they will inevitably disagree. I usually suggest a program that involves giving the child greater exposure to the language. This would include reading, writing, listening and speaking. I would steer clear of classroom type exercises. The idea is just to let him get familiar with the language in every way possible.

In my program, reading is important and I would give every opportunity possible for the child to read or listen to someone read. At that age story-telling also becomes important. Stories never fail to entice kids. It is just a question of picking the right one. I would let them read almost anything that interest them. My son who is eighteen still reads his cereal boxes though of course he has gone beyond it too. If children love to read about aircraft, then get books about aircraft and pilots. If it is animals, then bring in the jungle into the picture.

Singing songs would be part of the things that I would do to encourage language acquisition. Songs are a great way to bring fun to language learning. Teaching them the lyrics, explaining the meaning and context of songs can all help him be a good listener and speaker.Get them to sing to listen to their own voices speaking the language. Does wonders for confidence.

Audio books allow for them to listen to stories. Or read to them. Provide them with examples of good reading. Again choice is important. Let them listen to the kinds of stories they want to hear. Word games and even tongue-twisters are also great fun. Use them.

Get them to write short letters to their mum, dad or grandma. Allow them to draw and decorate. Use lots of colors. Get these people involved so the children can see that writing to someone will get a reaction and lead to communication, and not just marks!

And I would bring them to a public library just to show them that you can get books and other reading materials without buying them. Show them where to get them in the library. Teach them how to find them. Having said that, I would also make it a point to bring them to book shops to buy books! This is to teach them the idea that we should invest in books. Books are just as vital as toys!

Most of all, let the parents know what you are doing and explain why. Getting them involved through following you to the libraries and bookshops and just sitting in with you can teach them wonderful ways to help their children master a language.

So for young children don’t put them off a language through tuition. Give them exposure to the language. But don’t let it be a chore and don’t be a bore.

(PS I do believe the same can work with older kids who have difficulties with language acquisition.)