UNI STUDENTS LACK READING SKILLS

Post Courier 22 August 2011 Caldron Laepa

Those who cheat win. That is the PNG way.

Students at university level often fail their courses or produce poor results because they lack the skills of reading and understanding what is written.

This is according to the University of Papua New Guinea English Communications Strand senior tutor Johnson Kalu when presenting a research paper in improving language classes for students.

He said that reading, writing and listening are all inter-related.  Reading helps develop constructive thinking and presentation of views because books are written in a way where ideas are concise and orderly for people to understand.

Students fail not because they are not bright but because they do not understand what they are learning. They lack the skills of listening which can develop from reading.

Students come to university from secondary school with the problem of applying correct English skills.

Mr Kalu said that at UPNG students are given English enrichment to help them. However he said that it would be effective if the lessons were taught based on the specific areas of study. Mr Kalu said there were not enough qualified lecturers to teach English for targeted courses.

It was improper to get a secondary school English teacher graduated with a major in Education to be teaching English at university because teaching university students is different to teaching high school students.

COMMENT: There are several issues that come from this report. A basic problem is the attitude of all students to study. Most do not study to gain knowledge. They do not read and know little about the world.

They are not prepared to study Biology or Economics or whatever subject as they have not read books. The empty school libraries have not helped.

All universities in Australia have special classes for overseas students to lift their English language levels and learn the special technical words related to the subject they are to study.

Perhaps the lecturers at UPNG are too lazy to supply their lists of special technical words to the English language teacher. They would say that only the lecturer knows the meaning. So the students never learn.

A major problem for overseas university students is that they attend classes in Australian universities. The time comes to complete the assignments. The trouble is that they have to go to the library and read reference books which they can not do.

If they find the reference books, they face another problem. They have had no experience in writing ideas in their own words. So they copy the words straight from the reference books to their essays.

This is called plagiarism and the students will be penalized by having the mark for the assignment cancelled. But they have been plagiarizing all their school lives from primary school.

They copy the summaries from the blackboard. They copy from books and get good marks. Then they fail in overseas universities.

Mr Kalu talked about secondary teachers being unable to teach as university lecturers teach. That is true. Most do it better. University lecturers often think they are being educated and clever by not teaching the concepts. That is not just unprofessional but lazy.

Students leave their studies without understanding. The lecturers take pride in the view that they do not teach. They lecture. Lazy bums.

The problem gets worse with Outcome Based Education (OBE). Students will plagiarize all their assignments from the millions of kina worth of library books donated. They will go to university unable to read and write. Understand will be a dream.

I worked as a teacher of Grades 11 and 12 at a PNG college a few years ago. They used the study material from the UPNG Distance Education that never changed year in year out.

I knew that most students were cheating by submitting the work from their brothers, sisters and cousins from the years before. One  assignment from  an individual student would have a  different handwriting from the next assignment handed in.  They were cheating their way to university.

Cheating in high schools  will be the standard way to get through Outcome Based Education (OBE). They will plagiarize and get top marks as the teachers have not bothered  to familiarize with the library books available. The standard at university  will drop even  further.