CLASSROOM DISCOURSE OF MALAY LANGUAGE LESSON: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Research on the teaching and learning process of the Malay language in the
classroom usually focuses on the method, content, strategy and teaching aids.
Moving away from this norm, this research article examines the process from the
discourse analysis perspective called pedagogic discourse analysis, with an
adaptation of Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis Framework (1992; 1995).
The discussion is based on several hours of teaching-learning case study
conducted in a secondary school classroom, which emphasizes integrated
curriculum in an attempt to understand the unseen social processes, i.e. teacher
dominance in discourse. The research findings indicate that teacher dominance is
concealed in turn-taking system, types of questions posed by the teacher,
discourse control and the overall structure of the discourse, which have their
implications on the implementation of the National Education Philosophy.
Contrary to the emphasis on student centredness and thinking skills as laid out by
the Integrated Curriculum for Secondary School, it is found that the nature of the
learning process in the classroom hardly focused on students’ thinking skills. This
article argues that students should be given the opportunity to exercise their
critical and creative potentials.