KOTA KINABALU: A teacher from SMK Mutiara in Labuan made the state proud by winning the silver award for his innovation ‘I SPY 5 Stars’, a teaching and learning tool for subject-verb agreement and modals, at the Creative Teacher Showcase held in conjunction with the 21st Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA) International Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Hyginus Lester Junior Lee, who hails from Kota Kinabalu and heads the English Language Panel of his school, proved to local and international judges how innovation in English language teaching using stars could improve grammar competence among students, be it primary, secondary or tertiary level.
The award was presented by MELTA president Associate Professor Dr Ganakumaran Subramaniam. Hyginus received a certificate, books and cash of RM300.
‘I SPY’ is the acronym for the pronoun “I”, singular subject (S), plural subject (P) and you (Y) which are respectively labeled on each star.
The fifth star is for modals. ‘I SPY 5 Stars’ was also recently selected as one of the seven best innovations in the Federal Territory of Labuan in the Innovation Walk 2012 Programme organised by Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia and the National Unity and Integration Department.
Such an achievement mirrors this year’s Teacher’s Day theme “Innovative Teachers Accelerate National Education Transformation”.
The Creative Teacher Showcase was held to provide English language practitioners with an opportunity to showcase best practices and teaching materials that have been effectively 1used for teaching-learning contexts.
Participants demonstrated how teaching-learning materials may be used as mediums of aligning teaching and learning outcomes successfully.
The 21st MELTA International Conference was held on May 28-29 at Sunway Putra Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. MELTA chose the theme” Reframing English Language Education: New Environments, New Needs, New Solutions” to deliberate on the need to construct new epistemologies and frameworks for English language education.
There were paper and poster presentations, workshops, panel discussions, and demonstrations by renowned academicians from around the globe including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Korea, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Japan and Pakistan.
It shall continue in Kuching at Four Points by Sheraton on June 7-8.