%0 Journal Article
%@ 978-979-96880-8-8
%A Mohd Faizal, Nizam Lee Abdullah
%A Alvinson, Roland Demong
%A Sazelli, Ab Ghani
%A Che Nidzam, Che Ahmad
%A Mazlini, Adnan
%A Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia,
%D 2015
%F UNY:23193
%I Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences Yogyakarta State University
%J Proceeding of  International Conference On Research, Implementation And Education  Of Mathematics And Sciences 2015 (ICRIEMS 2015), Yogyakarta State University, 17-19 May 2015
%T MOTHER TONGUE-BASED BILINGUAL EDUCATION PRACTICE FOR TEACHING PRIMARY MATHEMATICS IN RURAL SCHOOL
%U http://eprints.uny.ac.id/23193/
%X In an ethnically diverse country like Malaysia, educators often argue about the best medium of instruction to be used in teaching mathematics especially in primary school. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching mathematics employing the pupils’ mother tongue as the medium of instruction in a rural primary school. Specifically, this quasi-experimental study was conducted to compare the effect of two treatments: using Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction and using the pupils’ mother tongue as the medium of instruction in teaching a mathematics lesson on the topic of ‘Money up to RM1000’. The samples of this study consisted of two classes of Year 3 pupils from two rural schools in Kapit, Sarawak. Each class consisted of 16 pupils whose mother tongue was Bahasa Iban . Iban is one of the major ethnic groups in Sarawak. The class from the first school employed Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction while the class from the second school employed Bahasa Iban as the medium of instruction. A pre-test and a post-test were administered to both classes before and after the study. The main finding from this study suggested a higher positive impact in learning mathematics for pupils using their own mother tongue as the medium of instruction. Thus, the incorporation of mother tongue in the primary mathematics classroom provides a better solution to aid rural pupils’ understanding and development of basic mathematical concepts. Moreover, this could be considered as a crucial platform in knowledge acquisition in a country with diverse ethnic groups.