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Monday, 21 September 2009
Raising the bar on language skills
This push to raise levels of proficiency in language teaching is an important one for our education system. We want to raise the standard of English. We want our students to be able to use their mother tongues.
Education Minister Ng Eng Hen gave an address on Thursday at his ministry’s annual work plan seminar. Here is an excerpt of his speech:
Our bilingual policy has served us well. In fact, more school systems elsewhere are opting to teach their students a foreign language. Some schools in Finland and the United States have chosen Mandarin as their foreign language. More Koreans and Japanese have enrolled their children in schools in China.
At the same time, growing numbers of Asians are learning English so as to plug into the globalised world. Now, more than ever, the strategic advantage of our bilingual policy has become apparent.
However, teaching both English and the mother tongue well to our students here is challenging because of our complex language environment.
More of our Primary 1 pupils are coming from households where English is the dominant language. In 1982, only one in 10 Primary 1 Chinese pupils came from homes that used English. Today, the figure is nearly six in 10. For Indians, it has moved from three in 10 in 1982 to six in 10 now; and among Malays, from 0.5 in 10 to 3.5 in 10. A seismic shift in the language environment has occurred within one generation.
How do we respond to this fundamental shift? We want to maintain our bilingual policy, but how should we adapt it so that it continues to be relevant and effective?
I believe we can achieve an acceptable standard of English and also help our students gain proficiency in their mother tongues. We can teach both well, but it will require different methods of instruction. Effectiveness must be measured by how well students can express themselves, and not just the grades they receive.
Language ability is an important skill in this globalised world. Singapore made the right decision in the 1960s to adopt English as the common language of instruction. We could not have anticipated the wave of globalisation that swept the world two decades later, but when it came, and with English as its lingua franca, Singapore was lifted even higher than we had imagined. Even in France, a survey showed that 80 per cent of the French acknowledged that English is the most useful language to know in Europe.
Teachers tell me the standard of English can be improved, and attention must be paid not only to reading and writing the language, but also to speaking it well. In fact, the majority of our students are strong in reading literacy. But language instruction should also lead to better communication skills.
We are not setting this goal to make all our students world-class debaters. But we do want the majority of our students to be able to speak proper English, express themselves clearly and be understood. To be able to communicate well will become increasingly important in their working lives, whether they work here or abroad. Those who can market their ideas and products, or convince others, will have an edge over others.
Teachers recognise that they must be role models, whether during teaching or conversing with other teachers and students. Some schools do pay more attention to spoken English and, as a result, produce students who speak well and reflect favourably on their teachers.
At CHIJ Kellock, for example, there is a conscious effort to speak good English, and to make English learning fun: School corridors are decorated with posters spelling out common grammar mistakes. The school also has a Speak Good English Fortnight, when platforms like storytelling sessions and speech and drama are used to encourage pupils to speak up and speak well.
‘Taboo’ phrases are highlighted so that pupils are aware of how they speak - for example, instead of ‘pass up your books’, say ‘hand in your books’. The pupils catch on and look forward to new ‘taboo’ words and phrases so that they can catch their friends or teachers using them.
Another example is Bukit Panjang Government High. The school includes public-speaking lessons in its English lessons.
The Education Ministry’s English Language Task Force has recommended setting up an English Language Institute of Singapore. Ours is a complex environment where children are exposed to the syntax, grammar and structures of multiple languages from young. We need to pool our expertise and training resources in teaching English to bilingual learners.
My challenge to the teaching service is this: Raise the standard of English. Just as we are renowned for high standards in mathematics and science, we should aim to be known for producing students who express themselves well in English.
This trend where a growing number of households use English will impact greatly on the teaching and learning of the mother tongues as well.
We will maintain our bilingual policy because it will increasingly become a valuable asset. But if our bilingual policy is to remain relevant and effective, we must deal with the reality: We must accept that our students today, and more so in the years ahead, will grow up in a language environment radically different from that of previous generations.
I spoke recently with a father who studied in our SAP schools. He is now nearly 40 and steeped in the Chinese language. His wife, too, was from a SAP school, and they speak to each other in Chinese. But they have a five-year-old son who prefers English and does not like to use Chinese.
I asked him how our Chinese language teaching in primary school can help. He advised me to make the teaching of the language more fun and relevant to daily life. Focus on speaking and using the language, even if that means less focus on formal writing. He was cheered when I said that that was indeed the direction we were taking.
This challenge is not confined to Chinese language teaching. In a recent school visit, one teacher who teaches Malay told me that while her children spoke Malay at home, her nephews and nieces did not. A Tamil teacher commented that the Tamil her children learnt in school was too formal and did not lead them to speak the language at home.
We need to face these challenges squarely. English as the lingua franca will exacerbate our students’ lack of exposure to hearing and speaking their mother tongues. Language must involve listening and speaking. You need to hear it and speak it to remain proficient in a language.
Currently, mother tongue lessons at the primary level take up around an hour per day, or 20 per cent of curriculum time. Of the hours at home, 70 per cent of those aged between seven and 14 spend an average of half an hour to two hours online, most likely using English. This is the living - the listening and hearing - environment of our students today.
The profile of mother tongue language teachers has also evolved. More of them are coming from bilingual backgrounds and understand the practical challenges of teaching Chinese, Malay or Tamil in a predominantly English-speaking environment. For example, 70 per cent of Singaporean Chinese language teachers learnt English as their first language, up from 27 per cent in 2000.
These trends led to the review of Chinese language teaching in 2004, and the reviews of Malay and Tamil teaching in 2005. The goal was to customise the teaching of the mother tongues to students with different learning needs, and enthuse them in using their mother tongues. The changes arising from the review focused on differentiated instruction, greater emphasis on oral skills and reading, and greater use of infocommunication technologies. The initial results of the new primary school Chinese language curriculum are promising.
In West View Primary School, the Malay teachers use podcasts to improve listening comprehension skills among Primary 6 pupils. In Crescent Girls’ Secondary School, the Tamil-language students record their speeches and news readings, upload them online and receive feedback from both their teacher and peers.
In Victoria School, I hear that the Chinese language teachers are now exploring the use of Facebook and Twitter to teach narrative and descriptive writing. They find Facebook more interactive than blogs and discussion forums, while Twitter will allow students to capture their reflections on mobile phones through ‘tweets’.
More and more, our teachers are making use of creative teaching methods and everyday technologies to encourage the functional use of the mother tongues in daily life.
Put simply, we want our students to use their mother tongues and, better still, read newspapers and books in these languages.
If our students are put off their mother tongues when they leave school, we would have failed in our efforts. Especially in the learning of the mother tongue, we may have to move away from teaching for the sake of examinations, to focus on other equally important outcomes of usage and appreciation.
I am glad to report that more of our students are pursuing higher levels of their mother tongues. Last year, 27 per cent of O-level candidates offered such higher levels, compared to 15 per cent in 2000. Special programmes such as the Chinese and Malay Language Elective Programmes at A levels, the Bicultural Studies Programme (Chinese) and our SAP schools have enabled those with the ability to attain a higher level of proficiency in Chinese and a deeper appreciation of its literature and culture.
As a system, we have therefore evolved differentiated approaches to cater to students with different learning abilities and English language environments at home. We have increased the weightings of oral and listening comprehension in the national examinations for the mother tongues to place more emphasis on the use of the languages in authentic, everyday contexts.
This push to raise levels of proficiency in language teaching is an important one for our education system. We want to raise the standard of English. We want our students to be able to use their mother tongues.
If we succeed, we will add a substantial asset to all our students in addition to their high standards in mathematics and science.
3 comments:
Raising the bar on language skills
19 September 2009
Education Minister Ng Eng Hen gave an address on Thursday at his ministry’s annual work plan seminar. Here is an excerpt of his speech:
Our bilingual policy has served us well. In fact, more school systems elsewhere are opting to teach their students a foreign language. Some schools in Finland and the United States have chosen Mandarin as their foreign language. More Koreans and Japanese have enrolled their children in schools in China.
At the same time, growing numbers of Asians are learning English so as to plug into the globalised world. Now, more than ever, the strategic advantage of our bilingual policy has become apparent.
However, teaching both English and the mother tongue well to our students here is challenging because of our complex language environment.
More of our Primary 1 pupils are coming from households where English is the dominant language. In 1982, only one in 10 Primary 1 Chinese pupils came from homes that used English. Today, the figure is nearly six in 10. For Indians, it has moved from three in 10 in 1982 to six in 10 now; and among Malays, from 0.5 in 10 to 3.5 in 10. A seismic shift in the language environment has occurred within one generation.
How do we respond to this fundamental shift? We want to maintain our bilingual policy, but how should we adapt it so that it continues to be relevant and effective?
I believe we can achieve an acceptable standard of English and also help our students gain proficiency in their mother tongues. We can teach both well, but it will require different methods of instruction. Effectiveness must be measured by how well students can express themselves, and not just the grades they receive.
Language ability is an important skill in this globalised world. Singapore made the right decision in the 1960s to adopt English as the common language of instruction. We could not have anticipated the wave of globalisation that swept the world two decades later, but when it came, and with English as its lingua franca, Singapore was lifted even higher than we had imagined. Even in France, a survey showed that 80 per cent of the French acknowledged that English is the most useful language to know in Europe.
Teachers tell me the standard of English can be improved, and attention must be paid not only to reading and writing the language, but also to speaking it well. In fact, the majority of our students are strong in reading literacy. But language instruction should also lead to better communication skills.
We are not setting this goal to make all our students world-class debaters. But we do want the majority of our students to be able to speak proper English, express themselves clearly and be understood. To be able to communicate well will become increasingly important in their working lives, whether they work here or abroad. Those who can market their ideas and products, or convince others, will have an edge over others.
Teachers recognise that they must be role models, whether during teaching or conversing with other teachers and students. Some schools do pay more attention to spoken English and, as a result, produce students who speak well and reflect favourably on their teachers.
At CHIJ Kellock, for example, there is a conscious effort to speak good English, and to make English learning fun: School corridors are decorated with posters spelling out common grammar mistakes. The school also has a Speak Good English Fortnight, when platforms like storytelling sessions and speech and drama are used to encourage pupils to speak up and speak well.
‘Taboo’ phrases are highlighted so that pupils are aware of how they speak - for example, instead of ‘pass up your books’, say ‘hand in your books’. The pupils catch on and look forward to new ‘taboo’ words and phrases so that they can catch their friends or teachers using them.
Another example is Bukit Panjang Government High. The school includes public-speaking lessons in its English lessons.
The Education Ministry’s English Language Task Force has recommended setting up an English Language Institute of Singapore. Ours is a complex environment where children are exposed to the syntax, grammar and structures of multiple languages from young. We need to pool our expertise and training resources in teaching English to bilingual learners.
My challenge to the teaching service is this: Raise the standard of English. Just as we are renowned for high standards in mathematics and science, we should aim to be known for producing students who express themselves well in English.
This trend where a growing number of households use English will impact greatly on the teaching and learning of the mother tongues as well.
We will maintain our bilingual policy because it will increasingly become a valuable asset. But if our bilingual policy is to remain relevant and effective, we must deal with the reality: We must accept that our students today, and more so in the years ahead, will grow up in a language environment radically different from that of previous generations.
I spoke recently with a father who studied in our SAP schools. He is now nearly 40 and steeped in the Chinese language. His wife, too, was from a SAP school, and they speak to each other in Chinese. But they have a five-year-old son who prefers English and does not like to use Chinese.
I asked him how our Chinese language teaching in primary school can help. He advised me to make the teaching of the language more fun and relevant to daily life. Focus on speaking and using the language, even if that means less focus on formal writing. He was cheered when I said that that was indeed the direction we were taking.
This challenge is not confined to Chinese language teaching. In a recent school visit, one teacher who teaches Malay told me that while her children spoke Malay at home, her nephews and nieces did not. A Tamil teacher commented that the Tamil her children learnt in school was too formal and did not lead them to speak the language at home.
We need to face these challenges squarely. English as the lingua franca will exacerbate our students’ lack of exposure to hearing and speaking their mother tongues. Language must involve listening and speaking. You need to hear it and speak it to remain proficient in a language.
Currently, mother tongue lessons at the primary level take up around an hour per day, or 20 per cent of curriculum time. Of the hours at home, 70 per cent of those aged between seven and 14 spend an average of half an hour to two hours online, most likely using English. This is the living - the listening and hearing - environment of our students today.
The profile of mother tongue language teachers has also evolved. More of them are coming from bilingual backgrounds and understand the practical challenges of teaching Chinese, Malay or Tamil in a predominantly English-speaking environment. For example, 70 per cent of Singaporean Chinese language teachers learnt English as their first language, up from 27 per cent in 2000.
These trends led to the review of Chinese language teaching in 2004, and the reviews of Malay and Tamil teaching in 2005. The goal was to customise the teaching of the mother tongues to students with different learning needs, and enthuse them in using their mother tongues. The changes arising from the review focused on differentiated instruction, greater emphasis on oral skills and reading, and greater use of infocommunication technologies. The initial results of the new primary school Chinese language curriculum are promising.
In West View Primary School, the Malay teachers use podcasts to improve listening comprehension skills among Primary 6 pupils. In Crescent Girls’ Secondary School, the Tamil-language students record their speeches and news readings, upload them online and receive feedback from both their teacher and peers.
In Victoria School, I hear that the Chinese language teachers are now exploring the use of Facebook and Twitter to teach narrative and descriptive writing. They find Facebook more interactive than blogs and discussion forums, while Twitter will allow students to capture their reflections on mobile phones through ‘tweets’.
More and more, our teachers are making use of creative teaching methods and everyday technologies to encourage the functional use of the mother tongues in daily life.
Put simply, we want our students to use their mother tongues and, better still, read newspapers and books in these languages.
If our students are put off their mother tongues when they leave school, we would have failed in our efforts. Especially in the learning of the mother tongue, we may have to move away from teaching for the sake of examinations, to focus on other equally important outcomes of usage and appreciation.
I am glad to report that more of our students are pursuing higher levels of their mother tongues. Last year, 27 per cent of O-level candidates offered such higher levels, compared to 15 per cent in 2000. Special programmes such as the Chinese and Malay Language Elective Programmes at A levels, the Bicultural Studies Programme (Chinese) and our SAP schools have enabled those with the ability to attain a higher level of proficiency in Chinese and a deeper appreciation of its literature and culture.
As a system, we have therefore evolved differentiated approaches to cater to students with different learning abilities and English language environments at home. We have increased the weightings of oral and listening comprehension in the national examinations for the mother tongues to place more emphasis on the use of the languages in authentic, everyday contexts.
This push to raise levels of proficiency in language teaching is an important one for our education system. We want to raise the standard of English. We want our students to be able to use their mother tongues.
If we succeed, we will add a substantial asset to all our students in addition to their high standards in mathematics and science.
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