Mother Tongue Is Still Cool

GET A HEADSTART WITH CHINESE

Being bilingual, besides boosting brain power, opens brand new doorways By Gerard Sng

Exams are finally over! Looking relieved, while laughing and chatting away excitedly with her friends in Sengkang Primary School canteen, one may not be surprised to hear Rachael Wong, 8 conversing only in English. To Rachael and many other pupils like her, English remains the one and only source of communication with the external world, except during Chinese classes in school. This growing trend, described by Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen as ‘inexorable change’ in the language environment in homes, sees six in 10 Primary 1 Chinese students speaking English at home now. Coupled with the expectation of the current Chinese curriculum, this change has inevitably placed a burden deemed by many affected pupils and parents as overwhelming, leading to a passionate plea for review.

Chinese Language: Harder to write than read?

A common grouse we hear from students learning Chinese is the extensive time and effort needed in the process of remembering how to read and write the characters, and having to recollect them later during exams. “Chinese is an easier language to learn than English. Though this may be true when it comes to reading Chinese, it may not be so in the case of writing Chinese”, says Dr Lee Wei Ling, Director, National Neuroscience Institute, in her column, ‘Think-Tank’, Sep 15, 2010, Straits Times. She adds, “As in all languages, being able to read or write Chinese is dependent on linguistic skills. Language ability resides in the left brain in almost all righthanded people and more than half of those who are left-handed. Pattern recognition and purely spatial skills reside in the right brain. They do not contribute to reading Chinese.” With that description, Dr Lee explains that writing Chinese characters is very difficult compared to reading the characters because when we want to write a character, we will usually think of how a character is pronounced, but that seldom gives us enough clues as to how to write that character. According to a test she conducted on 1,000 Chinese/ English bilingual students from primary and secondary schools, Dr Lee found that the ability to read Chinese was highly dependent on their command of spoken Chinese. The current Chinese curriculum requires a primary six student to know 1,500 to 2,000 characters. It also expects the pupil to write about 1,000 words. This is a challenge beyond the capability of many average pupils, all the more for those coming from English Language (EL) speaking homes. What we teach and how we test our students in Chinese needs to be revamped soon, concludes the writer.

PSLE: Consistent trend in performance

According to the Ministry of Education (MOE), the students’ performance in Chinese Language in the 2009 PSLE examination was similar to the performance in the previous years. 13 per cent of candidates scored A*s, 69 per cent scored As, 11 per cent scored Bs and 5 per cent scored C, making the percentage of PSLE students, who scored A*–C in Chinese, 98 per cent. The remaining students obtained D, E or U grades. These figures exclude the 5 per cent of students who took the foundation Level Chinese. Dr Ng said in his response to a question in parliament in May 18, 2010, “MOE is not reducing the weighting of mother tongue language (MTL) in PSLE. The MTLs remain a vital part and cornerstone of our education system.” He also highlighted that among schools that have a high proportion of students (i.e. at least 80%) from predominantly EL speaking homes, 97 per cent of the students scored A* to C for their Chinese Language at the 2009 PSLE, which is marginally lower than the national cohort of 98 percent. This has opened up the discussion as to whether the existing system of teaching and testing this language needs to be moderated to accommodate the wide range of learning abilities.

“MOE is not reducing the weighting of mother tongue language (MTL) in PSLE. The MTLs remain a vital part and cornerstone of our education system.” Dr Ng ENg HEN Minister of Education

Chinese speaking community’s concern

Fearing such an attempt to moderate may diminish the importance of Chinese in Singapore, many began voicing their concerns. On May 9, 2010, taking the public by surprise, more than 2,500 people, mainly Chinese of all ages from all walks of life had gathered at Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park to sign a petition against what they thought would lead to a reduction in MTL weighting in PSLE against the other subjects – English, Mathematics and Science. Many had stepped forward to sign the petition fearing the reduction in the weighting will lead to a drop in Chinese language further. Their aim was to help convey the community’s strong views on this issue to the Government. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong later clarified that there was no plans to change the status quo. However, for the bilingual policy to remain relevant, MOE will be looking at ways to improve the teaching of Chinese, so that students can benefit from the economic and cultural rise of Asia, particularly China.

US: More and younger students learning Chinese

A similar policy has taken root in US. With the rise of China’s political and economic presence in this world, Chinese language is fast gaining popularity among more students across the US. In the year 2000, about seven million students in grade 7 to 12 were enrolled in foreign language courses. In this cohort, according to a survey done by American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language, only 5,000 were learning Chinese. Despite Chinese being classified by the US State Department as one of the five hardest languages for English speakers to learn, a new study by this council now shows that the number has increased exponentially to 66,000, underscoring the critical importance of the language to the political, economical and cultural interests of US.

Benefits beyond grades

By helping children to become effectively bilingual, not only will we get to see them benefit from the rise of Asia, but also to see them enjoy the advantage of their abilities and skills in areas such as language, memory and attention. And to ensure the bilingual policy remain relevent, Dr Ng announced that MOE has appointed a Mother Tongue Languages (MTL) Review Committee to chart a road map for the next 10 to 15 years. This Committee, which has been studying best practices around the world and the local trends, has shown that in order for language instruction to be effective for students with a broad spread of linguistic abilities, it has to make teaching more customised to the range of student abilities, and make learning more relevant in different real life situations. This means assessments and examinations will have to be aligned, more MTL teachers will have to be recruited while the existing ones have to be re-trained. Fruition of an initiative such as this will eventually see Rachael and her friends rejoicing the endeavor of speaking, singing, dancing and thinking in English and Chinese.

Second language brain benefits start in childhood

Besides the above interests, being bilingual has an added advantage. According to a report by Miranda Hitti, WebMD Health News, people who are bilingual have an edge over the rest of us, and not just in terms of communication skills. The bilingual brain develops more densely, giving it an advantage in various abilities and skills, according to new research. Researchers Andrea Mechelli of London’s Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience and colleagues, including experts from the Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome, looked at brain densities of bilingual people. The brain has two types of tissue visible to the naked eye, termed gray and white matter. Gray matter makes up the bulk of nerve cells within the brain. Studies have shown an association with gray matter density (or volume and intellect), especially in areas of language, memory, and attention. Brain imaging showed that bilingual speakers had denser gray matter compared with monolingual participants. The difference was especially significant in the brain’s left side -- an area known to control language and communication skills. The right hemisphere of bilingual speakers also showed a similar trend. Their study shows the effect was strongest in people who had learned a second language before age 5.

Chinese enrichment and tuition programmes in Singapore

Able

For more information, (65) 6492 9515 or email ableorder@gmail.com

Berries

For more information, call (65) 6338 2555 or visit www.berriesworld.com

Confucius Institute, NTU

For more details, call (65) 6514 1398 / (65) 6514 1061 or visit www.ci-ntu.com

Ed-Quest

For more details, call (65) 6356 8186 or visit www.ed-quest.com.sg.

Eduplus

For more details, call (65) 6459 1059 or visit www.eduplus.com.sg, www. storyisland.com.sg, www.eg2.edu.sg

Hua Language Centre

For more information, (65) 6255 5060 or visit www.hua.com.sg

Promiseland

For more information, (65) 6386 3889 or email promiseland@singnet.com.sg

Yuquan Language School

For details, call (65) 6846 0600 or visit www.yuquan.com.sg