There will now be greater emphasis on real-life usage and interaction skills in mother tongue languages.Studying mother languages will not be the same again for students entering Primary 1 next year.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced sweeping changes to be made to the mother tongue language curriculum. These include greater emphasis on real-life usage and interaction skills, both oral and written.
By the time the students sit for their Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) in 2017, one-fifth of the mother tongue exam component will be tested on these skills.
The change is part of an overhaul of the Ministry’s approach to mother tongue teaching. Instead of focusing on examinations, MOE aims to teach students to use their mother tongue — Mandarin, Malay and Tamil — in real-life situations, enabling them to communicate with others and to connect with their cultural heritage.
It is also in the process of developing “proficiency descriptors” which measures the oral and written language skills that a child should possess by, say, Primary 6 and Secondary 4.
Teaching methods, classroom tests and national examinations will all have to be aligned to achieve these new proficiency standards.
The Straits Times quoted Education Minister Ng Eng Hen as saying that the proposed changes were simple, but profound at the same time.
“If you want to keep the language, and you want students to learn the language effectively, you have to teach them to use it and it must go beyond just being a subject that is examined,” he said.
“It’s simple because it’s intuitive, but profound because it means changes to the way we teach, the way we test. It’s also profound because homes will have to support that kind of environment, and the community will have to support that kind of environment.”
Dr Ng also called on the respective communities to play their part by collaborating with schools to boost mother tongue learning. MOE will set aside $45 million over the next five years for them to work with schools.
However, the minister stressed that standards of mother tongue learning would not be lowered, and that the difficulty levels in examinations would be maintained.
In addition, the MOE will hire 500 mother tongue teachers by 2015. Most of these would be posted to primary schools to boost mother tongue teaching, he said.
The latest proposals — led by director-general of education Ho Peng — stem from the findings of the mother tongue language language review committee formed a year ago.
By studying the experiences of Australia, China, India, Malaysia and the United States, the committee came to the conclusion that learning is most effective when students learn in an “active and interactive” manner using real-life settings.
The review was prompted by demographic changes which show a trend that English language is becoming the dominant language in homes.
The committee also recommended that computer-aided writing be allowed in some secondary school exams, but not in primary schools, where script writing will still be taught. The objective is to ensure that all students are able to learn their mother tongue language at a high level as they can.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong underlined the same point in his response to the committee’s report.
“We must help every student to attain as high a proficiency in MTL as he or she is capable of with reasonable effort.
“We need special programmes to stretch those talented in languages, and nurture a bi-literate cadre adept at traversing languages and cultures. We must also support those who have difficulties learning languages, to encourage them to persevere and acquire the basics of their MTL.”
PM Lee added, “For the majority, we want them to become proficient enough to communicate effectively… to understand and appreciate their cultural heritage, and to develop a love for the language.”
