Bilingualism policy was wrong

[Silver_blade]

Nothing wrong with this policy actually. Most of us are grappling with at a least dialect, Chinese and English during our growing up. Some even spoken Malay.

 

We need not master all the languages. Leave this to the linguist and those who intend to study languages at higher learning. More important to be competent in preferably 2 - mother tongue and English or at least one.

 

BUT, it was wrong to deny education progression based on requirements of passing of English and MT (for pre-U and U). Some fields could do with a sub-pass in English and most fields do not require MT pass (except maybe language faculty).

Agree with you.

[Beehive3783]

what's new? hahaha

[Silver_blade]

I feel our education system is ready for a move flexible one which after 'standard' primary/early secondary education, allow students to 'specialize' on the subject which interests them and something they are good at.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Silver_blade

[Civic2000]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...018826/1/.html

 

Insistence on bilingualism in early years of education policy was wrong: MM Lee

 

By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 November 2009 2142 hrs

 

SINGAPORE: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said his insistence on bilingualism in the early years of education policy was "wrong". Instead it caused generations of students to be put off by the Chinese language.

 

Speaking first in Mandarin and then in English at the official opening of the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language on Tuesday, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew gave a blunt assessment of Singapore's bilingual policy.

 

He said: "We started the wrong way. We insisted on ting xie (listening), mo xie (dictation) - madness! We had teachers who were teaching in completely-Chinese schools. And they did not want to use any English to teach English-speaking children Chinese and that turned them off completely."

 

Mr Lee added: "At first I thought, you can master two languages. Maybe different intelligence, you master it at different levels."

 

But his conclusions now, after over 40 years of learning Mandarin, cannot be more different.

 

MM Lee said: "Nobody can master two languages at the same level. If (you think) you can, you're deceiving yourself. My daughter is a neurologist, and late in my life she told me language ability and intelligence are two different things.

 

"Girls are better at languages because their left side of the brain to learn languages, as a general rule, is better than the boys. Boys have great difficulty, and I had great difficulty.

 

"Successive generations of students paid a heavy price, because of my ignorance, by my insistence on bilingualism. And I wasn't helped by the ministry officials, because there were two groups - one English speaking, one Chinese teaching."

 

Mr Lee said educators should first get the child interested in the language by focusing on the way it is heard and spoken. This includes incorporating drama and IT into lessons to make them more engaging.

 

Mr Lee said: "It doesn't matter what level they reach, they will like the language, it's fun, and later on in life they'll use it."

 

The need to make the Chinese language more appealing to students has been a focus of the Education Ministry in recent years and one way is to re-examine how the language is taught in schools.

 

So the new centre set up in February to train Chinese language teachers will soon offer degree programmes that include modules on curriculum design and teaching methods.

 

The programmes will be offered under four agreements that were formalised on Tuesday. They include a part-time degree for preschool teachers under a partnership with the SEED Institute, a training institute for early childhood educators.

 

Tan Chee Lay, deputy executive director, Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, said: "For students to learn, the golden age is from three to six. So in this period of time, if we're able to teach them well, they'll learn well and their language foundation will be there."

 

Other partners are the Media Development Authority (MDA), SIM University (UniSIM), and the University of Hong Kong.

 

There are over 4,000 Chinese-language teachers here and about a quarter of them have been trained by the centre so far. - CNA/vm

 

If you refer to this report at the following link, he was actually saying that Singapore started 'completely wrong' in the teaching of the Chinese language, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew yesterday. Speaking at the official opening of the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, he admitted that teaching the language by enforcing rote learning was a mistake.

 

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Stor...118-180598.html

 

To my understanding, he is admitting that the method of teaching Mandarin in the early year was a mistake

Edited November 18, 2009 by Civic2000

[Kklim]

"Successive generations of students paid a heavy price, because of my ignorance, by my insistence on bilingualism."

So what's the self-confessed ignoramus going to do? Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun jumped off a cliff and killed himself after he was merely questioned for involvement in a corruption scandal.

[Sleepy-T]

There Pros and Cons.

now just mive on with our life.

[Leepee]

I remember my ahkong on his last days on his bed. He was sprouting all the past mistakes he made and was seeking gods forgiveness, and he kept regreting things he did and did not do while he was younger.