The Ministry of Education (MOE) will enhance the teaching and testing of Mother Tongue Languages (MTL) to nurture students to be proficient users of the language. Greater emphasis will be placed on helping students to like learning their MTLs and become proficient in using them in a variety of real-life settings to communicate effectively, to understand their culture and to connect with other Asian communities. Central to this new approach is a set of “proficiency descriptors”, which explicitly states the language proficiency skills students are expected to acquire at key stages of their education. Teaching methods, school-based assessments and national examinations will be aligned to help students achieve proficiency in usage. In particular, examination and assessment formats will change to support the emphasis of students using MTL as a living language.

More support will also be provided to enable students, whether they are strong or facing greater difficulties in MTL, to learn MTL to as high a level as they are able to. MOE will develop and deploy more teachers for the teaching of MTL. In addition, MOE will work with parents, schools and community organisations to create opportunities in and beyond schools that are conducive for students to learn and use MTL.

These are the key recommendations that have been proposed by the MTL Review Committee, led by Ms Ho Peng, MOE’s Director-General of Education. The MTL Review Committee was set up in Jan 2010 to recommend appropriate strategies to enhance the teaching and learning of MTL, in the face of two trends. First, the language environment in the homes of Singaporeans is evolving - more parents of Primary 1 children are reporting that English is the most frequently used language in their home. There is also a group who is comfortable in speaking both English and MTL. There is thus a need to recognise the different starting points of our learners and customise MTL teaching for the different groups. Second, with growing interest around the world in the learning of a second or even a third language, there have been advances and insights for the teaching of languages in multi-lingual environments. These developments could provide useful learning points for improving the teaching of languages in Singapore.

In coming up with its recommendations, the MTL Review Committee consulted a wide range of stakeholders, including teachers, parents, academics and community leaders, and conducted an extensive review. Findings from a survey of over 22,000 teachers, students, and parents show that the reforms which were implemented following the 2004-5 MTL reviews are bearing fruit. Parents recognised the good work of our MTL teachers in implementing the curricular changes to date. Overall, there is positive response to and support for the reforms arising from the 2004-5 MTL reviews. The Committee also reviewed international developments on language education, especially in a multi-lingual environment, and drew insights from study visits to other education systems¹. A key insight was that learning of languages is most effective when learners are taught to use the language in an active and interactive manner for a variety of real-life settings, including using the language to learn about its associated culture.

The Ministry of Education fully supports the MTL Review Committee’s recommendations. Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education, said: “The review affirms the vital role of bilingualism in our education system. Singapore must continue to evolve its own approach to MTL education that is suited to its unique local context and that considers the different starting points of different learners. While the 2010 recommendations build on the reforms implemented following the 2004-5 MTL reviews, they also take a long-term view of the future. The key is to enthuse and enable our young to become proficient MTL users so that they will use their MTL as a living language in and out of school”.

Key Recommendations – Active Learners, Proficient Users

Recommendation 1: Aligning Teaching and Testing to Achieve Proficiency

MOE will provide proficiency descriptors to more explicitly spell out the proficiency levels expected of the various language skills at key stages of learning, so as to guide teaching and inform students about their learning progress. To help students acquire these proficiency skills, there will be increased emphasis on interaction skills, both written and oral, which build on the core skills of language learning – listening, reading, speaking and writing. A draft sample of proficiency descriptors is at Annex A (16.1kb .pdf).

Teachers will continue to use differentiated teaching for different learner groups, to cater to their students’ different starting points. There will be continued emphasis on more lively teaching, as teachers use a greater variety of classroom strategies, such as group work to encourage interaction, and songs, rhymes and drama to strengthen oracy. There will also be greater use of authentic materials reflective of everyday situations and contexts, so as to better prepare students to actively use their MTL in real-life situations.

To leverage on students’ increasing info-communications technology (ICT) savviness, more ICT resources will be used. These include a variety of interactive content, resources and activities to suit the different learning needs of students. Since computer-based writing is now the norm in the workplace and in social communication, students should have opportunities to practise and be assessed on computer-based writing for MTL in the secondary schools. Script-writing is a core skill that will continue to be taught, especially in primary schools, as it lays the foundation for the learning of MTL.

MOE will align school-based assessments and national examinations to the desired language proficiencies and test language use in authentic contexts. While new items are added or existing items are modified, there will also be reduction in certain existing items, in order to maintain the current overall difficulty level. The following changes will take place:

• New examination items to test interaction skills will be introduced.
• The use of dictionaries and e-dictionaries² will be extended to new interactive writing items (e.g., writing an email response to a stimulus) in examinations. This is in addition to, and not replacing, essay-writing.
• Video clips, instead of line drawings, will be used as stimuli for oral examinations. This will provide a more engaging and realistic context to stimulate conversation.
• Computer-based writing will be introduced for secondary and junior college students in selected sections of the national examinations, starting with groups which have smaller candidature. Once assured of the technical and examination administration aspects, this can be progressively expanded to other groups over time.
• Oral examinations will be introduced for O-Level Higher MTL (HMTL) to signal the importance of good oral communication skills for our HMTL students.

Table 1: Timeline for Proposed Changes in Examination Formats

Sufficient lead time will be given for students and teachers to transit to the new curriculum and adopt the new assessment modes in classrooms and school examinations.

Recommendation 2: Enhancing Different Provisions for Learners of Different Abilities

Singaporeans who are effectively bilingual in EL and their MTL, and possess a deep understanding of the related cultures, add to the cultural vibrancy of Singapore. They can also harness their language and cultural skills to deepen our ties with the region.

For students with the ability and interest to study HMTL, MOE will provide more opportunities for them to attain higher levels of language proficiency and deeper cultural knowledge. These include enhancing and expanding MTL special programmes, introducing a new ‘A’ level subject in Chinese Linguistics and Translation, and awarding more scholarships. Annex C (16.4kb .pdf) provides a summary of these enhancements.

At the same time, the MTL ‘B’ curriculum, which caters to those who face greater difficulties in learning MTL, will place greater emphasis on developing communication skills through more activity-based approaches. These include role play and greater use of ICT and authentic materials, to better engage students and sustain their interest in MTL learning.

Recommendation 3: Creating an Environment Conducive to MTL Usage and Learning

The use of MTL beyond the classroom is critical to making MTL a living language for our students. Together, schools, parents and community partners can play key roles in providing students with opportunities to be immersed in an environment conducive to the learning of MTL.

Schools will introduce structured programmes which create an environment that encourages students to use MTL and appreciate the heritage and culture associated with the language. These programmes could include partnerships with community groups in conceptualising and organising annual CL, ML and TL Fortnights, camps and structured reading programmes.

MOE will make available funding of up to $45 million for schools and the MTL Learning Promotion Committees³ over the next five years to support their efforts to create environments conducive for the learning and use of MTL.

Parents play a key role in creating a conducive environment at home for their children to learn MTL. Early exposure to spoken MTL and the use of MTL at home provide children with stronger foundations for formal learning in school. Parents can leverage on the various programmes organised by public libraries and the community groups to expose their children early to their MTL.

MOE will work with the National Library Board to promote reading for children across community libraries. MOE will also review existing curriculum guidelines to kindergartens and childcare centres to build good oracy foundations in children through songs, rhymes and games.

Recommendation 4: Developing and Deploying More MTL Teachers

Good teachers are key to the delivery of quality teaching and learning in the classroom. While we have a corps of dedicated MTL teachers in Singapore, more are needed. An additional 500 MTL teachers will be deployed to schools by 2015⁴. To strengthen and grow the pipeline for future MTL teachers, MOE will encourage more students to offer A-level H2 and H3 MTL and offer more teaching scholarships or awards. MOE will also strengthen training and development to enable our MTL teachers to implement the changes to teaching and assessment, and to meet the learning needs of students with different MTL abilities.

Please refer to the Executive Summary of the MTL Review Committee’s Report (347kb .pdf) and MTL Review Committee’s Full Report (2.8mb .pdf) for further details. The full report in the Mother Tongue Languages are as follows:

• MTL Review Committee’s Full Report (Chinese Language) (3.4mb .pdf)
• MTL Review Committee’s Full Report (Malay Language) (2.2mb .pdf)
• MTL Review Committee’s Full Report (Tamil Language) (5.6mb .pdf)

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Footnotes:

1. The committee visited Australia, China, India, Malaysia and the United States of America. ↩
2. Dictionaries are currently allowed for use in essay writing in the O-/N-/A- Level MTL examinations and the PSLE. E-dictionaries have been allowed since 2007. ↩
3. Namely, the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning, the Malay Language Learning Promotion Committee and the Tamil Language Learning Promotion Committee. ↩
4. Some of the increase will be part of MOE’s overall plan to add 3,000 more teachers to the teaching force by 2015 ↩

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