Recently there’s been a move to put an end to penalising primary school students who are linguistically incompetent by proposing a lowering of weightage (what a pompous word) of the Mother Tongue (MT) at PSLE. Here I remind you why there is a fundamental flaw in this affair :
- Have you heard of the critical period for language acquisition, particularly second language acquisition? It’s best to pick up a second language before the age of 12-14. (Most researchers place it at 12). After this critical period, students find it harder to learn a language. Ever tried learning a second or third language as an adult, with or without immersion? You will have to agree it’s pretty darn hard to achieve native-like competence. However, if a child is exposed to and learns that langauge before the age of 12, they have every chance of achieving native-like competency. So what does this entail? It means, if by the age of 12, a child cannot pick up a second language despite 6 years of almost daily lessons, we have a broken kit on our hands. Like buying an Ikea bookshelf with one less screw. Seriously, children are all set up for language acquisition since birth. It’s a BRAIN thing when one can’t learn language. Nothing to do with syllabus and lack of immersion.
- Where has the belief in an all-rounder student gone? I thought we want students who excel in not only studies but also sports and leadership. Doesn’t it extend to being scholastically competent in all subjects regardless of their interest in it? Why is it that we have to teach a child the mathematical formula for calculating the circumference of a circle even when they are poor in math, and have no interest in it? Will they lower weightage of Science and Mathematics just because? Oh oh, or because of the influx of foreign students, will they lower the weightage of English because these students are similarly linguistically challenged?
- What makes the children of today different from the past? I’d hazard Westernization of values and the Internet that both hinge on English. In that case you can argue that the lack of immersion environment at home is thwarting their linguistic abilities, unlike children of the past who grew up in Chinese-speaking families. If that’s the case, aren’t we supposed to be English-challenged as well? Did anyone offer to lower weightage of English? No. Why? Because English is useful. It’s a global language. It opens doors. Mandarin is the exact opposite. It’s the language of Communists. It’s not useful at all. It closes doors and makes you a cheenapiang who listens to cheesy Mandopop. Disagree with me? That’s the message they are giving off, aren’t they?
- So, if you lower PSLE weightage, what happens at O Levels? Are you going to allow them to do Chinese B or lower the standards of MT at O Levels? The way I see it – students with poor MT scores are allowed into good schools and because of a standardization curve they still remain at the bottom rung. If the rumour is true that this policy is really to protect certain white horses, then we will see a follow-up with a change in O Level MT policy as well. Currently MT is set by and marked in Singapore. They just gotta be tweakn’ it, that’s what I say. So are we grooming an entire generation of bad excuses for bilinguals?
- Oh come on, your rich parents will still pay for $1/minute MT tuition for their children just so it shows 4 A* on their PSLE transcript. So lowering weightage MAY seem like it’s leveling the playing field since now non-tutored children can have better chances. Nope, the overall trend will remain status quo with the standardization curve. It’s always still the ones who care the most who come out top tier. And you know what? Students who are actually good in languages are being penalised. Or is that the aim? To cut out the Arts stream altogether by 2020?
So, of course the policy is poop. I am just rehashing fundamental problems to get you thinking about the issue and about what you want the next generation to be.
Dropping by ere. =)
I feel so damn uncomfortable now for my horrible Mandarin. Six years of primary school education of Chinese including expensive tutoring and remedial class and my my Mandarin is still like shit. I feel like shit now, thanks.
But you make a valid point. I don't see why the government have to lower the "weightage". I mean, I survived after all. What is the point of lowering it? If they don't see their desire results, will they continue to lower it? Might as well scrap the whole thing then.
Don't mean to make you feel like shit, but I hope you have the good sense not to try and pick up another academic-standard language. :P But seriously! Look at students in Switzerland with their tri and quad lingualism! They aren't complaining are they. Feh.
I guess my point is, if they want to make it an academic subject, they can't half-fuck around – full grade or no grade. But given Singapore students, if it's not examinable or have bearings in secondary school entrance, they won't care. Since mother tongue is supposed to only carry cultural values and our Asian roots, we wonder if these things are examinable in the first place.
Don't mean to make you feel like shit, but I hope you have the good sense not to try and pick up another academic-standard language. :P But seriously! Look at students in Switzerland with their tri and quad lingualism! They aren't complaining are they. Feh.
I guess my point is, if they want to make it an academic subject, they can't half-fuck around – full grade or no grade. But given Singapore students, if it's not examinable or have bearings in secondary school entrance, they won't care. Since mother tongue is supposed to only carry cultural values and our Asian roots, we wonder if these things are examinable in the first place.
Agreed with u totally.
Excellent entry! I'm linking you!
Regarding your last point, I'd really hate to be in primary school now, knowing that my strong subjects are exactly the ones that MOE doesn't give two shits about.
"Oh you're good in CL! Nice! But yeah, it'll only account for 50 marks out of 300 for PSLE. Too bad."
Screw them all.
Yeah. It's like saying the language that connects to our Asian values and cultural roots aren't important. It's more important you're a good scienctist than a good person. Hmm, food for thought.
Some food for thought.
What initiated the Education ministry to change the weightage for PSLE Mandarin? Is one of the reasons really to protect the white horses or are they planning to make students more specialised in their other subjects that they are stronger in? Why does the ministry only start to initiate the change now? What significant event (in the background) propel them to start the change?
I do not agree with your comment on the critical period hypothesis, anyone can successful learn a language as long as they are strongly motivated to do so (increase practice contributes to increasing fluency in learning a new language). Although I do not deny that with increasing age makes it harder but not impossible to learn a new language.
That's why I mentioned "native-like competency". Language learning is one thing, language acquisition is another. It's far easy and more natural for a child below 12 to acquire a new language compared to a 21 year old, given the same amount of time and practice.
Regarding impetus to change – (1) no one will say for certain it's to protect white horses. That's political suicide. (2) The official statement is "[Reducing MT weightage] will allow those stronger in mother tongues, but weaker in other subjects, to go into streams that are more suitable for them." (i.e. if you are only strong in MT, you ought to go to Normal, compared to a person who is weak in MT but good in Math and Science).
So who knows which exact event made them change it this way? Is a trend that there are too many MT-strong students in Express who can't do Math and the Sciences in Sec 1? If that's the case, perhaps they are not targetting Mandarin after all. Because as far as the other MTs are concerned, Chinese is the only one in the limelight because it has the most problems. Ethnic Malay students don't seem to have that big a problem passing Malay. So that's why my discussion has been geared towards Chinese. But let it be noted that it's a reduction in overall MT weightage.
So how can there be native-like competency for mixed raced students such as Peranakans who acquires Mandarin as a second language in the schools and they do not use Mandarin as a first language at home. Does this point to a gap in the bilingual language policy? This also brings to the point as to whether someone can truly learn a language in an artificial environment such as schools. Or do they only acquire the language?
Yea, the fundamental flaw with MT is always the ethnicity-language association. There's so much I can talk about this I can't begin to start. Like, hello you're Indian so default you take Tamily unless you want to change. And hello all you yellow-skin descendents of people from some part of China – you shall speak Mandarin and no more dialects.
Actually anecdotally, I know of Malaysian ethnic Chinese who speak Mandarin/Cantonese at home, go to English private school, and learn Behasa Melayu very well from school. I think you're right to mention about teaching methods and interest in the subject. How can teachers help students make the most of their linguistic abilities?
Yea, the fundamental flaw with MT is always the ethnicity-language association. There's so much I can talk about this I can't begin to start. Like, hello you're Indian so default you take Tamily unless you want to change. And hello all you yellow-skin descendents of people from some part of China – you shall speak Mandarin and no more dialects.
Actually anecdotally, I know of Malaysian ethnic Chinese who speak Mandarin/Cantonese at home, go to English private school, and learn Behasa Melayu very well from school. I think you're right to mention about teaching methods and interest in the subject. How can teachers help students make the most of their linguistic abilities?
In fact, this issue is very complicated. For example, if they cut the weightage, one of the explicit problems will be a perceived falling in the drop of the quality of the language learned/acquired (weightage = amount of emphasis given to subject as perceived by people). On the other hand, people on the other side of the fence will see this as a boon due to the fact that they are weaker in the mother tongue and hence support the changing of the weightage.
Learning languages 'boosts brain'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3739690.stm
That's why I mentioned "native-like competency". Language learning is one thing, language acquisition is another. It's far easy and more natural for a child below 12 to acquire a new language compared to a 21 year old, given the same amount of time and practice.
Regarding impetus to change – (1) no one will say for certain it's to protect white horses. That's political suicide. (2) The official statement is "[Reducing MT weightage] will allow those stronger in mother tongues, but weaker in other subjects, to go into streams that are more suitable for them." (i.e. if you are only strong in MT, you ought to go to Normal, compared to a person who is weak in MT but good in Math and Science).
So who knows which exact event made them change it this way? Is a trend that there are too many MT-strong students in Express who can't do Math and the Sciences in Sec 1? If that's the case, perhaps they are not targetting Mandarin after all. Because as far as the other MTs are concerned, Chinese is the only one in the limelight because it has the most problems. Ethnic Malay students don't seem to have that big a problem passing Malay. So that's why my discussion has been geared towards Chinese. But let it be noted that it's a reduction in overall MT weightage.
That's why teachers need to be creative in teaching Mandarin so that students do not lose interest when they are learning the language.
Where is the originator of the rumour that the change is to protect white horses? I never heard of the rumour personally.
Where is the evidence that Ethnic Malay students do not have that big problem in passing Malay?
The fact that Mandarin has the most problems stems from the fact of the heterogenity in the chinese populace compared to the other ethnic groups.
White horse rumour – comes up each time there's a shift in education policy. No particular white horse or steed master, just the pool of them.
I said they don't SEEM to have problems passing Malay. What is seeming is what is being highlighted and if someone chooses not to highlight a problem there must be ideological bearings.