8.1 The Gradual Shift in Home Language among Singapore's Ethnic Chinese Families
Singapore is a multi-ethnic and multilingual country. Since independence in 1965, the bilingual education policy has been the cornerstone of Singapore's mainstream education system. This system has evolved over the years: in the early days of independence, different language medium schools co-existed; then later, English-medium schools became the preferred choice among Singaporeans. From the mid 1980s on, the current bilingual system, in which English is the dominant language and mother tongue languages are supplementary, gradually took form. Under this system, students from the three major ethnic groups – Chinese, Malay and Indian – are required to study English and their mother tongue language for ten to twelve years of their school education. English is the primary medium of instruction for examinable subjects such as mathematics, the sciences and humanities. The only exception is the mother tongue itself, which is taught in Chinese, Malay or Tamil.
Although both English and the ethnic mother tongues are compulsory subjects, they differ significantly in terms of curriculum hours and course content. As a result, there is great disparity in the depth, breadth and effectiveness of instruction. English inevitably has an advantage over the other languages, for it is not only taught as a language subject, but is also the medium of instruction for most other core examinable subjects. In effect, English classes extend through the day; mother tongue languages have only single periods. English vocabulary and usage is consolidated in other non-language classes; opportunities for students to practise and apply mother tongue languages are limited.
From a language acquisition perspective, the bilingual programme in Singapore has led to unbalanced development in the two languages. It has also changed the learners' everyday language habits. Census data indicates a trend in young Chinese families towards bilingualism, with language use in families of the three major ethnic groups undergoing varying degrees of change. For the Chinese community, the dominant household language of Chinese families had gradually shifted from local Chinese dialects, such as Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese, to Mandarin, and then, more recently, to English. Increasingly, Singapore primary-school Chinese students are coming from English-speaking homes.Footnote 2
8.2 Learner Types and the Needs of Chinese Primary-School Learners in Singapore
Chinese students studying Chinese in Singapore primary schools currently fall into two major categories. The first acquire (Mandarin) Chinese at home in the course of growing up. By the time they reach Primary One, they are already capable of conversing fluently in Chinese. The second category acquire English at home. Some may also have gained a smattering of Chinese, but even so, they enter Primary One with only basic conversational skills. Others are near-beginners, lacking even basic aural and oral skills in Chinese.
These two types of learner enter school with entirely different backgrounds, with widely different latent knowledge of Chinese and very different learning needs. In a Chinese language class, learners from Chinese-speaking families are able to follow instructions, comprehend lesson content and answer questions relatively easily. Not surprisingly, because they do well and come from Chinese-speaking families, they are better motivated and, in fact, achieve much more than their counterparts from English-speaking families. The latter have very limited Chinese vocabulary, if any; they have difficulty understanding instructions in Chinese and they fail to comprehend content or participate in class activities and discussion. English also interferes with their learning of Chinese, particularly at the early stages. They struggle, learn little and get poor grades. Understandably, such learners have low levels of confidence and have little motivation to study Chinese.
Given the different types of background and the consequent difference in proficiency, it makes sense that the two groups discussed above receive different types of instruction. This is especially true nowadays, following the drastic increase in the number of ethnic Chinese from English-speaking families. The Chinese teaching profession in Singapore has responded to these developments by designing distinct teaching materials, teaching activities and modes of assessment, and by mobilising learners' first language resources to improve motivation and learning. At the same time, it is also worth considering ways in which new ICT might be harnessed to improve learning and make teaching more effective.
8.3 The Bilingual Approach to the Teaching of Chinese and Associated Pedagogical Materials
8.3.1 The Pilot Project on the Bilingual Approach to the Teaching of Chinese
In 2002, in order to find ways to ease Chinese learners with English-speaking backgrounds through the initial stages of learning Chinese, with the support of the Singapore Ministry of Education, I conducted a three-year pilot projectFootnote 3 in four primary schools that was designed to explore the feasibility of utilising English as an auxiliary tool in Chinese language learning; in other words, to see if the judicious use of English in Chinese class would have a beneficial effect on students with certain types of background.
8.3.2 The Bilingual Approach Package
In order to implement the bilingual approach effectively, in 2007 a research and development (R&D) team from the Asian Languages and Cultures Academic Group (ALC), National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, began research to study prevailing mainstream Chinese textbooks and develop a package of bilingual teaching resources for teachers. This would include digital bilingual teaching materials.
8.4 The First Step: The Bilingual iFlashBook
8.4.1 How It Began
In July 2007, PanPac Education Ltd (PanPac) and Creative Knowledge Ltd. launched the Chinese-only version of the iFlashBook (henceforth ‘the basic version’), a digital animated teaching resource aimed at meeting the needs of primary-school learners. Using the prevailing textbook by the Curriculum Planning and Development Division (Chinese Unit) (2007) as a blueprint, the iFlashBook format extended and expanded the conventional paper textbook content to form a fully interactive and engaging multimedia resource. Incorporating speech recognition and rich media libraries with interactive three-dimensional effects, content was delivered in a systematic and structured manner to provide an easier and a more effective way of learning in a self-paced environment. In the basic version, the content was presented entirely in Chinese, making it more suitable for students from predominantly Chinese-speaking families.
In February 2008, the bilingual approach R&D team from NIE's ALC collaborated with PanPac and Creative Knowledge to develop a bilingual version of the iFlashBook to meet the special learning needs of students from predominantly English-speaking families. A working committee was formed to work on two main areas: firstly, the English translation and annotation of new vocabulary items that appeared in the texts, and secondly, the English translation of the texts themselves.
8.4.2 Editorial Principles
8.4.2.1 Learner-Centric Design
The bilingual version targets learners from predominantly English-speaking families. The design team has further ensured that features of the bilingual approach are properly geared to learners. For instance, elementary learners who can read relatively few Chinese characters are given access to explanatory notes written exclusively in English – a language they fully understand.
8.4.2.2 English as a Supplementary Tool
To ensure that Chinese remains the main medium of instruction and English functions merely as a supplementary tool, all supplementary functions in the bilingual version of the iFlashBook are hidden by default. The iFlashBook starts up with a Chinese-only language interface; the bilingual features only appear when activated during the course of teaching and learning. Secondly, Hanyu Pinyin and Chinese audio recordings are provided for all Chinese language content, including example sentences and collocations – under the bilingual features. English audio recordings are not provided for the English content, which includes text translations and explanatory notes. Thirdly, access to all supplementary features can be managed by teachers. They can choose to limit access to any such features so that learners are not overly dependent on the English support.
8.4.2.3 The Development of the Bilingual iFlashBook
The bilingual iFlashBook inherits all the technical functions of the basic version that it was based on, including animated drawings of Chinese character stroke orders, Chinese explanatory notes on vocabulary items, sound files of text recitation (both computer-generated and created by students) and animated figures. The bilingual approach R&D team developed and subsequently launched two new features, namely explanatory notes for vocabulary in English and text translation.
8.4.2.3.1 Explanatory Notes for Vocabulary
Singapore's ‘Chinese Language for Primary School’ curriculum consists mostly of reading comprehension passages. Each text, regardless of length, has a certain number of new characters/words. Students read the passages and at the same time learn the prescribed new characters/words. Typically, students from Chinese-speaking backgrounds will know the words but will not recognise the characters that represent them, while students from English-speaking backgrounds will know neither the words nor the characters. The bilingual version of the iFlashBook provides explanatory notes on vocabulary in English, which allow learners from English-speaking backgrounds to understand the meaning and usage of new words. Each note explains word class, word meaning and word usage.
Word Class
The word class (part-of-speech) of each new word is indicated in English. Since grammar is taught in the Singapore English Language curriculum from Primary One onwards, students are familiar with such grammatical terms. Explaining the word class helps the learner to predict how new words are used. In addition to common word classes such as noun, verb and preposition, several other categories were added to meet the needs of classroom teaching and learning. These include verb-object collocation, verb-phrase, grammatical construction and fixed expression.
Word Meaning and Examples of Usage
Comprehension and usage at the word and phrase level are distinct from each other and are, therefore, dealt with separately. Clicking on a new word in the bilingual iFlashBook brings up a floating window that displays basic information such as pronunciation, word class and meaning, and provides explanatory images or animation. If the learner, after reading the meaning (as a gloss or definition) wants to find out how the new word is used, s/he can click on the ‘Usage’ button to get collocations, example sentences and other usage notes.
The two-tier presentation (word meaning and examples of usage) has two advantages. Firstly, the teacher is able to control the amount of information being provided to students according to their learning needs; secondly, separating meaning from examples (usage) makes for a cleaner, clearer interface and keeps attention from wandering during use.
Several points should be made about the explanatory notes on vocabulary items. Firstly, the bilingual iFlashBook is intended as a resource for elementary learners at the primary-school level who have limited Chinese vocabulary. If the explanatory notes were written entirely in Chinese, such learners would not be able to comprehend them fully, or might be misled by them. In either case, confidence would be sapped and motivation weakened. For this reason, explanatory notes are written entirely in English in a precise and simple manner. Cultural knowledge is added where useful (see Table 8.1).
Table 8.1 Explanatory notes and usage examples for new words, from ‘Sima Guang Jiuren’ ‘Sima Guang to the Rescue’ (Book 2B, Lesson 16)
| New word | Word class | Meaning | Usage examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| jiashan | noun | fake hill, used in the olden days to decorate gardens | yi zuo jiashan ‘a man-made mountain’ |
| hanjiao | verb | shout loudly | dasheng hanjiao ‘shout loudly’ |
| hanjiaosheng | noun phrase | sound of people shouting loudly | tingjian hanjiaosheng ‘hear people shouting’ fachu hanjiaosheng ‘to make shouting noises’ |
Secondly, a highly focused and easy-to-understand contextual approach is adopted for word definitions. For new words, only their meaning and word class in the context of the passage are provided. Meanings not illustrated by the text are not mentioned. New phrases are explained in tiers. Table 8.1 provides an illustration. In the phrase hanjiao sheng ‘the sound of people shouting loudly’, both hanjiao and sheng are new; so pronunciation and meaning are given first for hanjiao, then for hanjiao sheng.
Thirdly, collocations and example sentences are used to demonstrate the usage of a new word (or phrase), following the word class illustrated in the text. In general, the number of examples provided is determined by need. In some cases, a few choice examples will suffice; in other cases, rather more are needed. The meanings of nouns, for example, particularly those that typically serve as subjects or objects, are not difficult to grasp, so only a few collocations of the type ‘adjective+noun’ and ‘verb+noun’ are provided. For verbs, whose usage is usually more complicated, full sentence examples are normally provided. The sentences selected do not only need to be representative, they should also be easily relatable to pupils' daily life. One other unusual feature of the bilingual iFlashBook is that in order to help with reading, not only are Hanyu Pinyin and English translations provided, the character text also indicates word boundaries by adding extra spaces to the otherwise even spacing of characters. To put it another way, words are indicated in the character text much as they are indicated in continuous Pinyin text, with spaces.
8.4.2.3.2 Text Translation
Singapore's ‘Chinese Language for Primary Schools’ curriculum consists of units built around short reading passages designed to improve reading ability for young learners. There are two types of passage: those for intensive reading (Qianghua Kewen ‘Foundational Texts’, Hexin Kewen ‘Core Texts’ and Wo Ai Yuedu ‘I Love to Read’) and those for extensive reading (Shenguang Kewen ‘Extensive Reading’). Of these, the ‘Core Texts’ and ‘I Love to Read’ passages are prescribed for all learners. ‘Foundational Texts’ are intended only for learners with weaker Chinese reading skills; the ‘Extensive Reading’ sections are suitable for learners with relatively strong reading skills.
To help students from English-speaking families comprehend the prescribed texts, the bilingual version provides English translations for all ‘Foundational Texts’, ‘Core Texts’ and ‘I Love to Read’ texts at three levels, namely sentence, paragraph and full text. Translations at the sentence level are intended to mirror as closely as possible the content and structure of the source text, enabling learners to make word-for-word comparisons and resolve comprehension issues at the sentence level. Paragraph translations smooth the transition between sentences to give students a sense of how the sentences cohere into paragraphs. The full-text translation – the third level – is quite similar to that of the paragraph, with occasional words added to help with transitions or words omitted to avoid redundancy.
Tables 8.2 and 8.3 illustrate differences (in bold) between translations at the sentence, paragraph and full-text levels.
Table 8.2 Examples of sentence translations from ‘Exercising’ (Core Text for Lesson 10, Book 1B)
| Paragraph | Source text (Chinese) | Translation (English) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taiyang zhao, huar xiao, caochang shang, kongqi hao. | The sun shines, the flowers smile; on the field, the air is fresh. |
| 1 | Zhengzheng qiqi paihao dui, dajia dou lai zuo ticao. | Form a neat line, let's do our exercises! |
| 2 | Shenshen shou, wanwan yao, titi tui, bengbeng tiao. | Stretch out your arms, bend your body, kick your legs, and jump and hop. |
| 2 | Women dou ai zuo ticao, meitian yundong shenti hao. | We all love doing our exercises. Daily exercise is good for your body. |
Table 8.3 Examples of paragraph and whole-text translations for ‘Exercising’ (Core Text for Lesson 10, Book 1B)
| Source Text (Chinese) | Translation (English) |
|---|---|
| Taiyang zhao, huar xiao, Caochangshang, kongqi hao. Zhengzheng-qiqi paihao dui, dajia dou lai zuo ticao. | The sun shines, the flowers smile, and on the field, the air is fresh. Line up, line up. Let's do our exercises. |
| Shenshen shou, wanwan yao, titi tui, bengbeng tiao. Women dou ai zuo ticao, meitian yundong shenti hao. | Stretch out your arms, bend your body, kick your legs, and jump and hop. We love doing our exercises. Daily exercise is good for your health. |
While designed with the needs of English-speaking learners in mind, the bilingual version of the iFlashBook is inherently constrained by the basic version upon which it is based. For one thing, the teaching package emphasises reading comprehension at the expense of other language skills, particularly listening and speaking. Ironically, these are the very skills which are most essential for elementary learners.
For another thing, the textbook is steeped in traditional Chinese culture. Nearly every other passage is in fact based on a moral tale designed to communicate traditional Chinese values. The content, however, is divorced from language use in daily life, and is clearly unsuited to the development of communicative skills. ‘Sima Guang Jiuren’ ‘Sima Guang to the Rescue’, mentioned earlier, is a typical example. Even if students manage to learn the language and values conveyed by the text, they will find few chances to use the language in their daily lives – if indeed the text actually represents spoken language (rather than storytelling language) in the first place. For elementary learners who have a weak foundation in spoken Chinese, the cultural anthology cannot be expected to resonate much with their lives; nor does it do much to support the development of communicative speaking or writing skills.
8.5 Next Lap: The Sayable Mandarin Learning Package
The bilingual iFlashBook was successfully launched in 2009 and the project was completed at the end of 2012. With nearly three years of testing in the classroom, the bilingual approach R&D team is now ready to embark on the next phase of research.
In July 2014, the team met up with the technical group from Education and Emerging Business at Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) to explore the feasibility of a collaborative joint project to develop an online learning resource package targeting an international audience of young learners from English-speaking backgrounds. The result is: ‘Spoken Mandarin: An ICT-driven progressive course for the learning of spoken Chinese’.
Collaboration is still in the preliminary stages and discussion is on-going. Taking into full consideration current developments in the fields of second language acquisition and language pedagogy as well as recent advancements in information technology and mobile technology, the team has agreed on the following points.
(a) The learning package should cater to differentiated self-planned learning through the support of information technology and mobile devices.
(b) There should be a balanced emphasis on both knowledge (fact) and skills (act), with a special emphasis on sound differentiation and pronunciation at the beginning stages.
(c) Second language learning should mirror first language acquisition. Hence, there should be a gradual progression from the spoken form to the written form, from comprehension to production.
(d) The flipped classroom approach should be adopted, whereby pupils learn what they can outside the classroom and focus on special learning problems and knowledge application in class. Mastery-paced active pre-lesson learning is emphasised, with instructors functioning as facilitators in class.
As a starting point for the next lap, an application named Parraoke: Chinese Pronunciation Practice, intended to lay a solid foundation for further study of spoken and written Chinese, is currently being developed to guide learners with little or no prior background in Chinese to develop receptive and productive skills of pronunciation in standard Chinese. Strongly grounded in research in Chinese phonology, the course has been packaged in the form of an online game, introducing systematically and progressively to young English-speaking learners the standard Hanyu Pinyin transcription system, with special attention to those sounds which are likely to pose difficulty to the target audience. The goal is mastery of the sounds of standard Chinese and the system of transcription with which they are written down.
The innovative pronunciation package mentioned above adopts a progressive model which takes into consideration the learners' first language – in this case, English. Some special features include emphasis on the four tones rather than initial consonants and vowels at the initial stage of learning; special focus on the difficult sounds as opposed to the traditional ‘one size fits all’ concept; mastery-paced learning, allowing learners to progress to the next stage of learning only after clearing a previous stage; and pronunciation supplements which aim to reinforce learning, while at the same time making the learning experience fun and enriching.
The collaboration between the NIE academic team and the SingTel technical team is a perfect match, with one side complementing the other in terms of both skills and knowledge. Moving ahead, a set of digital textbooks will be developed jointly, making full use of multimedia features and mobile technology to aid teaching and learning.
