The Education Ministry is studying whether to hire native speakers to teach English language in schools.
Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said this during a dialogue session at a student education conference.
Questions from the students at the dialogue session were wide-ranging.
But the concern on how to better enhance students' English proficiency cropped up often.
Mr Tharman assured them that his ministry is paying attention to this area.
But he pointed out that it is incorrect to say that the standard of English language has deteriorated.
Mr Tharman said that is because more people are speaking English now compared to 30 years ago and inevitably it gets spoken in a different way.
He said: "If need be, we can bring back native speakers of the English language to help us, especially in the first phase, help us to strengthen the teaching of the English language.
"We have many excellent Singaporean teachers in the English language. But we may need more numbers and this is something which we're looking into as well.
"At the top end, we need to do more, to make sure that those who have the ability to speak it well, really do so and are proud about it, just like how we want students to be proud about speaking the mother tongue well."
Earlier this week, Mr Tharman revealed that the new Minister of State for Education, Lui Tuck Yew, will be looking at improving the teaching and learning of the English language.
During the education conference, the students also presented their proposals such as having more exchange programmes between ITE and JC students.
The conference, organised by Hwa Chong Institution, involved 65 students from various schools.
After listening to the proposals given by the students, Mr Tharman said that he was very impressed with their work.
He called their suggestions constructive and mature.
And Mr Tharman was heartened to note that the students themselves want to broaden their education and develop life skills.
1. If Singapore's standard of English is apparently not deteriorating, then why consider hiring native English speakers at all?
2. Perhaps Tharman would like to clarify what the definition of 'deteriorating' is. If the standards are supposedly "changing", but not "deteriorating", then they are improving? Come on Tharman. As Education Minister, use your proficient language skills and tell us what you're really trying to say: the kids need help.
Crap.
ReplyDeleteThey hired native Mandarin speakers to teach mandarin and it was an expensive dismal failure.
The only way to learn is to first be ENTUSIASTIC.
Unfortunately state-education is primarily used to dumb-down the kids' enthusiasm for life and replace the wonders of childhood with kiasuism and blind obedience to authority.
No wonder kids are killing themselves. ;-)
The issue is the polarisation of English standards among different schools which was not obvious from the article.
ReplyDeleteTo generalise English standards across different levels of primary, secondary and JC as well as across different schools is not an easy task. The reality is that top schools whose parents are English educated tend to have an easier time in English. I doubt if majority of students at RGS, RI, Hwa Chong, CHIJ etc. have problems in English or that their standard is deteriorating. Similar top JCs RJC, VJC, HCJC, NJC etc. should not be seeing such issues.
The real question is how poorly are some of the "neighbourhood" schools faring at primary, secondary and JC levels? Unless MOE gives sectoral breakdown of how individual schools fare, generalisation is difficult.
Having native speaker teachers is not a new concept. For many years, under the JC Humanities program, native speakers - British, American tutors have been teaching literature and General Paper in the RJC, HCJC and VJC (I think). I was one of them in the program and while there are some benefits of having non-local tutors such as non-Singaporean world-view, liberal attitudes (One of them kept us updated during the Marxist arrests and taught us habeas corpus). By and large, the tutors were more outspoken than local teachers. But in academic teaching, I would say our local teachers were as good if not better. But they did inject some international flavour into the curriculum.
Possibly having specialist native speakers (which potentially should include commonwealth countries where English has also become the working language) teach MOE teachers who are non-liberal arts (i.e. literature/english/history types) trained could be useful in enhancing their teaching skills overall since all teaching subjects are delivered in the English language.
However, to get native English speakers to teach students directly will open up interesting issues that I encountered when I was in JC, if they start analysing politics during a GP class, would they be considered "interfering in Singapore Politics"?
Jobs to foreigners
ReplyDeleteNS for Sporeans
To recruit ong:
ReplyDeleteI share your sentiment my friend. I for one will be serving my 10th and final ICT this year and after that will transit to Mindef Reserve.
The rights and responsibilities of able-bodied male Singaporeans who serve NS are somewhat skewed, i.e. more responsibilities but relatively fewer opportunities for preferential treatment for employment except for certain sensitive govt jobs that cannot be done by non-Singaporeans. Things like tax reliefs while useful do not assuage the 2+10 year NS obligation that affects us. Having SAFRA clubs is not that useful to most of us and I'd rather the taxpayers monies used to built SAFRA be refunded to us as a tax rebate i.e. credit against tax payable (not relief - deduction against income).
As usual the stupidity of pap policies are showing again. means testing, employing chinese nationals to teach ENGLISH!!, that happened some 18 years ago! worse than singlish i tell you. and they sent them to neighbourhood schools, where i come from. my english went from B3 to C5!
ReplyDeleteRemember last time in primary 2 the english teaching standard was quite good. but in primary 3 suddenly the MOE introduced mr yakkie and mr ??. I can't believe the people at MOE are crazy or what. we had to learn English at a lower standard and worse, go back to primary 1 standard! I don't understand?? Is MOE filled with idiots?
The average singapore student is unable to master grammatically correct English because their teachers teach the subject in Singlish.
ReplyDeleteEast Enders, yes they may use a cockney accent, but still use grammatically correct english.
the little singaporean and his singlish. this is little more than
pidgin english, no grammar, not even a translation from chinese dialect.
'Native Speakers'?
ReplyDeleteJust because the Chinese in general are unable to speak good English or teach it, - due to a number of governmental policies perhaps, inter alia, the asinine 'mandarin is cool' campaign' - one cannot right infer that other ethnic groups are not able to do as well in teaching or speaking it as so-called 'native speakers'. However, such a stance makes sense when we consider what might be the inability of the Chinese to acknowledge that anyone, other than 'whites', can do better in anything other than themselves. Thus, if the Chinese can't speak English well, to allow Malays and Indians to teach them is to imply their own relative inferiority - something their socialised tendency - via the marginalisation of Malays and Indians for the past few decades - will be hardpressed to accept.
Or perhaps, their possibly being a people who are appealed to by that which is most salient, as opposed to being cognizant of the essence of things, would naturally lead them to make simplistic associations, amongst others, between 'Good English Teachers' and 'Native Speakers'.
I for one know a number of excellant English speakers of Indian origin who have had their application to become teachers in private schools turned down for not being 'native'. Now it seems that the MOE is following suit. This basically sends a message that if the Chinese can't do it, then the Malays and Indians can't either. Even if they can. Second class citizens cannot be expected to surpass first class ones right?
(ref. underrepresentation in the media, SAP school policy, racial quotas, dilution of non-chinese cultures as opposed to prominence given to chinese culture, 'mother-tongue' policy, etc, etc, etc. - this gradually leads to the 'preferred' race having a more positive view of themselves as opposed to their marginalised counterparts. People ought to remember that 'race' is constructed and the only race that makes logical and sociological sense in a globalised village is the 'human' one.)
Is it stupidity or racism? Or perhaps it is just the result of the dynamic relationship between both.
Sensitive issue? It most certainly is. But only because the sensitivities of the few have been previously ignored that an issue like this can be deemed to be 'sensitive' by those who seek to maintain such an inequitable status quo. No issue should be deemed 'too sensitive' to discuss if the absence of discussion maintains those conditions that allows marginalisation to continue and thus render such issues sensitive. If we were indeed 'sensitive' people, we would rarely give prior cause for an issue to become sensitive.
It is a prior insensitivity that causes many issues to be thereafter sensitive.
tanks inq; interesting diatribe, actually you said nothing, just one long woffle. have another go and attempt to come to some point.
ReplyDeleteOwnership of the English language is no longer in the domain of the traditional English speaking countries. The very term “native speakers” is a hegemonic deference used by people still ashamed of their own origin (MOE included). The true definition of a native speaker of English is one who has mastered the spoken and written form of the language. The colour of the skin is no longer the definitive quality
ReplyDeletethe inbecile
Perhaps all teachers, not just English teachers, should try to use correct English. If all teachers use Singlish except for the English teacher, it's pointless. We should get native speakers to teach all the subjects. Fire all the Singaporean teachers.
ReplyDeleteLet me share some thoughts about it.
ReplyDeleteIf MOE is really (very) willing to hire 'native speakers', are our local English teachers going to get fired, then waste their lives in the streets begging? (sorry, I had some weird imagination because of the recent news about the retrechment from NUTC.)
What does hiring 'native speakers' means anyway?
Is it hiring them from places like UK, USA, Australia, countries that have English as their 'native' language? Wait... what about their accents? I'm sure each has its different kind. Can students understand an angmoh speaking in UK accent, or the Queen's English accent (whatever you call it)?
Somtimes we hate teachers who speak in some accents we don't understand and they don't give a darn thing about teaching.
There are certain words which are different when you compare UK English and US English; take cop and police for example. Which is the 'right' one to say?
As a Secondary school student, I just couldn't understand why they want to do that. In my learning years, I have seen many teachers who are Singaporeans, and they can speak perfect English. That means good pronunciation and some in English accent, I'm sure there are more similar people with that in this red dot.
When Mr Tharman said that "because more people are speaking English now compared to 30 years ago and inevitably it gets spoken in a different way.", it is mind-boggling to wonder what is wrong with our spoken English. What did he meant by "gets spoken in a different way"? Is it we added Singlish, or the accent?
That is total contradiction. It is like forcing medicine down a patient who has recovered and walking.
In the past, English was promoted aggressively, now it is Chinese. Then, someone said something learning third language... now English again? If English has been 'polished' to its best shine, why do it again?
What about writing? Nothing is wrong with it?
Pleae government, make up your minds, do we speak English or Mandarin. You sedem unable to develop a language policy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, you fight a lost cause. Singlish is so ingrained into our society, whatever language the government decrees next is a waste of time.
While you have got teachers using Singlish, "pidgin English," because the language is the only way they are able to communicate with their unfortunate students, we fight a lost cause.
Students must discover their own language mistakes when they leave school and attempt to find a job.
Internationala company bhosses do not like being addressed in Singlish Lah, because I have gone already lah.
hmm....i'm a singaporean teacher who teaches chinese language. yrs ago, MOE "invited" lots of native chinese speakers fr china, to teach in singapore schools, in the hope of inproving our children's chinese. but did it help?
ReplyDeletethe kids, most of them, find it hard to understand what the NATIVE chinese speakers were trying to say. the native speakers' culture is diff fr ours, and most imptly, teaching methods are diff from singapore's as well..
so how? some of these so-called "of a better standard" native speakers has high salary, free accommodation, free PR status, etc. and some locals, who want to be teachers, r rejected.
and at the end of the day, who benefits? our kids? do their chinese improve?
A sign that MOE does not quite have a handle on things is the insistence that we have a bilingual education system.
ReplyDeleteSome linguists believe that both languages need to be used to teach other subjects in class before we can call it bilingual.
How can this be when the "Mother Tongue Languages" (MTLs) are usually not used as media of communication. The exception being SAP schools I think.
This led to no end to allegations that our downfall in English is caused by the bilingual system and language interference.
People must wake up and not be led by the nose by MOE.