[PSLE MT] PSLE less weightage in Chinese / Mother Tongue
-
the root of the problem is not the weightage of MT at PSLE
we (including MOE) are all trying to cure the symptoms only
the root of the problems are in two area :
1. parents do not realise and insist on effort be put into MT studies by the kids till too late, may be at P2 / P3 / P4 then start to panic and complain
2. MOE must implement stronger emphasis of MT learning from nursery onward, and please, get competent MT teachers to do it. Problems do not arise overnite …冰冻非一夜之寒.
We as parents come from dialect / mandarin environment and so picking mandarin in primary school is not an issue
however in schools we were in an english speaking environment and these carried into working life and we ended up the most unique chinese race in the world : english speaking chinese people - we speak english at work and at home and to our kids. and this is made worse by the eradication of dialects
fast forward to today’s scenario : how many nursery / pre-school / kindergarten are in chinese medium ?
when my kids were in nursery / kindergarten, we made conscious effort to enroll them into chinese kindergarten classes - everything is taught in chinese - and the teachers were good - arousing interest from the kids to want to learn the language
the result : they have no problem learning and moving up in the chinese language
to cut the long story short : it is the early foundation that is crucial
another point to make : MOE did not say lower the MT standard - but to reduce the weightage. U may still need to work hard to score, but the same effort will yield less t-score : and this will demoralise the teachers and students -
Way2GO:
This is what I worry about ..
I recalled when my kid was in P2 or P3
his class was asked to take conversational Malay
as enrichment in school.
This was conducted after school hours n is non-examinable.
u know wat happened?
He told me he didn't want to attend anymore
after a while cos' many of his classmates stopped attending.
Dat is going to be the mentality when MOE
lowers d MT weightage.
Students n schools will shift their time n emphasis.
In d long run, d standard of MT will deteriorate further. -
tankee:
daisyt:
\"...... As for the others, if they don't reach these high (levels) in their higher mother tongue, they can also enter because they are good in the other subjects,\" said Dr Ng. - CNA /ls
If the concern is Dont want to penalize those who are strong in subjects like math/science, why not raise the weightage of Math/Science? -
HyperKiasu:
[/quote]that will in effect reduce the weightage of MT / ELtankee:
[quote=\"daisyt\"]\"...... As for the others, if they don't reach these high (levels) in their higher mother tongue, they can also enter because they are good in the other subjects,\" said Dr Ng. - CNA /ls
If the concern is Dont want to penalize those who are strong in subjects like math/science, why not raise the weightage of Math/Science? -
HyperKiasu:
[/quote]Then it will penalise those good in languages only.tankee:
[quote=\"daisyt\"]\"...... As for the others, if they don't reach these high (levels) in their higher mother tongue, they can also enter because they are good in the other subjects,\" said Dr Ng. - CNA /ls
If the concern is Dont want to penalize those who are strong in subjects like math/science, why not raise the weightage of Math/Science?
MOE doesn't make sense, just because don't want to penalise those good in other subjects and doesn't reach level for mother tongue (most probably the elite group who speaks only English at home and just don't want to put in effort for Chinese), end up penalising those good in mother tongue from the middle income or lower income familities whose parents may not even speak English. -
verykiasu2010:
absolutely. My kids' childcare centre have very good CL curriculum which appeals to some indian parents who send their children there. The result is very good, according to one of the Indian parents, their son always tops the class in CL in primary.the root of the problem is not the weightage of MT at PSLE
2. MOE must implement stronger emphasis of MT learning from nursery onward, and please, get competent MT teachers to do it. Problems do not arise overnite .....冰冻非一夜之寒. -
HyperKiasu:
If the concern is Dont want to penalize those who are strong in subjects like math/science, why not raise the weightage of Math/Science?
Results in d same thing
it de-emphasize d subject with less weightage.
If u r a student, wat would u do in this case?
d end point is very clear to see. -
tamarind:
thanks for providing the link. I will forward it to the Indian parent mentioned above.....verykiasu2010:
need to combine some effort to present our views to the MOE on Chn ? I know some will shoot me down now .....lol
Please use this feedback form and send your comments to MOE.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/feedback/ -
25hourmaid:
Thanks, just sent an email over.Some of you may want to write directly to Mr Ng?
[email protected] -
ks2me:
Look at this thread, so fast so furious. ks2me, you mean this?I cannot remember where I read the post but I support the suggestion of the efforts and funds used now to lower this weighting to be channelled down to preschool learning MT instead.
There is no point trying to solve a problem created by ourselves consciously and then try to adjust the system. Instead go down to the preschool level and set the learning record right, and do not let the poor parents struggle anymore to try to do their own enrichment at preschool level. If a campaign is run at the preschool level to learn Chinese the right way, I am sure the future generation kids will be so sound in their Chinese, believe it or not. No doubt we need to wait but we have waited so long anyway....Picolo:
I stumble across this newsletter written by Dr Cheah Yin Mee which may throw light on how to tackle this issue. For those who do not know, Dr Cheah has many credentials. She is a Master English Teacher who teaches in some Masters' courses for NIE and recently began mentoring some beginning teachers for NIE. She has:I strongly feel that the 'weightage' of Chinese should be doubled when the children are still small, when they are less than 5 years old! MOE should take over to study how Chinese should be taught at preschool level. If they have a good foundation understanding the Chinese characters at preschool level, they will have better success rate in Chinese at primary school level. Introducing Hanyupinying at P1/K2 is not helpful at all.
I came from a Chinese-speaking family, but my children are English-speaking. However, my youngest one at 5 years old loves to read Chinese books aloud to me every day and his mandarin improved in leaps and bounds over the past 1.5 years and he can recognise and understand the meaning of more Chinese characters than my other child at P2. Why? Because since young, I read a lot more interesting Chinese books than English books to him, compared to the pathetic Chinese reader books I read to his elder siblings when they were still small.
-Ph.D. (Education) University of California at Berkeley
Dissertation: Language and Culture:
An ethnographic study of language and literacy education in Singapore
- M. A. (Education) Stanford University
- Dip. Appl. Ling. (with distinction) RELC, Singapore
- Dip. Ed. National University of Singapore
- B.A. (Hons.) University of Malaya
Looking at her attitude towards learning a language that she and her junior are weaker at. For her case, it is Chinese. For others, it is English. If the attitude and method used are right, nothing is insurmountable.
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Extracted from: http://www.learningventures.com.sg/cos/o.x?c=/wbn/pagetree&func=view&rid=1042726
October 2009, Vol. 102
This month's feature:
Focus: Educating Parents
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Focus: Educating Parents
Thank you all for the feedback to my August newsletter on preparing for exams; I am glad it gave some of you a new perspective on the issue. In particular, I'd like to thank Fred for his comments as they gave me ideas for this issue. The other reason why I decided to focus on the topic of educating parents was an interesting discussion on this same topic when I was in Taiwan recently for a conference. But let's begin by reading Fred's comments:
Very interesting and beneficial indeed...your insights into how (especially \"kiasu\") parents can help our children prepare for their exams. May I just add on (in jest) that point 4 (To teach is to learn twice) might work better with parents with solid tertiary education or teaching background? As it is, I know of parents who are already struggling sometimes to understand the questions posed by their children! They probably got away by acting as if they know what their children are \"teaching\" them!
Fred has a point indeed, and I remember struggling with Junior's Chinese texts when he was in primary five and six. I did not have enough Chinese background to help him although I would say that, as an adult, I had better strategies for unlocking meaning from any text than he had then. So while I could not teach him, I still could help him figure out some of the tasks and going over the texts many times invariably helped my own word recognition. But I don't always advocate the idea of parents acting as teachers, well, not all the time at least. My point is to have your children teach you because in doing so, they will be reviewing the subject twice. It does not matter if you don't understand the subject. I remember how my father used to insist on us giving speeches and performing plays in English even though he did not understand much of what we said. Once, I even translated and explained the poem \"If\" by Rudyard Kipling for him. At that time, I wondered if he understood anything. Later I realised he didn't give a fig about what Kipling said. He merely wanted me to practise reading and explaining the message of the poem.
In Singapore, adopting English as a school language has posed many challenges for parents, especially those who are not literate in English. Many years ago, when I was collecting data for my dissertation in a primary school in the northern part of Singapore, I made friends with a woman who sold drinks in the school canteen. One day, she confided in me and told me her worries for her daughter. This woman did not know any English and she was at a loss as to how she could help her child. Her distress was heartbreaking. I thought of so many other parents who similarly feel disempowered because they are not English literate. But at the same time, there are so many of us who learnt English well and succeeded in school although we came from homes where not a word of English was spoken. So, the issue is not whether parents are educated or whether they speak English. Research has established that it is parents' attitude and the value they placed on education that matter most. In other words, your actions will speak louder than your words, regardless of the language you speak.
At the conference in Taiwan recently, I discussed this topic with the Taiwanese and the key note speaker from Hong Kong, Professor PC Wang. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, the home language and the school language are the same but from what I learnt, the push for education is not as strong so there is much that needs to be done in educating parents to support their children's education. As Professor Wang put it, academic achievement will take place if everyone does their part and to him, the parents, the child and the school each has one third of the responsibility. I am pleased that he assigned responsibility to the pupil too because I do think many parents here blame only the teacher or the school when their child is not doing well. Learning is ultimately an individual responsibility, and unfortunately, many children do not realise this until it gets too late. As adults, we need to reinforce this point although I believe that the message should not be that education will get them a better job. Education and learning should be ends in themselves as they help us live a more enlightened and a richer life.
So what about parent education? As a person who conducts a fair number of workshops for parents, I wish for more sessions where parents can be enlightened about education and parenting in general. Unfortunately, we are all caught up in the number game, and parents are also often adversely affected by advertisements that prey on their insecurity about their children's future. Parents tread a fine line between nurturing and interfering, and it is difficult to know the right thing to do when the welfare of one's child is at stake. I too have been down that road before and have agonised over some decisions I have had to make about Junior's education. But ultimately, I still believe in intrinsic motivation although an occasional nudge in the right direction should also be given.
Finally, keeping an eye on the distant goal is a useful way for parents to rise beyond the everyday pressures of school and exams. In the end, we want our children to be happy, well-adjusted adults because this is the only way they can be productive and can contribute to society. Then they can also, in turn, be good parents and bring up a new generation of happy children. Would we, as parents, wish for more than this for our children?
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