[PSLE MT] PSLE less weightage in Chinese / Mother Tongue

[csc]

Donkey Kong:

I think our chinese std has been very low. My friend, angmopai, never read chinese books/magazines, cannot speak fluently, also get A2 for his CL2 at AO level.


Strange right?

Ha..ha...my son also 'angmopai', never read Chinese books or magzines, scored distinctions for both his CL and HCL in psle.Also did not spend a lot of time on this subject. My 'eyes' almost popped out upon seeing his grades in HCL.

Yeah...our standard is real low.

[longreach]

KSP:

Lowering weightage is NOT Equal to lowering standard.


I guess the intention is not to stop the \"foreign talent\" getting into top schools. There is no way we can stop them if they are really good. Like the one shown on the newspaper posted a few pages back. She will probably be accepted by RGS via DSA since she is already in GEP at RGPS even she is not the top in SG or school.

Agree that lowering weightage does not equate to lowering standard. I should have elaborate my previous posted a little. As many parents has pointed out their concern of students will also be more slack or putting effect in learning Chinese which may ultimately affect the standard of Chinese in Singapore. It is all about measurement drives behavious. Human work, act, react, response,... according to the way we are being measured.

I remembering watching TV forum program (I think it is a Singapore program, can't remember the exact program name) some years ago. There was this ang moh expat working in Singapore, has a Singaporean Chinese secretary. His secretary was unable to read fax from China written in Chinese. Complaint to her boss that she cannot understand phone call from China as they have a different accent.

So the boss become her secretary instead. Answer all the phone calls from China and has to explain to her the content of the Chinese fax so that she can get her work done accordingly.

[tamarind]

money9090:

This girl can read 金庸 and enjoy it at P4, she is excellent in every subject.
She is the favourite student of her CL teacher. (I know her CL teacher in RGPS)

OT a bit.
Some parents here don't even allow their kids below 12 to read 金庸 novels ! They didn't think that his novels are good for kids.

[CJS]

Zhen shi qi shi wo !


My two older children suffered and struggled in their CL because we have an English speaking environment at home. To avoid this heartache during PSLE, we speak Mandarin to our youngest child since young so that we can avoid the problems we have with her older siblings. In fact, she is so much stronger in the CL subject than her other subjects because her EL is weaker due to home environment now. And now, government says to lower weightage. :x :stupid:

[corneyAmber]

CJS:

Zhen shi qi shi wo !

真是气死我?

[rains]

longreach:

rains:

When I look at my kid's textbooks, they are clearly of a much higher level than when I was in primary school.

I would have to disagree on this statement. Not sure which yester-era are you from. Anyway, my DS got a A for his Chinese in last year PSLE. Chinese is his weakest subject and for obvious reason he is happy and we are all happy for him. But, if I were to compare his level of Chinese standard (so call an A by today's MOE measurement) with my era, I could safely say his is probably a C at best. He also took HMT in primary school by the way.

Chinese standard in Singapore has definitely been deliberately lowered over the years but standard on other subjects are on the up. How much lower do we want? To a level that even an ang moh can surpass us?

I said I looked at the book, right? I didn't mention anything about the standard of marking.

I am from the era when we had just 3 big characters 人,口,手 on one page, with accompanying big big pictures to illustrate the characters for a P1 textbook page. So when I compare her P1 textbook and mine, they are definitely 一个天，一个地 (I am the 地）。

When I look at the exam papers, they are definitely of a higher standard than during my time. Of course, I can't say the same for the moderation and marking standard. But since the level of texts and demands of the academics have increased phenomenally, I would say it's only fair they adjust the standard of marking. I really don't think children of yester-era and now are very much different in terms of their cognition. What makes them cleverer than we were? I just feel that if they are given the same allowance as we did, then we won't have to send them to tuition or enrichment classes.

[corneyAmber]

Rains, I have to disagree here in an amicable way.

They are indeed different indeed, yester-years kids and now. Now, better nutrition, better-educated parents, different environment (I hesitated on using better when I think of the Earth issues), better learning facilities, better affluence...... in fact the better list goes on....

BUT also because of all the BETTERS there is only ONE thing I don't think they are better and that accounts for a LARGE part of learning, TIME! :lol:

[Pen88n]

CJS:

Zhen shi qi shi wo !


My two older children suffered and struggled in their CL because we have an English speaking environment at home. To avoid this heartache during PSLE, we speak Mandarin to our youngest child since young so that we can avoid the problems we have with her older siblings. In fact, she is so much stronger in the CL subject than her other subjects because her EL is weaker due to home environment now. And now, government says to lower weightage. :x :stupid:

MOE will change policy as and when they \"feel the need\". I think as parents we need to feedback on the policy objectively. Having said that, if MOE still insist in having a lower weightage for Chinese in PSLE, it will still be implemented amidst all the objections.

However, we as parents should take a long term view of education, and not be so short term as to see learning Chinese (or any subjects for that matter) as only to satisfy PSLE, \"O\" or \"A\" Level. Education is preparing the kids for the future world, not just to pass / excel in exams. It's good if they can excel, but if you look long term and not be too tied down by the marks, your kids will benefit from the bilingual exposure you have provided.

Some parents will be too concerned about MOE's direction and do all things to \"strategise\" / \"maximise\" the kid's score for PSLE / major exams. By doing so, they are putting their kids at a disadvantage in the future world of tomorrow where competition is global and not only tied to the cohort of the year. Regardless of MOE's policy, the ultimate education your kid will receive will also be dependent on your own emphasis.

[Trina]

daisyt:

sunflower:

Actually, learning Chinese is not very difficult, provided we're immersed in the environment that requires us to use Chinese daily. Unfortunately, with the high standards of English that are required of us, and the fact that we don't really need to use the language constantly in our daily life, most placed emphasis on English and neglected Chinese, thus resulting in the deterioration of Chinese standards in our children.

Agree. Morever, we are not in a pure ang mo environment. In Singapore, we have many Chinese radio stations, many Chinese programes, many easy assessable Chinese books, many peoples around us speak Mandarin. Even an eye specialist I know of, starts to speak Mandarin with me.

If one read an English story book a week, is he reading a Chinese story book a week too? If one watch 2 hours of English programes on TV or in cinema, is he doing the same to Chinese? If one study English literature, is he doing the same to Chinese literature? If one is reading English newspaper daily, is he doing the same on Chinese newspaper? If one converse English at home every day, did he every think of converse in full Mandarin the following day? Its a matter of how much effort is put in.

Someone told me, I don't know how true is it. Since young, our PM had to read Malay newspaper aloud to his dad everyday.

I am in total agreement with daisyt. Have been following this discussion thread for sometime now and seems to me that most arguments for lowering the Chinese weightage is to ease the children's struggle with Chinese so that they can focus more on the other subjects or not to \"kill\" their interest in Chinese. I would have thought that lowering weightage = less emphasis on Chinese which in turn = less interest in Chinese and even more of a struggle in secondary school.

My personal thoughts is that we should try to address the root of the problem rather than take the easy way out. Like many parents had pointed out, if children are given more exposure to Chinese when young, it is more likely for them to like the language and more receptive to the teaching. I feel that the government can help foster the right environment by taking certain measures e.g. producing more quality children programmes in Chinese, help bring in more Chinese storybooks and conduct family activities in Chinese. Don't you feel that it is not easy to find good quality Chinese DVDs and story books for the kids? English comes naturally to most kids as the cartoons, books, comics etc are usually in English. We need more materials to cultivate the interest in Chinese language.

Like most families, we also speak mostly English at home and my DD declared that she was not Chinese at age 3. We then took pains to expose her to Chinese language by speaking it frequently, sourced diligently for good and interersting Chinese story books and switched to watching Mandarin shows. Thankfully our efforts paid off and she is now very comfortable and fluent in the language. There was one incident where I suggested to a angmo pai colleague that she should let her kid watch Korean shows (dubbed in Mandarin) for the language exposure and she was aghasted at letting her kid watch such \"crappy\" show. I was like :stupid:

Last thing, how come nobody complain that English is tough? Even at P1, kids are supposed to use words like \"petrified\" and \"overcast\" on top of having a knowledge of idioms. This is definitely way above what we did when we were in school but nobody ever suggested lowering the weightage/standard. ......

[sakura_2009]

Trina:

daisyt:

[quote=\"sunflower\"]Actually, learning Chinese is not very difficult, provided we're immersed in the environment that requires us to use Chinese daily. Unfortunately, with the high standards of English that are required of us, and the fact that we don't really need to use the language constantly in our daily life, most placed emphasis on English and neglected Chinese, thus resulting in the deterioration of Chinese standards in our children.

Agree. Morever, we are not in a pure ang mo environment. In Singapore, we have many Chinese radio stations, many Chinese programes, many easy assessable Chinese books, many peoples around us speak Mandarin. Even an eye specialist I know of, starts to speak Mandarin with me.

If one read an English story book a week, is he reading a Chinese story book a week too? If one watch 2 hours of English programes on TV or in cinema, is he doing the same to Chinese? If one study English literature, is he doing the same to Chinese literature? If one is reading English newspaper daily, is he doing the same on Chinese newspaper? If one converse English at home every day, did he every think of converse in full Mandarin the following day? Its a matter of how much effort is put in.

Someone told me, I don't know how true is it. Since young, our PM had to read Malay newspaper aloud to his dad everyday.

I am in total agreement with daisyt. Have been following this discussion thread for sometime now and seems to me that most arguments for lowering the Chinese weightage is to ease the children's struggle with Chinese so that they can focus more on the other subjects or not to \"kill\" their interest in Chinese. I would have thought that lowering weightage = less emphasis on Chinese which in turn = less interest in Chinese and even more of a struggle in secondary school.

My personal thoughts is that we should try to address the root of the problem rather than take the easy way out. Like many parents had pointed out, if children are given more exposure to Chinese when young, it is more likely for them to like the language and more receptive to the teaching. I feel that the government can help foster the right environment by taking certain measures e.g. producing more quality children programmes in Chinese, help bring in more Chinese storybooks and conduct family activities in Chinese. Don't you feel that it is not easy to find good quality Chinese DVDs and story books for the kids? English comes naturally to most kids as the cartoons, books, comics etc are usually in English. We need more materials to cultivate the interest in Chinese language.

Like most families, we also speak mostly English at home and my DD declared that she was not Chinese at age 3. We then took pains to expose her to Chinese language by speaking it frequently, sourced diligently for good and interersting Chinese story books and switched to watching Mandarin shows. Thankfully our efforts paid off and she is now very comfortable and fluent in the language. There was one incident where I suggested to a angmo pai colleague that she should let her kid watch Korean shows (dubbed in Mandarin) for the language exposure and she was aghasted at letting her kid watch such \"crappy\" show. I was like :stupid:

Last thing, how come nobody complain that English is tough? Even at P1, kids are supposed to use words like \"petrified\" and \"overcast\" on top of having a knowledge of idioms. This is definitely way above what we did when we were in school but nobody ever suggested lowering the weightage/standard. ......[/quote]Think cannot lower the standard of English...you need English too for Maths and Science...and if you have seen the way the questions are phrased for Maths and Science, you will understand why English has to be taught at a much 'higher' level than yester-years....