|
Singapore embraces an English-based bilingual education system. Students are taught subject-matter curriculum with English as the medium of instruction, while the official mother tongue of each student - Mandarin Chinese for Chinese, Malay for Malays and Tamil for ethnically Tamil Indians – is taught as a second language.〔2005 L. Quentin Dixon. ISB4: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, ed. James Cohen, Kara T. McAlister, Kellie Rolstad, and Jeff MacSwan, 625-635. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.〕 Additionally, Higher Mother Tongue (HMT) is offered as an additional and optional examinable subject to those with the interest and ability to handle the higher standards demanded by HMT. The content taught to students in HMT is of a higher level of difficulty and is more in-depth so as to help students achieve a higher proficiency in their respective mother tongues. The choice to take up HMT is offered to students in the Primary and Secondary level. Thereafter, in junior colleges, students who took HMT at the secondary level have the choice to opt out of mother tongue classes entirely. Campaigns by the government to encourage the use of official languages instead of home languages (e.g. other Chinese varieties) have been largely successful, although English seems to be becoming the dominant language in most homes.〔Wee, L. (2011). Language policy mistakes in Singapore: Governance, expertise and the deliberation of language ideologies. 'International Journal of Applied Linguistics' 21(2). Pp 203–221〕 To date, many campaigns and programmes have been launched to promote the learning and use of mother tongue languages in Singapore. The language education in Singapore has been a controversial topic in Singapore - although Singaporeans are becoming increasingly English-dominant speakers, many have not achieved a good grasp of their mother tongue. This results in a separate controversy regarding the assigned weightage of mother tongue in major examinations such as the PSLE and GCE Ordinary Level as parents worry that children who are taught English as a first language and whom are brought up in English-speaking families are at a disadvantage for not knowing their mother tongue well.〔"()", Mother tongue weightage in PSLE could be cut, 23 April 2010.〕 ==Background== Singapore is a racially and linguistically diverse city-state, with four official languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url = http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;ident=c6f278cc-b132-4722-b952-16ea424d9e1a;query=DocId%3Acf2412ff-fca5-4a64-a8ef-b95b8987728e%20Depth%3A0%20Status%3Ainforce;rec=0#pr153A-he-. )〕 During British colonial rule (1819-1942),〔Barr, M.D. & Skrbiš, Z. (2008). Constructing Singapore : elitism, ethnicity and the nation-building project. Pp. 22-23. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press〕 a variety of school systems were in place and most schools taught exclusively in one of the above four languages. After World War II, schools were gradually brought under government control and the government recognised that a ''lingua franca'' was needed to facilitate communication among the different racial and dialect groups. Malay was briefly considered for this role, in anticipation of the merger with Malaysia. However, English was eventually selected as the common language. Due to the status of English as a world language and the desire for Singaporeans to retain their cultures, the government encourages Singaporeans to be fluent in both English and their mother tongue.〔"(Bilingual Education )", National Library Board, 12 November 2009. Archived from (the original ) on 16 February 2013.〕 In this context, the mother tongue of a Singaporean refers to the official language assigned to their racial group (Mandarin for Chinese, Malay for Malays and Tamil for most Indians), regardless of the language spoken at home.〔Gupta, A. F. (1994), (The step-tongue: children's English in Singapore. Languages in Education in Singapore ), pp. 143–189.〕 The bilingual education policy was officially introduced in 1966 and in its early stages, English could be taught as either the first language or the second language. However, schools teaching English as a second language saw a rapid decline in enrolment and many closed down or switched to teaching English as the first language. This resulted in the mother tongue being taught only as an academic subject. Thus all other lessons and activities conducted beyond the classroom are conducted in English, with the exception of moral education and mother tongue; this is unlike the typical bilingual education models where academic content is taught in two languages.〔〔Cai Haoxiang, "(Going back to the basics of effective English-language teaching )", The Straits Times, 9 November 2009.〕〔Dixon, L. Q. (2005). (The Bilingual Education Policy in Singapore: Implications for Second Language Acquisition ). In Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism. James Cohen, Kara T. McAlister, Kellie Rolstad and Jeff MacSwan (eds.) Pp. 625–635. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press〕 This applies throughout primary school (six years), secondary school (four or five years) and junior college (two years, 20% of cohort) education. However, Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, where some activities are conducted in Mandarin, private schools such as madrasahs, international schools and special education schools are exceptions to the system. In tertiary institutions, such as universities, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), languages are no longer academic subjects almost all content is taught in English, with the exception of some courses on Chinese Studies. In 2011, the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism was set up to aid the Ministry of Education (MOE) in their efforts to promote the teaching and learning of the English language and the mother Tongue languages.〔(The Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism ) Bilingualism.sg.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Language education in Singapore」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|