Education Ministry to promote innovative teaching of Chinese Language

Sunday April 10, 6:17 PM

Education Ministry to promote innovative teaching of Chinese Language SINGAPORE : There are more plans to broaden the Chinese Language curriculum in Singapore schools. This follows the recommendations of the Chinese Language and Pedagogy Review Committee and findings from a recent study trip to China and Hong Kong. The Education Ministry will introduce a school-based "SEED-CL" - Strategies for Effective Engagement and Development of Pupils in Learning Chinese Language - initiative this year to promote innovative teaching of the language. The Ministry will also pilot a new curriculum for Primary 1 and 2 students at 25 schools in 2006. At an event to launch a Chinese literary series, Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said his ministry had implemented special initiatives to help in the learning of Chinese Language. Among these, the Language Elective Programme at three junior colleges, which is seeing higher take-up rates. And now, Jurong Junior College will join Hwa Chong Institution, Temasek and Nanyang Junior College to provide the two-year programme, which prepares students for Higher Chinese at "A" Levels with the option to offer Special Paper. He said the Ministry would phase in new approaches to Chinese Language learning carefully. Mr Tharman said: "MOE is working with a group of CL teachers on a SEED-CL package which incorporates teaching strategies for character recognition, reading and oral communication, and which places emphasis on learning within a context that children find interesting. "The next step will be to introduce a new curriculum for Primary 1 and 2, which places less emphasis on script writing and more emphasis on character recognition to help students begin to read early." - CNA