Speaking at the official opening of The Chinese High Boarding School last week, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the Ministry of Education has piloted a bilingual approach towards the teaching of Chinese.
Under this new approach, bilingual teachers will use English as a supplementary medium of instruction to assist students from English-speaking families in learning the Chinese language.
According to the official Singapore Census of Population, the number of Chinese Singaporeans using Mandarin as their main household language increased sharply from 10.2% in 1980 to 29.8% in 1990 and 45.1% in 2000.
Likewise, the number of Chinese Singaporeans using English as their main household language also increased steadily from 7.9% in 1980 to 19.2% in 1990 and 23.9% in 2000.
However, figures of the Census of Population 2000 clearly showed that 35.8% of Chinese children aged between five and 14 use English as their main household language, compared with 21.5% of Chinese youths aged between 15 and 24.
The gradual language shift from Mandarin to English as a main household language indicates that English will potentially emerge as the ethnic Chinese lingua franca in place of Mandarin should the current trend continue.
With the robust development of the Chinese economy and the stable growth of Sino-Singapore trade, the government has reiterated the importance of developing a pool of bilingual Chinese elites.
Young civil service officials have been sent to China for attachment while senior civil servants have attended Executive Programmes in China's leading universities.
A Sino-Singapore exchange programme specially targeted at tertiary students will commence this year.
Yet all these measures clearly show that the authorities have no intention to change the current language policy under which English is the dominant language in schools. The Chinese community should realise that it is impossible to reverse the rapid growth of English-speaking families within the community.
The main rationale for implementing the bilingual approach is to help students from English-speaking families to tackle problems at the beginning stage in learning Chinese. Chinese teachers face an increasingly uphill task in the years to come.
Furthermore, English is currently taught as the dominant medium of instruction for the learning of all content subjects, with the respective ethnic mother tongues as merely a single compulsory subject in schools.
The ideal goal under the current unified language policy is to train and produce learners who are effectively bilingual in both English and Chinese.
Yet given our existing Chinese educational resources and social environment, it is still not impossible to produce a pool of bilingual Chinese talent to help Singapore ride on the growth of China.
Besides continuously strengthening the Sino-Singapore exchange among government officials, the Chinese teaching circle should dispel any prejudices and fully support the proposed creative teaching methods.
For example, universities or private organisations should design intensive courses on Chinese language for specialised fields, such as Chinese for science and technology, Chinese for business, Chinese for legal practice, and so on. Such courses should be specially customised for selected bilinguals and focus on the mastery of English-Chinese translating skills through a bilingual approach towards the teaching of Chinese language.
It will not only make full use of learners' fundamental professional concepts, but also activate their meta-cognition and background knowledge in English, thereby enabling them to become a bilingual in their own professional field within the shortest period of time.
At this critical juncture, the government and the private sector should take active steps to reward English-Chinese bilinguals.
The Ministry of Education could establish various English-Chinese bilingual proficiency tests and any bilingual who has been awarded a recognised diploma under such tests should be given an additional substantive allowance or promotion prospects.
To meet the increasing demand for English-Chinese documents, professional organisations, such as the Chinese-language newspapers of Singapore Press Holdings, could consider establishing a“centre for reviewing bilingual documents”to assist government agencies and the private sector to review translated texts.
。The writer is an Assistant Professor and Co-ordinator, Asian Languages and Cultures Academic Group （Chinese）, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University.
日前李顯龍副總理在華中寄宿學(xué)校的開幕禮上,透露教育部正在進(jìn)行雙語(yǔ)華文教學(xué)法試驗(yàn)性計(jì)劃。這顯示政府正視英語(yǔ)家庭學(xué)子學(xué)習(xí)華語(yǔ)的困境,而且采取對(duì)癥下藥的解決辦法。
從官方人口普查數(shù)字可看出,以華語(yǔ)為主要家庭用語(yǔ)的華族人口迅速增長(zhǎng),從1980年的10.2%驟升至1990年的29.8%與2000年的45.1%.
至于英語(yǔ),縱然仍處于次位,也呈現(xiàn)穩(wěn)定增長(zhǎng),從1980年的7.9%倍增至1990年的19.2%與2000年的23.9%.
更值得注意的是,2000年人口普查統(tǒng)計(jì)還顯示：35.8%年齡介于5-14歲的華族兒童以英語(yǔ)作為主要家庭用語(yǔ),而年齡介于15-24歲的華族青年只有21.5%以英語(yǔ)為主要家庭用語(yǔ)。
這種“脫華入英”的趨勢(shì),在相差10歲年輕族群間以超過10%的速度推進(jìn),如果沒有太大的變動(dòng),快則10年、慢則20年,英語(yǔ)將成為新加坡華人主要的族群母語(yǔ),而華語(yǔ)將變成透過課堂學(xué)習(xí)而來的外語(yǔ)。
雖然近年新加坡與中國(guó)的經(jīng)貿(mào)交往日漸密切,新加坡政府為順勢(shì)搭上中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)成長(zhǎng)的順風(fēng)車,不斷強(qiáng)調(diào)培養(yǎng)華文精英的重要性。
然而,先前的做法多半限于派遣年輕官員到中國(guó)的機(jī)構(gòu)實(shí)習(xí)、高級(jí)官員到中國(guó)修讀特設(shè)的行政課程以及今年即將推行的新中大專學(xué)生交流計(jì)劃,讓他們有機(jī)會(huì)見識(shí)中國(guó)的發(fā)展與了解中國(guó)所面對(duì)的問題?？梢?*并無意因此而改變目前以英語(yǔ)為主導(dǎo)的語(yǔ)文政策。
所以,華社必須務(wù)實(shí)地認(rèn)識(shí)到本地華族英語(yǔ)家庭的增長(zhǎng)趨勢(shì)不可能有所逆轉(zhuǎn)。采行雙語(yǔ)華文教學(xué)法只是協(xié)助來自英語(yǔ)家庭的年輕學(xué)子擺脫初期學(xué)習(xí)華語(yǔ)的困境,未來華語(yǔ)教學(xué)界要面對(duì)的挑戰(zhàn)更是日益艱巨。
再說,在目前以英語(yǔ)為主要教學(xué)媒介,“母語(yǔ)”華語(yǔ)僅為一門必修科目的國(guó)民型英華雙語(yǔ)教育制度下,期望所有學(xué)習(xí)者華英雙語(yǔ)能力同等優(yōu)異只是個(gè)“理想”的教育目標(biāo)。
但是,以新加坡原有的華語(yǔ)教育資源及社會(huì)環(huán)境,要培養(yǎng)出一定比例（約20%）的雙語(yǔ)人才,以應(yīng)對(duì)中國(guó)崛起的需要,也并非難事。
倘若要更有效率地解決當(dāng)前急務(wù),除了繼續(xù)加強(qiáng)新中人員的交流,華文教育界也應(yīng)拋棄成見,以創(chuàng)新的教學(xué)法全力支援。
大專學(xué)府或民間教育機(jī)構(gòu)應(yīng)開設(shè)專業(yè)華語(yǔ)（例如：科技華語(yǔ)、商業(yè)華語(yǔ)、法律華語(yǔ)等）密集課程或者翻譯課程。這些過渡性的華語(yǔ)加強(qiáng)課程,無需要求全面提升華語(yǔ)的一般語(yǔ)言技能,只要著重在英華語(yǔ)對(duì)譯能力的提升,充分利用學(xué)習(xí)者已具備的基本英語(yǔ)專業(yè)概念,通過英華語(yǔ)并用的雙語(yǔ)教學(xué)法,讓學(xué)習(xí)者在短時(shí)間內(nèi)兼通專業(yè)領(lǐng)域的英華術(shù)語(yǔ)。
在這個(gè)關(guān)鍵的時(shí)刻,政府及企業(yè)部門也應(yīng)積極獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)具備英華雙語(yǔ)能力的雙語(yǔ)人才,教育*可設(shè)立各種標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的英華雙語(yǔ)鑒定考試,凡是獲得合格證書的官員或員工,都應(yīng)給予實(shí)質(zhì)的加給獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)或升等。
另外,由于政府或民間機(jī)構(gòu)目前均無法在短期內(nèi)培養(yǎng)足夠的雙語(yǔ)人才,倘若要應(yīng)付日漸增多的英華翻譯文件,可考慮由報(bào)業(yè)控股華文報(bào)集團(tuán)等專業(yè)機(jī)構(gòu),盡快成立“雙語(yǔ)文件審核中心”,協(xié)助政府及企業(yè)嚴(yán)格審查譯文。
。作者為南大國(guó)立教育學(xué)院中文系助理教授兼助理主任
Under this new approach, bilingual teachers will use English as a supplementary medium of instruction to assist students from English-speaking families in learning the Chinese language.
According to the official Singapore Census of Population, the number of Chinese Singaporeans using Mandarin as their main household language increased sharply from 10.2% in 1980 to 29.8% in 1990 and 45.1% in 2000.
Likewise, the number of Chinese Singaporeans using English as their main household language also increased steadily from 7.9% in 1980 to 19.2% in 1990 and 23.9% in 2000.
However, figures of the Census of Population 2000 clearly showed that 35.8% of Chinese children aged between five and 14 use English as their main household language, compared with 21.5% of Chinese youths aged between 15 and 24.
The gradual language shift from Mandarin to English as a main household language indicates that English will potentially emerge as the ethnic Chinese lingua franca in place of Mandarin should the current trend continue.
With the robust development of the Chinese economy and the stable growth of Sino-Singapore trade, the government has reiterated the importance of developing a pool of bilingual Chinese elites.
Young civil service officials have been sent to China for attachment while senior civil servants have attended Executive Programmes in China's leading universities.
A Sino-Singapore exchange programme specially targeted at tertiary students will commence this year.
Yet all these measures clearly show that the authorities have no intention to change the current language policy under which English is the dominant language in schools. The Chinese community should realise that it is impossible to reverse the rapid growth of English-speaking families within the community.
The main rationale for implementing the bilingual approach is to help students from English-speaking families to tackle problems at the beginning stage in learning Chinese. Chinese teachers face an increasingly uphill task in the years to come.
Furthermore, English is currently taught as the dominant medium of instruction for the learning of all content subjects, with the respective ethnic mother tongues as merely a single compulsory subject in schools.
The ideal goal under the current unified language policy is to train and produce learners who are effectively bilingual in both English and Chinese.
Yet given our existing Chinese educational resources and social environment, it is still not impossible to produce a pool of bilingual Chinese talent to help Singapore ride on the growth of China.
Besides continuously strengthening the Sino-Singapore exchange among government officials, the Chinese teaching circle should dispel any prejudices and fully support the proposed creative teaching methods.
For example, universities or private organisations should design intensive courses on Chinese language for specialised fields, such as Chinese for science and technology, Chinese for business, Chinese for legal practice, and so on. Such courses should be specially customised for selected bilinguals and focus on the mastery of English-Chinese translating skills through a bilingual approach towards the teaching of Chinese language.
It will not only make full use of learners' fundamental professional concepts, but also activate their meta-cognition and background knowledge in English, thereby enabling them to become a bilingual in their own professional field within the shortest period of time.
At this critical juncture, the government and the private sector should take active steps to reward English-Chinese bilinguals.
The Ministry of Education could establish various English-Chinese bilingual proficiency tests and any bilingual who has been awarded a recognised diploma under such tests should be given an additional substantive allowance or promotion prospects.
To meet the increasing demand for English-Chinese documents, professional organisations, such as the Chinese-language newspapers of Singapore Press Holdings, could consider establishing a“centre for reviewing bilingual documents”to assist government agencies and the private sector to review translated texts.
。The writer is an Assistant Professor and Co-ordinator, Asian Languages and Cultures Academic Group （Chinese）, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University.
日前李顯龍副總理在華中寄宿學(xué)校的開幕禮上,透露教育部正在進(jìn)行雙語(yǔ)華文教學(xué)法試驗(yàn)性計(jì)劃。這顯示政府正視英語(yǔ)家庭學(xué)子學(xué)習(xí)華語(yǔ)的困境,而且采取對(duì)癥下藥的解決辦法。
從官方人口普查數(shù)字可看出,以華語(yǔ)為主要家庭用語(yǔ)的華族人口迅速增長(zhǎng),從1980年的10.2%驟升至1990年的29.8%與2000年的45.1%.
至于英語(yǔ),縱然仍處于次位,也呈現(xiàn)穩(wěn)定增長(zhǎng),從1980年的7.9%倍增至1990年的19.2%與2000年的23.9%.
更值得注意的是,2000年人口普查統(tǒng)計(jì)還顯示：35.8%年齡介于5-14歲的華族兒童以英語(yǔ)作為主要家庭用語(yǔ),而年齡介于15-24歲的華族青年只有21.5%以英語(yǔ)為主要家庭用語(yǔ)。
這種“脫華入英”的趨勢(shì),在相差10歲年輕族群間以超過10%的速度推進(jìn),如果沒有太大的變動(dòng),快則10年、慢則20年,英語(yǔ)將成為新加坡華人主要的族群母語(yǔ),而華語(yǔ)將變成透過課堂學(xué)習(xí)而來的外語(yǔ)。
雖然近年新加坡與中國(guó)的經(jīng)貿(mào)交往日漸密切,新加坡政府為順勢(shì)搭上中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)成長(zhǎng)的順風(fēng)車,不斷強(qiáng)調(diào)培養(yǎng)華文精英的重要性。
然而,先前的做法多半限于派遣年輕官員到中國(guó)的機(jī)構(gòu)實(shí)習(xí)、高級(jí)官員到中國(guó)修讀特設(shè)的行政課程以及今年即將推行的新中大專學(xué)生交流計(jì)劃,讓他們有機(jī)會(huì)見識(shí)中國(guó)的發(fā)展與了解中國(guó)所面對(duì)的問題?？梢?*并無意因此而改變目前以英語(yǔ)為主導(dǎo)的語(yǔ)文政策。
所以,華社必須務(wù)實(shí)地認(rèn)識(shí)到本地華族英語(yǔ)家庭的增長(zhǎng)趨勢(shì)不可能有所逆轉(zhuǎn)。采行雙語(yǔ)華文教學(xué)法只是協(xié)助來自英語(yǔ)家庭的年輕學(xué)子擺脫初期學(xué)習(xí)華語(yǔ)的困境,未來華語(yǔ)教學(xué)界要面對(duì)的挑戰(zhàn)更是日益艱巨。
再說,在目前以英語(yǔ)為主要教學(xué)媒介,“母語(yǔ)”華語(yǔ)僅為一門必修科目的國(guó)民型英華雙語(yǔ)教育制度下,期望所有學(xué)習(xí)者華英雙語(yǔ)能力同等優(yōu)異只是個(gè)“理想”的教育目標(biāo)。
但是,以新加坡原有的華語(yǔ)教育資源及社會(huì)環(huán)境,要培養(yǎng)出一定比例（約20%）的雙語(yǔ)人才,以應(yīng)對(duì)中國(guó)崛起的需要,也并非難事。
倘若要更有效率地解決當(dāng)前急務(wù),除了繼續(xù)加強(qiáng)新中人員的交流,華文教育界也應(yīng)拋棄成見,以創(chuàng)新的教學(xué)法全力支援。
大專學(xué)府或民間教育機(jī)構(gòu)應(yīng)開設(shè)專業(yè)華語(yǔ)（例如：科技華語(yǔ)、商業(yè)華語(yǔ)、法律華語(yǔ)等）密集課程或者翻譯課程。這些過渡性的華語(yǔ)加強(qiáng)課程,無需要求全面提升華語(yǔ)的一般語(yǔ)言技能,只要著重在英華語(yǔ)對(duì)譯能力的提升,充分利用學(xué)習(xí)者已具備的基本英語(yǔ)專業(yè)概念,通過英華語(yǔ)并用的雙語(yǔ)教學(xué)法,讓學(xué)習(xí)者在短時(shí)間內(nèi)兼通專業(yè)領(lǐng)域的英華術(shù)語(yǔ)。
在這個(gè)關(guān)鍵的時(shí)刻,政府及企業(yè)部門也應(yīng)積極獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)具備英華雙語(yǔ)能力的雙語(yǔ)人才,教育*可設(shè)立各種標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的英華雙語(yǔ)鑒定考試,凡是獲得合格證書的官員或員工,都應(yīng)給予實(shí)質(zhì)的加給獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)或升等。
另外,由于政府或民間機(jī)構(gòu)目前均無法在短期內(nèi)培養(yǎng)足夠的雙語(yǔ)人才,倘若要應(yīng)付日漸增多的英華翻譯文件,可考慮由報(bào)業(yè)控股華文報(bào)集團(tuán)等專業(yè)機(jī)構(gòu),盡快成立“雙語(yǔ)文件審核中心”,協(xié)助政府及企業(yè)嚴(yán)格審查譯文。
。作者為南大國(guó)立教育學(xué)院中文系助理教授兼助理主任