1. By Natchaya Tangtrakun
550 132 004

2. Objectives
To study English take on the role as the main language
of Singapore education and communication
To study how these policies effect three ethnics
groups; Chinese, Malaysian, and Indian in Singapore

3. Singapore
Chinese 77%
Mandarin Chinese
Malaysians 14%
Malays
Indians 8%
Tamil

4. Singapore Bilingual Education Policy
(The key feature of the Singapore education sys tem)
The government of Singapore
 Launches the Bilingual Education Policy for the
citizen
 Assigns the Ministry of Education to set and provide
the Bilingual Education System and curriculum

5. Aims of Bilingual Education Policy
To help the students discover their talent, potential, interest and
learning style
To develop in students an enduring core of competences, value
and character
To ensure that their skills and knowledge taught in school meet
the challenge of 21st century
To equip students with language competencies to access Asian
Cultures
To enable them to appreciate students’ heritage

6. Bilingual Education Policy
English
 To be recognized as the medium language
 Used in the subject-matter curriculum
 Used in main instruction at all school

7. Primary School Education

8. Secondary School Education

9. Pre-University Education

10. The Examination
 The government requires the students in each level to do
the examinations before study further in the higher level
 Primary school: Primary School Language Examination
(PSLE)
 Secondary school: Cambridge General Certificate of
Curriculum Ordinary (GCE “O” Level Examination)
 University: Cambridge General Certificate of
Curriculum Advance (GCE “A” Level Examination)

11. Second Language Acquisition Assumptions
Underlying Singapore Bilingual Education Policy
 Beginning a second language early leads to higher
proficiency
 Lee Kwan Yew said “a belief that children will learn
English better the earlier they start learning the
language.”
 This urged Malaysians and Indians to increase their use
English in order to improve the education achievement
to their children
 Parents send their children to Eng-medium preschool
program

12.  Home language development is not academically
helpful to development of English language skills
 Singapore education policy is bilingual, so the
government requires students to study official mother
tongue as a subject in English-medium schooling
 The students who use English as home language instead
of their mother tongue, they will lead to academic
success in English

13.  More time devoted to earn a language will result in
greater proficiency in language
 For preschool program, the students were not achieve a
high level of proficiency in English, so the government
required Mathematic and Science to be taught in
English
The two alphabetic language are similar
English is not difficult for the Malaysians and Indians to
learn because of similarities of alphabet
Maintaining the ethnic language will protect ethnic
identity, a sense of rootedness and cultural values

14. Teacher Quality
Teachers
 To be nurtured and motivated to achieve the best in
line with the aspiration and interest
 To receive pre-service training at National Institute of
Education (NIE)
 To encourage them to use research findings to improve
classroom practices

15. ICT
 To enhance students’ learning experience
 To equip the students with the critical competencies to
succeed in knowledge
 To enrich the learning environment of students

16. Partnership with Parents
 For deliver an education by involve and support school
programs
 To encourage parents and community to work together
with school
 To provide conductive learning environment in
schools, homes and communities

17. Singapore’s Education System’s
Succeeded
 Singapore builds strong linguistic foundation through bilingual
policy
 Students seem to master English well enough to learn
Mathematic and Science content at high level of achievement
 IEA Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2001
provide an interesting source of evidence of students’ English
reading skills. Their score are higher than international average
 Singaporeans performs very well on both literacy and
informational purposes on English reading
 In 1998, More than 60% of students, they pass the “Cambridge
“O” level examination and can study in Universities

18. The Interviewing with Ethnic Groups
in Singapore
 Indian couple and students said
 Most of Indian children enroll in the normal school for
taking bilingual education and curriculum as same as
Chinese and Malaysians

19.  At the present, the children usually use English as
home language for communicate with their families
and friends, but just a small group of them speak Indo-
European languages; Bengali, Hindi, and Punjabi
 The children can learn the Mother Tongue language,
Tamil, at school.
 They can learn the Indo-European language, religious,
culture and tradition from Indian temples or religious
institutions

20.  An Chinese Teacher, named Tasha (on the right)said
 In her school, most of teachers don’t put much
information to their students.
 They are trying to give an assignment to them for
searching the knowledge outside classes.
 The teachers put the values in action by building
students character through community involvement
programs.

21. For students’ English improvement
 It depends on different domains for English like the
places or institutions that the language is used.
 If the students speak English at schools or institutions
where have the fluent English speakers, they can
practice their English in the proper way.
 Sometime, the places may force them to use formal
English such as schools’ platform.
 The Mother Tongue language is also an obstacle that
can effect to the students English speaking and
pronunciation.

22. Questions
&
Thank you

23. References
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Singapore
 En.wikipedia,.org/wiki/Language_education_in_Singapore
 http://libguides.nl.sg/content.php
 www.lingref.com/isb/047ISB4PDF
 www.pl.sg/doc_RH_Bilingual%20Education%20Policy
 www.abtassoc.us/articles/Ddixon_IJBEB_2005.pdf