Singapore is a multi-culture society where people of different races and culture learn to co-exist by accepting other languages, system of beliefs and lifestyle. English is the official language learnt in schools while mother tongues (Mandarin, Malay and Tamil) serve as the backbone for students to access to diverse cultures, values and roots.

 

Singapore Chinese Education

 

The dual emphasis of English and mother lounge has helped Singaporeans from all walks of life to understand one another and live together harmoniously. However, dual language learning has also become a burden to many students as Chinese is by nature a memorizing language which requires strong daily reinforcement, mainly in the home environment.

Many students find it hard to learn Chinese, especially those who come from English-speaking family. These students are not academically weak; among them many show considerable talent and intelligence. However, they have great difficulty with Chinese, many of them put in strenuous efforts without success.

 

Family Factors In Chinese Learning

 

Just like any language learning, Chinese learning requires an environment for constant practice. Singapore Chinese curriculum assumes that all pupils will get support and reinforcement in the language from their home environment. In most cases this is not true as many students from non-Chinese speaking homes do not have this home environment to support their learning.

On the other hand, many non-Chinese students who excel in Chinese learning, even in higher Chinese learning. Though their family members do not speak to them in Chinese at home, they get the home environment support by allowing them to watch Chinese serials, listening to Chinese news and even Chinese songs.

 

Chinese Tutoring

 

Without family support, students can only be strong in Chinese if they have better teachers and more interesting textbooks. Generally, students feel that the standard of the textbooks are not high but the quality of the teaching and textbooks that must be improved. For this reason Chinese tutoring is popular in Singapore.

With many Chinese children in Singapore school struggling to learn Chinese, Chinese tutoring has become a norm for students. Comparison of the effort expended by students on tuition and self-preparation, some primary students spent almost twice as much time studying Chinese than Mathematics. Many are spending as much as 6 hours per week outside of school studying Chinese.