SINGAPORE: From 2012, the oral component of the Mother Tongue languages will be given greater weightage in the "O", "N" and "A" level examinations. The increase will range from five per cent to 20 per cent, and will apply to the Chinese, Malay and Tamil papers. At "N" level, the marks given to the oral component will make up 40 per cent, instead of the current 35 per cent. For "O" Level, the weightage will be 35 per cent, higher than the current 30 per cent. And for those taking the language at "A" level, it will be 30 per cent, higher than the current 20 per cent. As for students taking the "B" paper at "O" level, the weightage will be 50 per cent, instead of 40 per cent. That at "A" level will be 50 per cent, significantly higher than the current 30 per cent. The Ministry of Education (MOE) will also introduce more differentiated approaches to the teaching and learning of the Mother Tongue languages. The changes will first apply to the Chinese language, but will be extended to Malay and Tamil gradually. For starters, the ministry will be working with the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language to develop a diagnostic tool to assess students' oral competence. This will help to determine their fit for the different modules. It will also give teachers a better sense of the students' language ability to help them customise the teaching approaches. The diagnostic tool would be developed and prototyped this year. This was one of the initiatives highlighted by Senior Minister of State for Education and National Development, Grace Fu, in Parliament during the debate on the budget estimates for the Education Ministry. Ms Fu said MOE will also be providing schools with a high concentration of students from English Language-speaking (EL) homes with an additional Chinese Language (CL) teacher to enable them to further customise their teaching. This is on top of the two additional teachers all primary schools received in 2007 for the new Chinese Language (CL) modular curriculum. There will be more extensive use of EL to teach students with greater needs in the learning of CL. Ms Fu said there is room to leverage more on information and communication technologies (ICT) tools and applications. MOE intends to incorporate more ICT-based language learning into the syllabus design so that it forms a bigger proportion of the learning experience. An ICT-based language resource package constituting 10 to 15 per cent of Mother Tongue Language (MTL) curriculum across all levels will be provided to all schools. MOE is also developing a text-to-speech technology that automatically evaluates the student's pronunciation. At secondary level, additional focus will be placed on the use of ICT tools and learning platforms such as wikispaces for discussions, and the use of blogs. MOE will roll out a web-based MTL portal to schools starting from 2012. Ms Fu said students who face exceptional difficulties coping with the learning of CL would be better served by CL 'B' which places greater emphasis on practical communication skills. "I understand that students are enjoying the lessons so much that in some cases, even those who had been exempted from CL are asking to join the classes!" She said. "The students tell us that they recognise the importance of being able to communicate verbally in CL, and that the content of the CL 'B' lessons is pitched at a suitable level and enjoyable." The percentage of students taking CL 'B' at 'O' Level has increased slightly from two per cent to four per cent (about 1,500 students) between 2001 and 2009. That of students offering CL 'B' at 'A' Level has stayed around 2 per cent (about 250 students). "With more students coming from predominantly EL-speaking homes, we expect that there will be more students offering CL 'B' in future," Ms Fu said. To enhance the accessibility of CL 'B' instruction, MOE will support secondary schools with a high concentration of students weak in CL to offer school-based CL 'B' lessons. At the junior college and centralised institute level, MOE will relax the eligibility criteria - from the current 'O' level E8 grade or below to D7 grade or below, to allow more students to benefit from taking 'A' Level CL 'B'.
Source from Channel NewsAsia by Hoe Yeen Nie Posted: 10 March 2010 1511 hrs
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