FTrashisation Results in Collapse of Engrish Standard!

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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published September 18, 2009

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>MOE task force to study raising English standards
Curriculum time for mother tongue languages not cut

By LEE U-WEN
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SINCE he rejoined the Education Ministry (MOE) as its chief last year, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen has heard the same thing time and again from teachers: The standard of English in Singapore, spoken and written, can and should be better.

Dr Ng said yesterday that while Singaporeans can be proud of standards in such subjects as maths and science, the same cannot be said for English.
But MOE aims to rectify this. Yesterday, the minister announced plans to raise the quality of English in schools and will set up a task force to study how best to do so.
The task force will be headed by Director-General of Education Ho Peng, with Senior Minister of State for Education S Iswaran as adviser.
One option could be to set up a new English language institute to improve the training of teachers, so that they are better equipped to educate students, Dr Ng said at the annual MOE Work Plan Seminar at Ngee Ann Polytechnic convention centre.
'Teachers tell me the standard of English can be improved and attention must be paid not only to reading and writing, but speaking as well,' he said.
'Language instruction should lead to better communication skills. This is a sensitive subject, and I raise it not to demoralise teachers and students but to signal that we should begin concerted efforts to raise the standard of English.'
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Dr Ng said that the goal is not to transform all students into 'world-class debaters or winners in elocution competitions', but to have most speak proper English, express themselves clearly and be understood.
'To be able to communicate well will become increasingly important in their working lives, whether they work here or abroad,' he said. 'At the basic level, those who can communicate to market their ideas and products, or convince others, will have an edge.'
But Singapore will maintain its bilingual policy because this would become an increasingly valued asset in a globalised world.
'If our bilingual policy is to remain relevant and effective, we must deal with the reality decisively,' Dr Ng said. 'We must first accept that our students today - and more so in the years ahead - will grow up in a language environment radically different from that of previous generations.'
Even though a greater focus will be placed on learning English, the curriculum time for mother tongue languages will not be reduced. The onus is on educators to use the same amount of time available to teach all the languages using more innovative methods, Dr Ng said.

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