and this is what I hold firm.

Recently, I I learned from a written article written by Alastair McIndoe Philippines Correspondent:Manila ditches bilingual policy for younger pupils.   

Extract from the article:

‘Mother tongues will replace the national language and English in the first three grades of state elementary schools in the Philippines, as part of a new government policy aimed at boosting early learning skills among children’ 

Rose Villaneza, head of the Department of Education’s Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education programme, mentioned

“The problem with the bilingual policy was that comprehension was very low in the early grades………using familiar mother tongues will help students freely express ideas – and that’s important for cognitive development.”

Reading on, I came to understand that there are 170 region-based tongues spoken.  The most widely spoken being Tagalog.  Yet only 20% of the 94 million people use it as a home language.   

Riding on a successful experiment by the educational department to test mother-tongue teaching in 920 elementary schools nationwide last year, coupled with compelling international evidence, the government of the Philippines has decided to use the first languages in early education. 

Ending off, Villaneza believes this one is here to stay.

Rose Villaneza, mentioned ‘Coming soon in public schools: Noisier, rowdier and smarter Grade 1 pupils.  Follow this link to learn more about how ‘the mother tongue is envisioned to serve as a foundation in multilingual education; how this move is aimed at ‘strengthening- not diminishing – the students grasp of secondary languages, including Filipino and English and current development on ‘the learning materials’.

As I reflect on the reasons for my struggles, it dawned on me that my failure to master the language was due to the simple fact that I learned the language only to obtain a credit in Chinese for my “O’ Levels.  It was as simple as that.  I did not truly immersed myself in the Chinese language or learn to love it.

Our Prime Minister Mentor, Lee Kwan Yew mentioned in his book ‘My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore’s Bilingual Journey’ that his ‘class master was friendly and approachable’ and that his English improved enormously under his tutoring.  I wished it was the same for me and had it been so, my Mandarin would have improved by leaps and bounds.

Unfortunately it was not so and therefore I became disinterested in the Chinese Language as soon as I achieved my goal in getting a credit for my Exams.  I recalled being called upon to read or recite for the class.  It was indeed not an easy task and my classmates would help me each time I hesitated or struggled.  During some other lessons such as ‘ting xie’ (spelling) , ‘mo xie’ (dictation) and ‘zuo wen’ (composition) I was no better at it.  The only reason I passed my Chinese Test was through regurgitation.  I had little understanding of what was taught to me except to give the ‘right’ answers.

However, when I started teaching in a bilingual setting, little did I know that my Mandarin was improving by leaps and bounds. Over the last 15 years, I would have gained much confidence learning Mandarin in a meaningful setting and now able to communicate, read, write and use Mandarin creatively.  My Mandarin colleagues from China and Taiwan and some from Singapore became my ‘friendly teachers’.  It has been a time of learning without any pressure – just listening to the stories and songs they teach the kids and also the daily words and phrases they’ve used to explain, describe and clarify. I was living Mandarin every day.

Mr. Lee Kwan Yew’s brilliant move of putting Singapore on this bilingual journey over the past years have made many preschools conscious of allocating larger part of the school’s schedule to the teaching of Mandarin.  Schools have invested heavily in engaging professional consultant to improve curriculum content and to determine the best practices.

Other than core Mandarin Programme, some schools are offering additional services like preparing children to be benchmarked against international standards.  Parents must realized that this is not a race to the top but rather to take steps to understand that we want the children to learn and love the language for life and not simply to obtain certification in proficiency at such an early age.

Learning to be meaningful and long lasting must be fun. This ‘Mother Tongue Project’ as I called it has taken another turn in the ‘little red dot’ place where I live.  There is now a great rush for parents to get their little precious ones to attend a total mandarin immersion programme. (thesundaytimes January 8, 2012 lifestyle section: Raising a bilingual kid))

I have a good sense that this will work against the child.  Being overly anxious to ‘force’ their children to learn Mandarin in an artificial environment will mean that their children will lose out on another language. I am still in favour of BILLINGUAL IMMERSION in the true sense… the way I have experienced it!

Published Monday, Jan. 02 in the Canadian Press

 ….. said Cunneyworth’s interim status would be re-evaluated at the end of the season….. “We’re disappointed and we’re sorry if we offended anybody by hiring someone who is not bilingual right now……..

The interim coach said Tuesday he is working on learning French and hopes that significant strides will be made by the time the decision is made on who will be behind the bench next season.

Cunneyworth vows to learn enough French to keep Habs coaching job

Published Tuesday, Jan. 03, in The Canadian Press

”I’m working hard to pick up the language as much as I can and as quickly as I can….. ”Hopefully that will be the case by the time some of the decisions are made….

”It’s an ongoing work in progress. I’m not ignoring it in any way.

I really enjoy this ad.  It gets my point across.

With much concern, Mr Lee Kwan Yew will donate $2 million from the sales of his book: “My Lifelong Challenge:Singapore’s Bilingual Journey’, to his newly proposed S$100m bilingualism fund.

The Ministry of Education will match the fund dollar–for-dollar, up to a cap of S$50 million.

Present at the book launch, Educational Minister Heng Swee Keat mentioned that the ministry is currently reviewing guidelines on teaching mother tongues in pre-school.    This fund will go towards funding some of these initiatives, such as production of materials that may be useful for the pre-school years and for teacher training.

Donations for the fund has started rolling in from businessmen, foundations, and Mr Lee’s three children.

Before the fund is legally set up (tentatively in early 2012), all cheques and donations should be made out to “Singapore Press Holdings Limited” and mailed to the following address:

Attn: Clara Wong / Jasmine Wee

Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

c/o Straits Times Press Pte Ltd

English/Malay Newspaper Division

Mezzanine Floor, Information Resource Centre

Level 3, Podium Block

1000 Toa Payoh North, News Centre

Singapore 318 994

After having tuition in Malay, for nine years, she was equally competent in spoken Malay.  From Pre-U 1 onwards until her second year at medical school, she rarely used Malay, Cantonese or Mandarin.  The long lapse in using the languages (Malay, Cantonese or Mandarin) made it difficult when she needs to speak in complex sentences.

But all is not lost for towards the end of her article featured in November 20, 2011 thesundaytimes, she recounted how being immersed in a Mandarin-speaking environment within one to two weeks, she can speak Mandarin fluently again and even started to dream in Mandarin.

English language, being the dominant language she uses at work and with friends, she established that her spoken Chinese has deteriorated with disuse, but it can be easily revived when necessary.

Posted in Brain and language learning:

…the ‘brain has some foundation already set’. It is difficult to forget a language that one learns as a child completely.

Thus I maintain the importance of early immersion.

Posted in BND.com    30 October 30 2011

 Extracted from the post.

 ‘Everything in Kim Cook’s kindergarten classroom has two names.

The calendar reads “October” and “Octubre.” The giant, colorful numbers along the wall are “four” and “cuatro,” “seven” and “siete.”

And the Pledge of Allegiance on the wall is in both English and Spanish.’

What’s more, a featured photo shows Kim Cook and another teacher using a team–teaching approach as they read aloud the same book in English and Spanish for students.  No denial that translating will help the child understand the story better.  I believe that when a child is highly interested (in the book), the child will assist himself in his understanding.

Learning to become bilingual as I see it would better be achieved in a total immersion classes.  That is to have two language teachers within the same class, caring and engaging in activities but never translating word for word.

Most of the children in the school that I work in speak primarily in English.

When a child joins the school, he may have difficulty following instructions and performing activities that are conducted in a second language.  However, this is only temporary, as the children will soon understand repeated phrases and instructions that are used within context and become confident speakers as exposure increases.

Reading on, Cook mentioned ‘Just as challenging can be working with families in which the children speak English fluently, but the parents do not’.

 I recall what one parent (a Caucasian) have shared: “though I don’t understand what my child is saying, but it certainly sounds like Mandarin’.   

 Nereida Avendano, director of the Latino Roundtable of Southwestern Illinois states: ‘children end up translating for their parents’.  This I should say is especially true as I have witness many such cases. 

The article goes on to talk about the challenges each district face in becoming bilingual (with the number of immigrants).

In Singapore, compulsory education from the age of 6 would see a child learning English as the first language and Chinese, Malay or Tamil as a Mother Tongue language.  Exceptions are granted on a case-by-case basis, stipulated by the ministry. 

The government is also constantly looking at providing the necessary training to better-equipped teachers. 

 Something that I wouldn’t agree less

 (Extracted from the article)

The best part of bilingual teaching, they say, is watching timid students frightened of their all-English surroundings come out of their shells and explore their new world…

 ………..”We see them come to us not knowing a word of English, and we watch it change over time and see what they can accomplish,” It’s phenomenal.”

Read the article Metro-east students — and schools — are learning to become bilingual

An interesting article containing a video featuring Princeton Neuroscientist Sam Wang, co-author with Sandra Aamodt of Welcome to Your Child’s Brain.

Bilingual kids are not only more flexible in their schemata.  They are also better at “theory of mind”, which is closely related to empathy – or “emotional intelligences”. 

An advanced theory of mind is, to a great extent, a recipe for happiness and success.

Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Sort Out Language by Perri Klass, M.D. Published: October 10, 2011

Findings:

Researchers at the University of Washington found that up to 12 months, both monolingual and bilingual infants could discriminate between phonetic sounds in two languages.

By 10 to 12 months, however, monolingual babies were no longer detecting sounds in the second language, only in the language they usually hear.

Professor Janet Werker, from University of British Columbia and her collaborators showed that babies born to bilingual mothers not only prefer both of those languages over others – but are also able to register that the two languages are different.

Study on older infants shows their ability to distinguish different languages visually by watching mouth and facial motions passed 8 months while the monolingual older infants were no longer responding to the difference in languages.

Distinguished research Professor of psychology, Ellen Bialystok, at York University in Toronto said: “Overwhelmingly, children who are bilingual from early on have precocious development of executive function.”

Dr Kuhl calls bilingual babies “more cognitively flexible” than monolingual infants.