Chinese Learning (continued)

Yesterday, PM Lee gave a speech overseas regarding the learning of chinese. He noted that times have changed, more students are from english-speaking backgrounds today than in the past, and the government would have to change its teaching approach to best suit the children.

In a press conference, he pointed out the trend of learning is changing constantly, and changes would have to also change constantly to flexibly fit the trend.

It is a foregone conclusion that most students are uninterested in old chinese teaching methods that is still being practiced today. A tailor-made approach by keeping up with the trend would work best to engage the children's interest at school.

Some notable trends:

• Instead of writing the chinese characters out, students are now more interested in typing out the characters in the computer through hanyupinyin input systems.
• Students enjoy learning chinese through acting, show-and-tell, competitions, and games rather than traditional teaching methods.
• The computer internet is a widely preferred medium of learning amongst the students.
• Most students enjoy doing projects, learning and exploring themselves rather than just listening to one person talking at the front.
• Group discussions are preferred to doing things individually.

PM Lee acknowledge these trends and promised that the government do their best to tailor their teaching methods and approaches to best capture the students' interest.

He also brought up the strategy of different strokes for different folks, pointing out the possibility of conducting higher difficulty lessons for those who come from chinese-speaking families.

One current program is the bi-cultural program for those who have the required ability and are interested in learning more about China culture. It is presently being practiced in elite secondary schools.