The Learning of Languages (Part 1)

When Lee Kuan Yew weighed in recently to encourage the learning of Mandarin in Singapore, it was a reflection that the majority ethnic Chinese nation was still struggling with the use of Mandarin.

The intention to make many in the nation conversant with Mandarin is a correct one. Mandarin will be one of the two most important languages of the 21st century. Having a mastery of it will put the nation in a far advantageous position.

But why are Singaporeans doing so poorly in a language that it is surely predisposed to do well in? Well, Singapore is not the only country that has struggled to promote a second language. Japan and Taiwan have tried for years to promote English as a second language. 20 years on, both countries still rank bottom three in the English literacy scale in Asia. Japan and Taiwan relied very much on local teachers to teach a foreign language. This churned out a generation of students with sub standard pronounciation, limited vocabulary and poor grammar. Moreover, there was no real downside for doing badly in the language in school.

Singapore took a different path. It hired teachers from China. In addition, it made the language count for a substantial part of the primary school leaving examination and a prerequisite to enter University. The formula of using native teachers and having large incentives were coupled with lots of urging from Lee Kuan Yew, access to Chinese TV and books, a strong speak Mandarin campaign and the discouragement in the use of dialects. The booming Chinese tuition industry show that Singaporeans get the importance of Mandarin. So Singaporeans get it.

And yet the nation struggles. What's going on?

After so much effort, surely we must have got something wrong in the formula. I believe it is time to consider carefully that perhaps the inability of younger Singaporeans to learn Mandarin as a functional language has more to do with the education system than with incentives or distractions of learning the language. The manner in which Mandarin is taught I believe has the unfortunate effect of losing many early on, making many students believe that they cannot master the language, and making many plod on and hate the language as a result.

Postscript : On 11 May 2009, a half page article was published in the Straits Times announcing that Taiwan was setting up English villages to promote the speaking of English. To be accurate, I cite some of the rankings I alluded to above. Taiwan was 12th in 2007 in terms of average Toefl scores. It was in the bottom three for the International English Language Testing system. It was 18 out of 20 Asian countries subscribing to the test in 2007.