Bilingual Approach (BA) to the Teaching of Chinese Language at the Primary Level Extended to Seven Other Schools

1. In 2002, the Ministry of Education (MOE) piloted the Bilingual Approach (BA) to the teaching of Chinese Language (CL) in 4 primary schools, namely, Anglo-Chinese School (Junior), Methodist Girls’ School (Primary), St Andrew’s Junior School and St Michael’s School.  In this approach, teachers make use of English as a tool at the initial stage of teaching CL.

2. The primary schools in the project were chosen to pilot BA because they had a high proportion of pupils from English-speaking homes.  CL teachers who were bilingual in both CL and EL were selected to teach in the pilot.

3. BA is a supplementary approach to the teaching of CL at the initial stage.  The use of BA allows teachers the flexibility to use English Language to facilitate the teaching of CL when necessary and helps students to understand the text better and faster. Pupils in these classes are also allowed to use some English to express themselves more clearly and clarify their doubts during the initial learning stage of CL.

4. The project started in Jan 02 and was evaluated at the end of 2003.  The  following key findings were made:

• Teachers found the BA to teaching CL useful for pupils who were weaker in the language as they showed more enthusiasm during CL lessons and were more ready to ask and answer questions. The pupils were also able to understand their lessons more easily;

• Using the BA to teach CL helped to improve communication between pupils and their teachers;

• The majority of participating pupils developed a favourable attitude towards the learning of CL;

• Both the pupils in the BA classes and their parents strongly favoured the use of BA and bilingual materials in the learning of CL;

• It is important to gradually reduce the use of English when the pupils, who use BA as a supplementary approach to learn CL move to Primary 3 to ensure that they will be able to do as well as pupils not on the BA. At that level, pupils will be taught using only the mainstream approach. 

5. This year, seven additional primary schools have joined the original four participating primary schools in adopting the BA as a supplementary tool to teaching CL. These schools are Fairfield Methodist Primary School, Henry Park Primary School, Marymount Convent School, Montfort Junior School, St. Anthony's Primary School, St. Gabriel's Primary School and St. Stephen's School.

6. BA is one of the approaches to the teaching of CL, such as the use of Hanyu Pinyin.  It serves to help a small number of students coming from an English-speaking home environment and facing extreme difficulties in the learning of CL.  Any school that has pupils who will benefit from this teaching approach can request for relevant training and teaching resources from MOE to use BA as part of its teaching repertoire.

7. Dr Goh Yeng Seng, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Asian Languages and Cultures Academic Group (Chinese) at the National Institute of Education, will continue as Academic Advisor in 2004.  He will help to train teachers, provide necessary guidance to the teachers, and advise MOE on BA matters. He will also help to provide teachers with a set of guidelines on a smooth and effective withdrawal process for pupils learning CL using the BA.