Schools Adopt Interactive Teaching Approaches to Nurture Students' Chinese Language Learning

We appreciate Ms Zhuo Zi Xi's thoughtful views and suggestions ("Examining the fragmentation of Chinese Language education from the use of the idiom '差强人意'", 1 Apr), and are heartened by her interest in Chinese language (CL) learning and teaching in Singapore.

To nurture students' interest in CL learning, our teachers employ a repertoire of teaching approaches and resources. For example, the primary and secondary CL curricula are designed around thematic units, where students are exposed to new idioms and vocabularies through diverse and authentic content in their textbooks.

We would like to assure Ms Zhuo that character recognition at the primary level begins with radicals and character components. Under the refreshed 2024 primary CL curriculum, students learn Chinese characters which are selected based on frequency of use, character-forming capacity, word-forming capacity, and their potential to function as radicals. Our lower primary students learn single-component characters like "禾" (grain) and "弓" (bow) as building blocks, enabling them to decode complex characters such as "和", "香" and "种" through decomposition and recombination, thereby reducing cognitive load.

With a strong foundation of characters, students progress to reading sentences, paragraphs and eventually full passages, where they learn words in authentic contexts. Teachers also leverage interactive digital resources such as the Shen Bi Animations (神笔汉字动画系列) to guide character formation and enhance word recognition. At the secondary level, students continue to build vocabulary through practical application. Teachers guide students to actively use vocabulary and idioms in real-life contexts, so that they can master new words with regular practice.

MOE and schools will continue to work closely with our parents and the community to make MTL learning enjoyable and beneficial for our students.

Mdm Heng Boey Hong
Director, Mother Tongue Languages Branch
Ministry of Education

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学校采互动教学法培养学生学习华文

谨答复《联合早报·交流站·青年视角》于4月1日刊登的卓子稀同学投函《从"差强人意"探讨华文教育碎片化困境》：

我们感谢卓同学所提出的深思熟虑观点与建议。她对本地华文教学与学习的关注，让我们感到十分欣慰。

为培养学生对华文学习的兴趣，教师运用多种教学法与资源。例如，中小学华文课程以主题单元为设计核心，让学生通过课本中丰富且贴近真实生活的内容，接触并学习新的成语与词汇。

卓同学可以放心，小学阶段的识字教学正是从偏旁部首与汉字部件开始的。根据2024年更新的小学华文课程，学生所学的汉字是依据使用频率、构字能力、组词能力，以及作为偏旁部首的潜力来选定的。低年级学生会先学习"禾"和"弓"等独体字作为基础部件，让他们能通过拆解与重组，去解读"和""香"和"种"等较复杂的汉字，减轻认知负担。

在打下坚实的识字基础后，学生将逐步过渡到阅读句子、段落乃至完整篇章，在真实的语境中学习词汇。教师也会利用《神笔》汉字动画系列等互动数码资源，辅助学生掌握构字规律并提升识字能力。在中学阶段，学生则通过实际应用继续积累词汇量。教师会引导学生在现实生活情境中主动运用词汇与成语，借由持续练习掌握新词。

教育部和学校会继续与家长和社区紧密合作，让学生在享受母语学习乐趣的同时从中受益。

王梅凤
教育部 课程规划与发展司（母语处）司长