Learning Ventures
Those who dare to teach must never cease to learn.
This blog is mostly about teaching and learning English. I am a teacher educator in Singapore and I write for teachers, parents and anyone else interested in English education particularly at the primary school level.
Sometimes I have the urge to write about stuff from my everyday life and tell stories from my childhood. I often give in to these urges. Nobody has to read everything here. But as Lionel Shriver once wrote,
" Untold stories didn't seem quite to have happened."Life does happen, so let the stories unfold...
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Facebook wins!
It's been 2 months since my last post and I was just reminded of this when someone asked me about my blog. No, I have not been sick or lazy. I have been working hard, too hard maybe, and I have also started a Facebook page for Learning Ventures. Since then, I've been busy posting stuff there and honestly, I found the instant feedback more gratifying than what I've been receiving on this blog. I must confess that there have been days when I considered giving up on the blog because I have felt like I was writing for myself and no one else. But every time I was the verge of throwing in the towel, someone writes to me and I am persuaded to carry on again.
I must also admit that having formed my little writing group a couple of months back, I have been busy writing my own personal stories which I store in a separate blog. That too has kept me busy and I have also volunteered to manage a Facebook page for my association, thus quadrupling my time on Facebook. So will I keep this blog?
I may. I will hold on to it for a while and see if I find the energy to write for it again. I still enjoy writing although more and more, I find that I prefer to write my own stuff if I have any spare time. Still, I won't give up yet.
In the meantime, I want to invite you to look for my Learning Ventures page on Facebook and like my page. You will find many interesting posts just for teachers.
And may I take this opportunity ( I am reminded time and again that today is 12.12.12) to wish one and all a very restful holiday and a wonderful Christmas. Thank you for your support all these years from my newsletter to my blog and I hope to see you on Facebook soon!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) Young Writers Camp 2012
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Michelle working with a young writer |
Sharing your writing with a peer |
Author's Chair
Information about the BAWP Young Writers camp can be found here. Early bird
registration ends on 15 October.
After the success of the first BAWP Young Writers’ Camp in
2011, I am thrilled to welcome back Michelle Hackel and Marna Blanchard to
conduct our second BAWP camp from November 28- Dec 1st. As usual, I will be there to work with the
students as will the trainers from the Adam Khoo Learning Centre, who will be
hosting this event at RELC.
Writing is something that I am growing more and more
passionate about and it all began with helping teachers to teach writing. I did of course do a lot of academic writing in
my past life but that was a different type of writing. Then I started writing
my newsletter and later my blog and this made writing somewhat of a routine for
me. But still, I won’t say I write
regularly until my experience working with Michelle and Marna at the BAWP camp
last year.
At our camp, every student has to do free writing for 10
minutes every day and as a rule, all the instructors wrote with the students. I
also wrote when a writing task was set and all that intensive writing made me want
to write more long after the camp was over.
So I continued writing on my own and took to keeping a writing journal
in addition to keeping up with writing my blog.
A few months ago, I began a small writing group with some
friends and we get together once a fortnight or so to write and to share our
writing. I finally was able to get
started on writing all the childhood stories that I wanted to share with the
younger members of my family.
I find that writing on a regular basis gives me more insight
into the act of composing and it helps me be a better teacher of writing too.
But this post is not about my own writing. It’s more about those students who
came to our camp and what they wrote. After the camp, I wrote about some of the
camp experiences, our teaching techniques, and you can read about them here.
But I did not get around to sharing some of the writing with
you. Some of the pieces of fiction that the students wrote were very long but
they also wrote poetry. In fact, it’s the poetry that really impressed me.
The students were given a copy of Where I’m from by George Ella Lyon as a mentor text and they were
then told to wrote a parallel poem. Here are some samples of their writing. In
all cases, students were given some help initially with brainstorming ideas but
they wrote the entire poem by themselves. The instructors helped with some
editing.
Read these poems and remember that these are all primary
school students, not quite 12 years old, and marvel at their insight into their
own lives and their beautiful choice of words and images. Good writing can be
taught; good writers can be nurtured.
By Angela
Hardy Boys,
Serious of Unfortunate Events.
I am from the diary in my room,
From smooth edges,
Thin pages,
A purple “This is MY diary NOT yours”
cover.
I am from the fresh water and saltwater
fish tanks in the living room.
From one puffer fish,
Two pregnant fish,
Three clownfish!
I am from Belinda,
Taking care of three babies each day,
From Joyce, Joshua, and Joel.
I’m from Geok Choo,
Telling me every day,
“A home is where your family must take
you in.”
I’m from Fried Kway Teow,
Fishcakes,
Red, small shrimp.
I’m from abalone,
Yellow noodles,
Cai sim.
I’m from the secret room I found,
No one knows where it is
Neither do you.
It’s small,
Only a dwarf could fit inside.
I keep my Angry Bird toys,
Photos of my past,
Books I like to read inside.
From the attic,
The basement,
Where boxes hold the
Faces of whom
I dream.
I am from a map
To show you where you are,
So you will never be lost in your family
tree.
I am from Poem
By Haqmal
I am from a Coke Can,
from bottles and slippers
scattered on the ground.
I am from the fridge in the kitchen with
frozen hot dogs and chocolate cakes inside it.
I’m from chicken rice every week and
chili crab sometimes.
I’m from a half-eaten apple and a single long sock,
from Ben who always use the computer and a kitchen table.
I’m from a fresh orange juice and a laced sneakers,
from a bed and a soft pillow.
I am from do not play football in the house and
sometimes a MacBook,
from a Imac computer and a nice photo Album.
I am from Dahlinar who feeds her baby daughter baby food
and Widad who often washes glass and plastic plates.
I’m from a bookshelf full of nice
old books and A Diary Of A Wimpy Kid sometimes.
I am from a family who likes to spend time together and
a sweet popcorn,
from a movie and a large cinema.
I am from a Coke Can,
from bottles and slippers
scattered on the ground.
I am from the fridge in the kitchen with
frozen hot dogs and chocolate cakes inside it.
I’m from chicken rice every week and
chili crab sometimes.
I’m from a half-eaten apple and a single long sock,
from Ben who always use the computer and a kitchen table.
I’m from a fresh orange juice and a laced sneakers,
from a bed and a soft pillow.
I am from do not play football in the house and
sometimes a MacBook,
from a Imac computer and a nice photo Album.
I am from Dahlinar who feeds her baby daughter baby food
and Widad who often washes glass and plastic plates.
I’m from a bookshelf full of nice
old books and A Diary Of A Wimpy Kid sometimes.
I am from a family who likes to spend time together and
a sweet popcorn,
from a movie and a large cinema.
I
am from
By
Naveen
I am from an
old grandfather clock
From chicken
curry has thick gravy
I am from the
air hockey table (so shiny and
Smooth I
scored twenty two ) I am from Annand,
my cousin who
loves shooting games
He could not
contain his excitement
When he held
his first gun
In the army.
I am from
whipped cream
From Palm
trees
I am from New
York winter
From the
indoor soccer field the cage
I am from
hand me downs
From the
shoes my sister gave me
I am actually
from the chilli crab.
I AM FROM…..
by Joy
I am from
pots and pans
used to cook
dinner for three.
I am from
the little brown squirrel
Climbing up
the durian tree.
I am from
the old stale pork resting on the kitchen table
Surrounded
by flies.
From the
untouched mango pudding
Frozen in
the fridge.
I am from my
guinea pig, Jerry,
Squeaking us
insane.
From my
tortoise ,Humphry,
Who stinks
like rotten steak.
I am from Mr
Ong Teng Chiong
One of the
presidents of Singapore.
I am from my
mum and dad
An egg and a
sperm.
From the
dear lord Jesus
Born in a
manger.
I am from
the 21st of December
The day I
was born.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Why you talk like that?
Adachi Gardens, Yasugi, Japan.
More than thirty years ago, when I first step foot on
Singapore soil and joined the then Institute of Education, my fellow trainee
teachers and lecturers gave me hard time because of the way I spoke. They asked
about my “accent” and made it clear that they did not approve of it. It was all
very bewildering to me then as I had spent my youth and university days in
Kuala Lumpur and nobody had said that I had an accent.
After more than thirty years here, I sometimes still get
this same reaction to my spoken English. I was reminded of this again just last
week when I was working with a group of children on their writing skills. When
I stopped to speak to one of the boys, he responded by speaking in what was
obviously a fake American accent, and he kept adding “y’all” to all his
statements. At first I thought he was a foreigner but after a few exchanges, it
dawned on me that he was mocking me, or more specifically my “accent”. But this wasn’t the first and only time. In
previous encounters, boys(never girls somehow) have asked me in their own
inimitable Singlish style, why I speak the way I do.
Frankly, I wish I knew why. I can only attribute it to my
Convent teachers, my Eurasian neighbours and my love, then, for everything Enid
Blyton. But then again, people who think I “slang-slang” also don’t know that I
speak fluent Cantonese and Malay, the latter with a more than adequate accent
to allow me to pass off as an ethnic Malay or Peranakan when I am on the phone.
I personally don’t think an accent makes communication any
more effective. And I don’t really think I have any kind of weird accent. I, in fact, heartily dislike the fake accents
that I hear every now and then over the radio and in public gatherings. These
“accents” turn me off and I no longer hear the message that the speaker is
attempting to communicate to me. So, I don’t advocate teaching our pupils to
speak with any kind of accent, other than clear and correct pronunciation.
But what I don’t understand is why, with all our emphasis on
English as a school language and an official and working language in Singapore,
people here still take pride in speaking less than perfect English. Does doing
so make one more Asian? The answer cannot be yes, for despite the way I speak
English, I bet that I am more grounded in both Cantonese and Malay cultures
than many people I know who only speak Singlish. What I find more unforgivable
is when this attitude towards English is passed on to young children so that
they prefer to speak like Lee Tock Kong in Police
and Thieves instead of like the Prime Minister.
I am prompted to reflect on this issue, not only because of
my encounter with the mocking boy, but also because recent reports on changes
in the PSLE have led people to once again talk about the importance of oral and
speaking skills. I don’t know if people, or children, can learn any language
well if they think that learning to speak it properly will rob them of some
part of their identity. Don’t we all
want to be able to master whatever we want to learn? Why can’t we be bothered
to learn to pronounce words carefully or say them in the right way? Am I truly
more Singaporean if I say LaVANder instead of LAvender?
My encounters with primary school children who are affected
by my “accent” made me realise too that these same children probably hear very
little proper spoken English in their everyday lives. But then again, I myself did not come from an
English speaking family. My first language is Cantonese and I learnt my English
in school from my teachers. Remember too that I grew up during a time when I
had to pass my second language and more in order to get on to any form of
higher education. So many of us come from working class families where English
is not spoken and we all learnt English well. Who taught us to speak well and
to learn English well?
So I would say that schools need to do more to cultivate an
environment for learning English. It seems an ironic statement given that we
only have English medium schools here. Teachers too need to do something about
their own spoken English. As a bilingual and bicultural person, I am all for
using two languages or more to express myself and I often do. But what I find disturbing is when English
teachers constantly choose to express themselves publicly in their native
languages instead of English in the school context. Who are we to ask our
pupils to speak English when we don’t?
I recall too a discussion on social mobility some time ago,
and how Singaporeans fear that it might be harder to move up the social ladder
these days. I understand parents’
concern about a better life for their children. As a teacher, I have worked to
help my students to not only achieve academic success but to also acquire the
necessary social graces that they will need in their work and social life. I
teach them to take care of their personal hygiene (like their skin), their
table manners, and yes, their speech, particularly their English. Every child
needs a crack at that top university or that top job and academic results alone
won’t cut it these days. Who wants a CEO who cannot speak good clear English?
We are a global city and we are lucky to have native
speakers as teachers in our educational institutions. It is sad that our
students find it hard to learn from a native speaker because they are not used
to the teacher’s accent. My American
friend related this account to me of how top students in a top junior college
here complained about not being able to comprehend an American teacher from
California. It’s true I have not spoken to the teacher directly but I did
wonder how thick an accent a Californian would have. Was it really his accent
or our students’ unfamiliarity with any other accent other than the likes of
Lee Tock Kong’s?
As teachers, we need to help our students understand the
need to speak well and to be proud of the fact that they do. As parents, we all
make sure that our children get the best and everything that is of good
quality. Similarly, make sure that the language they learn, be it English or
anything or any other language, is of the best quality too. Accept nothing less.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
A Fish Funeral and Helping Kids to Write
I don’t know if I can describe Junior as a good or a keen
writer. Like many boys, he does not really enjoy writing but he cannot avoid it.
And when he has to write, the best writing that he has done is always when he
does it with conviction and when he has a clear message to communicate. Now as
an adult student, I often remind him that his best writing is often accompanied
by a convincing voice.
But when he was a child, I did try many ways to get him
interested in writing. The most significant thing I did was to read to him and
to help him develop a love for reading.
I do believe that reading is a way into writing because books are good
models for young writers to see what they themselves can do. I don’t think children
will know about writing or be interested in writing if they did not read
themselves.
My earliest memory of writing with Junior was when he was
around two years old. One fine summer day in California, we had left home for a
day trip. When we got home, Junior dashed into the kitchen to check up on his pets,
two goldfish named Huckle and Happy.
They lived in a fishbowl and Mum was supposed to clean it and change the water
periodically. Maybe she was too busy that week and did not change the water.
Maybe the day was just too hot, as Californian summers can be. But when Junior looked into the fishbowl,
Huckle and Happy were both floating upside down. Junior was of course
devastated, and I felt more than a bit guilty.
Finally, I helped him organise a fish funeral. We buried
both fish in the garden and placed a small rock on top to mark the grave.
Junior insisted on writing their names on the rock which I did with a marker
pen. It consoled him a little but before long, he was sobbing again. It was
then that I hit upon the idea of writing a story about the fish. I told him that
this will help him remember the fish. As we talked through the story, I wrote
down the words for him. I helped Junior to see himself as a loving fish dad and
recalled all the fun things he did with the fish. The truth is that I could not
tell one fish from the other but perhaps Junior did. But writing down the stories helped Junior to
see that writing can do many things among which is to help us remember, to record
memories and events and even to solve problems.
In later years, I continued to help Junior write, but I did
not make him write on his own. Instead, I often supported his attempts by doing
dictated writing with him. This was when he made up his stories, dictated them
to me and I wrote them down for him. We often wrote new versions of the books
he read in school, such as “To Town” or “The Jigaree”. We had a whole series of
stories based on “The Adventures of the Three Tum Tees” and about the dastardly
deeds of one Captain Terror who was hell bent on destroying the world,
especially Marine Parade, where we were living then.
After a story was written, we would read the story over
again and he would draw some pictures and make his story into a booklet, which
he then tried to sell to his doting grandparents. He had the makings of an
entrepreneur even then. We did a fair amount of writing on the computer using
various programs to make books. We
wrote poetry too and here's one from his primary
school days. I won’t say that it's a great poem but for a little kid, I
think that it was great that he had something to say and was willing to write it down.
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Junior's Collection of Poems |
Often, my focus was to help him see that writing is one way
to help him think and to record ideas. This sneaking mum did not hesitate to
introduce writing into the most mundane activities. So Junior’s trip to the
supermarket was often accompanied by a shopping list that he had to make out.
And if he wanted a new toy or a special toy, he needed to write down a list of
reasons to convince me to buy it for him. Unfortunately, the one list I still
have was written in pencil and could not be read when scanned but here are some
of his reasons:
Why I like Action Pack II
Because it has an injured man
It has an apc and a ship
One man has a stinger missille
It has a jeep and two planes
It has a bazooker
There is a medica man
There is a radio man
It has a grenade
Was I then successful in initiating him into the joys of
writing? I don’t know. It’s still too early to tell. But he is a prolific list maker. I myself did not enjoy
writing as a youth and did not write regularly until I was in my forties.
I came across this interesting and useful article from a
homeschooling mum on how she helped her child to write. She has some very firm
convictions about what should be done, some of which we, as non-native speakers
in English, may disagree with. Read it here and see what you think.
In the end, I believe that setting an example is important.
If you want your child to be a writer, try to be one yourself. Help your child
to see a reason for writing and take it beyond getting a good grade for
composition. Having a personal meaning and use for writing are very essential
first steps towards developing an interest in writing.
Friday, June 8, 2012
When I was a young teacher...
With my junior college colleagues
Young and innocent...
I ended last month by attending the Teachers’ Conference. It’s
a privilege to listen to the keynote speakers and this year, they did not
disappoint. The two speakers who resonated most with me were Professor Marilyn
Cochrane-Smith and Professor Elizabeth Birr Moje.
Professor Cochrane-Smith told a compelling story about two
young trainee teachers and their experiences during their first year of
training. She looked at the factors which shaped their learning experiences and
commented on four aspects of successful
teaching practice: deprivatisation, high expectations for all students and
oneself as a teacher, taking an inquiry stance on the work of teaching and
participating in multiple overlapping learning communities.
I don’t really want to discuss the technical aspects of her
research but for those of you who are keen to read a bit about her work, here
is a link which discusses her work into inquiry as a stance in learning: http://www.kdp.org/publications/pdf/record/Centennial/Record_Centennial.pdf
During the session, she challenged participants to recall
their own learning experiences as a teacher and this brought me back some 33
years ago when I started on my professional road to becoming a teacher. Well, before I came to join the then
Institute of Education (IE), I had taught in various places in KL. I taught History in my former secondary
school where, I am ashamed to say, that I taught in the only way I knew how to
- from my own History teacher- and that is to dictate or copy out copious
amount of notes on various topics. Then I taught English in two different
private colleges and even taught General Paper in Malay for a spell. Did I have
any clue about teaching? No, but I relied heavily on my glib tongue and my
rapport with the students to see me through each lesson.
My days at the IE were no better. I remember many long
lectures about the psychology and the philosophy of education but nothing which
prepared me for how to deal with forty girls in the classroom. Thank goodness
they were good girls whom I sufficiently charmed so that they never gave me any
disciplinary problems. But I taught them English and Geography and while I did
pick up a few tips for teaching Geography from dear old Mrs Ng in secondary
school, I was completely clueless when it came to teaching English. It didn’t
help that I was supposedly trained for teaching Literature so no training in
teaching English language was provided for at IE.
Nowadays, we would look to our cooperating teacher as a
mentor; I don’t even remember one in my time. There were 2 other trainee
teachers with me; one taught English and the other Science but competition, and
maybe foolish pride, prevented us from sharing any teaching tips. But we did
get together to groan and whine about our supervisors. Needless to say, my supervisor was not
impressed with my teaching. I remember after one mediocre English lesson, he
told me to try and do more group work. Honestly, that didn’t mean much to me
then apart from physically grouping the students into smaller units and I
promptly did that when he next visited. Well, he was not pleased again because
he said the group work did not serve the purpose of the lesson. Now, on hind
sight, I knew what he meant but at that point in time, I remember being
frustrated as I did what he wanted but he was not satisfied. Explicit teaching was not a part of the norm
then and supervisors often just talked and rarely showed.
After graduation from IE, I was posted to a junior college
where I started teaching General Paper (GP), again a subject for which I had no
training. In those days, junior colleges had lecture theatres where lectures
were given to prepare these elite students for the real world of university
studies. My first test was to give a GP lecture to the second year students and
I remember lecturing on something about national languages. Don’t ask me why I
chose that topic but I recall that the Head of GP then was suitably impressed,
either by my knowledge of national languages or the smoothness with which I
delivered the whole lecture. But beyond lecturing, I sure didn’t know anything
about teaching GP although in my years at that junior college, I had a lot of
success helping students to move from a low to a high grade in their exams. Not surprisingly, after I joined NIE as a
staff member, one of the first papers I ever wrote and published was on
teaching GP.
We didn’t talk about how to teach then; nor did our senior
colleagues give us advice on teaching. We just did our best and there was nobody
to call for help, no books we knew that we could consult, and the Ministry
remained a fortress on a hill that we never went to until our turn came for the
fateful tea and interview. I remember too having to direct a play as a trainee teacher
and to coach students for the drama festival. Yes, I was a drama student at
university but that didn’t prepare me enough for these extracurricular tasks. But somehow I had to make it work.
Was teaching private then? You bet it was. Nobody knew what
went on in our classes and I only remember my Head visiting my class once. Nobody
thought we needed help and perhaps we didn’t think so either.
Fast forward thirty years and what a change. Teachers now
not only get all sorts of help, support and training, they attend conferences
and present their ideas on how to teach! They get bonuses for good performance.
An average teacher today has access to a range of services and upgrading
opportunities. True, her workload seems heavier but she does not have to do
this work in an uninformed way. Some sections of the Ministry are even a tad
friendlier; why, you can be their Facebook friend now! The improvements in the teaching service in
the last thirty years have been most impressive and having seen the changes, I
have to admit that the government has done plenty for the profession.
Thinking about these changes, I was somewhat taken aback
when another expatriate friend criticised the teaching service here by describing
a teacher’s negative experiences in a neighbourhood school. True, I cannot deny that there may be still a
few tyrannical principals who live to control the teachers’ every move. I don’t deny that there is a lot of extra, out
of classroom duties in the form of co-curricular activities. And yes, there is
still some politicking, backbiting and backstabbing in the staffrooms of schools.
But this happens everywhere, not just in schools. I would say that by and large, our teachers
work in healthy and often happier environments. I would say that the
opportunities to develop themselves as teachers are plentiful and few teachers
would describe themselves as oppressed.
But even so, many trainees in their first year out in
schools fall through the cracks. I know of a number of my own supervisees who
eventually left teaching for other jobs.
I know though that it’s not always because they hate teaching or the
conditions in schools. Professor
Cochrane-Smith’s story reminds us that many factors contribute to a young
professional’s transition from trainee to full time teacher, and many of these
factors are related to the kind of support they receive, their attitude to and
understanding of the nature of the job and the kind of socialisation process
they undergo as trainees and young teachers. As experienced teachers, we can do
our part to initiate young teachers into the profession. Sadly, I still hear
stories about senior colleagues discouraging young teachers from staying in the
profession and discrediting it with negative comments. But
the number of confident young teachers is certainly growing.
Indeed, nowadays, we don’t even speak of teacher training
but of teacher education. The education
and growing of teachers is an activity that deserves the best of our resources
and the best of our young talent.
Although parents have taken on much of the education of their children,
it cannot be denied that children still spend a large proportion of their time
in school with teachers. Harriet Martineau asked:
What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honourable than teaching?
What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honourable than teaching?
None, I think and I am very glad I became a teacher. Indeed,
I see myself teaching for a long time to come.
Labels:
Cochrane-Smith,
teacher trainees,
teacher training
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Dr Jia Jia and Singlish in Writing
Photos taken from this website: http://www.edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/features/people/1038164/They_have_1_5_million_YouTube_hits.html
So, I hear that Dr Jia Jia will be featured in the National
Day rally. Hey, that's the sign that you have really arrived and made it as a
national icon. Like Phua Chu Kang, Barbarella, Ah Meng and Taufik. Wow!
I like
that little guy. He's super cute and he says some outrageous things although I
know his dad tells him what to say. He's our own Sophia Grace except that he
does not sing...yet. And he's got his own big brother side kick too! And if you
don’t know who I am talking about, Google Dr Jia Jia.
But much as I like Dr Jia Jia, I am not so sure that I am a
fan of what he's doing. I find some of his jiajiaisms like “delicious” instead
of dyslexia, clever and amusing. And all the Hokkien and Malay phrases are
endearing- si bei pai seh, jin pai tung, jia lut, Tak boleh tahan. Trust me; at
the right moment, they are just the thing to say. But I do get upset when Dr
Jia Jia mangles his English grammar to make his Singlish sound cute. It’s not
cute when Big Brother says “The impacts of iPhones and iPads on kids” “I sit
bus to school” or “You cannot like that one”. And it’s not cute when their tenses and
sentence structures don’t sound anything like English, especially when we see
them in the subtitles.
Ironically,
I read that the original intention of the Dr Jia Jia’s videos was to discourage
the use of Singlish (The New Paper, Monday April 2, 2012). However, I don’t see
any evidence of this at all in the videos I have seen.
I
can hear all of you crying out, “Wet blanket”, “Purist!” and the like, but
wait. I admit the English teacher in me can be critical sometimes, but you must
also agree with me that you don’t want your children to speak and write
Singlish all the time. As adults, who have mastered the language, we are at
liberty to play with it and to use all the Singlish we want, because we know
when to switch back to proper English. Unfortunately, for young children,
especially those who do not get enough help with learning English, this may end
up to be the only kind of English they will learn. And say what you like, this
will eventually be a hindrance to their education and careers. People who support Singlish, saying that it
promotes our national identity, are people who either have already a good
command of English and use Singlish as their fun language or are those whose
English is less than stellar and don’t want to be criticised for it.
I will
admit that I like Singlish phrases and use them often. My favourite words are
“smoke” and “powderful” which I use every now and then, even in class. But if I am teaching my young learners, I
consider it my responsibility to teach them the correct and the standard
version of the language, and not short change them with a non-standard
version. This is especially so for kids
who come from non-English speaking homes. The school, the classroom and the
teachers are their only sources of good English; kids gets enough Singlish from
their home and play environments. So while
Dr Jia Jia looks and sounds super adorable with his Singlish utterances now,
try to imagine him a young adult speaking like that still. Not so cute, right?
So
is there no place for Singlish in school at all? Of course not. In essay
writing, I often encourage children to add some Singlish expressions or
structures into the dialogues they write in their stories. This is especially
so when the characters they are writing about are Singaporean aunties and
uncles or Singaporean baddies. The use of Singlish makes the characters real
and gives them the distinct Singaporean identity that we want in our stories.
The uncle in the wet market in not going to say,
“And would Madam like some fresh kembong today?”
He’s more likely to say, “Aunty, today got fresh kembong. Want or not?”
And Aunty is likely to say,
“Is it? Expensive or not?” and not
“Really? Is it going to cost me an arm and a leg, my good man?”
Similarly, the bad guy who does not like the way you are looking him will probably say,
“Look what? Never see before ah?” instead of
“Who do you think you are looking at? Haven’t you seen me before?”
“And would Madam like some fresh kembong today?”
He’s more likely to say, “Aunty, today got fresh kembong. Want or not?”
And Aunty is likely to say,
“Is it? Expensive or not?” and not
“Really? Is it going to cost me an arm and a leg, my good man?”
Similarly, the bad guy who does not like the way you are looking him will probably say,
“Look what? Never see before ah?” instead of
“Who do you think you are looking at? Haven’t you seen me before?”
Dialogue,
in its very nature, is meant to be casual and conversational and capturing the
right voice in writing dialogues remains a challenge for all writers. So it can
be quite painful to read the dialogues of local characters that are written in full sentences and in
super correct English. They sound extremely stilted and completely unSingaporean.
Make no mistake. I don’t advocate using Singlish in the
actual narrative, only in dialogues but I find that teachers often penalise
students for doing so. I don’t think
this is right. There is a place for Singlish - in appropriate dialogues - and this
should be allowed. I am often amused by how teachers pounce on examples of
written Singlish but are happy to allow their students to use all manner of “broken”
English in their everyday conversations. While we don’t always write the way we speak,
you cannot deny that our speaking habits often leak into our writing.
What should we do then? Don’t ban Singlish in the classroom.
It won’t work. But point out its place in writing and in speaking. The occasional
Singlish is fine and even desirable when we seek to be a part of the gang, but
it’s important for students to know that for each Singlish phrase, there is an
English equivalent for it. And when there isn’t, there is still a grammatical
way to express that thought.
I don’t think we should over-correct children’s speech; being the English police is not always fun, but when certain Singlish phrases get overused or if the proper equivalents should be learnt, do highlight them for teaching and discussion.
I don’t think we should over-correct children’s speech; being the English police is not always fun, but when certain Singlish phrases get overused or if the proper equivalents should be learnt, do highlight them for teaching and discussion.
Often, speaking carelessly is a bad habit that can be corrected;
it is no reflection of one’s IQ. Teachers can do so much to help their students
develop the desirable speaking habits.
As for Dr Jia Jia and Big Brother, I
trust they are learning the right habits from their respective schools.
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