It gives me great pleasure to be here
this morning to welcome all of you to the Ninth International Conference on Chinese
Linguistics (ICCL) cum International Symposium on Chinese Language Teaching. 2
I understand that it was here, eight years ago in 1992, that the first
conference of this prestigious international series was inaugurated and the International
Association of Chinese Linguistics founded. Since then, it has carried out a series of
high quality academic activities. We are happy to be the host again of the ninth ICCL.
3 Many distinguished scholars here today were key figures at the
first ICCL. We welcome you back to Singapore. I would also like to extend a warm welcome
to the other overseas delegates who are in Singapore for the first time and hope that
besides attending conference sessions, you will be able to find some time to see a bit of
the country that we call home.
4 As a multi-racial and multi-lingual society, Singapore has always
placed a high priority on language teaching and learning. Bilingualism is a cornerstone of
our education system. Our bilingual policy requires our children to learn two languages:
English and a Mother Tongue language which could be Malay, Chinese or Tamil. English is
the working language in Singapore and the medium of instruction in our schools. It is also
the language of global business, scientific and technological advancement and access to
the vast realms of information on the internet. It is therefore important for our students
to acquire a high level of proficiency in this language which will give them access to the
world. At the same time, however, it is very important for our students to learn their
Mother Tongue for as long as possible and to as high a level. Doing so gives them access
to their cultural heritage and helps them to appreciate and retain their cultural identity
and their roots. With the continuing rapid growth and opening up of China, there is,
moreover, an important practical purpose to the learning of the Chinese Language.
5 Given the special structure of our society, the challenges we face
in the teaching of the Chinese language are quite unique. In order to meet the language
and cultural content needs of our students in an age of globalisation, and to balance the
amount of time they spend on various subjects, we have reviewed our Chinese syllabuses,
re-written the textbooks and modified our assessment modes over the last two years. We
have also invested heavily in staff development to equip teachers with new approaches and
more effective techniques in teaching the language. One interesting example is the use of
Hanyu Pinyin. After successfully piloting a project which introduced the use of Hanyu
Pinyin from the first year of primary education, we have extended this approach to all
primary schools from 1999. In this approach, our Primary One pupils learn Hanyu Pinyin
exclusively during their first 10 weeks of school, before they are systematically
introduced to the Chinese characters. Hanyu Pinyin is used not only as a tool for learning
Mandarin pronunciation; it is also used as a phonetic tool to facilitate the learning of
Chinese characters. Based on feedback from teachers, starting early has helped our Primary
One pupils to be more confident in the use of Hanyu Pinyin and they have shown great
improvement in their Mandarin pronunciation. Most importantly, they have picked up more
vocabulary items, and are able to read short passages and nursery rhymes in Chinese with
Hanyu Pinyin annotations.
6 Another means of improving the quality of Chinese language teaching
is the use of IT in teaching and learning. MOE has put in a lot of effort to train our
teachers to utilize IT effectively in their teaching. Besides providing adequate hardware
and educational software, teachers have been given help in the development of IT-based
teaching materials. These efforts have paid off and we have noticed a very high
computer-literacy rate among our Chinese Language teachers. Not only are they able to
incorporate IT effectively in their teaching; some of them have even set up their very own
educational webpages and test item banks.
7 What I have just described are some attempts to make the teaching and
learning of Chinese more effective in our schools. However, we recognise that although we
have made progress, we still have a long way to go and a lot to learn. We must continue
looking into ways to get our students to become more interested in and excited about the
learning of Chinese. We want them to see the richness of the culture embodied in the
language and to enjoy learning and using Chinese, long after they have left school.
8 Linguistics is a field of study that offers valuable insights into the
workings of a language and the process of language learning. Research findings in this
area can provide useful ideas for language teaching. There is much that we can learn from
the papers presented during this conference. I am sure that the participants at this
conference will find food for the mind and the spirit from the sharing of information.
9 I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a successful and
fruitful conference and a pleasant stay in Singapore. I have great pleasure in declaring
open the Ninth International Conference on Chinese Linguistics cum International Symposium
on Chinese Language Teaching.
