Review teaching approaches, effectiveness of Speak Mandarin campaign

The letter writer Yeo Su-Wen was concerned that most Chinese now use English as the first language at homes (“Youth must learn dialects or risk losing part of their culture”, Sep 17).

This prompts the need to review how effective the Speak Mandarin Campaign had been.

Educators should also review whether the mother tongue teaching approach and the materials used are effective in fostering the interest of learning mother tongues among our young.

In a child’s early years, speaking his or her mother tongue is more important than learning how to write in the language, and the question is whether we teach them enough everyday words and phrases for them to communicate with their parents.

We should place more emphasis on oral tests in pre-school years, and perhaps also in the early years of primary education.

We should involve parents to play a more supportive role too.

In pre-school oral tests, we should have parents read out the questions in mother tongue to their children, such as: “What have you eaten this morning?”; “If you have a stomachache, what would you do?”; “Why is it important to often wash your hands?”; “How do we prevent getting ill?”; “What would a polite kid like to do at home and in school?”, and the like.

When a child has acquired sufficient foundation in his mother tongue, he may be more inclined to learn more about dialects when he is older.

If parents are more involved, hopefully, more will speak Mandarin at home. It may turn out to be more effective than the Speak Mandarin campaign.