What is the medium of instruction in your city, state, province, or country?

General discussion about learning languages
Bilingual_monoglot
Yellow Belt
Posts: 98
Joined: Sun Dec 24, 2017 5:15 am
Location: Singapore
Languages: English (n) Tamil (n-heritage) French Esperanto (can talk about language policy/lepak, and nothing else) Hindi (bumbling tourist) Malay (basic conversations) Chinese (introductions and ordering food)
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Re: What is the medium of instruction in your city, state, province, or country?

Postby Bilingual_monoglot » Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:12 am

So, I live in Singapore, where the situation is as follows.

English is the only medium of instruction in all schools (we used to have Chinese, Malay, and Tamil medium schools, but they were turned into English medium schools back in the 1980s). However, the government considers the schools to be bilingual, because all students are also required to take classes in their ethnic language. These classes in the ethnic language can be taken either as a second language, or as a second first language. Those who take it as a second language have to take three classes a week for up to 11 years, or 10 if you go to Polytechnic/ITE for tertiary education (essentially vocational schools).

There are also schools under the special assistance programme (特别辅助计划). These schools are also English medium (though I'm told that they might teach some subjects through the medium of Chinese), with the main difference being that Chinese is always taught at the level of the first language, and that they attempt to maintain a Chinese aesthetic (understandable as they started out as Chinese medium schools). These schools have fairly strict admissions criteria (including A grade in both languages). Currently, there is no similar programme for the other 2 languages, nor does the government look to have any plans in that arena, although it is theoretically possible.

Arguably, the situation in Singapore is worse than in India, given that at least you have the option of vernacular education, an option that doesn't exist in Singapore (even though I know of people in my year who could benefit from it).
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