2 January 2009 (Sat):
Schools in Singapore will be implementing a different assessment method for Mandarin as a second language soon - the newspaper has informed. It's long overdue, I thought; but as the saying goes, "It's better late than never".
In my years of second language education here, I have never heard of anyone in my school being barred from entry into higher institutions of learning due to their poor second-language results. Thus I was surprised to read about Singaporeans who emigrated because their children could not cope with the second language. I was not shocked, just surprised, because different people have different experiences in school.
I was a very bilingual student, thanks to my early years of exposure to multiple languages both at home and outside home. I am also thankful to teachers in my primary and secondary school who taught me well, in addition to my interest in studying Mandarin. However in my high school (junior college) exam, I obtained a C5 in the final exam - the G.C.E. 'A' level exam. It was what I considered a 'freak' result. What was most puzzling was a few passive bilinguals had obtained straight 'A1's. I could not pursue the matter because the channels for such investigations were not made known to us. Immediately after sitting for that exam, I recalled that I was filled with confidence -as usual- of obtaining an 'A'. I picked a question that required me to complete a story. I continued the opening lines with a love story peppered with the richest descriptions of emotions, I thought. The result reflected the fact that the examiners were looking for a certain genre, but it was not made known explicitly to examinees.
I had a somewhat different experience for another important examination sat two years earlier than the 'A' level exam. It was my French 'O' Level Exam. Due to a terrible ear infection I could not hear what conversation was being exchanged in the listening comprehension section. My result was disastrous. Two decades after that, however, in a displacement exam for entry into Alliance Francaise, I could still recall the fundamentals even without any prior preparation nor had I experience using it. (I also haven't been to France). The Director half-commented and queried, 'Were you excellent in French?' - certainly with surprise and not sarcasm.
A scholar from HK has had a different experience at our secondary schools, though. When she obtained a 'B' for her Geography and another subject (probably Math) in her 'O' level examination, she paid a fee for her results to be formally investigated and finally got her grades adjusted to 'As' as her housemate revealed sometime later (How was that possible? One may question but will not be able to get the answer).
Later at a local university, a leading scholar in Linguistics "kindly" informed her students- one of whom was me -with her usual very broad smile (which was never useful for satisfactorily answer students' queries), to write good English and well-organised answers in their final exam. It is surprising why then some instructors (even Arts and Social Sciences professors) who can neither speak fluent English nor deliver coherent presentations in English - let alone writing good English responses within three hours of the examination - continue to be hired by the University as well as by the department? One of them spoke with such heavily accented English that I never understood her subject until I went to the U.K. many years later. The lectures (in fact, lectures for every subject) also never contained solid introductions to the subject concerned.
It's amazing how lightly some spokesperson for a certain university here dismissed such issues on accents when students wrote to the press forum some years ago to complain about 'foreign accents'. The answer given was the need to expose students to different kinds of accents in the global(ised) work-place. Great foresight, eh?
Sure, universities here have always tried very hard to stay relevant and keep up with changes in the world. It is perhaps for this reason that the Human Resource Management course was introduced very abruptly and made mandatory to Arts and Social Sciences students in my final year (That made my course load nine, instead of eight). Thus for students studying a new foreign language, it was a tremendous strain on their time. Moreover a three-year basic degree programme (of slightly more than twenty months) to manage such very new courses like the Politics of Japan and Japanese Management (for a major), in addition to five other more courses (for another major and minor) including acquiring a foreign language with daily tutorials, reflected an education chimera rather than a well-studied plan. Even if the quality of the instructors was the best in world - which was then very far from the case- it would be defeating the purpose of tertiary education which to me was -to develop my abilities and interests.
I feel sure that the people involved in drafting and implementing such programmes, including those so-called scholars and linguists, had never fathomed the deeper features involved in acquiring and mastering a foreign language in the real world. Most of the linguists then, in that department, only spoke and worked on their heritage languages and/or community languages. Many were from a certain developing Asian country. Among them was a so-called "trainer of teachers".
This "trainer", to me, holds a pin-hole view of mankind - thanks to his limited travel and exposure to foreign cultures and probably his being nurtured in a highly stratified closed society. Keeping his position (and pay for retirement) was perhaps his priority, rather than looking at how students' potentials can better be identified, tapped, developed and better assessed. I wonder how his background on the literacy of children so alien to the majority of kids here could also be relevant and useful for students like me? How many of these "linguists" have really worked hard to try and master a foreign language - one that is not spoken within the home and without- without ever visiting the country where it is spoken?
To continue with the subject on pushing Human Resource Management for final-year students, had the objectives been carefully studied? Did all graduates from the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty take up HR managerial positions? What could a eight- to nine-month bi-weekly or tri-weekly course do to equip students with real HR skills? Do foreign-educated academics hired in the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty here also have the HR Management knowledge that was and is considered very essential? Such knowledge is apparently absent in many academics who helm research centres.
The same scholar in Linguistics mentioned earlier would also probably tell her students, flashing her signature grin, "Don't worry about grades", as she had told me before. It's the kind of platitude you can expect from teachers. But all of us know this fact very well: Only your final grades will determine whether you can further your studies or not, or whether you get an honours or not, which further determines how much you earn in the Civil Service Sector should you desire to join it.(**)
As my Anthropology professor in the U.S. seriously articulated in class: "I will have to assess carefully or it will affect you when you want to further your studies".
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(**) So what pattern became apparent from the results of the final examination, the only one set of criteria on which students' advancement to further studies was based? Several dark horses emerged, of course, EITHER because their two majors consisted of Political Science and Japanese Politics OR, because of their lighter combination of a heavier and a lighter and more interesting subject which was Japanese Sociology.
Why did I use the word 'combination'? Because all the subject results were averaged instead of singly graded according to the student's effort and ability/talent in the subject concerned. It was a breeze for Political Science students who read Japanese Politics in Japanese Studies and Japanese Politics in their other major. One does not need to have an exceptionally high IQ to see that the playing field was very uneven. Certainly for me, my education path here was tumultuous; it was furthermore, very uninspiring.
