Distinctiveness and Uniformity: Teaching Language in Singapore Primary Grades 1 and 2
This chapter presents data from a study of primary grade 1 and grade 2 (P1 and P2) lessons for Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. There are few, if any, comparative studies which examine pedagogy in all four official languages in Singapore; therefore, our primary purpose is to investigate how classroom teaching is similar or different for the four languages. For this investigation, data are drawn from 62 lessons observed in 2009 after new language syllabi were introduced. Despite a continuing policy of maintaining separate teaching teams, materials, syllabi/curricula and teacher training for each language, many of the policies for language and education apply across all four languages. These include recent emphases on oral skill development, recommendations that schools develop more engaging pedagogies for young learners and common policies on assessment. Our data show that teaching across the four languages is remarkably similar, which we take to be evidence of the impact of the common policies and cultural beliefs about language education in Singapore primary schools.