Who Are The 'Native English" Speakers?
The Minister for Education, Mr.Tharman Shanmugaratnam, announced on 5th of June, 2006 that following its review of the teaching of English language as a subject in schools, his ministry would embark on a recruitment drive to recruit the so-called ‘native English’ speakers from various sources abroad to teach this subject in our schools.
With regard to this, it prompted me to refer to a dictionary for the definition of ‘native speaker’ which is defined as someone who has spoken a particular language since childhood, rather than learning it later. According to this definition, one of my nieces, who is of Chinese descent and was born and bred in Sydney, should be considered a ‘native English’ speaker because she speaks only English since childhood, but would MOE regard her as one?
As reported in the Sunday Times on 18th June, 2006, Mr. Tharman spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a South West Community Development Council function at Jurong Lake Park , an extract of which is quoted below:
“Many people will remember the nuns and the brothers who taught them in schools, many of them spoke with a thick Irish brogue. But no one complained about it. They spoke perfect grammar and were very strict about the rules of the language.”
If the above quote is of any indication, I cannot help thinking that MOE is only looking for Caucasian ‘native English’ speakers; that students should not complain about their accents; and that our local English language teachers were not as good as they.
It is a known fact that our students, who went abroad for further studies abroad, generally scored better grades than the so-called 'native English' speakers of the host countries in their English language tests. That shows that the general standard of the English language of our students is not really that bad as perceived by MOE. By the same token, I would not be surprised that our teachers would fare better than the so-called 'native English' speaking teachers when put to a test on the level of proficiency of the language.
MOE has to rid itself of the mentality that only 'native English' speakers are capable of helping our students to raise the standard of English here. I am certain our English language teachers are capable of teaching this subject, otherwise our students would not have excelled in it abroad.
If it persists in going ahead with its plan for reasons known only to itself, MOE has to avoid recruiting those speaking with thick Irish brogue, Cockney or Australian accents. While we do not expect them to speak in accents similar to ours, we would expect them to speak with an accent similar to the standard English of BBC announcers to which we are accustomed to.
However, I still strongly believe that MOE should rethink its plan. The amount of money that is likely to be spent on these ‘native English’ speakers may be used for training a bigger pool of local English language teachers in its stead. The beneficiaries would be our students some of whom may lead our nation one day.
With regard to this, it prompted me to refer to a dictionary for the definition of ‘native speaker’ which is defined as someone who has spoken a particular language since childhood, rather than learning it later. According to this definition, one of my nieces, who is of Chinese descent and was born and bred in Sydney, should be considered a ‘native English’ speaker because she speaks only English since childhood, but would MOE regard her as one?
As reported in the Sunday Times on 18th June, 2006, Mr. Tharman spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a South West Community Development Council function at Jurong Lake Park , an extract of which is quoted below:
“Many people will remember the nuns and the brothers who taught them in schools, many of them spoke with a thick Irish brogue. But no one complained about it. They spoke perfect grammar and were very strict about the rules of the language.”
If the above quote is of any indication, I cannot help thinking that MOE is only looking for Caucasian ‘native English’ speakers; that students should not complain about their accents; and that our local English language teachers were not as good as they.
It is a known fact that our students, who went abroad for further studies abroad, generally scored better grades than the so-called 'native English' speakers of the host countries in their English language tests. That shows that the general standard of the English language of our students is not really that bad as perceived by MOE. By the same token, I would not be surprised that our teachers would fare better than the so-called 'native English' speaking teachers when put to a test on the level of proficiency of the language.
MOE has to rid itself of the mentality that only 'native English' speakers are capable of helping our students to raise the standard of English here. I am certain our English language teachers are capable of teaching this subject, otherwise our students would not have excelled in it abroad.
If it persists in going ahead with its plan for reasons known only to itself, MOE has to avoid recruiting those speaking with thick Irish brogue, Cockney or Australian accents. While we do not expect them to speak in accents similar to ours, we would expect them to speak with an accent similar to the standard English of BBC announcers to which we are accustomed to.
However, I still strongly believe that MOE should rethink its plan. The amount of money that is likely to be spent on these ‘native English’ speakers may be used for training a bigger pool of local English language teachers in its stead. The beneficiaries would be our students some of whom may lead our nation one day.
posted by Socaps at 6:05 AM
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