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FINLAND AND SINGAPORE’S BILINGUAL POLICIES ANALYSIS, Policies - Coggle…
FINLAND AND SINGAPORE’S BILINGUAL POLICIES ANALYSIS
Singapore Bilingual Policy
(Challenges facing the language education policy and foreign language education in Singapore)
Weaknesses
Top 10% secondary school students were burdened with more FLs subjects
most FL learners have to travel some distance away from their school for their FL classes, which are conducted during after-school hours in the afternoons (burdensome)
FL courses takes too long to complete (6 years)
How to fit into Malaysia's current curriculum (MBMMBI)
Strengths
policies are revised (trilingualism - bilingualism)
English-knowing bilingualism (all students had to learn English first. English is important as it gives access and convenient common ground on which everybody competes in a neutral medium (Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew 1972)
FL is introduces to meet Singapore's economic and diplomatic needs
MTL is assigned according to the students' ethnicity to preserve cultural values
The Foreign Language Policy
Open to pupils who
Lived overseas for a long period of time
Not kept up with their MLT
Had formal learning in the Foreign Language of Asian Language
Approved Foreign Language
French
German
Japanese
Approved Asian Language
Arabic
Burmese
Thai
Taught outside of school hours
Mother Tongue Language policy
Based on pupil’s race, pupils are required to study their respective ‘mother tongue’ language.
Pupils will need to sit for ‘mother tongue’ exam at the PSLE and the GCE “N”, “O” and “A” level
Pupils need to achieve certain level of proficiency to fulfill the ‘mother tongue’ requirement for admission to local universities.
English-knowing bilingualism
Singapore’s brand of bilingualism
Enhancing English proficiency is essential to build Singapore’s economy and boost its regional and global competitiveness
Pupils in Singapore to study English as a ‘First Language’ and a ‘mother tongue’ language as a ‘Second Language’.
Finland Bilingual Policy
Article: Spaces for multilingual education: language orientations in the national curricula of Sweden and Finland
Strengths
"the right to one's language and culture"
Provide education for all children, regardless of their residency status
Includes a distinct discourse on the positive right of each student to receive language support in the regular class or through separate tuition
Provide a general syllabus for students with mother tongues other than the national and official minority languages
Include separate Mother tongue syllabi for minority languages, which all follow the same syllabi structure as for the majority languages
Allows the local educational provider to decide how the education in minority languages is organised. Finnish schools are not obliged to provide it
Language-as-resource
"Language is key to all learning and students are to understand the central meaning language has for learning, for communication and for cooperation as well as for identity development and integration into society
Strongly promotes linguistic interaction, and "parallel use of various languages in the school's daily life is seen as natural, and languages are appreciates"
Education from pre-primary to higher education is free of charge
Teachers are encourage to try new methods in their classroom
Finland has Finnish-speaking school system and Swedish-speaking school system
Students are given extra certificate for their bilingual education
Weaknesses
Finland offers compulsory education in both Finland and Swedish. However, the Finnish Basic Education Act (628/1998) stipulates arranging the two language groups separately, meaning on physically separate premises.
Home language education in Finnish schools are not equally offered in different parts of Finland and teachers need more training to ensure the quality of the education
Linguistic equality and the support of multilingualism have limitations in practice
More efforts needed from the teachers to promote and deliver the education
There are no official bilingual school.
Needs a great deal of planning, considerable bilingual teacher resources, cooperation between school levels and parental involvement.
How to fit it into Malaysia's current curriculum (MBMMBI)
Required to take additional language
Language of instruction can be optional
Multilingual education
(Finnish National Core Curriculum, 2014)
great emphasis in:
Identity
Creative learning
Moral character
Creativity
Knowledge and skills
No standardized test, no school inspection
3 main functions
Intelectual document
Defining and recreating significant, reveals current conception knowledge
Pedagogical document
providing advice support for teachers and setting guidelines for teaching and learning
Administrative document
managing and directing education
Important principles
Concept of learning
Assessment
Pedagogical working approaches
Special need education
Good learning environment
Pupil welfare
Educational guidance
Promotes transversal competences.
Seven transversal competencies
Spaces for Multilingual Education: Language Orientations in the National Curricula of Sweden and Finland Paulsrud & Zilliacus & Ekberg 2020)
Multilingualism becomes a new key term that plays an important role as a guiding principle in developing school culture.
Multilingualism prevail the term bilingualism.
More emphasis given on language and linguistic and cultural diversity.
Current curriculum emphasized pupils’ multilingual identities.
Refers to an entity consisting knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and will.
A framework used by municipalities to develop local curricula suitable for the needs and interests of their communities.
Both Finnish and Swedish designated as "national" languages
Policies