Dr Tan Chee Lay

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Abstract

This paper aims to examine the current teaching of bilingualism – specifically English and Chinese languages and literatures, including the Bicultural Studies Program (BSP) - in a multiracial, multicultural and multilingual society like Singapore. More than forty years after the initiation of the Bilingual Educational System in Singapore, and after numerous Mother Tongue Reviews and curricular revamps, there is still currently insufficient, and certainly long overdue, focus given to the integration of the learning of both Chinese and English languages, as well as the collaboration of Singapore's local traditional cultures, especially the Eastern and Western cultures (Tan, 2008). It is almost peculiar that Singaporeans have just started to use the term "biculturalism" in recent years and more peculiar that we have not even begin to embark on the term "triculturalism" or "multiculturalism" in Singapore. This paper, in response, would propose an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach with the utilization of mass media materials for the teaching of Chinese and English languages and literature – focusing more on the Chinese language, but applicable in the teaching and learning of English as well.

Drawing authentic materials from a broad interdisciplinary and comparative perspective, such as everyday materials (that is not foreign to students) like bilingual newspapers (My Paper), radio, television, internet, poster, advertisement and various forms of cultural artifacts, I hope to propose a interdisciplinary framework of contextualizing bilingual teaching, which may be most useful for the Bicultural Studies Program-currently highly sought after. Not only would an interdisciplinary approach familiarizes the students with how Chinese and English could interact with each other, as well as with other disciplines and cultures, it may also instill a spirit of openness in the relatively rigid mode of linguistic instruction in Chinese and English teaching. Furthermore, it will certainly encourage an interdisciplinary mode of knowledge acquisition in general in the long run.

Keyword(s) : Bilingualism, Biculturalism, mass media, Chinese-English language and literature teaching, Singapore Bilingual Education