Gong Cheng, Dr Chin Chee Kuen, Tay Boon Pei

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Abstract

This paper is a mid-term report on a project co-conducted by Singapore Center for Chinese Language and a secondary school. This study originated from a survey investigating Singaporean's Chinese language ability in their working place. The survey reflects that students' language skills in Singapore leave much to be desired. In this paper we propose a "learning by doing" framework to enhance students' skills in the use of Chinese language. This framework requires students to complete tasks by solving problems in real-life environment, which consequently provides the opportunity for them to combine their curricular and extracurricular knowledge and improve their language skills. This kind of experience is also expected to change their attitude towards the Chinese language. This is not a pilot test report, but a framework proposal. Teaching examples will be shown on how to build suitable scaffoldings to help students complete the 'learning by doing' exploratory learning tasks.

Keyword(s) : task-based teaching, exploratory learning, combination of curricular and extracurricular knowledge, communicative language skills, feasible framework