SingCitizen » English

Launch of new novel targeting teenagers

singcitizen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:13:01 +0000

A novel targeting secondary students and set in a Singapore secondary school has been launched. Entitled Mystery of the Battle Box, the novel is about three schoolmates — two of whom are cousins — teaming up to solve a mystery about hidden treasure in an underground bunker which was built during World War Two.

The teenagers stumble into a secret tunnel beneath the bunker with help from two spirits — a British and an Australian — haunting the bunker since World War Two.

The 290-page work is a first novel by its author Raymond Han — a former banker and a teacher. Find out more HERE!

BOOK DETAILS:

ISBN: 978-981-08-4189-8 Date Published: 5 October 2009

Related Categories: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Historical

Whither literature in our schools?

singcitizen — Mon, 14 Oct 2002 13:42:46 +0000

Another batch of literature students will be sitting for the subject at O level in early December 2002. This year’s batch of candidates is expected to be less than a quarter of the cohort of O-level students here.

Lately, there has been some interest in the dwindling number of literature students. A working group for the Economic Review Committee has suggested that the subject be made compulsory.

That, I think, will not stop the fall either in the number of students taking literature or the overall grades for the subject. The simple reason is that students nowadays are not sufficiently proficient in the English Language. Making the grades for the English Language is already a hurdle for most students here, and literature is generally regarded as a subject that’s more difficult to study.

So, if it’s entirely up to the students to choose, I am afraid they will rather drop the subject than risk failing it in the examinations.

There has been talk that literature as a subject has been on the decline since ranking in schools was introduced in 1992 and the statistics appear to support that point.
I wish to differ. I think ranking in schools merely exacerbated the fall in interest in literature among our students. I suggest that our students’ interest in literature started waning when the Speak Mandarin Campaign was introduced in Singapore.

In the seventies, Chinese students spoke dialect at home with their parents, relatives and friends. They watched dialect programmes, in Hokkien and Cantonese, on television. At school, they formed bonds with other students through the English Language. Chinese students spoke to other Chinese students in English, as well as in dialect.

As a result, there was a strong grasp of the English Language among those who went to school in the seventies or earlier. Of course, Indian, Malay and Eurasian students then used English as a medium of communication with their Chinese peers. Even now, this remains the case.

However, the use of Mandarin slowly but surely permeated all levels of society in the eighties with the introduction of the Speak Mandarin Campaign. The popularity of Mandarin has continued right to this day.

The evidence is all around us today. Parents and grandparents speak to their children in Mandarin. At school, students chatter away in Mandarin both in the classrooms and within the school grounds. Outside school, our students use Mandarin at stalls, shops, fast-food restaurants, on the bus and any other place you can think of.

So our Chinese students now have a better command of the Chinese Language, albeit at a price – the fall in the standard of spoken and written English in schools and at the workplace.

When I first met my wife, I found she spoke only a smattering of English although she was from the English stream. Mandarin would rattle from her tongue. She was ill at ease with the English Language. In the six years since, she has not only picked up better English from me but also become proficient enough in the language to use it to fire away scoldings at me in rapid succession. I was a student of the seventies and she went to school in the eighties – she’s 13 years my junior!

There’s a point in me bringing up that story about my wife and me. It is this – to arrest the decline in interest in literature, I think we must first tackle the falling standard of English among our students. Get them to use English more often both in school and outside. Imbue in them a greater interest in English so that they become proficient enough in the subject such that they will not think twice about using English when they are with their friends or their siblings.

It is only when our students have gained confidence in their use of English that we can embark on the task of getting them interested in literature. If they have no fear of English, then, in all likelihood, they will embrace literature with open arms.

This is a big about-turn. Can it happen? I certainly hope so, for, in the words of Life! arts correspondent ONG Sor Fern writing in The Straits Times of 7 Oct 2002, “literature is the repository of humankind’s collective heart and soul. It deepens our understanding of alien cultures; it allows us to recognise that the fears that unite us are more enduring than the misunderstandings and quarrels that divide us.”

Yes! We need doctors, engineers and technocrats to sustain our society. But, we also need these chaps to know they are not in it just for that purpose. They are in it because they belong to a group that goes by the name of humankind with the capacity for love, romance and beauty. Literature is love, romance and beauty – in short – life itself.

In the chair or on the chair?

singcitizen — Mon, 29 Apr 2002 07:16:14 +0000

In my Free English Lessons section on this website, I commented on the declining standard of English here. I said that the true English-speaking generation of students, which grew up in the seventies, and have become English teachers are now in their forties. These are the ones who are proficient in English. I also commented that students who have had the privilege of learning from these teachers picked up good English skills.

Today’s column serves to highlight the fact that many of today’s teachers under 40 years old are deficient in their English skills.

Some of you know that I am a relief English teacher in a secondary school here. Well, just two weeks ago, while I was expounding the use of in the chair to a secondary three express class in a school in Hougang, some students laughed at my use of in the chair instead of on the chair. These students were adamant that I was not qualified to teach English since I had used in the chair. To them, that usage was 100-per-cent wrong.

A few went as far as seeking confirmation from their permanent English teacher that I had made a mistake, in the hope that their teacher would back them in ridiculing my English skills. They expected their teacher to agree with them and they were very happy when their English teacher supported their stand. Their English teacher is in her early thirties, by the way.

So, armed with her reply, these students confronted me the next time I went into their class. They reiterated that the use of in the chair was totally wrong and only on the chair was correct since their teacher had said so. I brought up this matter with another English teacher who is in his fifties. He agreed with my use of in the chair without hesitation.

What I wish to say is this. Students nowadays are taught by English teachers who were students of teachers accustomed to using Mandarin at school and at home, unlike the early post-independence English teachers. Such teachers acquired less-than-perfect English skills and therefore could only transfer even worse English skills to those under their charge. Therefore, the standard of English here in Singapore gets worse progressively because each new batch of students gets taught by teachers who picked up progressively worse English skills.

Coming back to my story, these students were happy to announce to me, in a defiant tone, that I was wrong, effectively telling me that I shouldn’t be teaching English since I was teaching them the wrong things. I promised them I would bring proof that I was correct. I didn’t want them to get away with having the wrong ideas. Then, I remembered that they had an English textbook with them, so, I flipped through the pages from start to finish. I found instances of the use of in the chair on pages 51, 53 and 112 (2002 textbook).

When I showed the pages to them, they were speechless. I had proven them wrong. At the same time, I had also proven their English teacher wrong. Since that day, I have had no trouble from these students, and I believe I have created doubts in them about the skills of their regular English teacher.

Incidentally, I also checked the Collins Cobuild English Usage on the use of in the chair and here is their answer. We use in the chair when the chair is comfortable. Also, we use in the armchair exclusively.

What I wish to say is this – nowadays students, rather blindly, digest what their teachers say. They debunk the knowledge of teachers who they know are not their permanent teachers. This habit leads them to being complacent, as they do not get a chance to open their minds.

Also, the whole episode goes to prove what I have said earlier – that in Singapore new batches of students being taught by less proficient English teachers acquire a lower level of English skills and in turn become less-skilled English teachers.