Additional Resources for Learning Languages of Singaporean Communities to Better Reflect Local Landscape

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Dr Tan Wu Meng, Jurong GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) what resources are made available by the Ministry for students keen to learn additional languages of Singaporean communities beyond their own Mother Tongue Language; (b) in the case of the Duolingo language learning app previously offered on some personal learning devices provided by the Ministry, what is the reason for Bahasa Indonesia being an option but not Singaporean Bahasa Melayu; and (c) whether there are plans to improve the available language learning resources in schools to better reflect the Singaporean language landscape.

Response

1.Students interested in learning additional languages beyond their own Mother Tongue Language have access to Conversational Chinese and Malay programmes in schools and online learning packages on the Singapore Student Learning Space. Secondary school students can also offer Chinese (Special Programme) and Malay (Special Programme) in schools, and third languages in the Ministry of Education (MOE) Language Centres.

2.Schools can install teaching and learning applications offered by external developers on the personal learning devices. The language options available on these applications, such as Duolingo, are determined by the application developers.

3.MOE will continually enhance teaching and learning resources that can support students to learn additional languages offered in schools and MOE language centres.