A Study On Language Planning In Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR And Singapore And The Singapore Chinese Language Curriculum In Primary Schools

This dissertation consists of three major sections. To begin, it gives an overview of how language planning is done in mainland China, Hong Kong special administrative region and Singapore. Secondly, it examines and compares the Chinese language curriculum in the primary schools in these three regions. Lastly, the author recommends a tailor-made framework for developing Chinese language curriculum in Singapore.In China, Putonghua (PTH) is designated as the lingua franca of the country and is also the official medium of instruction in all schools. The standard written characters have been widely promoted throughout the society and schools. On top of this, China continues to nurture a harmonious society where different languages can co-exist. In Hong Kong, three spoken languages and two official languages exist. The three spoken languages are Cantonese, English and PTH. The two official languages are Chinese and English. Cantonese, a prestige dialect, is the mother tongue and medium of instruction for Hong-Kongers. English is considered a top variety while the use PTH is rising steadily in Hong Kong.In Singapore, English is the lingua franca among the four races. English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil are the official languages. The thrust of education is on bilingualism. English is the main medium of instruction in schools. Chinese children must study Chinese as their mother tongue. Since 1979, Singapore has been actively carrying out the Speak Mandarin Campaign. The ultimate objective of the campaign is to encourage the Chinese community to remain loyal and competent in the Chinese language. Hopefully, Chinese can be a high variety in Chinese community. English became commonly used at home among the Chinese. In comparison, Chinese has now become the second language for the majority of Singaporean Chinese. This is unlike China and Hong Kong, where people are still native speakers of the language. Based on the differences in language planning and varying needs of the learners, the Chinese language curriculum in Singapore must aim to teach Chinese as a second language rather than following the curriculum in China and Hong Kong which is developed for first language learners. Across the span of 30 years, Singapore has conducted four curriculum reviews. If curriculum direction and focus had been accurately mapped out right from the start, the frequency of curriculum reviews could have been significantly reduced. Therefore, this research has constructed a unique framework to help the development of Chinese curriculum for second language learners in Singapore. This framework is developed after taking into consideration the key language trends in Singapore, the theories around second language curriculum and the author's experiences of designing instructional materials on Chinese language for foreign learners.