A Research On Primary School Higher Chinese Textbook Compilation In Singapore

Singapore Chinese teaching materials are continually revolving and progressing to keep up with the national development. Since 1991 till date, Higher Chinese Language textbooks have been changed four times. During the early days, students taking Higher Chinese Language have an enriched textbook, in addition to the Chinese Language textbooks. The Higher Chinese Language textbooks were published in 1991 (or referred to as’91 edition). After the release of the Mother Tongue Language Review Committee Report in 1992, the new textbooks, which were titled "Chinese for Young Learners", were released in 1994 (’94 edition). In 1999, the Mother Tongue Language Review Committee deemed it was time for a change, so the Higher Chinese Language textbooks were subsequently published in 2001 (’01 edition). In accordance with the recommendations made by the Mother Tongue Language Review Committee in 2004, another textbook was published in 2007 (’07 edition).Language courses consist of two components:language tools and the humanities. Language tools include text learning, promoting students’ learning of Chinese intonation, characters, lexicon and grammar and to improve language communication skills. The humanistic aspect of language encompasses learning through text and learning of Chinese culture, morals and values. What are the impacts of 20 years of reform of Singapore Higher Chinese Primary teaching materials on long term planning of language tools? What improvements and enhancements are made for Chinese characters and vocabulary and grammar? What experiences can be drawn? In the humanistic aspect of language, what are the changes in the text selection criteria? What are the changes in the themes and ideologies in the text content? What values are conveyed through the text? These questions are worthy of attention but they are yet to be addressed by any systematic research.In view of this, with 4 decades of teaching experience, the writer is deeply convicted to undertake the research on the ideology, Chinese character, lexicon and grammar in Higher Chinese Language. Therefore, the writer chose this research topic during the course of doctorate degree, specifically an analytical research on the 4 editions of Singapore Primary Higher Chinese textbooks and attempting to do a comprehensive restructuring, analysis and research on Chinese teaching materials. Finally, the writer decided to undertake a research entitled "A Research on Primary School Higher Chinese Textbook Compilation in Singapore", using comparative and inductive analysis. The dissertation is based on 4 editions of textbooks spanning over 20 years, amounting to a total of 60 textbooks.There are 8 chapters in this dissertation. The first chapter is the introduction which describes the current Singapore’s educational background to inform the reader of the Chinese pedagogy in Singapore. This is followed by 4 editions of Higher Chinese Language textbooks. The next section focuses on the purpose and value of the thesis, followed by a list of commonly used terms. It also describes the research scope, methodology, literature review and the thesis structure. The second chapter analyses the dominant ideologies in the Higher Chinese Language textbooks since the 1991 edition. The’91 and’94 edition emphasized on 8 main themes of interpersonal relationship, Chinese culture, society and nation, hygiene and health, the natural world, imagination and fantasy, foreign culture, science and technology. The’01 edition has 5 major themes: the individual, family, community, nation, and the world. In addition to the themes in’01 edition,’07 edition includes imagination and fantasy, and Chinese culture.The third chapter describes a comparative analysis of frequency used Chinese characters. The result shows that the’91 edition has the highest frequency of commonly used Chinese characters amounting to 2301 words, followed by the’94 edition with a frequency count of 2003 Chinese characters. It slipped to 1970 in the’01 edition and 1826 characters in’07 edition. The writer examines the relationship between most frequently used Chinese characters and textbook compilation. Lexical analysis is described in the fourth chapter, followed by a compilation of idioms and an analysis of the idiomatic frequency in the 4 textbook editions. It also looks at the assimilation of local culture and foreign languages into the Chinese lexicon, which is a distinctive feature of Singapore texts.The fifth chapter examines the grammar in the Higher Chinese Language primary textbook. A comparative analysis was conducted on the morphology and syntax. Morphology includes adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions while syntax focuses on special sentence structures and complex sentences. The purpose of this chapter is to propose that planning of textbook compilation should address the grammatical issue. Higher Chinese textbook writers overlooked grammar teaching, so some grammatical phenomenon did not appear in the textbook. For instance, the sentence structure "A 没 A" (A negative A) in repeated questions are rarely seen while the sentence structure"AB 没 AB" (AB negative AB) and " A没AB" (A negative AB) " in repeated questions are not listed.In Chapter 6, the influence of Singapore educational policy, society and family on textbook compilation are explained. As Chinese Language is a single subject in Singapore education, most students will cease formal Chinese education, be it Secondary 4 students entering into polytechnic or junior college students entering into university, unless Chinese is their chosen field of discipline. The position of Chinese language is undermined because social environment lacks opportunity for Chinese language learning and more importantly, English is the administrative and working language in Singapore. The decline of Chinese language is also attributed to the use of English as the dominant language in families. The abovementioned reasons greatly influenced textbook compilation.Chapter 7 explores the challenges of compiling Higher Chinese Language textbooks, and proposes countermeasures and recommendations. The writer thinks that textbook compilation should include citizenship education, current affairs and new elements conducive to pedagogy. It should also encourage students to apply their knowledge. A summary of the major results and implications is presented in the concluding chapter.This dissertation effectively employs linguistics theory, educational theory, psychology, previous research papers and statistics to make a comparative analysis of the ideologies and their changes. Subsequently, ideologies should strengthen moral education, racial and religious harmony, conventional wisdom and current affairs.A comparative analysis of frequently used Chinese characters and Chinese vocabulary is calculated across all textbook editions. Textbook compilation should concurrently survey students’ frequent errors to be used as a guideline for the inclusion of Chinese characters, as well as to suggest various ways of consolidating their knowledge.The teachers’ handbook should list the frequency of monosyllabic words, dual syllabic words and multi syllabic words, as well as recommend ways to expand vocabulary. The dissertation also compiles the idioms and loanwords from local and foreign languages, which can be a useful teaching resource. Grammar teaching should take place when opportunity presents itself. The grammatical differences between Chinese and English should also be highlighted, which can be used as a teaching reference.The above recommendations are based on 40 years of personal teaching experience, data collection and data analysis.