POINTS are not the best way to encourage love for a student's mother tongue ("Points encourage deeper learning of language, culture" by Ms Jong Ching Yee; Forum Online, last Thursday).
If students choose to take Higher Mother Tongue to increase their chances of getting into a school of their choice, there is obviously no passion involved in their decision.
Wouldn't it be better if students choose to pursue Higher Mother Tongue as a subject because they are truly interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the language?
A more viable alternative to this points system would be to have more engaging mother tongue classes from a young age. For example, in order to get an A* for Chinese, primary school pupils are made to memorise paragraphs. As a result, the pupils' interest in the language is killed.
Perhaps, teachers could screen movies and introduce the cultural aspects of their mother tongue to spark the pupils' interest in the language instead.
Beth Lim Shi Yu (Miss)
If students choose to take Higher Mother Tongue to increase their chances of getting into a school of their choice, there is obviously no passion involved in their decision.
Wouldn't it be better if students choose to pursue Higher Mother Tongue as a subject because they are truly interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the language?
A more viable alternative to this points system would be to have more engaging mother tongue classes from a young age. For example, in order to get an A* for Chinese, primary school pupils are made to memorise paragraphs. As a result, the pupils' interest in the language is killed.
Perhaps, teachers could screen movies and introduce the cultural aspects of their mother tongue to spark the pupils' interest in the language instead.
Beth Lim Shi Yu (Miss)
