Non-standard English is a problem for pupils, teachers
I refer to the commentary “Singlish — a uniquely Singaporean threat” (June 1) and the Voices letters published on June 4 on the subject.
Some Singaporeans are unable to write and speak standard English because there are now many new methods of teaching subjects in schools here that contribute almost nothing to their mastery of basic English.
Slow learners and average students often do not benefit much from such teaching methods.
The written solution to a mathematical problem (10 - 3 = 7), for example, is now acceptable at primary school: The answered (sic) is 7 cat (sic). In the past, this was never taught.
A normal Singaporean boy wrote the four paragraphs below after nearly three years in the much-lauded Strategies for English Language Learning and Reading programme, where selected stories and worksheets prepared by teachers are used in lieu of grammar textbooks.
• one day I with my sister is enjoy to share food wer are eating beard and sandwich, banama (sic).
• a old men walking with a walking sick a old lady with a old men walking with a stick They find a place to set (sic).
• a old men walking with a sick is looking lelf and Right They cannot find place to set (sic).
• we pick up to give the set to the old lady and the old mem with a walking sick (sic).
I asked the boy, when he was in Primary Five, how he managed to write correct answers for every difficult English worksheet in school. He answered: “Teacher copy (sic) on whiteboard. I copy!”
At secondary school, some subject teachers, who do not teach English per se, write and speak non-standard English blissfully.
A literature teacher typed this on her test paper: “For each question, choose the correct alphabet (sic) and write it in the brackets provided.”
A mathematics teacher had this instruction for an assignment: “Please write show (sic) all workings and submit when (sic) on the first Maths period when school reopens.”
Ungrammatical English is indeed hard to unlearn and remedy, both for pupils and teachers who are at sea with the English language.
