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Quadrilingual Education in Singapore pp 291–304Cite as

Teaching Chinese to English-Speaking Bilinguals

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Abstract

This chapter offers an in-depth discussion on the pedagogical challenges of and solutions to teaching Chinese to English-speaking bilinguals in Singapore in response to an evolving sociolinguistic profile of primary school students studying Chinese. An analysis of the positioning of Singapore within the paradigm of three concentric circles of global Chinese and the emergence of a gradual shift in learner profile from the Outer Circle to the Expanding Circle is offered, laying the ground for the need to develop a new pedagogical model, the bilingual approach (BA) to the teaching of Chinese, for teaching Chinese to a new generation of young beginning learners. The main features of BA are discussed, highlighting the important scaffolding role that the learners’ dominant language plays at the elementary stage of learning an additional language.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    An overview of the Singapore educational system can be found in MOE (2012 p. 14).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Asian Languages and Cultures, Office of Education Research (OER), National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Yeng Seng Goh

  2. Asian Languages & Cultures, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Seok Lai Lim

Authors
  1. Yeng Seng Goh
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  2. Seok Lai Lim
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Correspondence to Yeng Seng Goh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, Singapore

    Rita Elaine Silver

  2. Crandall University, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

    Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng

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Goh, Y.S., Lim, S.L. (2016). Teaching Chinese to English-Speaking Bilinguals. In: Elaine Silver, R., Bokhorst-Heng, W. (eds) Quadrilingual Education in Singapore. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-967-7_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-967-7_17

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