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This paper was presented at the 9th Tamil Internet Conference 2010, held in Coimbatore, India fro... more This paper was presented at the 9th Tamil Internet Conference 2010, held in Coimbatore, India from 23 – 27 Jun 2010
Curriculum implementation in early primary schooling in Singapore (CIEPSS)
Purpose / Research Question This one-year project was an investigation into the ongoing implement... more Purpose / Research Question This one-year project was an investigation into the ongoing implementation of recent policy initiatives that influence pedagogies, curriculum innovation, and instructional practices in primary education in Singapore. Investigation covered P1 and P2 in all core ...
This paper examines recent changes in the teaching of Tamil in Singapore to students from Tamil l... more This paper examines recent changes in the teaching of Tamil in Singapore to students from Tamil language homes. Tamil is a diglossic language, with a formal or H variety that is used mainly in writing and is learned in schools and a spoken or L variety that is used in informal conversations and is learned naturally through exposure. Standard Spoken Tamil (SST) is the variety used by educated Tamils regardless of their caste or region in Tamil Nadu. Following the review of the Tamil language curriculum and pedagogy in 2006 by the Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE), a Standardised variety of Spoken Tamil (SST) has become a key feature of Tamil language syllabus since 2008. This paper is based on a qualitative analysis of 18 primary school Tamil lessons and interviews with the participating teachers to understand: (a) the impact of introducing SST in Tamil classrooms; (b) the reactions of the teachers; and (c) those of the students to the lessons and techniques.
Use and Impact of Spoken Tamil in the Early Tamil Classrooms
Education Innovation Series, 2016
Despite governmental and community efforts to support Tamil maintenance in Singapore, census and ... more Despite governmental and community efforts to support Tamil maintenance in Singapore, census and school data show a decrease in the number of Indian families using Tamil as the predominant home language. While this is true of Singapore’s other mother tongues as well, diglossia compounds the declining use of Tamil in Singapore. In addition to a formal, written form, Tamil has more than one oral form. Currently teachers are encouraged to teach Standard Spoken Tamil as the educated, oral variety. This article explores those efforts through an analysis of language use in classrooms.
‘Standard Spoken Language in School and Media Domain: A case study of Singapore’ aims to examine ... more ‘Standard Spoken Language in School and Media Domain: A case study of Singapore’ aims to examine the corpus of Standard Spoken Tamil (SST) in the media and school domains in Singapore, in order to establish SST as an additional resource for the teaching and learning of Tamil. The rationale for this study is that it will lead to instructional strategies that seek to redress the disjunction in the pedagogic context where only one monolithic norm, that of Literary Tamil (LT) prevails. In Singapore, more and more Primary one students are coming from English speaking homes. Given that general situation, Tamil students are able to write well and efficient in using the Literary Tamil variety which is used in formal situation and unable to speak or converse in Spoken Tamil which is the variety used for day to day communication. To develop the oral skills and to make Tamil as a living language in Singapore, students need to speak in Spoken Tamil and understand the diglossic background of Tamil language. This book addresses those issues and provides pedagogical recommendations.
Attitudes towards Literary Tamil and Standard Spoken Tamil in Singapore
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2007
This is the first empirical study that focused on attitudes towards two varieties of Tamil, Liter... more This is the first empirical study that focused on attitudes towards two varieties of Tamil, Literary Tamil (LT) and Standard Spoken Tamil (SST), with the multilingual state of Singapore as the backdrop. The attitudes of 46 Singapore Tamil teachers towards ...
This paper was presented at the 9th Tamil Internet Conference 2010, held in Coimbatore, India fro... more This paper was presented at the 9th Tamil Internet Conference 2010, held in Coimbatore, India from 23 – 27 Jun 2010
Curriculum implementation in early primary schooling in Singapore (CIEPSS)
Purpose / Research Question This one-year project was an investigation into the ongoing implement... more Purpose / Research Question This one-year project was an investigation into the ongoing implementation of recent policy initiatives that influence pedagogies, curriculum innovation, and instructional practices in primary education in Singapore. Investigation covered P1 and P2 in all core ...
This paper examines recent changes in the teaching of Tamil in Singapore to students from Tamil l... more This paper examines recent changes in the teaching of Tamil in Singapore to students from Tamil language homes. Tamil is a diglossic language, with a formal or H variety that is used mainly in writing and is learned in schools and a spoken or L variety that is used in informal conversations and is learned naturally through exposure. Standard Spoken Tamil (SST) is the variety used by educated Tamils regardless of their caste or region in Tamil Nadu. Following the review of the Tamil language curriculum and pedagogy in 2006 by the Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE), a Standardised variety of Spoken Tamil (SST) has become a key feature of Tamil language syllabus since 2008. This paper is based on a qualitative analysis of 18 primary school Tamil lessons and interviews with the participating teachers to understand: (a) the impact of introducing SST in Tamil classrooms; (b) the reactions of the teachers; and (c) those of the students to the lessons and techniques.
Use and Impact of Spoken Tamil in the Early Tamil Classrooms
Education Innovation Series, 2016
Despite governmental and community efforts to support Tamil maintenance in Singapore, census and ... more Despite governmental and community efforts to support Tamil maintenance in Singapore, census and school data show a decrease in the number of Indian families using Tamil as the predominant home language. While this is true of Singapore’s other mother tongues as well, diglossia compounds the declining use of Tamil in Singapore. In addition to a formal, written form, Tamil has more than one oral form. Currently teachers are encouraged to teach Standard Spoken Tamil as the educated, oral variety. This article explores those efforts through an analysis of language use in classrooms.
‘Standard Spoken Language in School and Media Domain: A case study of Singapore’ aims to examine ... more ‘Standard Spoken Language in School and Media Domain: A case study of Singapore’ aims to examine the corpus of Standard Spoken Tamil (SST) in the media and school domains in Singapore, in order to establish SST as an additional resource for the teaching and learning of Tamil. The rationale for this study is that it will lead to instructional strategies that seek to redress the disjunction in the pedagogic context where only one monolithic norm, that of Literary Tamil (LT) prevails. In Singapore, more and more Primary one students are coming from English speaking homes. Given that general situation, Tamil students are able to write well and efficient in using the Literary Tamil variety which is used in formal situation and unable to speak or converse in Spoken Tamil which is the variety used for day to day communication. To develop the oral skills and to make Tamil as a living language in Singapore, students need to speak in Spoken Tamil and understand the diglossic background of Tamil language. This book addresses those issues and provides pedagogical recommendations.
Attitudes towards Literary Tamil and Standard Spoken Tamil in Singapore
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2007
This is the first empirical study that focused on attitudes towards two varieties of Tamil, Liter... more This is the first empirical study that focused on attitudes towards two varieties of Tamil, Literary Tamil (LT) and Standard Spoken Tamil (SST), with the multilingual state of Singapore as the backdrop. The attitudes of 46 Singapore Tamil teachers towards ...
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