Home / International / Cultural Sidelines Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read | Comment
Singapore Launches 1st Innovative Chinese Language Portal
Adjust font size:

Singapore launched the first Innovative Chinese Language Portal Thursday, aiming to enhance the teaching and learning of the Chinese language in the city state.

 

"Essentially, what we have in this portal is a virtual environment to facilitate new and innovative approaches by teachers themselves, to enhance the learning of the Chinese language," said Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the launching ceremony.

 

Teachers can also network with each other, share their lesson plans and create new techniques through this online platform, which is expected to be connected to a similar Innovative Chinese Teachers' Portal in China later.

 

A joint effort of the Singapore Chinese Teachers' Union, Microsoft Singapore and the Education Ministry's Schools East Branch, the portal is part of Microsoft Singapore's Partners In Learning project.

 

Currently available to teachers in the East Zone and part of the South Zone in the city state, the portal will eventually be made accessible to all local Chinese language teachers, according to the minister.

 

Singapore, with about 78 percent of its population being ethnically Chinese, has been attaching increasing importance to the Chinese Language education in the past few years.

 

The Education Ministry launched several initiatives last year to introduce experimentation in teaching techniques and try new curriculum in selected primary schools, which placed more emphasis on character recognition than on script writing.

 

The annual Speak Mandarin Campaign, launched in 1979, also helps encourage Chinese ethnics with English education background to get familiar with Chinese culture and speak the Chinese language as much as possible in their daily life.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2006)

Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read
Comment
Pet Name
Anonymous
China Archives
Related >>
- Singapore to Nurture More Students Mastering Chinese
- Singapore Launches Chinese Language, Culture Fund
Most Viewed >>
> Korean Nuclear Talks
> Reconstruction of Iraq
> Middle East Peace Process
> Iran Nuclear Issue
> 6th SCO Summit Meeting
Links
- China Development Gateway
- Foreign Ministry
- Network of East Asian Think-Tanks
- China-EU Association
- China-Africa Business Council
- China Foreign Affairs University
- University of International Relations
- Institute of World Economics & Politics
- Institute of Russian, East European & Central Asian Studies
- Institute of West Asian & African Studies
- Institute of Latin American Studies
- Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies
- Institute of Japanese Studies