[Image of part of my brochure / Photo credit: Yujin]

This month, year 10 students who take Global Perspectives classes in Australian international school was assigned a project for an internal exhibition.

This team project was their assessment.

The students chose from among topics provided by the school: conflict and peace; disease and health; human rights; language and communication; poverty and equality; sports and recreation; tradition, culture, and identity; and water, food, and agriculture.

After selecting their topic, the students needed to investigate related issues and prepare a slideshow or other materials to present in front of an audience.

As I am a student of an international school who is learning three languages, I decided to study language and communication.

Singapore was the country that we chose because it is the country where we live.

Additionally, the fact that Singapore is a multicultural country with large numbers of migrants piqued my interest.

The specific topic was bilingualism, and the main aim of our team’s project was “to promote the importance of mastering your mother tongue in Singapore.”

During the next few Global Perspectives classes, we researched and investigated the issue.

We also created a short summary video that included all the key points.

It took a long time to finish the video, but it was one of the most effective materials we produced.

While searching for background information, I discovered significant data that provided statistics on the most-frequently-spoken language in the 2010s and 2020s.

The data showed a dramatic increase in English usage during this period.

We meticulously researched the benefits of bilingualism and the reason for people’s reluctance to learn a second language, as these factors highly contribute to achieving our aim.

I separated the benefits into two types: national and individual.

 

We found four benefits of bilingualism for individuals, including a positive effect on academic performance, increased competitiveness in the job market, and increased awareness of other cultures.

 

At the country level, bilingualism allows a population to gain various perspectives, increases the population of the country, and generates greater economic activity.

 

Since Mandarin and Malaysian were the next most-commonly-used languages in Singapore, we focused on investigating why people do not favor them.

 

Astonishingly, the reason was different for each language.

 

The main reasons why students dislike studying Mandarin are the boring syllabus and high expectations of parents and teachers.

 

The characteristics of the language, including the unique tone and difficult characters, was also an issue.

 

According to students learning Malay, they are not confident speaking because they are criticized by people due to their poor pronunciation.

 

They are not comfortable talking in another language either.

 

We then looked at the reason why English is preferred by people.

 

As English is the most-commonly-spoken language in the world, countries use it for mainly political and economic reasons.

 

Individuals are highly influenced by online platforms and development of global communication tools.

 

These benefits of bilingualism impact Singapore mainly in two sectors: culture and the economy.

 

Bilingualism brings a high level of comprehension of other cultures.

 

Therefore, if Singapore loses bilingualism as one of its special characteristics, the people will lose their cultural roots.

 

Additionally, bilingualism gives Singapore an economic advantage, as its people can communicate with people from English-speaking countries in the West as well as interact with people of other Asian countries.

 

After a few weeks, we finally got the chance to present our results to Grade 8 students.

 

First, we introduced the background information, which was then followed by a summary video and some games and prizes for the enjoyment of the students.

 

The prizes and quizzes especially received a lot of praise from our teacher, as these activities got the students actively involved in our presentation.

 

The project was very meaningful not only in that we gained new knowledge but also because it gave us the opportunity to teach Grade 8 students, whose engagement in the presentation made the project very fruitful and fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yujin Son

Year 10

Australian International School

 

 

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