What new approaches are being piloted for infant exposure to mother tongue languages?

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New initiatives are being piloted to expose infants to mother tongue languages through sensory engagement and extended classroom time.

New initiatives are currently being piloted in Singapore to enhance early exposure to mother tongue languages for infants. These efforts aim to immerse young children in Chinese, Malay, and Tamil through multi-sensory experiences. Additionally, a pilot program is underway to increase the duration of daily mother tongue language instruction in select kindergartens.
Sensory Immersion Programmes for Infants

Pilot programmes are being developed to introduce infants to mother tongue languages through visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli. These initiatives are designed to create an early and engaging learning environment. Similar approaches are being developed to provide comparable exposure opportunities for Malay and Tamil languages, ensuring a comprehensive approach to early language acquisition across the major mother tongue languages.
Extended Mother Tongue Instruction in Kindergartens

Six Ministry of Education (MOE) Kindergartens are currently piloting an extended daily exposure to mother tongue languages. This pilot programme increases the instructional time from the standard one hour to 1½ hours per day. The MOE is studying the effectiveness of this extended period to determine its potential for wider implementation.
Focus on Multi-Sensory Learning

The new initiatives for infant exposure emphasize engaging multiple senses to facilitate language learning. By incorporating sight, sound, and touch, these programmes aim to create a more holistic and effective introduction to mother tongue languages from a very young age. This multi-faceted approach is being explored for Chinese, with similar efforts planned for Malay and Tamil.
Evaluating Extended Classroom Time

The MOE is closely monitoring the pilot programme at six kindergartens that have increased daily mother tongue language exposure. This evaluation is crucial for assessing the impact of longer instructional periods on young learners. The findings from this study will inform decisions regarding the potential scalability of this extended learning model.

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What new approaches are being piloted for infant exposure to mother tongue languages?

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