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Essay / Bilingual Education System in Singapore - 913
“Bilingual education is a form of education in which information is presented to students in two or more languages” (University of Michigan 2013). Nowadays, bilingual education is extremely widespread around the world. “. . .if we were monolingual in our mother tongues, we would not make a living. Becoming monolingual in English would have been a setback. We would have lost our cultural identity, this quiet confidence in ourselves and our place in the world. (Lee Kuan Yew, 2000). One of the countries that represents a bilingual education system is Singapore. Bilingual education gives students the opportunity to be bilingual. The bilingual education policy began in Singapore in 1966, just after Singapore became fully independent. She has been practicing in Singapore for over 45 years. This essay will show that bilingual education in Singapore is mainly beneficial and describe 3 beneficial aspects, namely allowing learners to study abroad, biliteracy, more choice in resources and literature. Singapore is made up of 3 major ethical groups: 77% Chinese, 14% Malay and 8% Indian (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2002); According to the ministry, the second language interdependence hypothesis suggests that a strong first language provides the best foundation for the second language. The bilingual education policy was implemented to unify different ethnic groups. Furthermore, this policy gives teachers and education managers the opportunity and access to learn from other education systems. All students are required to learn 2 of the official languages, English and Chinese (Mandarin accent). English was not the native language of any population in Singapore in 1965. However, English then began to become a native language...... middle of paper ...... a conversation at the “school in one language but at home in another says Albert Costa. However, bilingual education can be detrimental to young learners because they usually have problems adjusting to the second language when they start going to kindergarten, but they adapt to the bilingual policy for 2 to 3 years. To summarize, as has been mentioned, speaking in 2 languages has many advantages, particularly in the context of globalization. It turns out that being bilingual makes you smarter, it can have a profound effect on your brain, improving non-language cognitive skills and even protecting you against dementia in older adults. In fact, compared to satiety in Singapore 30-40 years ago, satiety has changed incredibly to positive. Overall, this article evaluated 3 benefits of bilingual education in Singapore in terms of improving literacy and educational attainment..