| Abstract: | One of Singapore's problems with reading acquisition programmes stems from the fact that although most of our children come from non-Englisg speaking homes, their parents' choice of the medium of instruction is English. This means that English is taught right from the first day the child enters school. Most of the other countries where English is taught and is not the mother tongue, use the mother tongue as a medium of instruction for several years before the introduction of English. Neither are Singaporean children totally immersed in English at school because they also spend part of their school time learning a non-English language, namely Chinese, Malay or Tamil. Investigation into problems connected with the teaching of English and reading is therefore very important for Singapore, especially since one of our education system's streaming procedures is instituted very early, at the end of the third year of schooling at Primary 3. |
