Challenges of Learning Chinese in Singapore Schools

Why many Singapore students struggle with Mandarin

A Singapore mother recently discovered something unsettling while helping her secondary school daughter with Chinese homework. She is a fluent Chinese speaker who reads and writes with ease, yet many of the words on her child’s vocabulary list were unfamiliar even to her. Other parents voiced the same surprise. The lists felt heavy with poetic or classical terms, more literary than everyday, and far removed from the language that most teenagers hear at home, in school corridors, or on their phones. The result, they said, was predictable. Students who are otherwise confident in English struggle to find the same footing in Chinese. Interest wanes. Confidence dips. Chinese starts to feel like a subject to survive rather than a language to use.

For this family, the change was stark. A child who once enjoyed writing Chinese compositions in primary school lost enthusiasm in secondary school, where memorisation, prescribed structures and grading rubrics took center stage. The mother wondered why expectations seemed calibrated to native speakers in China instead of learners in a bilingual city. Her suggestion, echoed by many educators, is simple. Make the language feel relevant, modern and local. Let students write about their lives, respond to news and drama series, and build vocabulary that appears in pop culture and daily conversations. Encourage creative expression and informal writing as steps toward a deeper command of formal registers. Confidence, then proficiency, tends to follow when students see that Chinese can help them think, laugh, persuade and belong.

A bilingual nation where English dominates

Singapore’s language story shapes everything that happens in Chinese classrooms. The country adopted an English based bilingual policy to bind a multilingual society and to connect with the world. Over time, English became dominant in administration, higher education and a growing share of homes. Many ethnic Chinese children now grow up speaking mostly English before they encounter Chinese as a school subject. Research on English medium instruction in local universities shows that students report high English proficiency and use English widely in academic life, while mixing languages socially. In such an ecosystem, Chinese functions as a second language for many, even though it is taught as mother tongue in schools.

This shift affects motivation and exposure. Outside class, entertainment, gaming and social media skew toward English. Chinese media and signboards are less visible than in earlier decades. Grassroots activities, clan associations and community classes still keep Chinese traditions alive in pockets of the island, and arrivals from Malaysia and Greater China often bring strong Mandarin skills that enrich local life. Yet many Singapore born teenagers have limited daily practice. The result is a familiar tension. Schools want to uphold cultural roots and bilingual ideals, while students are immersed in an English rich environment that rewards English fluency in exams, jobs and university life.

Inside the classroom: vocabulary, rubrics and motivation

Parents and teachers describe a classroom reality that often feels out of step with learners’ profiles. Secondary school syllabi can carry dense vocabulary lists, four character idioms and classical allusions. Composition rubrics prompt formulaic structures. Listening and oral tasks sometimes expect a level of idiomatic agility that is hard to achieve without frequent use outside school. Academic work has warned against applying first language approaches to second language learners. When students are taught like native speakers, they may not get the systematic scaffolds they need, such as high frequency vocabulary cycles, controlled input, clear pronunciation modeling and gradual complexity building. Over time, even students who enjoyed Chinese earlier can lose their spark.

Text selection matters too. Studies comparing China and Singapore note that China’s curriculum, where Chinese is a first language, puts greater emphasis on reading culture, heritage texts and large character lists. Singapore’s system, by contrast, aims at functional communication within a bilingual setting and, on paper, places more weight on technology and communicative tasks. In practice, classroom materials still include classical prose and texts with high lexical demands. Students with weaker foundations may feel shut out by texts that pile new characters and rare expressions too quickly. In any second language, learners need regular contact with comprehensible input, meaningful tasks and visible progress. When texts repeatedly feel beyond reach, motivation drops.

Are standards aligned with student profiles

Curriculum comparisons highlight a simple point. China designs Chinese for first language learners. Singapore teaches Chinese in a bilingual system where many learners treat it as a second language. Both systems promote linguistic skills, cultural understanding and civic values, and both grapple with rapid social and technological change. Yet the starting point differs. If exams and rubrics mirror a native environment, the average Singapore learner, who lives mostly in English, faces a mismatch. The solution is not to lower expectations, but to right size them. That means task types that mirror local life, vocabulary that appears in Singapore media and workplaces, and assessments that reward clear communication alongside accuracy.

Educators in Singapore and abroad point to practical tools. Mobile Assisted Language Learning can push short, frequent practice. Graded readers make input comprehensible and rewarding. Reading and writing can start with local news, influencer posts, podcast transcripts and short video scripts, then extend to formal registers. When the language of assessment reflects real uses of Mandarin in Singapore, students see a path from classroom work to conversations at home, internships and community service.

What teachers are up against

Teachers juggle large classes, wide proficiency gaps and high stakes exams, all within limited curriculum time. Over recent decades, the sociolinguistic profile has shifted, with more children coming from English speaking homes. Government agencies have responded by tuning curricula and encouraging complementary community learning. Teachers are also experimenting with technology, from chat tools to speech recognition, in search of methods that keep students engaged while building accuracy.

Leaders have publicly acknowledged both the pressures and the purpose of Chinese language teaching. Speaking at a national awards event for Chinese language educators, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong stressed that Chinese carries values as well as words, and he urged teachers to persist despite the headwinds many students face in an English dominant environment. He also recalled an earlier generation of Chinese educators who adapted when most schools shifted to English medium in the late 1970s and 1980s, noting that the transition was hard yet many persevered.

Chinese teachers play an important role in Singapore, as the language is not just a communication tool but also a means of passing on values and culture. These include respecting elders, helping others, and not giving up in the face of difficulties.

The message to the profession is clear. Keep teaching for connection, not only for grades. That approach aligns with the growing number of teachers who use technology to differentiate instruction, who introduce student created podcasts and videos, and who give more formative feedback before applying strict rubrics. When schools back this work with time and training, teachers can shift the daily experience of Chinese from anxiety to achievement.

What has been tried and what works

Several strands of practice in Singapore point to progress. Policy makers have acknowledged changing home language patterns and encouraged community based support for Mandarin learning. At the classroom level, educators are testing new approaches, from social media tasks and short form video assignments to AI assisted reading. Researchers in Singapore have documented work on readability of texts, teacher perceptions of textbooks, the needs of low progress learners, and the impact of specific methods for students with dyslexia. The common thread is a move toward practical communication, targeted scaffolding and a better balance between summative exams and ongoing feedback.

Technology has opened more options. Digital readers can provide instant glosses for vocabulary and idioms, speech tools can model tones and rhythm, and classroom platforms can track progress on high frequency words and structures. A carefully curated mix of tools keeps classroom time focused on meaningful communication while allowing repeated practice at home. The point is not to chase gadgets, but to use them to give students more comprehensible input, more chances to speak and write, and quicker feedback.

Reducing anxiety and building confidence

Second language anxiety is real and it drains performance. Work in Chinese classrooms outside Singapore has shown that a safe space for translanguaging, where students draw on all their linguistic resources and teachers position themselves as co learners, can lower anxiety and raise participation. In this model, code switching is not viewed as failure but as a bridge. Students can exchange ideas in a mix of English and Chinese, then work together to shape those ideas into accurate Mandarin. Such practices respect the bilingual reality of Singapore teenagers and can lead to more speech, more writing, and, over time, more accuracy.

Making content local and relatable

Relevance drives effort. Teachers who anchor vocabulary and writing in Singapore life often see more energy in class. A composition prompt can ask students to review hawker food, script a short dialogue at a clinic, or interview grandparents about growing up with dialects and Mandarin. Reading can start with local news or drama recaps before moving to essays that use similar vocabulary and structures. When students see their own neighborhoods, festivals and slang reflected in texts, curiosity rises. With that comes a stronger foundation for tackling more formal registers and literature.

The parental response: tuition and enrichment

Many families turn to tuition for extra support. A wide range of centers offer programmes from preschool to secondary and junior college levels. Some focus on Higher Chinese, others on foundational skills for major exams. Common features include small classes, personalised pacing, one to one coaching, online options, and methods designed to keep younger learners engaged, such as storytelling, games and multisensory activities. The best programmes align with school curricula, give frequent feedback and help students build both confidence and accuracy.

Tuition can ease anxiety and offer more practice than busy classrooms allow. It can also reinforce a narrow exam focus if not carefully chosen. Parents who look for programmes that prioritise communication, reading for pleasure and systematic vocabulary growth often report better long term gains. Check that materials are updated for Singapore’s context and that teachers adjust tasks for different proficiency levels. When external help builds motivation and habit, students carry that momentum back into school.

Practical ideas schools can adopt now

Singapore’s context lends itself to concrete steps that schools can apply without waiting for major policy shifts.

• Adopt frequency first vocabulary cycles. Teach and recycle the most common words and structures across topics, then extend to idioms and literary expressions.
• Use choice based reading. Offer graded readers, short local articles and serialized fiction so students can read widely at the right level before tackling harder texts.
• Make writing authentic. Assign real world tasks such as reviews, emails to community partners, podcast scripts and reflections on service learning.
• Integrate translanguaging as a scaffold. Let students brainstorm in English and Chinese, then refine into accurate Mandarin with teacher guidance.
• Design performance tasks. Assess student created videos, dialogues and presentations alongside traditional compositions and comprehension papers.
• Balance assessment. Increase formative feedback and low stakes quizzes that track growth, then apply rubrics in major checkpoints.
• Build home routines. Provide short daily practice guides for families, such as five minute reading aloud, phrase lists for dinner conversations, or weekly mini projects.
• Use AI with care. Apply speech tools for tones and rhythm, reading assistants for glosses and explanations, and chat guidance for vocabulary expansion, with teacher oversight and privacy safeguards.

Regional perspectives and why it matters

Singapore is not alone in navigating Chinese learning in a multilingual society. Hong Kong has long taught Chinese reading and writing in standard written Chinese while students speak Cantonese, and it has debated the role of Putonghua as a medium of instruction. The broader lesson for Singapore is to respect the local linguistic reality and adopt second language pedagogy where needed. When teaching methods fit the learner, outcomes improve.

Beyond the classroom, Mandarin is also a cultural and diplomatic tool. Taiwan has invested in promoting Mandarin education abroad as part of its cultural outreach, while presenting a distinct social model and linguistic tradition. This reminds learners that there is more than one way to speak and experience Mandarin, and that language carries culture, identity and values. In Singapore, that means validating local expressions and references while still teaching standard forms that serve students well in exams, workplaces and international settings.

Technology adds another layer. Southeast Asian developers are building language models that better represent regional languages and contexts. Such tools, when adapted for education, could power reading companions that explain idioms using Singapore examples, or speaking apps tuned to local accents. Care is needed on data quality and privacy, and teachers should remain in the loop. Used wisely, these tools can give students more practice and feedback without losing sight of human relationships that make language learning stick.

What to Know

• Many Singapore students treat Chinese as a second language, while schools aim to sustain cultural roots in a strongly English environment.
• Parents report secondary school vocabulary lists that feel literary and distant from daily life, which can erode interest and confidence.
• Research warns against using first language approaches for second language learners and urges more scaffolding and communicative tasks.
• Teachers face large classes, wide ability ranges and high stakes exams, yet many are adopting technology, formative feedback and student created projects.
• Leaders have publicly affirmed the role of Chinese teachers and the cultural values carried by the language.
• Innovations that work include graded readers, Mobile Assisted Language Learning, translanguaging to lower anxiety, and localised content.
• Tuition is common, but programmes that prioritise communication and motivation tend to deliver better long term results.
• Regional experiences in Hong Kong and Taiwan show that aligning pedagogy with local realities and identity supports stronger outcomes.
• New AI tools tailored to Southeast Asia can support practice, provided schools apply them with clear safeguards and teacher oversight.