Why Singapore’s English Teachers Should Embrace Singlish, Not Fight It
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- How Findings From Leisure Reading in Two Languages can Help Students?
- Why is Leisure Reading in Two Languages Important?
- How Was the Research Carried Out?
- Evidence from Leisure Reading in Two Languages
- What Does This Mean for Bilingual Education?
- Classroom Resources
- Useful Links & References
- Research Projects
- Research Team
Primary school
“Thank you for the comprehensive sharing of the findings. I am sure we will be able to better cater to the needs and preferences of our students.”
– Teacher A
“We definitely find the results and the suggestions/ recommendations very helpful in our future planning of reading and library programmes.”
– Teacher B
- 4326 students
- 8 primary schools
Classroom Resources
- How to create a bilingual reading culture poster_EL
- How to create a bilingual reading culture poster_CL
- How to create a bilingual reading culture poster_ML
- How to create a bilingual reading culture poster_TL
- A reading guide for emergent readers/让宝宝爱上阅读：0至4岁启蒙阅读指南
- [OER Education at Home series]: Tips to Get Your Kid Reading (Co-PI A/P Loh Chin Ee on home reading tips during HBL)
- Report on the reading habits of bilingual children in Singapore 2021
- The Straits Times 12 January 2021 Opinion “Home-based learning: 3 digital myths"
- The Straits Times 17 May 2021 C1 “Raising bilingual readers” & “Making mother tongue come alive for their children”
- 国立教育学院调查： 相较电子书多数孩童倾向阅读纸本
Videos
Principal Investigator
Co-Principal Investigator
Co-Principal Investigator
Knowledge Resource Bank
Leisure Reading in Two Languages
Leisure Reading in Two Languages: Reading Habits and Preferences of Bilingual Children in Singapore
How Findings from Leisure Reading in Two Languages Can Help Teachers? The Leisure Reading in Two Languages Research revealed:
- The power of reading enjoyment
Reading remains an important leisure activity for children
Reading enjoyment in school days helps sustain reading in school holidays/HBL
- Children’s reading in English and Mother Tongue are related
Promoting English and Mother Tongue reading face similar and distinct challenges
- Children prefer print books over digital materials
Devices are generally underutilised for reading
- Access to high quality reading materials
School libraries have the potential to serve as an important resource
For more on key findings, scroll to ‘Evidence from Leisure Reading in Two Languages’ below.
Read on to find out the implications for you as an educator, school leader or parent!
Click here for poster OR scroll to ‘Classroom Resources’ for posters in 4 languages on ‘How to create a bilingual reading culture in school and at home’ [PDF]
Why is Leisure Reading in Two Languages Important?
Leisure reading refers to reading that children choose to undertake by themselves.
Regardless of the language they choose to read in, good leisure reading habits benefit children in many ways:
Despite the well-established benefits of leisure reading, little research has examined bilingual children’s leisure reading in their two languages concurrently. This represents an important research oversight, especially when more children worldwide grow up to become bi/multilingual rather than monolingual.
Being bilingual is a way of life in a multilingual and multicultural country like Singapore. Children are required to learn English as the first language and their Mother Tongue, based on ethnicity, as their second school language. However, learning to speak and read proficiently in two languages during childhood is not automatic, and raising a bilingual child requires considerable effort from parents as well as educators.
To better understand how to develop reading curricula, programmes and instructional methods to promote reading in different languages, Leisure Reading in Two Languages answers these questions:
- What do bilingual children in Singapore read for leisure?
- How does reading in one language influence their reading in another language?
- How do we nurture a bilingual reading culture?
How Was the Research Carried Out?
The research team conducted a mixed-methods study where a reading survey with 4326 Primary 3 to 5 children in 8 primary schools was administered and analysed first. This was supplemented by focus group discussions comprising of 72 Primary 4 and 5 children with Mother Tongue languages (Chinese, Malay and Tamil) and gender evenly distributed as well as a spread of varied reading proficiencies.
Learn more about the research methodology:
Report on the reading habits of bilingual children in Singapore 2021
Evidence from Leisure Reading in Two Languages
What Does This Mean for Bilingual Education?
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes concerted efforts from schools, families and communities to build a bilingual reading culture.
What Does this Mean for Bilingual Education at Home?
Related Links
- A reading guide for emergent readers/让宝宝爱上阅读：0至4岁启蒙阅读指南
- SingTeach Issue 58 Sep 2016 “Reading Engagement”
Further Readings
- Sun, B., Loh, C. E., O’Brien, B., & Silver, R. (2021). The Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Bilingual Singaporean Children’s Leisure Reading. AERA Open.
- Sun, B., Loh, C. E. & Nie, Y. (2021). The COVID-19 School Closure Effect on Students’ Print and Digital Leisure Reading. Computers and Education Open. 2
- Sun, B., Loh, C. E., & O’Brien, B. A. (2021). Report on the reading habits of bilingual children in Singapore 2021. National Institute of Education (Singapore), Office of Education Research.
- Loh, C. E., & Sun, B. (2018). Report on the reading habits of Singapore teenagers 2017. National Institute of Education (Singapore), Office of Education Research (An infographic based on a sister project (OER 05/16 LCE) on teenagers’ reading habits)
Research Projects
The following projects are associated with Leisure Reading in Two Languages:
Leisure Reading in Two Languages: Reading Habits and Preferences of Bilingual Children in Singapore
Related projects
- Reading in Two Languages: Reading Habits and Reading Attitudes of Singaporean Bilingual Students
- Building a Reading Culture: a Nation-wide Study of Reading and School Libraries in Singapore Secondary Schools
Research Team
To learn more about this research, please contact Dr Sun Baoqi at baoqi.sun@nie.edu.sg.
Principal Investigator
Dr Sun Baoqi, Centre for Research in Child Development (CRCD), Office of Education Research (OER), NIE
Co-Principal Investigators
A/P Loh Chin Ee, English Language & Literature (ELL), NIE
Dr O’Brien Beth Ann, Head, Early and Middle Childhood Research – CRCD, OER, NIE
Collaborators
Internal Collaborators Specializing in Leisure Reading:
A/P Mohd Mukhlis Bin Abu Bakar, Asian Languages & Cultures (ALC), NIE
A/P Tan Chee Lay, ALC, NIE
A/P Seetha Lakshmi, ALC, NIE
A/P Viniti Vaish, ELL, NIE
Internal Collaborator Specializing in Project Management:
A/P Rita Elaine Silver, OER, ELL, NIE
Internal Collaborator Specializing in Survey Design and Data Analysis:
A/P Nie Youyan, Psychology and Child & Human Development (PCHD), NIE
External Collaborators:
Mdm Wee Jane, National Library Board (NLB) Mother Tongue Division
Mdm Ang Lynn, NLB Mother Tongue Division
Consultant
Prof Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen, University of Bath, UK
Acknowledgements
Leisure Reading in Two Languages was funded by the Education Research Funding Programme, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (project no. OER 03/19 SBQ). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Singapore MOE and NIE.
This knowledge resource was written by Dr Sun Baoqi, Ms Monica Lim and Mr Jared Martens Wong on 7 February 2022.
