MANDARIN AS MOTHER TONGUE SCHOOL LANGUAGE IN BRUNEI DARUSSALAM: A CASE STUDY Debbie G.E.HO Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Ethnic Chinese in Brunei Darussalam Total population : 56,000 (2006) Region with significant numbers : Bandar Seri Begawan Languages spoken: Hokkien, Hakka, Teochew, Cantonese, Fuzhou Religions : Buddhism, Christianity (Pan, 1999)

Front entrance to Chung Hwa Middle School

The landscape of Chung Hwa Middle School

Mandarin within the school curriculum compulsory subject for all students incorporated into the school curriculum from kindergarten to secondary levels serves as an additional language acts to maintain the Chinese culture for the Chinese students functions as bridge language for Chinese speaking children in the lower primary classes

Mandarin-English codeswitch as bridge language of instruction at the lower primary levels T : wǒmen tūn de shíhòu (when we swallow) not good food huìjìn wǒmen de (will go into our) large intestine…

T: ná nímen de běn zi chū lái (Take out your Mandarin-English codeswitch as bridge language of instruction at the lower primary levels T: ná nímen de běn zi chū lái (Take out your books.) T: zhè me dūo huà! (So much talking!)

Mandarin-English codeswitch as bridge language of instruction at the lower primary levels T : Hǎo, xiàn cài gěi nímen (O.K. now give you all) maths quiz. This is an apple [she cuts it into half and shows this to students]. Zhè shì shénme? (What’s this?) [holds up the half apple] Ss : Yí bàn (Half) T : Duìle (that is correct). Yí bàn. Half. Zài lái. (Next…)

Mother Tongue teachers from Malaysia, China, Taiwan and a few locals with the bulk coming from East & West Malaysia trained and experienced Mandarin as a subject teachers - not employed to assist students in the other classrooms such as in Maths, Science etc

MT teaching & learning materials available only for Mandarin as a subject classes imported from Singapore Ministry of Education may be unsuitable for local Bruneian classrooms problems with the Hàn Yoǔ Pīn Yīng (Roman letter) used in materials to help in Chinese pronunciation

Community support for Mandarin in the school MT actively promoted through various activities planned throughout the year, e.g. Chinese Week active interaction between school students and Chinese community members positive parental response to MT activities in the school generous sponsorships from the Chinese associations, businessmen and influential community members

Assessment of Mandarin in the school - has brought about more positive than negative results codeswitching has not negatively affected students’ proficiency in the two school languages (Standard English & Standard Malay) positive outlook for Mandarin MT learning in the school

Challenges facing Mandarin in the school appropriateness of the current instructional and learning materials for the Bruneian classroom no MT materials for content subject teaching and learning no proper MT-as-bridge-language programme in the school need for state support for a MT-based programme

Conclusion - MT Mandarin as bridge language for instruction in the lower primary classrooms has been fundamental in helping students (i) maintain their Chinese culture and (ii) gain access to school knowledge. - codeswitching phenomenon has not negatively affected students’ mastery of the two school languages.

Implications & recommendations Helps a child to maintain his/her ethnic values and culture. Offers children an easier passage through school life, particularly for those in the lower primary classrooms. Provides opportunities for students to get access to content knowledge in school subjects such as Maths, Science, History etc. A MT-based programme should be relevant and appropriate for the multilingual Bruneian classroom.

Thank you