LANGUAGE EDUCATION THROUGH BILITERACY AND BILINGUALISM | LUMEN 27

by Karthickeyen Govindaraj , Siti Rahimah Binte Buang , Roziyah Binte Abdul Samad and Fauziah Hussein

The certificate presentation ceremony held at Istana Kampong Glam to commemorate the end of our project

In April 2022 , SJI and the Singapore Malay Heritage Centre ( MHC ) collaborated on a biliteracy project entitled ‘ Understanding Public Pedagogy ’. The aim of the project was to develop videos and public learning artefacts that would educate Singaporeans about the growth and development of Singapore ’ s Malay music community since 1965 .

Guided by a team of educators from SJI ’ s English and Malay Language departments , 14 students from Year 3 to Year 5 worked with MHC officers to understand how the aims of intangible cultural documentation can be realised through an understanding of public pedagogy .

The project was divided into two stages , as follows :

framework or philosophy , students appreciated how the advantage and strength of interviews lie in the types and variety of questions asked - with a focus on lexis choice , tone and culturalconceptual metaphors .

Stage II : Translating the interviews into videos for MHC ’ s website and other channels approved by the National Heritage Board , Singapore .

At Stage II , students explored storytelling practices . In translating data into a narrative worthy of sustained interest and comprehension , students were given an opportunity to hone their skills in synthesis , lexical choice and narrative structures . Given these stories will be shared with members of the public , principles of public pedagogy influenced the sequencing of these narratives , with a focus on public communication , public learning and knowledge curation .

By the end of the project , the aims of these two stages were achieved through five phases :

• Phase I - Introduction to intangible cultural documentation Students participated in an interactive workshop about intangible cultural documentation held at the MHC .

• Phase II - Introduction to interviews as a means to knowledge acquisition Through fieldwork , participants understood how interviews play a pivotal role in knowledge acquisition when promoting learning amongst Singaporeans .

At Stage I , students were introduced to Oral History ( craft and practice ) and Ethnomusicology . Given the interviewees were prominent personalities in the Singapore Malay Fine Arts Community , students learnt about Malay music heritage while understanding the use of interviews as a means to construct knowledge . By learning how questions had to be informed by a theoretical

Participants were given a special tour by MHC on cultural artifacts