A FEW years ago, the Ministry of Education implemented third-language courses in primary and secondary schools. The languages were Chinese and Malay, and the courses were Elementary Conversational Chinese and Elementary Conversational Malay.

The content of the two courses is similar. Students learn how to engage in daily conversation in a language other than English or their Mother Tongue.

I have been teaching Elementary Conversational Chinese in a secondary school since last year, and the response is overwhelming. Many non-Chinese students signed up for the course. Some schools incorporated these courses into their curriculum. My experience with classes tells me that motivation and desire to speak a third language are high.

I asked some students in my third-language class why they signed up. The main reasons were that they wanted to communicate with, and understand the conversations of, their Chinese peers.

We should offer more opportunities for students to learn a third language this way, and extend such courses to junior colleges and tertiary institutions.

Seow Guo Rong

This article was first published in The Straits Times.