Trialling of the New EL Syllabuses for Singapore Schools.

The piloting of a new English language curriculum in Singapore's lower primary and lower secondary school in 1992 is described in three sections: (1) reasons for revising the existing curriculum; (2) objectives and procedures of the pilot testing; and (3) findings. The existing curriculum, implemented in the early 1980s, was found to be too examination-oriented and recommended no particular teaching method. The new syllabus emphasizes the processes and context of language learning, encourages exploitation of information technology, and provides less highly structured learning objectives. The curriculum is organized around themes supported by meaningful activities through which language skills can be integrated. It was first tested to determine how teachers responded to and used it, and to gain feedback about problems encountered in implementation. The draft syllabus was implemented in a stratified random sampling of 12 schools (six primary and six secondary), with assistance of specialists, and teachers completed a survey about their opinions of the draft syllabus as a document, planning an integrated sequence of lessons based on it, implementation of the lessons, and teacher training and materials development needs. Most teachers responded positively, finding the materials understandable, well-organized, and more interesting and productive in the classroom. Data on questionnaire responses are appended. (MSE)