Science of Reading

 

On 3^rd June 2023, Our Bilingual Futures II took place at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (Novena campus). Organized by the Brain, Language and Intersensory Perception (BLIP), Clinical Brain Lab (CBL) and Learning Brain Lab (LBL), the event was catered for parents who are interested to learn how to raise bilingual children, and for educators who are curious to find out about how best to teach languages to children. The format of the event was similar to the first event, where we had talks, booths, and a Q&A session for attendees to interact with our language researchers.

 

As our expert language researchers shared past and ongoing research on language and how they can benefit parents, here are some interesting and important takeaways from the talks that we have summarised:

1. The use of English language usage at home has increased from 2010 to 2020. Multi-language literacy has also increased, with around 75% of Singaporeans being able to read and write in 2 or more languages. (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2020)
2. In order to increase mother tongue language proficiency and usage, parents can consider doing shared reading with their child. By creating opportunities for reading, speaking, or writing, children can improve their mother tongue. Parents can also look for multimedia tools that can help children learn their mother tongue (i.e. videos, games, music etc).
3. When reading in English and Chinese, different brain areas are involved and activated. By conducting research on the brain networks involved in reading, researchers are better able to understand the brain better, along with finding out the best way to improve language learning.

The event ended with a Q&A session where language experts answered some language-related questions such as whether learning two languages at the same time will affect the learning of one language, or how best to support mother tongue language learning in preschools, and how to teach children mother tongue language at home in a multicultural household.

We hope that all participants enjoyed their time at the event learning about language-learning for children! If you were unable to join us this time, do keep a lookout for our next event and join us there!

Written by: Phoebe

Video by: Michelle

References

Singapore Department of Statistics. (2020). Singapore Census of Population 2020. https://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/reference/cop2020/cop2020-sr1

On 18 March 2023, the Science of Reading (SOR) blog team was part of an outreach event at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine campus in Novena (11 Mandalay Road, Singapore 308232). The event titled ‘Our Bilingual Futures: The science of raising bilingual children’ aimed to increase public awareness about research on raising bilingual children and also covered how research findings can be translated to everyday tips for language learning! This event, organized by the Brain, Language and Intersensory Perception (BLIP) Lab together with our Reading Brains Projects in biliteracy, saw Singaporean parents with young children and individuals interested in language research in attendance.

Figure 1: Excerpt from the event’s poster by BLIP lab – Featured language researchers at the event.

In the first hour, expert language researchers, Dr. Suzy Styles, Dr. Beth O’Brien and Dr. Annabel Chen, highlighted language research findings from ongoing and past projects, and how these findings offer new perspectives to current language learning approaches, particularly for bilingual children. The talks covered a wide range of knowledge about bilingual language development and recent research findings about children’s bilingual development in Singapore. Topics ranging from how environmental factors (e.g., home language exposure) impact language learning to the components of language learning (i.e., phonology – sounds in words, language scripts – alphabetical vs. non-alphabetical) to learning about the brain regions involved in reading and understanding languages were touched upon.

Figure 2: Snippets captured during talks by expert language researchers!

Attendees further had the opportunity to engage in an informative Q&A section with our expert panel. They shared their thoughts and provided important considerations for some common parental concerns, such as how to cultivate children’s interest in language learning, ways to support bilingual language learning for young children, and use of technology to complement children’s language learning journey.

Figure 3: A moment captured during the Q&A section.

Between the sessions, parents and kids interacted with materials used in our bilingual and biliteracy studies. They got to visit our special booth set up to explore and learn more about Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)! Here they learned how our young participants got ready for an MRI scan – using the theme of a Space Mission. The young attendees also got to play with an MRI Lego^® set and lie down in a play tunnel that looks similar to the tunnel of an MRI machine!

 

Figure 4: The SOR blog team and our booth at the event.

We hope everyone at the event had a fun and informative Saturday morning! And if you were not able to join us, we hope to see you in our next event!

Meanwhile, do check out our ongoing research projects at this link. If you have any suggestions or comments about our blog or our research projects, feel free to contact us or leave a comment below 🙂

 

Drafted by: Michelle

Photographs by: Tiffany

Reviewed/Edited by: Annabel, Joyce, Tiffany