By Lee Hui Chieh

THE way the Chinese language is being taught here has been undergoing a sea change, so that students from different backgrounds can learn it to the best of their ability, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.

But this does not mean that the Government is wavering on its bilingual policy, he said, speaking to Singapore reporters in Cuba at the end of his first official two-day trip there on Wednesday.

He laid down the Government's stance on the issue: "We are affirming our bilingualism policy. We have never wavered in this fundamental, but we have to update it and adapt our teaching and our Chinese-language system so as to respond to a dynamic situation and a varying range of student abilities and language backgrounds."

PM Lee was weighing in on the debate sparked off more than two weeks ago by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who acknowledged that the Government had made a mistake by teaching the Chinese language at standards that were too high.

MM Lee urged teachers to use innovative methods, such as information technology and drama, to interest students.

On Wednesday, PM Lee said that the rise of China has made the language even more important, and has led to more Singaporeans desiring to learn it.

But changes to how the language is taught are necessary, because more students here - 60 per cent - now come from English- speaking homes rather than Chinese-speaking ones, he said.

And the growing use of new technology, such as text messaging and e-mail, has had an impact on the language, giving rise to abbreviations and informal lingo, he said.

It has also reduced the importance of being able to write the Chinese script, because in day-to-day living, people can easily find out how to do so using electronic dictionaries in computers, he added.

The bottom line: Students should be taught the forms of the language that will be useful to them in real life.

For the majority, that would mean listening, speaking and reading, rather than writing.

So the Government is taking a tailored approach, and setting realistic standards for different groups of students, PM Lee said.

He said: "We are trying, in an English-speaking environment, to maintain a level of working proficiency in Chinese and other mother tongues for the whole of the population, but different levels of proficiency depending on the ability of the person and his language background and his home background."

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