The Ministry of Education Language Centre (MOELC) was set up in 1978 to offer French and Japanese as a Third Language. A year later, the choices for Third Language were expanded to include German. Subsequent years saw the introduction of Malay as a Third Language in 1986, Arabic and Bahasa Indonesia in 2008 and Spanish in 2014.  From January 2022, MOELC offers Chinese as a Third Language bringing the total number of Third Languages offered at the MOELC to eight.

Asian Languages: Arabic / Bahasa Indonesia / Chinese (Special Programme / Malay (Special Programme)

It opens up new horizons to better understand and appreciate Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian or Malay culture. It also facilitates better interaction with native speakers and enhances future learning experiences and job opportunities.

Foreign Languages: French / German / Japanese / Spanish

They open doors to tertiary education & scholarships in France, Germany, Japan and Spain; they also increase job opportunities in MNCs in Singapore, and local enterprises with overseas networks or operations in Europe, the Americas and Japan.

Additionally, research [1] has shown that the greater the effort made to learn a foreign language, the greater the brain growth in areas “involved in the learning of new material and spatial navigation”. In later life, it has been found to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Research [2] also shows that learning a foreign language to an advanced level – as opposed to second language learning – also “significantly enhances all four divergent thinking abilities, i.e., fluency, elaboration, originality and flexibility. Such enhancement can be attributed to specific cognitive practices that language learning brings, and the psychological consequences of being trained under a system different from school system.”

[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008082953.htm
[2] http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/15947

No fees are payable for students from government/government-aided/independent schools.

The MOELC follows the standard school term and holiday periods.

Lessons are conducted once a week. Each weekly session comprises 3 hours 15 minutes of in-class instruction at MOELC, followed by 45 minutes of online independent learning at home.

• Students’ progress is monitored at regular intervals through quizzes, common tests and an End-of-Year or Preliminary examination.
• Students’ performance in standardised assessments by MOELC will be included to determine students’ eligibility for the Edusave academic awards (i.e. Edusave Scholarship, Edusave Merit Bursary, Good Progress Award).
• Students take the following national examinations:
  • O Level at the end of Sec 4
  • A Level H1 at the end of JC1 (For the foreign languages only)
  • A Level H2 at the end of JC2 (For the foreign languages only)
• Foreign Language students are also encouraged to measure their proficiency against the various external language examinations in French (DELF / DALF), German (Fit fur Deutsch / TestDAF), Japanese (JLPT) and Spanish (DELE) conducted by the respective examining agencies.

The titles in use may be purchased from the Bookshop at the Ministry of Education Language Centre.

To check the textbook list, please click Textbooks