THE JULY 2015 RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
(Part Two)

With Dr. Thiruman's well-received speech setting off an atmosphere of academic pondering, Dr. George Jacobs, a Learning Advisor in James Cook University Singapore, along with Mr. Raymond Ang, a Social Work coordinator, took over the stage with their topic: ‘The Need to Read in the 21st Century Tropics: The Case of Boys’. His topic brings a grim awareness that, specifically in developed countries within the Tropics, boys do not fare as well as girls, in both the quality and quantity of reading, and in academic performance.

Expressing great interest in the causes of this phenomenon, Dr. Jacobs explored how many books cater more to the interests of female audiences. Additionally, the genres of books that parents might want their children to read, also do not compliment the interests of boys; such as mystery, sci-fi, and action. Drawing from these notions, Mr. Ang took over the presentation discussing strategies that would prove useful to the parents or caretakers of boys in encouraging them to read more.

With his expertise and background in the Social Work field, Mr. Ang emphasizes the importance of giving boys the freedom in reading, particularly in choosing the genre they want to read, and the luxury for them to finish a book at their own pace.

Last but not least, Dr. Lidia Suarez, a psycholinguistics researcher and expert, explored how the Tropics brought about unique and diverse languages, many of which face the threat of extinction as their native speakers are slowly dying out. Centered around on the intriguing mechanisms of how languages are learnt and spoken, Dr. Suarez discussed many myths such as the risks and benefits of introducing languages to children at an early age, the pros and cons of being a monolingual, and pinpointing which of the languages held the title of being the most notorious in terms of difficulty of learning. 

In addressing these complex questions, she introduced the two main components of any language- The listening-speaking component, and the reading-writing component, of which different people have varying struggles with either aspects, making it not only impossible, but also unpractical to point out a ‘most-difficult’ language.