Choosing a trilingual preschool in Klang: what to ask and what to look for

The short answer

Look past the label. In a trilingual preschool your child should hear, speak and play in English, Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin often enough to use them, and each language should have its own way into reading. Ask each centre to show you what that looks like on an ordinary day: who speaks which language, when, and what the children actually do with it.

Why the label alone tells you little

Trilingual can describe very different weeks. In one centre a child may meet Mandarin in a daily lesson, in songs and in conversation at lunch. In another, Mandarin may be one short class a week. Both can honestly say they teach three languages. The difference only shows when you ask about time, people and practice.

It also helps to know that the three languages are learnt in different ways. Early English reading usually starts with letter sounds, or phonics. Bahasa Melayu reading commonly builds on syllables, or suku kata, such as ba, bi, bu. Mandarin uses characters, often with pinyin as a guide to pronunciation. A thoughtful programme treats each language on its own terms rather than running one method across all three. Our guide to letter names and letter sounds covers the English side.

Five things to ask about

Examples to ask to see

• The book corner: are there picture books in more than one language, within the children's reach?
• Displays or children's work in each language, such as a BM syllable chart, English sound cards, or Chinese characters with pinyin.
• A song, rhyme or story the class is learning this month, in each language.
• Part of a lesson, or photos and videos shared with parents, showing children speaking rather than only copying.
• How progress in each language is shared with you.

A school cannot always show every class on the day you visit, and that is fine. What you are looking for is something concrete: a book, a chart, a song, a routine.

Questions that tell you more than a yes or no

• Ask "What would my child do in Mandarin on a Tuesday morning?" rather than "Do you teach Mandarin?"
• Ask "How would you know if my child was finding Bahasa Melayu hard, and what would you do?"
• If you are already thinking about Year 1 at an SJKC, a national school or another school, ask what would help at home.

Be careful with any promise of fluency by a certain age. Children pick up languages at different speeds, and much depends on how often they use each one outside school.

What you can do at home

You do not need to speak all three languages. Talk, read and play in the languages your family uses, and let school add the others. UNICEF's parenting resources describe play and everyday activities as learning opportunities, and its Care for Child Development materials describe responsive play and communication between adult and child as a way for children to practise language. Short, warm conversations count. Our trilingual story prompts give you ready made starters in English, Bahasa Melayu and Chinese.

At SunnySeeds

So you can compare like with like, here is how the three languages appear in our own programmes. Our Preschool for age 4 has Cambridge English with phonics, covering listening, speaking, reading and writing; Bahasa Melayu through suku kata, with storytelling, poetry, questions and answers and singing; and Mandarin with new words, pinyin, strokes and stroke order, story retelling, rhymes and tongue twisters. Children also read individually in all three. Nursery, for ages 2 to 3, starts with Cambridge English with phonics and basic Mandarin. The subject by subject detail is on our curriculum page.

Please ask us the same questions you ask any other school. We cannot promise a level of fluency, but we can show you what a morning looks like.