It is in fact very common for children everywhere not just in Malaysia or Singapore to acguire a second language through formal education than to continue their studies exclusively in the first language. We also see another phenomenon :- Parents starting multi language education for their children at a young age, and encouraging them to become at least thrilingual speakers.
The benefit of being trilingual are many. They are able move arround socially and gain rapport with others is integral to human socialising. Once there is mutual understanding, the children will have a head start to have a wider network of friends and relationships.
Children who are multiligual also tend to handle concepts in flexible, multiple ways. They have to digest and process a concept well before they are able to explain it in three different languages.
According to linguistic experts, the environment is crucial in terms of language input for the child. Generally if the environment is language rich, the child will eventually be able to make meaning of what he or she is hearing. there may be some mixing, but if parents speak to them consistently using complete sentences of a good quality, they will not have a lot of problems.
Another interesting method that the well regarded preschool uses is the One Person One Language approach. In this approach, children associate each person in their environment with one particular language. For example, mum speaks Maderine and dad speaks in English at home.
In school that is reinforced by having at least one English speaking and one Manderine speaking teacher in the class, which help children to associate the English language with one teacher and Chinese language with another teacher.
Associating a third language with an enrichment centre is also an option for some parents
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