How to improve 12-yr old command of English?

[UncleLim]

sparks:

Any courses or tutors to recommend or holiday acitivites that could help?

Ban the use of Singlish at home ?

[ashleywells]

Will I can recommend this site http://brainychild.net/ they can really help you and make your child to be the best and brightest.

[jackandjill]

Read newspapers and magazines.


I think MyPaper (WoBao) is quite good cos the articles are shorter and easy to read.
Magazines have colourful illustrations, children will not feel as though they are reading.

Kids magazines such as Young Generation, Young Scientist, ScienceSpy or National Geographic Kids are not bad.

[Ctls_Rajesh]

Read little article,newspaper, see television news that a good process improve English.

[celebratelife]

Hi sparks,


You can consider trying the following:

i. Encourage book titles for your child to read. Depending on his or her level of language proficiency, you can consider the following titles which are popular with children his or her age (e.g. Geronimo Stilton, Percy Jackson etc.)

ii. Read with your child to stir up his or her interest. Always leave some time at the end of the story to discuss the plot, characters etc. Immerse your child in the story by having him or her role-play a character and act out his or her actions, and then discuss the possible consequences. Reading is more than just understanding the story. It's also about analysis, imagination, creativity and critical thinking.

iii. Have your child check words he or she do not understand using a dictionary. Alternatively, you can have him or her look out for words they are unsure in other sources without checking the dictionary, and then try figuring out the words. The latter might be time-consuming but it helps in answering inferential questions later on - in the O Levels comprehension questions, specifically.

iv. Have your child speak as frequently as possible in English (this increases articulation over time). Let them watch English movies with English subtitles (this helps in their pronunciation of words and the subtitles improves their spelling over time). If your child is auditory by nature, let them listen to audio books available for loan in public libraries. Also, expose your child to reading and watching videos and check which is the preferred medium. Then adapt accordingly.

v. Youtube EDU has tons of educational videos for your child (https://www.youtube.com/edu). At the age of 12, maybe Sesame Street may still be of interest (https://www.youtube.com/channel/HC-r1FlvvNFs0/search?query=sesame+street)?

I hope that the above helps.

Warmest Regards,
Patrick
http://www.patricktay.wordpress.com