[PSLE MT] PSLE less weightage in Chinese / Mother Tongue
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hquek:
For kids who are 6 years and below, we don't need someone with very high qualifications to teach. Probably O or A levels will do, most important is to find a tutor who loves Chinese. It should be quite affordable.
Guess it helps if you have the money and time for one to one tutors....HyperKiasu:
Local examples for late successful learners: LKY and Prof WeeChowHou (who translated 孙子兵法) picked up Chinese in their adulthood only....
Nothing is too difficult if you put your heart into it.....
有志者事尽成
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Last night I walked pass Tien Hsia and looked at their poster of the names of students getting A/A*. The list includes a few hundred students, and I counted at least 15 non-Chinese (including 2 Japanese boys !) The fees at Tien Hsia are not expensive, cheaper than Berries. Even non-Chinese students can get A/A* ! Just start attending Tien Hsia/Berries etc from 3 years old.
I heard some people said that $10K salary is average income in Singapore, these people can certainly afford a few hundred dollars of enrichment classes. -
minnie2004:
Thanks for sharing
Totally agreed :celebrate: , although don't think my 6-yr old DD can read 80% of chinese newspaper despite that fact that she was almost solely exposed to chinese in the first 2.5 years of her life. She is quite good in conversation though, sometimes she even tends to talk too much
I think it is very important that parents show a positive attitude and love of Chinese. That really affects the child. I read Chinese novels in front of my kids, my mother reads Chinese newspapers everyday and watch Chinese TV series. Those parents who show negative attitudes towards Chinese will cause their kids to hate Chinese too, a person cannot hope to do well in a language if he resents learning it.
Also, it is not true that kids must come from Mandarin speaking families to be good in Chinese. My kids speak only English and Cantonese at home. Both of them enjoy reading Chinese books.
The problem is that most parents make their young kids remember every single stroke of the character by practicising over and over again. Or worst is to teach hanyu pinyin before learning any Chinese characters. These methods are not correct. Kids between the age of 3 to 6 are capable of taking a photograph of each Chinese character and remember each character as a whole. It is not necessary for them to remember the individual strokes. I believe that most kids have this ability, and they lose it as they grow older. That is why it is best to teach as many Chinese characters as possible before the age of 6, writing can come later. BTW, this is not my own theory, I read about this in some articles written in China. -
being away for almost a week and this has grown from page 28 to page 36
looks like the various points of view are more and less argued and ventilated
the big question is : does MOE listen ? if they have hardened their hearts in their internal deliberation before they sounded out the potential changes, they might have already decided what to do and just give u time and space to ventilate but nothing will change their heart
whatever it is, make sure your kids master all the basic subjects AND the CL. Was in discussion with a senior officials in Shanghai the last few days and inevitably the topic drifted to PRC kids studying in Singapore.
His remark was : let the kids compete and it will benefit the Singapore kids more - IF and when the PRC kids return to China. Without the competition the local kids will grow complacent. As to the topic on CL, his take is this - anyone does not master the CL will be having less competitive advantage in the coming age. Policy may change but your objective must NOT change if you think your personal direction is correct.
The world is much larger than the topic at hand - weightage of MT in PSLE. If you nurture your kids to compete and be versatile in the region, whatever the policy from MOE, you will still push them to master the CL.
As a side note, do you know that many of the UMNO leaders’ kids study overseas in order to master the EL and be able to move around in the region ? Many of that country’s leaders also send their kids to study in Chinese primary schools in order to have a language advantage
To me, the MOE policy on MT is getting very short sighted notwithstanding many other good programs that have come out recently. -
A few weeks ago I sent in my feedback about other matters through
http://www.moe.gov.sg/feedback/
I received a proper reply one week ago from an officer who read my message and she acknowledged my concerns.
However, a few emails are not enough. We need thousands of parents to send in their feedback directly to MOE. -
verykiasu2010:
MOE mentioned the potential change in a very unformal occasion leh.... they let us debate, let us plead.....BUT whatever had been decided has been decided ......they just don't want to shock us all of a sudden......
the big question is : does MOE listen ? if they have hardened their hearts in their internal deliberation before they sounded out the potential changes, they might have already decided what to do and just give u time and space to ventilate but nothing will change their heart.verykiasu2010:
Peer-pressue can make local kids work harder and do better.His remark was : let the kids compete and it will benefit the Singapore kids more - IF and when the PRC kids return to China. Without the competition the local kids will grow complacent. .
Bear in mind those talented kids from PRC are not first tier talent if put in PRC. maybe 2nd tier or 3rd tier top only.... I understand the top top talents in PRC are aiming top U in USA/Europe. SG never is their first choice leh...verykiasu2010:
not only short-sighted, but disheartened to me....To me, the MOE policy on MT is getting very short sighted notwithstanding many other good programs that have come out recently.
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tamarind:
The problem is that most parents make their young kids remember every single stroke of the character by practicising over and over again. Or worst is to teach hanyu pinyin before learning any Chinese characters. These methods are not correct. Kids between the age of 3 to 6 are capable of taking a photograph of each Chinese character and remember each character as a whole. It is not necessary for them to remember the individual strokes. I believe that most kids have this ability, and they lose it as they grow older. That is why it is best to teach as many Chinese characters as possible before the age of 6, writing can come later. BTW, this is not my own theory, I read about this in some articles written in China.
Then I think I made a mistake with my DD as we sent her to a Chinese enrichment centre since 4 yrs old which focused too much on conversational Chinese. I feel she didn't get much out of it in terms of reading after 2 years (finished all their pre-primary programs). I thought it was ok for her age and also didn't follow up too closely with her progress. Now she might have missed the window to learn character recognition :clubmyself:.
Oh well, I still have chance with DS, who's in berries since 3.5. Better spend more time to play some word recognition games w/ him
.
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minnie2004:
I think sending kids to a Chinese school in primary is good. Learn Chinese first, then learn English. English is easy to pick up. 26 alphabets only. :lol:tamarind:
The problem is that most parents make their young kids remember every single stroke of the character by practicising over and over again. Or worst is to teach hanyu pinyin before learning any Chinese characters. These methods are not correct. Kids between the age of 3 to 6 are capable of taking a photograph of each Chinese character and remember each character as a whole. It is not necessary for them to remember the individual strokes. I believe that most kids have this ability, and they lose it as they grow older. That is why it is best to teach as many Chinese characters as possible before the age of 6, writing can come later. BTW, this is not my own theory, I read about this in some articles written in China.
Then I think I made a mistake with my DD as we sent her to a Chinese enrichment centre since 4 yrs old which focused too much on conversational Chinese. I feel she didn't get much out of it in terms of reading after 2 years (finished all their pre-primary programs). I thought it was ok for her age and also didn't follow up too closely with her progress. Now she might have missed the window to learn character recognition :clubmyself:.
Oh well, I still have chance with DS, who's in berries since 3.5. Better spend more time to play some word recognition games w/ him .
Send your kids to Nanyang, Kong Hua, chinese bao jak, guaranteed. :celebrate: -
minnie2004:
minnie,tamarind:
The problem is that most parents make their young kids remember every single stroke of the character by practicising over and over again. Or worst is to teach hanyu pinyin before learning any Chinese characters. These methods are not correct. Kids between the age of 3 to 6 are capable of taking a photograph of each Chinese character and remember each character as a whole. It is not necessary for them to remember the individual strokes. I believe that most kids have this ability, and they lose it as they grow older. That is why it is best to teach as many Chinese characters as possible before the age of 6, writing can come later. BTW, this is not my own theory, I read about this in some articles written in China.
Then I think I made a mistake with my DD as we sent her to a Chinese enrichment centre since 4 yrs old which focused too much on conversational Chinese. I feel she didn't get much out of it in terms of reading after 2 years (finished all their pre-primary programs). I thought it was ok for her age and also didn't follow up too closely with her progress. Now she might have missed the window to learn character recognition :clubmyself:.
Oh well, I still have chance with DS, who's in berries since 3.5. Better spend more time to play some word recognition games w/ him .
MOE has just announced that starting from next year, they are going to make all kids take a diagnostic test in P1 that will determine what type of methods will be used to teach them during Chinese lessons.
MOE press release on 10 March 2010 :
\"Greater attention will be given to develop the listening and speaking skills of students. MOE will equip schools with a diagnostic tool to assess the CL oracy competence of Primary 1 students at the start of the school term. The information would enable teachers to better customise their teaching to meet the different learning needs of students. \"
Your DD will definitely pass this test with fly colours.
My worry is that a child who cannot converse in Mandarin very well at the beginning of P1, will be put in a Chinese class where they use mostly English to teach Chinese, or teach a lower standard of Chinese. This will be very sad because a child may know how to read and listen far better than he can speak the language. I thought schools are supposed to teach, why test a child at P1 before they even start teaching ?
The best strategy is to focus on both character recognition and conversation before the age of 6. -
tamarind:
:!: :!:
I heard some people said that $10K salary is average income in Singapore -
Better to make reading Chinese story/characters part of daily life. My K1 DD are able to recognize more chinese characters than my P1 DS whose school doesn’t emphasize Chinese… a bit worry to me also…
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