[PSLE MT] PSLE less weightage in Chinese / Mother Tongue

[Donkey Kong]

minnie2004:

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 .

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:

Send your kids to Nanyang, Kong Hua, chinese bao jak, guaranteed. :celebrate:

[tamarind]

minnie2004:

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 .

minnie,
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.

[cascada]

tamarind:

I heard some people said that $10K salary is average income in Singapore

:!: :!:

[HyperKiasu]

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…

[HyperKiasu]

cascada:

tamarind:

I heard some people said that $10K salary is average income in Singapore

:!: :!:

per month or per year?
perhaps typo lah....

[cascada]

HyperKiasu:

cascada:

[quote=\"tamarind\"]
I heard some people said that $10K salary is average income in Singapore

:!: :!:

per month or per year?
perhaps typo lah....[/quote]no wonder condo are selling like hot cakes, cos average singaporean can't qualify for HDB. :lol:

[Donkey Kong]

cascada:

HyperKiasu:

[quote=\"cascada\"]
:!: :!:

per month or per year?
perhaps typo lah....

no wonder condo are selling like hot cakes, cos average singaporean can't qualify for HDB. :lol:[/quote]Some guys don't believe. See all the cars in the carpark. Singaporeans are not that unwise to spend all on cars. :celebrate:
They spend within their means. :!:

On buses/MRT, almost everyone iPhone..... :?

[HyperKiasu]

tamarind:

jedamum:

those who really are concerned about culture will continue to focus on MT education despite lesser weightage.

I agree. Even if Chinese is reduced to zero weighting, I am still going to make my kids read Chinese books everyday, because there are many wonderful books written in Chinese, and the language itself is beautiful.

I don't worry about the future of the Chinese language at all. And I am not bothered about those who don't know what they are losing out.

it is easier to say than to do leh......

[minnie2004]

tamarind:

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 ?

I think the schools may have no choice but to separate the students according to their abilities. I taught for a while oral Chinese to P1 kids as a PV. Although teachers told me beforehand that these were the weakest in the class, but some of them really speak 0 Chinese. Some are foreigners and some never really had exposure to Chinese before P1. I had to use Eng to explain the most basic words like \"my name is xxx\", \"I'm x years old\" etc. Although immersing them in a total Chinese environment may speed up their learning but in those cases, maybe Eng is needed to teach Chinese. Otherwise, these kids might just lose all interest and doze off in class. There are always families who don't teach or don't know how to teach their kids Chinese, or simply ignore it .

[hquek]

tamarind:

Even if Chinese is reduced to zero weighting, I am still going to make my kids read Chinese books everyday, because there are many wonderful books written in Chinese, and the language itself is beautiful.

My own Chinese standard is not good and I've always hated chinese classes. But since having kids, I've come to realise that chinese is an amazing language.

So I do agree with Tamarind...even if weighting is zero, I will want my kids to be exposed to the language, the culture and history. But probably then it'll be in a fun manner - no stress on exams etc.