Oral - English and Chinese

[Crendy]

With little kids, we need to make them get used to langueges by listening it very often. Then, we identify the writing of the languages. That's the first step

You can ask them to repeat some new words. With this method, they will be more sensitive with langueges and help us learn the grammar, vocabulary more easily.
I know some books that can help your kids: The Value of Chinese Books for Beginners, Beginner Obstacles to Reading Chinese, http://appnaz.com/android/papers-please-com.appswiz.papersplease, Read Mandarin Chinese: 5 Great Books for Beginners

[kiasumom1]

I think my girl’s problem is not that she can’t speak. it’s more because of anxiety. Any tips on that?

[sunny]

Hi, would like to find out if there is any tuition centers providing effective PSLE oral (EL n CL) holiday program?

[OwlSmart]

The preparation time of about 5 minutes is crucial to the candidate who sits quietly outside the classroom as he waits for his turn to be tested by the oral examination testers.

There is a certain structure to the 3 key questions the testers pose to the candidates.
Question 1 is always based solely on the provided picture itself. Hence, the responses have to be supported by details present in the picture. Try not to use your background knowledge for this question.
Question 2 is always based on a situation that is somewhat related to the one presented in the provided picture. Hence, the candidate has to structure their responses based on a mixture of relevant background knowledge, understanding of the context in the provided picture and also from the reading passage, Yes… this is a lesser-known fact. The candidate can actually get to use relevant phrases from the reading text to aid him in his response.

[OwlSmart]

To follow up on the previous post, the third question revolves around one key thing; the opinion of the candidate - agree or disagree. The candidate should be confident to state his or her stand and give clear responses in supporting their stand.

[Estéema]

kiasumom1:

I think my girl's problem is not that she can't speak. it's more because of anxiety. Any tips on that?

If u've a child prone to anxieties, best expose gradually to diff ppl speaking in languages. I've heard of kids froze during Prelims or PSLE, which no parent wished for their kids to go thro.

Over the years, I've made efforts to chat with my PRC neighbors, besides other nationalities. We wld bring our kids out for various activities (movies, Sc Centres, fishing, Kinokuniya, camps, tennis lessons together) to help them interact more. The efforts were worthwhile as kids wld be eager to gain friends & do things together & in the process gain confidentto interact. In 2016, the PRC kid returned to Tianjin & seems he was topping his class & enjoys doing presentations in English in an International Sch there.

Can try enroll yr child with Academia in Sin Ming Plaza if in P5 or P6. Pls check if they still hv the June Oral preparation class as we had good time with their comprehensive sessions done with full resources to do interviews conversation (prep for DSA, coaching & training fr the centres educators all involved to give them good exposure to different 'invigilators' context).

Further, what I do whether for EL or CL, I personally prep my kids :-

1. Any topics we revise, ideas of those topics can be used for both languages. Train in specific phrases for those topics in respective EL or CL written out & expressed (w/o looking at script after reading phrases one round). So free chat with mum

2. Highlight to kids some topics can twitch so kids must learn to use ideas flexibly. So, I'll reorganize all Oral topics & group them into similar related to help kids position their thot process but still flexibly using phrases learnt. E.g. Topics on respect for Elderly can be used for Visiting a Nursing Home or A picnic with Grandparents; No Littering, eco-projects, civic mindedness, recycling at home can be combine as conversation to practice discussion qns .... your imagination or the kids' can stretch to cover as much & by then u not only hv fun but know yr child is gaining confidence.

Hope abv sharing helps.

[sean wife]

Hi esteema,


Based on 汪notes, do you remember what broad categories you used to group the oral notes?

Thanks for sharing.

[Estéema]

sean wife:

Hi esteema,


Based on 汪notes, do you remember what broad categories you used to group the oral notes?

Thanks for sharing.

I'm aging & getting more forgetful. Will try to recall

One other grouping I do rmbr was grouping one on CNY celebration with Racial Harmony topics together with neighborliness (there was one title on 一场风波 ).

Road safety, MRT Travel safety, Spending time on computer (I twitch to talk abt hp/games, Seaside picnic (safety swimming at the beach), On the Bus (playing, seatbelts, standing near bus doors etc), Playing in the Playground (near roads) or tie kicking football in parks to hitting neighbor's windows or an elderly than link it to possible elder care & neigborliness, etc

Helping the blind, Helping an injured frd, helping an elderly, Trusting Strangers, 走失的小孩 ...

Honesty, Robbery, Admitting to wrongdoing (in classroom & home).

Special Friend (can introduce them ideas of frds of diff races), A classmate who is fr A Poor family, etc, 珍惜友情 (treasure frdship can be used with a neighbor frd moving away or classmate switching schools), etc. or even group with Childhood Memories (童年趣事).

Do not limit just to 汪 topics, but use it as a start off & learning becomes so much more interesting coz yr child can see they can think beyond what they study coz everything ard them can be topics. That's when u can tell yr child made a breakthrough. S'times my kids gave me more ideas in their experience than I can think of introducing to them

When u use these topics to coach yr kids, u can use 口试 & 作文 Topics and their phrases interchangeably. Just remind yr child to rmbr to start off reply 从入影片我看到 (fr the video clip, I can see...) before describing place, time, ppl, event, etc for 口试; whilst for 作文 they can start off with the 5W 1H.

Don't know if abv sharing clear but hope u ladies can device sth similar to help yr kids, if I've not been clear. You know yr kids well how best to help.

[zac's mum]

I don’t know if this will actually be helpful or not, but I just want to share my funny story of how I got A* for my Chinese PSLE many years back.


A bit of background: my mum is Peranakan and therefore cannot speak a word of Mandarin. She sent me to Chinese tuition from young but during those days, oral component was not explicitly taught by the tutor at all. So Oral exam was my weakest component for Chinese. Nobody to practice with.

It turned out that for my batch, the Oral Conversation topic for PSLE was 暴力. And I was truly stumped. Didn’t know what 暴力 meant, but it sounded similar to 暴露, which I knew the traditional Chinese teachers would be strongly against. U know, upright moral values and all…so I just took a risk and blithely blabbered on (while gauging the examiner’s reaction: saw her nodding her head in agreement etc) about a topic I knew absolutely nothing about.

Basically I just gave a strong opinion that Noooooo that’s absolutely not to be encouraged…if it’s shown on tv and movies, it would encourage the kids to copy and follow suit…parents should not permit this bad thing…(kept throwing around the word 暴力 in replacement of 暴露) BUT I think this strategy only works for conservative Chinese teachers - maybe English teachers would welcome more open-minded opinions?? Is the situation still the same today??

Till this day, I’m thanking God for that fluke - I managed to get that A* despite talking a whole load of nonsense lol.