All About English Speech & Drama Enrichment

[mommyNg]

Hi Kmumz,


How old is your child? It sounded like he wasn’t a native-Singaporean before? I heard British Council has native-speaking teachers from UK/Australia/US, and perhaps you could check that out? How was Julia & Gabriel?

[mommyNg]

Hi Kmumz,


How old is your child? It sounded like he wasn’t a native-Singaporean before? I heard British Council has native-speaking teachers from UK/Australia/US, and perhaps you could check that out? How was Julia & Gabriel?

[Kmumz]

Hi mommyNg,


No my child is born in Singapore but we speak all right at home, not much Singlish but he goes to school and picks up a lot of Singlish… sigh. Julia Gabriels is good but very expensive and also they focus a lot on creativity and sometimes not that much on exam preparation. How about you, do you have any problems with your child’s oral skills:)

Kmumz

[maisy]

Marie:

Hi,


I think speech and drama will really help but it works only if the teachers are encouraging and do not continually praise the better students in front of the rest.

Marie

Fully Agree.

Also, while confidence can be built over time (given the right exposure & platform), sometimes, i feel, it is innate in an individual as well (ie how vocal can one be also depends on the individual). Just my personal opinion.

[Jean.014397H]

My niece went to Act 3 and she really blossomed after that. The teachers were very patient although she was quiet and refused to talk. Now she is very confident and can even speak well on stage.

[foreverj]

hi kmumz


do u make an attempt to correct his language when he speaks singlish at home? i find that it helps if i remind my dd not to say the \"la\", \"leh\", etc otherwise she'll be speaking singlish and its important to speak proper english. now she wil catch me if i end my sentences with \"la\",\"leh\" :oops:

eventually, the home environment is the best to model good language and behaviour. so start with yourself.

another possibility is peer pressure in school, eg. trying to fit in with his frens resulted in the singlish. so it could very well be a phase?

[vfong1]

Jean.H:

My niece went to Act 3 and she really blossomed after that. The teachers were very patient although she was quiet and refused to talk. Now she is very confident and can even speak well on stage.

How old is your niece and how long does it take for her to build her confidenence from the speech and drama lessons?

[DC Mummy]

Hi,


Personally, I feel that Singlish is not all about just ending sentences with "la", " leh", "lor", etc. It is about speaking proper as well as complete good english. Most of us can speak english, but not many of us can achieve speaking good english.

Below are some examples of mistake which I have heard and I have made the similar mistakes in some occasions as well :-

What you want? ( What do you want?)
Can you do yourself? (Can you do it by yourself)
I finished already (I have already finished)
Can or not? (Is it possible?)
I will revert back to you. (I will reply to you)

[mommyNg]

Kmumz:

Hi mommyNg,


No my child is born in Singapore but we speak all right at home, not much Singlish but he goes to school and picks up a lot of Singlish.. sigh. Julia Gabriels is good but very expensive and also they focus a lot on creativity and sometimes not that much on exam preparation. How about you, do you have any problems with your child's oral skills:)

Kmumz

Hi Kmumz,

So far we are ok with my dd's oral skills. Partly because she had spent some time in the US so she tends to use more proper English. I also refrain myself from using Singlish at home. Like what DC Mummy said, not just about \"la\" or \"leh\" but good grammar.

Yes, I do agree the speaking environment in school has a great influence. Even when my kid came back to Singapore, she easily picked up Singlish within 1 month, even though we don't really speak Singlish with her anyway. Perhaps one strategy would be to correct your son immediately when he speaks Singlish, and most importantly talk to him about what is proper English and distinguish it with Singlish. Also tell him that while he may feel like using Singlish because that's what his friends do, but it is also important to speak proper English. Eventually he should be able to develop two systems - just as most of us Singaporeans do - able to speak both proper English and Singlish depending who we are with and what we are doing.

By the way, it sounds like your son is a preschooler or early primary schooler?

Hope this helps and let me know if it works for you!

[foreverj]

DC Mummy:

Hi,


Personally, I feel that Singlish is not all about just ending sentences with \"la\", \" leh\", \"lor\", etc. It is about speaking proper as well as complete good english. Most of us can speak english, but not many of us can achieve speaking good english.

Below are some examples of mistake which I have heard and I have made the similar mistakes in some occasions as well :-

What you want? ( What do you want?)
Can you do yourself? (Can you do it by yourself)
I finished already (I have already finished)
Can or not? (Is it possible?)
I will revert back to you. (I will reply to you)

hi dc mummy

agree with u on the above. i believe for most of us, we fine-tuned our grammar and language after doing lots of reading. i myself grew up in a mandarin speaking envt. so i had to pick up the proper english on my own thru reading lots of storybooks. but even then, it helped mainly my written language and not my spoken. when i was a teenager, watching lots of channel 5 drama serials, sitcoms then helped greatly in my spoken english.

for my dd, i stil use the same approach of correcting her language as and when i hear her say something inappropriate. eg. when she says \"last time we like to do this\". i wil tell her that she should use \"in the past, we liked to do this\". she picks it up quite fast and will apply on her own to the next similar sentence she builds.

another eg. is \"don't do this, wait you fall down\". i told her its not \"wait\", should use \"otherwise you will fall down\". thankfully, more often than not, she takes my cue, rather than her friends in school.

unfortunately i myself is guilty of some of the example u cited above due to laziness and slip of the tongue :oops: but we all try our best right?