Q&A - PSLE Tamil

[sharmila]

Today's tamil Oral picture was on Road that shows a signboard showing a busstop, people getting into the bus, vechicles and overhead bridge. My DS said it was difficult. He forgot the name of overhead bridge in tamil. And Oral conversation was about school rules. He talked about bringing handphone to school etc. How did your children find the Oral today? :xedfingers:

[jacsplace]

Hi, I have two children. One in P3 and one in P1. It’s great to find a fellow Indian in this forum. There are many discussions about Chinese, but this is the first time I’ve found something on Tamil.


I hope we can keep in touch because we don’t speak Tamil at home and my children are struggling with the language at school. The teachers don’t want to help. It’s so hard to find tutors and enrichment centers on Tamil. SINDA is useless. The Umar Pulavar place only caters to secondary school students.

[jacsplace]

This is a great thread.

[HAPPYH]

Hi parents,


What topic did your DD/DS get for Tamil Oral today?

All the best to all PSLE stutents!

[henryjjl]

That’s ineresting. The Chinese MT oral test is exactly the same topic.

[Sun_2010]

henryjjl:

That's ineresting. The Chinese MT oral test is exactly the same topic.

All MT oral pictures will be the same on a given day.

[Sun_2010]

sharmila:

Today's tamil Oral picture was on Road that shows a signboard showing a busstop, people getting into the bus, vechicles and overhead bridge. My DS said it was difficult. He forgot the name of overhead bridge in tamil. And Oral conversation was about school rules. He talked about bringing handphone to school etc. How did your children find the Oral today? :xedfingers:

Still a long way to go for Ds. The words they need to know, sigh, dunno how he will handle it ...

all the best for your DS for tomorrow. And for the written exams :rahrah: :rahrah:

[kuts]

Hi, Picture was about road side and the conversion was about school rules that I like and dislike!

[HAPPYH]

kuts:

Hi, Picture was about road side and the conversion was about school rules that I like and dislike!

Hmm.... This is interesting as chinese students also got the same topic. Thank you for updating. Hope your child did well. All the best.

[rsorchid]

AnotherKiasu:

smartmummy:

Hi AnotherKiasu!

May I know how did u teach ur son tamil. My son's problem is he hates Tamil. Still he didn't talk in tamil with us but he can.he doesn't want to read aloud. In the dec holiday my DH read for him, then he repeat the story in English.I talked to him many times but not working. Now in p4 need to write compo.
Last few weeks very busy didn't teach properly. I follow the tamiloli book and write down the words for oliverupadu and asked him.tense also I did like that. Chorporul,haven't yet start. Today my son brought a list from school for book fair, I noticed that a book for oliverupadu, chorporul. Is it useful? May I know what books and story books are useful for p4?thanks

First thing is, eventhough your son may not like Tamil (I hate to use the word \"Hate\"), for examination purposes, he MUST master it. Remember, in PSLE, MT carries equal weightage like other subjects. There are many cases in my DS school, the children very good in Eng, Mat and Sci got poor PSLE scoring because the MT score pulled them down (like A* for all and B for MT). This not only applies for Tamil, but for other MTL also. In PSLE, the compo is supposed to be in high standard to score good marks. The sentences must be creative and normal usage of words, will not help.
So, your DS must realise this point.

Slowly (but painfully), you need to cultivate the habit of speaking in Tamil.

Below pointers may help you. All these worked for my sons.

1. During dinner, take some interesting topic from newspaper (For eg. a fire at neighbourhood, man drowned in bedok reservoir etc) and start to discuss in Tamil. The children may say in English, no problem, then you ask them to translate in Tamil. You can see, they'll struggle for correct words. Then you chip in... say the correct work and also how it can be improved, polished. Since it's a fun way, they'll learn it easily.

2. Prepare a list of Tamil words from their Tamil book and/or any equivalent tamil books. Write meaning in TAMIL and English. (For example Thee - Neruppu, Anal - Fire). Ask them to memorise and write 5-10 words every day. Most schools will give list of Tamil words necessary to learn at P4/P5/P6 level. You can use such list also.

3. For compo, prepare sentences for them to use. For example, how to describe early morning poetically. Most schools will give this list of useful Tamil sentences to use in Compo. Ask them to memorise and rewrite a few times so that they don't forget. Revisit this every 3 months. Also, how these sentences can be used in Compo also need to be drilled. For example, in every compo, atleast at one place, the children need to describe morning/afternoon/evening/night. So atleast 2 sentences must remember for each of the timings. The same goes for feelings - sad, very sad, happy, very happy, laugh, tear, fight, play etc.

4. You can get past year/current year question papers for various schools. You can try at Raj publications at Dalhousie lane, adjacent to Tekka mall (The Verge) in Little India. They also sell Tamil books. I found this resource as useful.

5. Buy \"Tamil Murasu\" every monday. They publish sample Q papers from P1 to P6 in \"Maanavar Murasu\". Also the articles and stories are quite helpful.

6. Borrow simple story books (like Thenaliraman Kathaigal, Birbaul Kathaigal) from Library and ask them to read.

7. Maintain an exercise note separately (Sol Valam) and cultivate a habit of writing any new Tamil word they learn with equivalent Tamil and English meaning. Eventually this note will grow bigger and serve as a good resource. You don't write for them; ask them to write in their own handwriting.

8. Watch Vasantham Central Tamil news at 8:30 regularly with your child. The news readers tamil is just fantastic. You can watch some good Tamil program/movies also with them to improve their spoken Tamil.

Hope this helps.

Thanks parent AnotherKiasu, for all the tips