All About Getting Help for Students Weak in English

[mabelstressed]

My son is not weak in his foundation like grammar but he still needs help in Comprehension, Cloze and Composition writing.

[Anna Ng]

Hi! what can i do except sending him for tuition?

[hquek]

Anna Ng:

Hi! what can i do except sending him for tuition?

Read, and read a lot - but this is long term. Then again, it could help in other subjects like science.

Sending for tuition (if you get a good tutor) will allow that person to work on your child's weakness and also gives an avenue for your child to query on what he doesn't know.

[ChiefKiasu]

Anna Ng:

Hi! what can i do except sending him for tuition?

You must first find out the specific areas that he is weak in.

Is it:
- Grammar
- Comprehension
- Composition?

In general, like hquek mentioned, you should try to get him to read widely. That would help for all the above, especially for grammar and composition.

To improve comprehension, you can try to ask him about the books he read after he read them. No need to write summaries, but just get him to tell you about the stories. Let him summarise the story first without interrupting, and then ask questions to clarify parts that you did not fully understand, until you yourself understand what the story is about. Spend about 10 minutes on this each time he finishes reading a book. It doesn't even have to be a story book. It could be some movie he watched. Make it his 2nd nature to think about his book or movie experience, to identify various lessons, concepts or points learnt, and to criticize these points from his own perspective. Over time, this simple exercise will help to build critical thinking.

In terms of reading materials, start with story books, and then move on to newspapers and magazines as he gains mastery. The latter provides a great deal more contemporary material for critical thinking. This is important because whatever he learns is directly applicable to today's context.

Composition is an evolution of comprehension. While comprehension is about understanding knowledge created by other people, composition is the creation of new knowledge. Without comprehension and the application of critical thinking, compositions would be contrived, dull and ineffective.

It takes time. But stick with this for 3 or more months, and you will start to see some results.

[Anna Ng]

Dear hquek and ChiefKiasu:

Really appreciated your advice. My DS only scored 24/40 for his CA1 paper 2… as we are non English speaking family, i am quite worry his marks will keep on dropping —
Do you think keep on doing those past year questions papers will help?

[ChiefKiasu]

Anna Ng:

Dear hquek and ChiefKiasu:

Really appreciated your advice. My DS only scored 24/40 for his CA1 paper 2... as we are non English speaking family, i am quite worry his marks will keep on dropping ---
Do you think keep on doing those past year questions papers will help?

Dear Anna,

If I recall, your DS is probably in P2 or P3 now? Doing past year questions is useful for comprehension. For grammar, it can help somewhat, but it may also turn off your kid as the whole thing becomes a chore.

It is better to think of the past year papers as diagnostic tools rather than for learning new knowledge. They are helpful to test if your DS already knows certain facts, and less useful for building up this knowledge. Keep in mind also that the answers provided by some of these past year exams can be notoriously inaccurate. It is better you introduce your DS to sample compositions if you want to have a \"quick fix\".

[Anna Ng]

dear Chiefkiasu:


My boy in P4 now ---- thanks for your advice. I may need to see his English teacher to find out some solution also — cheer !

[hquek]

clap clap…Chief’s advice is really sound. Actually DS1’s chinese teacher ever told me to do that with him (his chinese not that powerful)- ie after reading a story, discuss with him to get him to think about it, think about the characters - are they right/wrong, why? keep asking questions about what was read etc. Doing so will help ensure the child understands what was read, and also develop critical thinking and if he can start thinking creatively, I’m sure that will help.


All the best for your child Anna!

[Anna Ng]

thanks thanks thanks

[Green-apple 0]

Dear all, My DS is in P1 now. He could not express himself very clearly. For example: when teacher asked him, how was your March school holidays, he said "don’t know". What can i do?