Secondary School Chinese

[Estéema]

Wish 李子柒 upload her daily life. I can’t hv enuf to watch with MIL, who remarked that she must not just hv millions of followers/viewers but shld hv plenty of suitors.

[sin2x]

Hi,

I am not sure if this has been discussed but I was wondering which type of writing (section 2) is the easiest to tackle for ‘O’ Level CL?
1. Narrative
2. Expository
3. Argumentative
4. Situational

[phtthp]

sin2x\" post_id=\"2006938\" time=\"1607162983\" user_id=\"61859:

Hi,

I am not sure if this has been discussed but I was wondering which type of writing (section 2) is the easiest to tackle for 'O' Level CL?

1. Narrative
2. Expository
3. Argumentative
4. Situational

out of these 4 identified zuowen category, which category to \"siam\" (avoid), because exam marker tend to be overly strict in their marking?

[chenlaoshi]

phtthp\" post_id=\"2006972\" time=\"1607218733\" user_id=\"35251:

sin2x\" post_id=\"2006938\" time=\"1607162983\" user_id=\"61859:

Hi,

I am not sure if this has been discussed but I was wondering which type of writing (section 2) is the easiest to tackle for 'O' Level CL?

1. Narrative
2. Expository
3. Argumentative
4. Situational

out of these 4 identified zuowen category, which category to \"siam\" (avoid), because exam marker tend to be overly strict in their marking?

I would normally recommend students to move towards argumentative/discursive essay writing when they reach upper Sec.

- the nature is similar to that of email writing, where there's a theme/topic to comment/discuss about
- the students would have come across many of such passages through their comprehension practices and can apply what they learn appropriately
- most topics are quite straightforward (as in agree/disagree, should/should not) so as long as logical thinking and analytical skills are applied accordingly, student will be able to secure marks for (at least the) content component

For situational/narrative essay, if student failed to analyse question correctly (misinterpret/miss out of certain stated requirements) then the content component gets marked down immediately. Besides, just memorizing descriptive phrases will not be enough to excel. Students have to apply rhetoric approaches they learnt like 比喻、拟人 and 排比 as well - these require understanding and application.

However, the bottom line is the students have to be confident of their understanding of the questions requirement and choose the question/theme they are most confident and comfortable with, rather than just placing all their eyes in 1 basket (i.e. to prepare for a particular type of essay only).

Take for example 2017's O Level CL question: \"电影能塑造青少年价值观。你同意吗？为什么？\" (loosely translated as \"Can movies shape values in youths?\")

Parents complained about the difficulty of this question that year: https://www.zaobao.com.sg/znews/singapore/story20170529-765658

The reason is because they felt the topic is too 'technical'. In order to write a detailed and accurate piece, the student must know the different film genres and movie titles - in Chinese. Otherwise, the essay will be too general/vague.

That year, another question involves the topic of art too：“如何培养青少年对艺术的兴趣？” (loosely translated as \"How to nuture youth's interest in arts?\").

In cases like these, the students cannot simply go ahead and attempt the discursive essay simply because it's what they have been more exposed to or have prepared for. They have to be adaptable and choose the situation writing, which was comparatively more straight forward, instead.

[phtthp]

chenlaoshi\" post_id=\"2007051\" time=\"1607269178\" user_id=\"162894:

sin2x\" post_id=\"2006938\" time=\"1607162983\" user_id=\"61859:

Hi,

I am not sure if this has been discussed but I was wondering which type of writing (section 2) is the easiest to tackle for 'O' Level CL?

1. Narrative
2. Expository
3. Argumentative
4. Situational

I would normally recommend students to move towards argumentative/discursive essay writing when they reach upper Sec.

- the nature is similar to that of email writing, where there's a theme/topic to comment/discuss about
- the students would have come across many of such passages through their comprehension practices and can apply what they learn appropriately
- most topics are quite straightforward (as in agree/disagree, should/should not) so as long as logical thinking and analytical skills are applied accordingly, student will be able to secure marks for (at least the) content component

For situational/narrative essay, if student failed to analyse question correctly (misinterpret/miss out of certain stated requirements) then the content component gets marked down immediately. Besides, just memorizing descriptive phrases will not be enough to excel. Students have to apply rhetoric approaches they learnt like 比喻、拟人 and 排比 as well - these require understanding and application.

However, the bottom line is the students have to be confident of their understanding of the questions requirement and choose the question/theme they are most confident and comfortable with, rather than just placing all their eyes in 1 basket (i.e. to prepare for a particular type of essay only).

Take for example 2017's O Level CL question: \"电影能塑造青少年价值观。你同意吗？为什么？\" (loosely translated as \"Can movies shape values in youths?\")

Parents complained about the difficulty of this question that year: https://www.zaobao.com.sg/znews/singapore/story20170529-765658

The reason is because they felt the topic is too 'technical'. In order to write a detailed and accurate piece, the student must know the different film genres and movie titles - in Chinese. Otherwise, the essay will be too general/vague.

That year, another question involves the topic of art too：“如何培养青少年对艺术的兴趣？” (loosely translated as \"How to nuture youth's interest in arts?\").

In cases like these, the students cannot simply go ahead and attempt the discursive essay simply because it's what they have been more exposed to or have prepared for. They have to be adaptable and choose the situation writing, which was comparatively more straight forward, instead.

Hi

If let's say

whether is Sec 3 CL (bu-hua)
or

Sec 4 HCL (gao-hua) National exam hall,

the zuowen exam topics that came out totally un-familiar, totally unexpected, because students never been exposed to reading such themes before (eg. Appreciation of Performance fine Arts in music, dancing, drawing, etc), like
this 2017 O-level bu-hua zuowen that fall under Debate or Argumentative category,

\"How to nurture Youth interest in Arts ? \",

so, the student's mind inside the exam hall went completely blank, panicked and then
let's say
the other alternative topic given on the other Narrative / Descriptive category
also not familiar with, un-expected.
In other words, all the various category topics exhausted also not familiar with for that O-level year (batch), then how to write zuowen (Paper 1), under exam-hall pressure ?

[chenlaoshi]

phtthp\" post_id=\"2007067\" time=\"1607306118\" user_id=\"35251:

chenlaoshi\" post_id=\"2007051\" time=\"1607269178\" user_id=\"162894:

[quote=sin2x post_id=2006938 time=1607162983 user_id=61859]
Hi,

I am not sure if this has been discussed but I was wondering which type of writing (section 2) is the easiest to tackle for 'O' Level CL?

1. Narrative
2. Expository
3. Argumentative
4. Situational

I would normally recommend students to move towards argumentative/discursive essay writing when they reach upper Sec.

- the nature is similar to that of email writing, where there's a theme/topic to comment/discuss about
- the students would have come across many of such passages through their comprehension practices and can apply what they learn appropriately
- most topics are quite straightforward (as in agree/disagree, should/should not) so as long as logical thinking and analytical skills are applied accordingly, student will be able to secure marks for (at least the) content component

For situational/narrative essay, if student failed to analyse question correctly (misinterpret/miss out of certain stated requirements) then the content component gets marked down immediately. Besides, just memorizing descriptive phrases will not be enough to excel. Students have to apply rhetoric approaches they learnt like 比喻、拟人 and 排比 as well - these require understanding and application.

However, the bottom line is the students have to be confident of their understanding of the questions requirement and choose the question/theme they are most confident and comfortable with, rather than just placing all their eyes in 1 basket (i.e. to prepare for a particular type of essay only).

Take for example 2017's O Level CL question: \"电影能塑造青少年价值观。你同意吗？为什么？\" (loosely translated as \"Can movies shape values in youths?\")

Parents complained about the difficulty of this question that year: https://www.zaobao.com.sg/znews/singapore/story20170529-765658

The reason is because they felt the topic is too 'technical'. In order to write a detailed and accurate piece, the student must know the different film genres and movie titles - in Chinese. Otherwise, the essay will be too general/vague.

That year, another question involves the topic of art too：“如何培养青少年对艺术的兴趣？” (loosely translated as \"How to nuture youth's interest in arts?\").

In cases like these, the students cannot simply go ahead and attempt the discursive essay simply because it's what they have been more exposed to or have prepared for. They have to be adaptable and choose the situation writing, which was comparatively more straight forward, instead.

Hi

If let's say

whether is Sec 3 CL (bu-hua)
or

Sec 4 HCL (gao-hua) National exam hall,

the zuowen exam topics that came out totally un-familiar, totally unexpected, because students never been exposed to reading such themes before (eg. Appreciation of Performance fine Arts in music, dancing, drawing, etc), like
this 2017 O-level bu-hua zuowen that fall under Debate or Argumentative category,

\"How to nurture Youth interest in Arts ? \",

so, the student's mind inside the exam hall went completely blank, panicked and then
let's say
the other alternative topic given on the other Narrative / Descriptive category
also not familiar with, un-expected.
In other words, all the various category topics exhausted also not familiar with for that O-level year (batch), then how to write zuowen (Paper 1), under exam-hall pressure ?[/quote]Hi phtthp,

In such worst case scenario, the student should 硬着头皮 and go along with the narrative/situation question. He/she may not be able to meet all stated criteria (due to pressure/misinterpretation/overlook etc.) but at least should not be completely out of point.

For discursive/argumentative essay, they have to include 论点 (argument/thesis)、论据 (evidence/grounds of argument) and 论证 (reasoning). Thus, there's no way they can score if they are totally unfamiliar with the topic/theme.

[chenlaoshi]

https://i.imgur.com/ebgK63i.jpg\">


Had a quick glance at the new syllabus Sec CL textbook. Nice to see more small practices at the end of every chapter to practice on the rhetoric approaches covered, rather than just wordy notes.

Pretty evident that the coverage aims to strengthen the students writing skills too. At the end of every 单元, there's a 词语宝库 section.

For parents whose child is in Sec 2 in 2021, you can consider getting the new syllabus textbook (less than $4) as additional reading material.

https://i.imgur.com/j7CFPSJ.jpg\">

[zac's mum]

Thanks for sharing, chenlaoshi!

[kylene]

Deleted

[kylene]

Hi, my DS is quite weak at chinese and in primary school we focused a lot on the “need to read/write” words to help pull his marks up from the MCQ qn for CL. Also worked quite well for the first 2 section of HCL.

He’s doing HCL in Sec school and I understand there’s no more CL per se.
Compo and compre aside , I would like to ask for Sec HCL , would this approach help to reinforce the new words ?

Thank you