Secondary School Chinese

[daisyt]

hesiew:

Glad to find this thread.

My dd is not coping well with her Sec 1 HMT, scoring +/-50! :shock: She used to have HMT tuition in Pri but I stopped in Sec to thinking she could cope on her own and with my coaching. Now, I'm nervous with SA2 round the corner how to help her :?: She's weak in her writing and cloze passage, compre part ok.

Hope anyone with similar experience could share how to help her improve. Any recommendation for good tuition? Or any good assessment/reference/books that can help in home study? Thanks a lot!

Hi hesiew, personally I feel language is not something you can improve tremendously and fast by assessment/reference books or tuition (esp in Sec). Its more of long term and need a lot of no easy short cut ways. Maybe other parents can share if there is any quick and effective method.

From my observation, its a lot of reading on newspaper, chinese reader's digest, listen to chinese news, work on articles review, read model essays, memorise of words, poems, speak more, etc....

[daisyt]

Hi parents, I found this very useful website talking about local 中学作文 weakness and tips to improve.


http://clblog.pbworks.com/

[daisyt]

I have heard dd mention before different types of zuo wen topics eg. 议论文, 读后感。


They practise a lot of 议论文, 读后感 from newspaper articles, usually about 500 to 800 words, per week.

And memorising of tang poems, song ci, di zi gui, cheng yu are very handy when it comes to writing zuo wen.

[millan]

daisyt:

hesiew:

Glad to find this thread.

My dd is not coping well with her Sec 1 HMT, scoring +/-50! :shock: She used to have HMT tuition in Pri but I stopped in Sec to thinking she could cope on her own and with my coaching. Now, I'm nervous with SA2 round the corner how to help her :?: She's weak in her writing and cloze passage, compre part ok.

Hope anyone with similar experience could share how to help her improve. Any recommendation for good tuition? Or any good assessment/reference/books that can help in home study? Thanks a lot!

Hi hesiew, personally I feel language is not something you can improve tremendously and fast by assessment/reference books or tuition (esp in Sec). Its more of long term and need a lot of no easy short cut ways. Maybe other parents can share if there is any quick and effective method.

From my observation, its a lot of reading on newspaper, chinese reader's digest, listen to chinese news, work on articles review, read model essays, memorise of words, poems, speak more, etc....

Hi my son also not coping well, got e8 .. 1st time failing Chinese in his life in SA1. Got a tuition for him but half way stopped as the teacher is ill. I now can only pray that he passed. And seriously thinking of changing him to normal chinese next year. He really dun hv interest, if he dun put in effort I really can't help him. His tuition teacher said he can do it one. Just that he refused.. so how ?:stupid:

[daisyt]

Hi millan, I personally feel that at sec school, teachers play a very important role to arouse their interest. Then parents play a secondary role. One thing I have observed, teachers who teach Chinese in a very non-traditional way, can gain the like of the students. These kids do not like traditional teaching esp subject like Chinese.


I give you some examples. Writing down the meaning of 生字 in English or in drawings form. As long as it can make the student themselves understand the meaning of that 生字.

Another eg. When the teacher explain a composition format, she would explain in a very local and fun way.

[24by7mum]

daisyt:

Hi millan, I personally feel that at sec school, teachers play a very important role to arouse their interest. Then parents play a secondary role. One thing I have observed, teachers who teach Chinese in a very non-traditional way, can gain the like of the students. These kids do not like traditional teaching esp subject like Chinese.


I give you some examples. Writing down the meaning of 生字 in English or in drawings form. As long as it can make the student themselves understand the meaning of that 生字.

Another eg. When the teacher explain a composition format, she would explain in a very local and fun way.

Totally agree - it has to be interesting!
Hesiew - you may want to try skylace language school at Funan Mall. Their teaching method is quite good - they try to get the students to love the language. :))

[Zann]

daisyt:

I have heard dd mention before different types of zuo wen topics eg. 议论文, 读后感。


They practise a lot of 议论文, 读后感 from newspaper articles, usually about 500 to 800 words, per week.

And memorising of tang poems, song ci, di zi gui, cheng yu are very handy when it comes to writing zuo wen.

Hi daisyt, any good reference used for 议论文. Do your dd's school advise students to do 议论文 and 描写文？ Don't know whether there is 记叙文 during 'O' level exam? any advice is appreciated.

[daisyt]

Zann:

daisyt:

I have heard dd mention before different types of zuo wen topics eg. 议论文, 读后感。


They practise a lot of 议论文, 读后感 from newspaper articles, usually about 500 to 800 words, per week.

And memorising of tang poems, song ci, di zi gui, cheng yu are very handy when it comes to writing zuo wen.

Hi daisyt, any good reference used for 议论文. Do your dd's school advise students to do 议论文 and 描写文？ Don't know whether there is 记叙文 during 'O' level exam? any advice is appreciated.

Hi Zann, see this link http://clblog.pbworks.com/ then click the 中学作文教学计划, there are many examples of 记叙文. Click the document file, very detailed information. I am not sure if O level has 记叙文.

I don' think her teachers advise them which to do. Its basically up to the students, what they are comfortable or good at.

Let me see if I can get dd to post something here.

[S-H]

Hi everyone,


My DS was chosen to take up higher chinese in sec 2. We are in a dilemma as to take or not. Everybody will be in the same class in sec 2 but if he is to take up higher chinese, he’ll hv to change class. He did not want to change class as he has made some good friends already. As parents, we of course will like him to take up the subject. Can anyone pls advise the advantage of taking higher chinese. Will he still hv the chance to take in sec 3 if he hv gd result in sec 2 again? Thank you.

[twilight]

With HCL, can get 2 bonus points for JC as long as pass. And you don’t have to take up Chinese in JC again, as long as you pass if I remember correctly. As for whether he can take up HCL in sec 3, it really depends on the school, so perhaps you can ask your school teachers. However, I would say that not wanting to take up HCL just to stay in the same class with friends is not really a wise choice, if he is indeed proficient in chinese.