Forward to PSLE Chinese 2017 step 3 Time is your friend!

Time is your best friend if you let it work for you.

By this step you have Identitied 3 things:-

A) Goal: Do your child want to get an A or a B or Just a pass?
B) Workload: How much to study to get the Goal?

If your child is lacking in Primary 4, its about 1000 words to pass and 1500 words to get an A.

If your child did not do well in primary 5, its about 600 words to pass and about 1000 words to get an A.

If your child has been doing well in primary 5, then your child needs to revise every thing at least once and learn new words fast by reading compositions from China primary 4-6 child or reading secondary 1-3 compositions.

As the new Oral format requires some news knowledge about Singapore and local cultures, its best to listen and watch Channel 8 News video often.
Here is the link.

Take an Example: Traffic accidents involving Motorist has been on the rise.

Now you go thought the video with your child, then ask them to firstly tell you the moral of the video, which is there had been a rise in traffic accidents involving motorists.

Secondly you asked them to outline the 3 reasons for the rise in motorist accidents.

Then you can asked them if they are the motorist, or the car driver or the the road user, what would they do on the road to be safe.

If you want to analyse your child's performance you could record your child's answer on video and analyse their performance.

There are 4 things to measure in an oral conversation:-

1) The language usage, is your child using the correct words and phrases to express themselves and are they using idioms and other more sophisticated way to express themselves. That is they are using not just simple grammatically correct sentences.

2) Your child should be able to correctly identify the theme or moral of the story accurately, take a stand and stand up to their viewpoints with reasons.

Yes students who took 2 sides of the stand and students who cannot make a stand are not doing well here.

Your child must have a stand.

3) Your child should be able to do some simple reasoning for his/her stand. 2 to 3 reason to support their stand will help a lot.

4) Your child needs to relate a story and tell the story well with
a) expressions

b) emotions

c) idioms and phrases

d) and proper pronunciation.

4) Proper courtesy are essential like asking to be seated, smile at examiners, looks calm and polite, maintain some eye contact.

Do watch a video on Singapore affairs that are local and directly related to a student everyday and practice the above answering method.

Another new item is the simple letter writing segment.

There are some thing to look out for.

Firstly, the points are directly given in the notice or note, Do not fabricate facts.

Secondly, do write down the details as most marks are quite minor as every point is like 0.5 marks, so take care of the details and write them in.

Thirdly, Most questions is about the 5 w and 1 H so figure out them quickly will help with your answer a lot.

5W1H :Who,Where,When,What,Why and How.

Do take a look at all the Notes, Advertisements and Notices every where in your surrounds and learn to understand their word usage etc.

6月30日:（要买要快!）教总会员特惠: 预购杜莎夫人蜡像馆(MADAME TUSSAUDS)门票

Hits: 249

亲爱的教总会员：

 

广受大家欢迎的景点会员团体特价购票活动又来了！今年的景点是杜莎夫人蜡像馆(Madame Tussauds)。成人票公定价是一张39元，现在仅售19元，等于是省了20元(51%的折扣)！您可以在开票后的六个月内的任何一天（包括周末在内）和家人或朋友一起去参观！因此买越多、省越多！

 

杜莎夫人蜡像馆(Madame Tussauds)特惠票价如下：

 

成人票价          会员特价$19　(原价: $39)

 

儿童票价(3-12岁)  会员特价$14　(原价: $29)

 

乐龄票价(60岁以上) 会员特价$14　(原价: $30)

 

由于团体购票需要达到5０张票（组别不拘）以上才能享有特惠。一旦确定认购票达到50张的最低数目，我们会在7月7日电邮通知预订者是否成功达到50张票，然后开放让订票者在7月10日之前付款，就能在7月底之前取票。

 

请大家把这个好消息告诉大家，快上教总网站预订这些门票，预订门票网站将开放至下周四(7月7日下午5点）截止。特惠价机会难得！别犹豫了！心动不如马上行动！有兴趣购买者，请速点击下列教总网址进行订购：http://goo.gl/forms/2QmwJAsrjt1RnuDh6，以免向隅。

 

而这个特惠仅限教总会员，若您的同事或朋友还不是教总会员，却希望购买这些优惠门票，那么就请他们联系我们，马上加入教总，就可以享有这个特惠。入会表格也可以在教总网站www.sctu.org.sg下载。若还有任何疑问，我们欢迎您电邮sctu@ntuc.org.sg 或致电6744 3191,我们亲切友善的行政同仁将乐意为您服务。

 

新加坡华文教师总会理事长

 

叶金雄敬上

 

2016年6月30日

取材自教总网站http://www.sctu.org.sg/jiaozong/index.php/events/latest-circular

C) Plan you childs Daily activities and Add 30 minutes to 2 hours everyday to do just Chinese work.

There are just 4 types of work daily
1) Word recognition and quick spelling of primary 4 to 6 words and phrases.

2) Reading, Reciting Very good Compositions and memorizing them paragraphs by paragraphs.  

3) Listening and watching Channel 8 news that are local and current. parents should try to let them tell you what did they watched and why such things happened.

4) Record down your child reading the textbook chapters, one at a time.

Good luck parents and children for your PSLE!

PSLE Oral Exam Help Part 1

Watch the following programme and engage in a conversation about the topic in the Video.

Skills to develop: 1) Obsevation   2) Analysis 3) Listening Skills

Try to Answer the following Questions:

一、你在录像中看到了什么？
Skills required: 5 W 1 H (Who,when,where,what,why and How), Detail observation, intense listening skills.

二、在生活中，你有看到自己或别人保护环境吗？谈谈那次的经验。
Skills required: quickly figure out the moral of the video and Story telling skills,

三、你认为这样做才能让新加坡人爱护环境？
Skills required: Analysis of the issue and quickly come up of 3-5 ways that SIngaporeans can help to solve the problem.

Sorry, no hanyu pinyin, In PSLE students need to listen carefully to the questions and interpret them correctly. Then students have to analysis the topic and choose a story relevance to the topic to tell.

Last questions is part of the argumentative essay which requires one to come up with a few solutions so that Singaporeans can help solve the problem or promote awareness of the issue.

If you need the modal answer to these question please email to mrtan.sg@gmail with the subject header "oral1 (space) name (space) answer" Thank you.

Stages of Language Acquisition in video

This is very interesting, the stages of Language Acquisition for your reference.....

STAGES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
• Learning in the womb: Hearing prosody in the womb (stress patterns of a language.)
• Soundless communication (begins 0-3 months): using body language, eye contact and other non-verbal forms to communicate.
• Cooing (2-6 months): producing vowel-like sounds.
• Babbling (6-12 months): experimenting making sounds of language, but sounds are indistinguishable as real words and lack meaning.
• Holophrastic (11-18 months): producing small number of isolated, single words. 
• Telegraphic (1 ½ - 2 ½ years old): making two word utterances, often highly abbreviated. 
• Multi-word (2 ½ years onward): utterance length increases, growing use of grammatical morphemes.

Forward to PSLE 2017 Chinese Step 2 The Tools

Step 2 to PSLE Chinese success is to gather your resources for the preparation.

(A) Study Notes
First you need to get hold of primary 4 to 5 Chinese textbooks. If your child's school has a set of notes, it would be fine. if you cannot get it, then you have to ask your contacts for the last few pages of the Chinese textbook which is the bilingual word lists for that level.

For primary 6 textbook word list, it is at the last few pages of the textbook. I have compiled a study guide using the word list with words, meaning, pinyin and even a model sentence for every word and its in this book (FYI I am the author and I will get some royalty when you purchase this book.)

(B) Edictionary

Next your child needs to prepare a eDictionary as required by SEAB for use in PSLE.

Most model now are similar in features and equally small in size.

Hansvision PX2051 is an old model while PX2131 is the latest model.

Compare Besta Models

All Pass 1 Features (On Besta website, All Pass 1 is not listed.)

• 独家内置《现代汉语词典》，由中国社会科学院语言研究所编纂
• 依标准“中小学华文字表” 将 “现代”分类为 “中学字库”， “小学字库”及“成语字库”， 方便学生查询及学习
• 依标准“中小学华文字表” 提供小学基本2000字“汉语笔顺”
• 在字典功能下反白文字， 并按hot key 可直接显示该字笔划顺序
• 提供两种显示字型， 可依萤幕显示需要随时切换字型大小
• 提供“汉语拼音” 及 “总笔划” 二种中文输入方式
• 所有单字及词组皆依其汉语拼音符号发音
• 可反白释义内容并开启六层交互查询，学习更连续
• Built-in with Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, strengthening your learning power.
• Built-in with writing strokes for the basic 2000 words in accordance to the Chinese character list for Primary and Secondary schools in Singapore.
• A special hot key to show the writing sequence of the Chinese word.
• Able to display two different types of Chinese fonts.
• Input method for Chinese words includes both Hanyu Pinyin and total strokes.
• All words and phrases are pronounced in accordance with its Hanyu Pinyin symbol.
• Able to display up to 6 level of explanation through highlighting the word or phrases.

All Pass 2 Features

• 新编学生实用词典 - 新亚出版社
• 现代汉语词典 - 中国社会科学院语言研究所
• 汉语词典 及 成语词典
• 手写辨识 - 手写即可输入中文
• 单字笔画顺序演示
• 切换显示字型大小
• 30层交互查询视窗
• 作文及中文学习资料 - 标点符号， 量词等
• 参考资料 - 常用题词/百家姓/三字经/弟子规
• 世家时间/日历/计时器/秒表
• A Practical Chinese Dictionary for Students (Singapore Asia Publishers Pte Ltd)
• The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences - Institute of Linguistics)
• Chinese Dictionary and Dictionary of Chinese Idioms
• Chinese Handwriting Recognition
• Stroke Order Demonstration
• Display Font Size Toggling
• 30 Cross-search Windows
• Composition & Chinese Learning Materials such as Punctuation, Classifier etc
• Reference Materials such as Common Epigraph《常用题词》, Hundred Family Surnames《百家姓》 , Standards for Being a Good Student and Child《弟子规》, The Three Character Classic《三字经》
• World Time, Calendar, Timer

I would often recommend Hansvision model because it has two features that helps students in examinations:-

Quick and easy HansVision Initial Consonant Input method
E.g. mmhh = 马马虎虎

Time saving intelligent wildcard search capability:
E.g. 不*不* = 不卑不亢，不慌不忙，etc...

And the above features extend to phrases.

Besta All Pass 2 is similiar to PX2131 but is a bit more durable.

For a one time use, just get PX2051. If you want to pass down edictionary to younger brothers or sisters, get Besta All Pass 2.

If you need to use the pen feature to recognise the composition helping words, choice only PX2131 or All Pass 2.

(C) Model Compositions
To Excel in composition there are two roads that will achieve your aim:-

i) Read a lot of story book and reread all primary 5 to 6 textbook passages and your child will figure out for themselves the way of the composition,

ii) Read, understand, memorized model compositions in various situations and write a short paragraph daily which will help your child digest what they read.

So a few very good model essays which is A to A* graded would be a good start. Get them when your child's school do publish chinese composition books.  

or get a compile of good compositions from friends or school.

The method from potato to 34/40 in composition is described here as a process.

"Little Boy memorized his very first Chinese composition last year in Nov-Dec 2010. We are now September 2011. It has been 10 months. The start was most onerous indeed. To describe the first 25 compo memorizations as long and hard toil, is perhaps an understatement. He could not recognize more than half the words in each compo. The compos were taken from a compendium of 1000 Best Compositions from the equivalent of China's PSLE. They were at least 3 to 4 years above his reading level then. Grandma read them into a digital audio file and Little Boy plugged in the speakers and listened and followed and memorized and recited to me.

The very first week, he spent 7 hours a day reciting these compos. I sat near him. I worked near him. It was, for me, like nursing a querulous sick child back to health. You stay there by his side so that he has the strength to carry on, and to not give up on a task that looked impossible to him. There was nothing I could do for him because I am illiterate in Chinese. It was a bit like watching your child battle critical illness and not be able to do anything but hold his hand and stay nearby.

From reciting others' works, he moved on to writing his own. We were thrilled that he could score 34/40 for a piece of compo homework. But those 3 pages meant 6 hours of sustained effort. Under the timed conditions of 50 minutes in the exam, he failed his compo at the mid-year exams. However, he did very well for his Comprehension because all the reading and recitation had improved his word recognition immensely. Thanks to the recitation, he scored wonderfully for Oral reading because he was expressive and he could recognise all the words in the text. Overall, he managed to do well enough to avoid being asked to attend supplementary classes. Even though he had failed his compo, I convinced him that it was still a triumph to be celebrated." 
From the blog post : http://petunialee.blogspot.sg/2011/09/reaching-tipping-point-for-chinese-part.html

(D) For oral practices, Videos presents a normally 2D situation in a 3D way so that your child has not only need to pay attention to details in the video but they have to figure out the Big picture of the Video as Question 2 and 3 will be dircetly linked to the Moral of the story of the Video.

For daily practice, describe news videos segment by segment from News 8.
http://tv.toggle.sg/en/channel8/news/ch-8-news-tonight/episodes

Choose stories related to normal Singaporean children lifestyles will be nice.

Yes, daily practice all the news segments until your child can say them out loud and maintain eye contact.

Ok now is the important part, the 3 questions commonly asked about the video:-

1) Talk about one detail in the video that interested you?
For parents who think this is easy, try them out yourself in chinese!

2)   What is the moral of the story of this video, and tell us about one thing that you have done to related to the moral of the story

3) What can we (as students) do to help enhance the moral of the story.

For an example see below

In short, try to gather the few things below:-
1) Textbook from primary 4 to 6, print out the last few pages which looked like a small guide book with words, pinyin, and English meaning.
2) Buy a Edictionary
3) Find A to A* composition either from school, friends or internet
4) go browse each news segment in channel 8 news, use toggle catch up video to watch and rewatch. Then ask your child to answer the 3 commonly asked questions.

That all for part 2, Wait for Part 3

For any enquires, email mrtan.sg@gamil.com for Mr Tan.
Thank you for reading. Hope it helps..

Forward to PSLE 2017 Chinese Step 1

Now is December Holidays and those Primary 5 students should start planning for PSLE Chinese 2017 now. As the saying goes,"Failing to plan is planning to fail." so now I'm here to outline a few steps to help your child succeed in PSLE Chinese.

The ten steps to success in PSLE Chinese 2017.

Step 1, Know thy enemies, understand oneself and the battle is half won

A) Do you know when the PSLE is going to happen?
Here is the document from SEAB MOE Singapore (dated 7 Dec 2016).















From the document, your child needs to be prepared for oral by August, Listening comprehension and all written papers, that is composition and paper 2 by September. So from now to September is about 9 months or about 270 days.

B) The next thing about the exam is that you need to know how much your child should know in order to be successful.

The first things your child have should be a good foundation and that includes at least 3 things:
Firstly, your child should have a good understanding of all the words as taught in the primary 4 to 6 textbooks. And your child should be able to use those words to form simple sentences correctly.
By the way, your child need to roughly know the workload which is about 400 words or 1000 words.
Most children will see the above number and felt its impossible. well lets be proactive, and assume your child want to know all of them in 4 months. Your child could study 1000/4/30=8.3 words every day for the 4 months.
So by studying 8 words every day, your child will revised 1000 words in 4 months. That looks more workable than studying 1000 words in 4 months.
Yes a lot of children do not know the tactics to get what they want. by simply divide the work loan into smaller workable pieces will help your child do a lot in a short time.
And a lot of parents said, "my child will forget what they learnt fast." well that's why this process should be revised constantly.

Secondly, your child should be able to write grammatically correct Chinese sentences with minimum spelling errors.
This involved both reading and writing. Reading helps to reinforce your child's understanding of sentence structure and grammar in the same time helps with word recognition and understanding.. while writing forces your child to put words in paper. Your child will need to form the sentences, verify them grammatically  and lastly write them down.
Conversation helps your child in their understand and usage of  those words in real time and it helps your child in their thinking processes.

Thirdly, your child should be well versed in expressive phrases and be fluent in oral conversations especially those common nouns and adjectives. And the ability to tell stories fluently is important too.
By reading well written compositions and learning the authors' word usage, your child will gain an understanding into the thinking processes which helps to form good sentences and what are the good words to use in certain situations.

C) Lastly, your child should have an idea about success in PSLE Chinese.
Is it a pass, or a A? your child should know what are they getting now and project a target that they can achieve or want to achieve.

Why set a Goal?
Children without a goal will lose focus very fast and sink into their habits and eventually be as good as they are now. Your child cannot improve by doing what they are doing now.

To do different things consistently requires your child to be accountable for their own results. Most children expect teacher and parents to do for them while they continue their bad habits, their results will almost be impossible to improve.

But I have to forewarn parents and children not to set an aim as high as 2 times your children's present grade. For example Linda got an D grade and aim for a pass, that's a aim that is achievable with some effort like 30 minutes a day revision. However, if Linda is to set a target of A, that is 2 grades higher than her present grade, She would need to prepare to study 10 times harder than her peers to achieve her target that is to spend 2 hours daily on her revision and drill exercises.There is no free lunch, if you desire result, then you have to give out luxuries in life to study.

Furthermore the goal should be your child's desired success.

I can help your child in Primary 6 or before that in their PSLE and help them maximize their potential in Chinese. I had been teaching and guiding children outdo themselves in psle for 10 years. Every  year I have students that got A or A* when they just passed a while ago. If you think I can help your child please drop an email at mrtan.sg@gmail.com for Mr Tan

Please use "A1 Chinese " follow by your name and email/tel no. Thank you. 

continue step 2 at a later date.