Every year PSLE Oral test pupils for their spoken Chinese language, and I do collect those oral topics but they are not complete yet.
PSLE Chinese Oral from 2017 to 2018
2017 Day 1
(Neighborhood Relationship)
Neighbors placing obstacles along the corridor
Keeping school corridor clean
Day 2
(户外活动Outdoors Activities)
Video showed the
characters riding bicycle, blowing bubbles, having pinic.
What are the advantages of outdoor activities
Should Schools encourage students to carry out outdoor activities (+ why/why
not)
Year 2018
Day 1
(Seeking help/Learning from friends)
旁述：同学之间应该互相帮助，关心友爱 - What would you do if you are the boy (facing difficulties
with his work)? - Do you think friends are the best/good source of
help/learning? Why? - Give examples of how friends can help each other? - How would you react when your friend points out your
mistakes/weaknesses you? - Share an experience in which you learnt from your friend.
PSLE Chinese new oral format is summaried as such "Students will be given 10 minutes to prepare – they will have to plan their time to review both the reading passage (on computer screen), and the video for oral within that time frame. Upon entering the exam room, they will then proceed to read the passage on screen, and watch the video once. Subsequently, the examiner will ask 3 guiding questions related to the theme in the video –
A question about the content of the video – what happened, what did you observe?
e.g. Tell me about an event relating to “helpfulness” that you have seen in the video.
The student’s thoughts/views/comments related to the theme, what did you learn?
e.g. What helpful deed have you done for your friend and what did you learn?
To share a similar/relevant experience, or to further extend the theme to society.
e.g. How do you think the school should encourage pupils to care for each other?"
Other then the guiding questions, students need to answer related questions as the examiners guide the students in answering those questions. Those extra questions are there to help examiners correctly assess the students ability.
The old format focuses more on locations and their related activities and students need to know names of common things, common activities and a lot of action words. (note: What Primary 1-3 has been teaching is very good for the old format.) Now the new format changed its focus: The content(topic) of the exam is very important now as your child need to know the topics by heart.
1) Keep our environments clean
2) Go Green, earth hour, recycling, reuse etc
3) Traffic safety
4) Healthy eating and living
5) Helping the needly, giving seats etc
6) Be independence like learn to cook, organizing school bags etc.
https://zbschools.sg/
7) Values such as Responsibility, hardworking, Caring could be a topic too.
Resources;
A) There are several books with videos so that you can practice with your child, they are quite X tho.
B) Get the apps for PSLE Chinese Oral Exam Guide (口试精编) it has some free video for practice.
C) School often gives out Oral booklets from primary 4 to 6, if you collected them then they can be helpful.
D) I personally find the guide book '看录像说话' by '大拇指' is useful but you have to ask your child to use all the points and write down the scripts according for every page. Ready made answer scripts in the market are either not in depth or lack key points."Thumbs Up 拇指家族 《小学看录像说话》终于出炉啦！ 《大拇指》配合2017年小学华文口试新增的看录像说话环节，推出《看录像说话》手册， 帮助小学生应对新的会考口试形式。看录像口试指导手册订价S$15元（非订户学校）。 手册不在市面上销售。公众如果要少量购买（50本以下）， 可直接拨电《大拇指》编辑室63191548 询问。 学校一年若订阅40期《大拇指》， 学生只须付6元就能买到一本手册（加录像CD）。."
Above is the extract from their promotional material, hope it helps.
As for Oral Recitation, Please make sure your child read out loud one paragraph daily in Chinese as a practice.
Before their examinations, Ask them to read out the passages from PSLE booklet, PSLE oral books within 30 seconds to 45 seconds without any hesitation/stops at all. This is to train 通顺朗读能力 fluency.
(Yes its 250 words in 30-45 seconds.)
Just before exams, memorized the topical scripts for question 2 and 3.
Bring all oral notes and booklet to exam waiting room.
SA1 has mostly ended for a lot of your child and now it is time to take inventory.
First you need to fill up a quick checklist
Chinese SA1 2017
Name:_____________________
Primay 5 / 6 - ( )
School : __________________________________School
Date : _________/_____________/2017
Paper 1 (question 1 or 2) : __________/40
Question 1 is the themed composition while question 2 is picture composition.
Result:__________/40
(1-20: your child needs to really copy and understand 10 compositions.
21-30: your child needs to memorised those common composition words and phrases
31-40: you child has done well and they can improve on their grammar and help them read widely so that they can expand their vocabulary and learn different ways to express themselves.)
If section A scored less than 45, your child needs to revise all the primary 5 and 6 new words and phrases in every chapter and reinforces their knowledge by doing sentence construction every day. Hanyu Pinyin, word application, grammer and vocabulary are essential in this section.
If section B scored less than 20, than your child either need to overcome comprehension phobia by doing more comprehension questions, or they need to be very careful in their answers and be encouraged to write more. Its better to make some errors(1.5-3.5 marks) than to get 0-5 marks in this section.
Comprehension is actually quite easy to score if they mastered the vocabulary and the grammar. students don't read precisely because they don't recognise words and cannot understand deeper meaning.
Students need to read their textbook texts aloud everyday, do record them their reading in smart phones so that they can hear their own voices.do read all the chapters in primary 5 to 6 textbooks to expose them to a variety of texts.
use xuele.edumall.sg for all the reading texts online.
After reading all the textbook texts, let them read story books on audio. This will expand their knowledge of words.
Yes you may train your child to memorise the words and meaning together with hanyu pinyin from primary 4-6 textbooks too.
Paper 3: Video Oral and conversations. _______/50
Reading passage: ________/20
Video Conversation: ________/30
Reading passages
Make sure there is NO Hanyu Pinyin, as Hanyu Pinyin would be more a hindrance than an aid. There will NOT be Hanyu Pinyin in the examination passage so your child had to take the hard path else they will lose they edge in examination.
Reading the textbook texts everyday is one of the best ways to improve on reading passage.
The other method to improve reading passages is to take psle passages from the psle booklet and learn every words via edictionary or google translate! until your child can fluently recite the passage in whole.
Video Oral is new and the content tested are actually quite different, new text format actually are more conversational then mere describing a picture.
This means your child need to be able to converse along common theme such as recycling, coutesy, manners, success etc.
To train your child to talk with some content, please let talk to them about these topics and guide them about the main points.
Question 1: what do you see in the video, describing in details the events in the video.
Question 2: Did you or your friend done something and what do you think or feel?
Question 3: What do you think the school can do for the students regarding this problem?
Do ensure they can have more than 1 point per question and they can go in depth with their own insight.
Paper 4: Listening comprehension : ________/20
Generally students can score in this paper as it just involved with basic listening skills and some analytic skills.
Now we are coming to the end of term, if your child is getting negative like saying things like cannot do, hard to do, don't know, I am weak etc, please talk to them positively, change their negative state quickly before it become a vicious cycle.
Now let Tony Ribbons give you some ideas to help your child turn their dreams to reality by changing their states quickly.
Now if your child is in stress or anxiety, learn to cope.
Now with SA1 finished or near finished, I hope your child has build a habit of studying. Studying is not hard, its building a habit of studying that is hard.
Your child's good study habits will be their future good work habits and ethos so it pays to build their habits early.
Email mrtan.sg@gmail.com
if you need your child to attend special intensive PSLE/primary 5 training camps in my home for the coming June holidays.
* The intensive camp will be 5 days (3 hours each) to help your child quickly increase their Chinese Vocabulary in 5 days via games and activities.
*Each class is limited to 5 children so that we can maximize learning.
If you are interested please email mrtan.sg@gmail.com
If you think your friend or relative's child may benefit from this intensive camp, please share with them this message.
SA1 Oral is coming and video oral communication is quite new.
So how do we prepare for it?
These are 3 tips to help you in Chinese Oral SA1:-
1) Do read your textbook to familiarise with all the words that are going to be tested. And read from Da Mu Zhi and Dou Hao so that you can read out the words from memory.
NOTE: Read everyday for 5 minutes will help a lot in Recitation.
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.)
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..
