Your Queries - Mum from UK and Mum from SG

Hi,

Over the next few posts, I will be sharing some things parents have asked me through email with everyone. This is because I get the same type of queries and besides, sharing is always fun!

I had a query from two mums; on in the uk and one in sg about the following site.

http://must-zone.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/3-on-buying-books.html

They had been asking about the level of the English on both the sites and if it suited they children's standards. In fact, I also had a query from one parent who said he was very concerned that his child's english was behind the level expected of his age.

Before I address the question of which level of english the site is for, I wanted to help you guys understand what I think about skill levels in English.

It is important, I feel, to keep track of the language skills demanded of the english language syllabus. MOE has very explicitly written out the language skills demanded of each level of the students. I find it very useful to follow the following steps when I teach English.

1) Regular checks on the grammar skills of students through grammar exercises. The most common problems I think Singaporean students have are in tenses, singular/plural forms and collocations.

2) Teach sentence structures and the grammar rules used in them. Exercises on these are quite difficult to find. I resort to coming up with my own structured around sentence synthesis questions.

3) I also like to draw up Vocabulary profiles. I usually note down which students in class are able to use good vocabulary in a diary. This year, in order to cope with the higher number of students, I will be administering a vocabulary profile test to see which level students are writing at. This will allow me to track their progress throughout the year.


So back to the difficulty level on the website,

If we were to follow along the MOE guide lines, the exercise indicated above would be a low-moderate skill level for a primary 4 level ( age 9-10). I would however, not think that the skill level is sufficiently high enough. This is because, the passage doesn't teach or test tone, purpose, style and the ability to deduce meaning. Comprehension passages in primary school focus on looking for information, although I do see the trend of moving to deductive and reasoning questions.

I am of the opinion that comprehension drills and exercises do not only teach comprehension skills. They are actually very useful in bumping up the reading skills of the students. This can then teach the student to write better. So if a comprehension text, taught or analysed in class or with a teacher, does not challenge a student, then it is of little help. The passage is good to however motivate low to mid level learners in the age 9-10 range as a homework piece.

In my previous post, I have a simple vocabulary cum comprehension exercise that I use to help slower readers catch up. The key is to give more of these exercises on a regular basis and get the student to at the same time read more books. I also find asking students to share about their book and/or doing book reports consistently very useful.

The post: http://sgpsleenglish.blogspot.sg/2012/10/the-new-english-syllabus-hi-everyone.html

Hope I didn't ramble too much... English Teachers do that sometimes XD