Is your child struggling with the usage of the Chinese language?
In Singapore, English is the most common language used at home and according to a recent
government survey, only 34.9 per cent of residents aged five and up use Mandarin at home.
As compared to five years ago, it was found that 35.6 per cent of children frequently used Mandarin at home, so the usage of the Chinese language appears to be slowly declining.
Dr Susan Xu, who heads the translation and interpretation programme in SIM University says, “English is the main language in Singapore. People use it in school and at work. So, it is understandable that they will use English at home when they start a family, even if they did speak their mother tongue with their parents.”
Growing up in a bilingual environment and being mostly English speakers, do you find that your child is struggling with her usage of Mandarin?
But what can you do to help her improve her language skills and perform well in school?
Parents play an important role
Experts explain that as parents you play a big part in supporting your child’s bilingual language development and you can help by exposing her to the language by using it at home.
At the launch of this year’s Speak Mandarin Campaign, Deputy Prime Minister Mr Teo Chee Hean
also highlights the crucial role that parents can play to help your children build a foundation in Mandarin from an early age.
He says, “Building a foundation in the language from young is important because it will allow you to build up proficiency to the level that you choose, later in life.”
But if you feel that you need to brush on your own Mandarin skills, then the new Mother Tongue curriculum (Primary Chinese Workshop for Parents) by
Marshall Cavendish Education (MCE) aims to help parents to be confident in using Mandarin in speaking, reading and writing, so as to achieve effective communication.
Join their exciting series of Mandarin workshops in order to:
- Understand the new Mother Tongue (Mandarin) syllabus
- Learn strategies that can help your child overcome speaking, writing and comprehension in the Chinese language
- Learn how to encourage your child to use Mandarin for communication
You can help improve your child’s Mandarin skills by attending these workshops by MCE
Two different Mandarin workshops
There are two courses available to parents which actually make up the three components of an exam.
Oral & Comprehension (口试冠军王 & 阅读理解)
In the Mandarin Oral & Comprehension workshop, parents will participate in hands-on guided activities and learn about:
- Changes in the MT syllabus and how it affects the exam format
- Verbal and non-verbal communication
- Strategies and ways to assist your children to communicate better in real-life situations
- Use of video clips in the oral exam
- What are the skills required to attempt the different types of comprehension questions?
- Strategies to finding the answer from the text and checking for errors
- Hands-on guided activity
Suitable for: Parents of Primary School children of all ages
Fee: $80 per session
Composition (看，想，写。)
During the Mandarin Composition workshop, parents will also experience some hands-on guided activities and discover:
- Marking rubrics for Chinese compositions
- Challenges faced by students when writing Chinese compositions
- How to improve your child’s writing skills
- How to score in composition writing to excel in the Mother Tongue examination
- Hands-on guided activity
Suitable for: Parents of Primary 4 and 5
Fee: $80 per session
Mandarin workshop details
Dates: 17th September 2016 or 10th December 2016 for Oral & Composition; 28th January 2017 for Composition
Time: 9.00am to 3.00pm
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