Chinese Language
Vision
At ACS (Primary), we aim at providing a holistic education that will help develop our students in all the four main areas namely Affective, Cognitive, Social and Physical. The Mother Tongue Department (Chinese Language) seeks to provide a linguistically exciting, culturally vibrant and morally positive environment for our students. We believe such a learning environment will be conducive for our students’ development in these four main areas.
Curriculum
We have also incorporated the following four initiatives that will help to maximise their learning capacity and develop them into independent learners with creative and critical thinking skills:
Differentiation – We are committed to bring out the unique potential of every pupil through curriculum differentiation. We customize our teaching resources like oral skills and comprehension skills booklets as well as pedagogies, according to the needs and ability of our students
ICT - We believe in using ICT as a value-adding tool for classroom learning. When we use ICT tools for our lessons, we expect students to engage in either Self-directed Learning or Collaborative Learning. Student learning platform such as Student Learning Space is used to support their learning. Some ICT tools used are: Nearpod, Linoit and Kahoot.
Experiential Education – We believe in taking lessons beyond the classrooms. For P1 and P2, we have Fun Days, where P1 and P2 students learn to converse in Chinese in an authentic setting.
Creativity – In order to encourage our students to become good problem-solvers and to develop critical and creative thinking skills, we have incorporated different strategies into our lessons, e.g. Make Thinking Visible.
Assessment Matters
We focus on six main core skills, namely listening skills, speaking skills, reading skills, writing skills, interactive conversational skills and interactive writing skills.
Listening and Speaking Skills
In the listening skills component, students will be trained to listen and understand texts from different genres such as short stories, novels and poetry and be able to respond to questions based on the texts. The Speaking Skills component trains students to be able to communicate in clear fluent and effective Standard Chinese Language. Our 5-year Oral Package, developed for students from P2 to P6, aims to help students to be confident in describing pictures and conversation.
Reading skills
Reading skills include the ability to read texts from different genres with understanding and to respond appropriately. The 5-year Comprehension Package developed for students from P2 to P6 aims to help students to develop different skills and techniques for answering open-ended comprehension questions.
Interactive Conversational Skills
Interactive conversational skills enable the students to respond to questions, participate in discussion, and develop others’ ideas. Interactive writing skills focus on the students’ ability to write for a specific purpose and audience.
There are various ways in which we will help students prepare for the Chinese Language assessment. Students are given practices that are similar to the examination format. This is to ensure that they learn the different skills needed for assessment and learn time-management to complete the paper within the stipulated time.
Programme (For all levels)
Primary 1 - Primary 6
Curriculum Differentiation
To cater to the learning needs of students, our learning materials such as spelling lists, oral skills package, comprehension skills package and class practices are customized to better cater to the different learning needs of our students. For example, lower primary bridging classes have scaffolders such as hanyu pinyin in their Spelling list, and students in the enrichment classes have elaborate resources to stretch the students.
Primary 1 - Primary 6
Reading Programme
This programme aims to expose our students to different reading genres and to cultivate the love of reading of the Mother Tongue Language books. Different reading programmes are planned for respective levels. For example, recess story telling activity is to encourage more reading, time is set aside for P1 and P2 students to read story books. This is followed by post-reading activities that help assess the students' understanding of the material
Primary 1 - Primary 6
Applied Learning Programme
This programme provides learning opportunities for students to appreciate Chinese Language and infuse fun in the Chinese learning experiences such as Story Telling, Drama,Text Recitation and Singing. This develops students’ oracy skills to enable them to express themselves, understand others and embrace different perspectives.
Primary 1 - Primary 6
Mother Tongue Languages Fortnight
To provide a culturally vibrant learning environment, there are various level and school-wide activities which expose our students to the Chinese Culture and richness of the language. For example, drama, martial art, and basic drumming techniques. Through these, students learn about the significance and cultural background of the activities.
To provide a linguistically exciting environment, Primary 1 and Primary 2 students learn to converse in Chinese in an authentic setting during the P1 and P2 Fun Days.
After the activities, representatives from the various levels, including Malay and Tamil students put up a concert for the school during assembly to show case what they have learnt during the MTL Fortnight.
Primary 4 - Primary 6
Conversational Chinese/ Malay Programme
This programme aims to equip students with a foundational grasp in the Chinese or Malay Language.
Learning Support/ Stretch Programmes
Primary 3 - Primary 4
Mother Tongue Support Programme
This is a customised programme to support students in the learning of Mother Tongue Languages (MTL) in Primary 3 and 4. We believe that every child can learn the Mother Tongue Language. We hope to develop students as Active learners of MTL, Build their confidence in learning MTL, making Mother Tongue a Living language by using the language in daily life and provide Engaging and enjoyable learning experience for the students.
Writing Buddy Programme
The Primary 4 Higher Chinese Language will take part in the Writing Buddy programme. Writing Buddy aims to broaden students' global perspectives and enhance their writing skills through meaningful letter exchanges. The students will correspond regularly with students from Xingzhi Primary School in Nanjing, China. Through this interaction, students will gain insights into different cultural practices and traditions, fostering greater appreciation and respect for diversity. This initiative also seeks to strengthen students' ability to use the Chinese language effectively in authentic contexts, promoting its practical application in daily communication. By participating in this programme, students will develop not only their language proficiency but also their interpersonal and critical thinking skills, making learning both engaging and purposeful.
Primary 5 - Primary 6
Remedial Programme
Selected P5 and P6 students will attend remedial programme once every week. This programme will help our students to reinforce what was taught in class and to build up their confidence in the learning of the language.
Primary 6
ACE for Oral Progamme
P6 students who need more support for oral in conversation will be selected for this programme. The students will be assessed based on a rubric and will be given feedback for areas of improvements.
Events
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Chinese New Year Celebration
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Applied Learning Programme Showcase
Competitions
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2022 National Vlog Competition for Singapore Primary School Students
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2022 13th" Global village" Children & Youths Bilingual Speech Competition
Useful Links
