Are you finding hard to adapt to rapid changes in Chinese?The school year has started for many and there are a lot of things you need to adapt to.Especially from primary school to secondary school,you are in a total new environment and the increased number of subjects is shocking.My son who is in sec1 this year fortunately is able to cope well with his studies.
For students going towards secondary school chinese what you can find the most different is that the textbooks are much difficult and the style of writing is slightly different.You will also learn applied Chinese like writing formal letters, if you are in higher chinese,formal writing and summary will be routine for you.Of course the word limit will increase.
It's actually quite normal for students to take some time to adapt to the this new "Chinese" environment.But for those with weak foundation in Chinese,it is a challenging feat for them.With little exposure to Chinese at home during the holidays,they might struggle with school work in the term.
For express Chinese students some schools require them to do newspaper articles and compositons are no longer picture based instead on situational.
For Higher Chinese they have the pressure of remaining in higher chinese stream.Most schools wil set a banchmark whereby higher chinese students have to pass in the overall results in order to stay in higher chinese.I have seen many people drop to express chinese at the end of sec1 and 2.Most often is that they cant cope with the high standard.A high standard includes increasing the length of the compo(800-1000 words at least) Lengthy and difficult passages resulting in people not being able to finish the paper.And of course applied Chinese like newspaper articles,book reviews and letter writing.
The method to scoring well in Chinese is totally different with that of primary school.During primary school,as long as you work hard,do those exam papers and assessment books you are able to score well.If your child is in a elite school where academic competition is stiff,Chinese might be the subject that separates the First in level to the tenth in level.Chinese is one subject sometimes even top students cant cope with.It can be your "friend" which will pull you up and your "enemy" that pull you down.Therefore Chinese might be crucial if you want your son to do outstandingly well.
But in secondary school the principle of "language cant be learnt overnight" will start to surface.Therefore we need time to build up the language ability.
Xpress students
I will place emphasis on news.They are the source for questions likely to come out in the "o" level.Newspaper article reviews can come out in compo paper,Oral exam conversation can be on a news topic even in the main paper comprehension passages can be tool to test your knowledge of news.I will also use news portal websites like omy.com and xin.sg to enhance interactive learning following MM Lee's message.
Higher Chinese
I will also do the same for the higher Chinese students on the news segment.TO enhance every individual's writing skill,I would give them more opportunities to practice writing.With frequent practices,the mind will be able to flow with the hand when writing.For during the compo exam,time constraint will push you to " write while you think". I will also pass some high standard reading materials (maybe from China or taiwan) to the students for reading.Sompe examples include《 少年文摘》，<四方八面>和《直通车》。This will bring up the standard of chinese through frequent reading.
