Overview of Mother Tongue Languages

Our focus : To develop effective communicators and self-directed learners with a passion for the Mother Tongue Language and deep understanding of their cultural heritage.

The Mother Tongue department believes in equipping students with the knowledge and skills to be effective and confident communicators in the 21st century. Our teachers will focus on helping every child acquire the four language skills and develop a deep understanding of their cultural heritage and values.

KEY PROGRAMMES

In the Mother Tongue Language Department, we seek to provide a linguistically exciting, culturally vibrant and morally positive environment for our students. All our programmes aim at developing the cognitive processes of our students, leading them to enhance the 21st century competencies. Therefore, we incorporate the following activities that will help to maximise students’ learning capacity and develop them into self-directed learners with creative and critical thinking skills:

Differentiated Instructions

We are committed to bring out the unique potential of every child through curriculum differentiation. We customize our teaching resources by developing writing and reading comprehension packages and incorporating differentiated pedagogies according to the needs and ability of our pupils.

ICT-Based Learning

We believe in using ICT as a value-adding tool for self-directed and 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 Space (SLS) is the main ICT platform used in our lesson. SLS is for students to do self-directed learning and independent practice. Teachers will also use SLS in the delivery and formative assessment of the students.

Culture Festival Celebrations

Culture Festival Celebrations help students value Singapore’s socio-cultural diversity, and promote social cohesion and harmony. The MTL Department organises interesting and meaningful activities to celebrate Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Puasa, and Deepavali. These activities allow students to have a better understanding of other ethnic races, their cultures and traditions. This would help them better appreciate the multi-racial and multi-cultural society in Singapore.

Mother Tongue Fortnight

During MT Fortnight, a series of MTL activities is planned to enable students to learn and use MTL in a novel and exciting ways. The MTL Fortnight activities bring MTL learning beyond the classroom, stimulate pupils’ interest to use Mother Tongue language and have a deep understanding of their cultures.

Primary 3 Language Camp

The Primary 3 Language Camp provides a wide range of activities for students. We immerse students in an environment that encourages them to learn and use the language through the Language Camp.

Culture Performance Exposure Programme

The Cultural Performance Exposure Programme aims to expose pupils to Chinese language-related cultural performances and programmes. The Chinese name for the scheme means “free gate”, implying that participating schools have the autonomy to arrange their schedules and select suitable cultural performances by local or international performing arts groups. We arrange for our Primary 4 students to watch Chinese cultural performances at public performance arts venues such as theatres so that they can experience Chinese culture in an authentic atmosphere.

Reading Programme

This programme aims to help students cultivate the habit of reading Mother Tongue language books. We encourage students to borrow and read the Mother Tongue language books from the school and class libraries. They are exposed to various kinds of literature at different levels, such as picture books and bridging books at the lower primary, and short stories at the upper primary.

Last updated : 01/01/2022