Chinese

Our Goals

Master the Language: To develop pupils’ language competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing in an engaged learning environment.
Treasure the Language: To make the learning of Chinese, Malay and Tamil meaningful by promoting the cultural richness found in each Language.
Love the Language: To spark the joy of learning Mother Tongue Languages with interesting and engaging instructional activities and programmes.

Book Recommendation by Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL)

Physical Book Recommendation

eBook Recommendation

E-pedagogy

With the development of technology, teachers incorporate E-pedagogy in their teaching and facilitation of learning. Pupils are introduced to different useful ICT learning tools and platforms for their Mother Tongue Language learning.

Young Journalist Enrichment Programme

Young Journalist Enrichment Programme is introduced to selected Primary 4 pupils. During the programme, pupils are taught journaling skills and how to draft good interview questions on their own to ask their interviewees. It cultivates pupils to be critical thinkers and reflective learners.

Being digital natives, pupils get hands-on experiences with the usage of ICT applications to put together a news report.

Pupils also get real-life experiences to be a young journalist at our school events, where they draft interview questions, interview fellow school mates and school staff and broadcast their curated news to the whole school during morning assembly. Through the programme, pupils grow to become effective communicators.

Making Thinking Visible

Critical and creative thinking skills are very important in teaching and learning. One key tool for developing and accessing these skills is by making thinking visible. Our Mother Tongue Department teachers design a range of activities with the incorporation of suitable thinking routines for our pupils to support their composition writing.

By tapping on visible thinking routines such as “See-Think-Wonder”, “Name-Describe-Act”, “Main-Side-Hidden” and “Sentence-Phrase-Word”, pupils make good progress in their composition writing.

Differentiated Instruction

Every pupil is unique and has an individual learning style. Thus, not all the pupils grasp a subject in the same way or share the same level of ability. Our teachers use differentiated instruction in our daily teaching so that we can reach everyone in class, help pupils with different learning styles and of different ability to make great learning progress.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessments give teachers the ability to provide timely and targeted feedback to the pupils. This allows our pupils to be part of the learning environment and to develop self-assessment strategies that will help with the understanding of their own thought processes. Our Mother Tongue Department teachers design different types of Formative Assessment materials in every day teaching, so that pupils could make continuous improvement with the feedback and guidance given by their teachers.

INOVAT Virtual Escape Rooms

In 2021, MTL department collaborated with our Innovation Department to design a Virtual Escape Room creation experience for our Primary 5 Higher Mother Tongue pupils. A digital escape room is a cooperative play experience where a team of players solves a series of puzzles online in a set amount of time to win. Pupils translate their academic learning to the project, building on their interpersonal and collaborative skills. This Escape Room also ignited their creative spark and encouraged perseverance.

Events

Mother Language Fortnight

The objective of the programme is to provide opportunities for pupils to appreciate the beauty of Chinese Language and culture. It has always been one of the crown jewels amongst the various programmes of the Mother Tongue Department.

During the two-week long programme, pupils were engaged in many fun-filled activities like calligraphy, karaoke, story-telling and the appreciation of Chinese tea. There were also level competitions such as Creative Reading and Writing competitions.

In 2021, “Mother Tongue-Cool” was also introduced to the pupils.

Students responded extremely well to the “Mother Tongue- Cool” activities, which encouraged pupils to share instances of them engaged in various daily activities whereby they are using their Mother Tongue Language. Creativity was unleashed and hidden gems unearthed as pupils showcased their talents through singing, comics drawing, acting out short skits and writing. It was truly an enjoyable time for both pupils and teachers alike.

Besides the “Mother Tongue- Cool” activities, pupils also engaged in various cultural activities. Our Malay pupils did “Kite Colouring”, “Wayang Kuilt Puppetry”and “Coaster Weaving”; “Agal Vilakku Painting”and “Copper Tooling” for our Tamil pupils; “Shadow puppet making” ,“Sachet making” and “Traditional Face Painting” for our Chinese pupils. These activities encouraged pupils to learn more about their culture in a fun and engaging manner.

Mid Autumn Festival Celebration

It is a tradition for Henry Park Primary School to celebrate Mid-Autumn together every year. Mooncakes tasting, Chinese riddle games, art and craft, calligraphy, lantern parade and a variety of traditional fun games and performances are organized by the Mother Tongue Department teachers. It creates a traditional celebration atmosphere for all the lower primary pupils and their family to celebrate this special occasion in the school.

Besides the celebration for the lower Primary pupils, classroom activities are introduced to students across the levels. For 2021, The Primary One and Two pupils enjoyed making cute little mooncake boxes, while the Primary Three pupils learn about the Moon Phases. Primary Four and Five pupils competed against each other online. On their knowledge of the traditions of Mid-Autumn Festival.

In addition, parents are also invited to have fun with their children by taking part in the Parent-Child Chinese Riddles Contest.