Chinese Spelling (听写)
I do not want to keep this blog limited to English, but to talk about my experience with educating my son in the various subjects he takes in school. One of the subjects he takes is of course, Chinese Language, being a Singaporean of Chinese origin.
Because we seldom spoke to him in Mandarin when he was young, his Chinese Language is not very strong. Not to mention, he was a late speaker and we boosted his speaking with quite a bit of Speech Therapy, which is English based. As a result, he spoke Mandarin with a western accent. We send him to Berries for enrichment and it helped him quite a bit. His childcare probably did as well.
However, there was something about his childcare's Chinese Language programme that I thought did not make sense. One of the things that did not make sense to me was the choice of idioms. The idioms the school chose to teach was very historical in nature - in other words, they were formed because of some historical event in Ancient China. You see, when you teach idioms that are based from events from Ancient China, you have to teach the background of the idiom right? How many people really know much about the Chu-Han Contention (楚汉战争) between Liu Bang (刘邦) and Xiang Yu (项羽)? How could my son even understood the context of the idiom (四面楚歌)? If they just teach the words without the context, the idiom just loses its flavour. This is very perplexing to me.
Another thing that irked me was that the words they had to learn. Many of them were not commonly used words. They actually made the students learn names of grass and plants. In Chinese. I don't even know what are their English names! One of the plants they taught was the is Oxalis Corniculata (酢浆草). I guess if we take that all knowledge is useful (thanks to Bertrand Russell), then I have gained some knowledge? I don't think I will ever use or think about this plant anymore. On the other hand, I must admit that the plant he brought back from school was rather nice (but I have no idea what sort of plant it is).
Lastly, was the spelling. First of all, I am not too keen on spelling at the K2 level, though I know it is commonplace. This one of the few times I agree with MOE, because I noticed that MOE kindergartens do not give spelling. But since the rest of his classmates are doing it, I just made my son learn. I did not put too much pressure on him.
At first it was hanyu pinyin. He wasn't very good at it, but eventually he managed to get quite good at it. Currently, I think his hanyu pinyin is better than mine. Then, a month ago, it became writing Chinese characters. And we are not talking about simple, commonly used Chinese words, but difficult words exceeding ten strokes. I even found one word listed by MOE to be taught at Primary Four. That set off a big commotion - a What'sApp group full of mums was formed campaigning against it. I personally told the school if those were the words, my son will not participate in the spelling, thank you. Anyway, after all the feedback, the school changed to a easier list.
Now, on hind side, I still think the words were difficult and there was no clear sign of increase in difficulty in words (that's usually the case when spelling / vocabulary is thematic). But I wonder if my son could have handled it. Based on studies of cognitive development, he should be able to handle it, given proper guidance.
Anyway, fast forward to today. He has been given a new set of words. They are still difficult for his age, but probably easier than the initial list that created such a hullabaloo. We decided to just let him try. He was actually able to write some of the words. I realised that the school was also teaching him how to write the words (unlike previously where it seemed that the entire responsibility of spelling lay on the shoulders of parents). I guess that the help from school should have happened in the previous incident. So schools, when you stretch the child, please do not expect parents to do the dirty work without any aid from the school.
Anyway, what is the conclusion? I am still not convinced on the school's Chinese Language syllabus. But at least, they are scaffolding it for the kids. I guess I also should not underestimate my son's cognitive ability. Hopefully, issues for Chinese Language will stop when he reaches Primary School where MOE guidelines are followed.
Because we seldom spoke to him in Mandarin when he was young, his Chinese Language is not very strong. Not to mention, he was a late speaker and we boosted his speaking with quite a bit of Speech Therapy, which is English based. As a result, he spoke Mandarin with a western accent. We send him to Berries for enrichment and it helped him quite a bit. His childcare probably did as well.
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| Besieged by all sides |
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| 酢浆草 |
Another thing that irked me was that the words they had to learn. Many of them were not commonly used words. They actually made the students learn names of grass and plants. In Chinese. I don't even know what are their English names! One of the plants they taught was the is Oxalis Corniculata (酢浆草). I guess if we take that all knowledge is useful (thanks to Bertrand Russell), then I have gained some knowledge? I don't think I will ever use or think about this plant anymore. On the other hand, I must admit that the plant he brought back from school was rather nice (but I have no idea what sort of plant it is).
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| Plant from school |
Lastly, was the spelling. First of all, I am not too keen on spelling at the K2 level, though I know it is commonplace. This one of the few times I agree with MOE, because I noticed that MOE kindergartens do not give spelling. But since the rest of his classmates are doing it, I just made my son learn. I did not put too much pressure on him.
At first it was hanyu pinyin. He wasn't very good at it, but eventually he managed to get quite good at it. Currently, I think his hanyu pinyin is better than mine. Then, a month ago, it became writing Chinese characters. And we are not talking about simple, commonly used Chinese words, but difficult words exceeding ten strokes. I even found one word listed by MOE to be taught at Primary Four. That set off a big commotion - a What'sApp group full of mums was formed campaigning against it. I personally told the school if those were the words, my son will not participate in the spelling, thank you. Anyway, after all the feedback, the school changed to a easier list.
Now, on hind side, I still think the words were difficult and there was no clear sign of increase in difficulty in words (that's usually the case when spelling / vocabulary is thematic). But I wonder if my son could have handled it. Based on studies of cognitive development, he should be able to handle it, given proper guidance.
Anyway, fast forward to today. He has been given a new set of words. They are still difficult for his age, but probably easier than the initial list that created such a hullabaloo. We decided to just let him try. He was actually able to write some of the words. I realised that the school was also teaching him how to write the words (unlike previously where it seemed that the entire responsibility of spelling lay on the shoulders of parents). I guess that the help from school should have happened in the previous incident. So schools, when you stretch the child, please do not expect parents to do the dirty work without any aid from the school.
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| Latest spelling list |
Anyway, what is the conclusion? I am still not convinced on the school's Chinese Language syllabus. But at least, they are scaffolding it for the kids. I guess I also should not underestimate my son's cognitive ability. Hopefully, issues for Chinese Language will stop when he reaches Primary School where MOE guidelines are followed.
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