Mother Tongue Languages
Explore how Mother Tongue Languages are taught through rich cultural activities, drama, and real-world experiences that make learning enjoyable and meaningful for every student.
CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
The new Primary MTL curriculum enables young learners to experience the joy of learning MTL, so as to motivate them to like and learn MTL for life. The Primary MTL curriculum equips learners with the essential communication and language competencies, culture & values and 21st Century Competencies, and helps them become confident MTL users.
Communication - Students are equipped with foundational language skills to ensure effective communication.
Culture & Values - Students learn to appreciate their own MTLs, culture and traditions.
21st Century Competencies - Students are equipped with foundational social-emotional competencies and competencies such as civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills, critical and inventive thinking.
DEPARTMENT PROGRAMMES
EXPERIENCES
Language Week
This programme is held in collaboration with the English Department. It aims to instill the joy of reading through a variety of language activities in and out of curriculum. During the week, students get to participate in language games during recess. Choice board reading activities are also designed for the students. Some activities include bookmark design, comic creation as well as reading aloud a book to friends and family. For Mother Tongue (MT), parent volunteers record storytelling videos and these videos are shown to the students during MT lessons. On Character Day, students come to school dressed up as a book character and introduce the character to their friends.
Mother Tongue Language (MTL) Fortnight
During MTL Fortnight, students have the opportunity to be engaged in different cultural activities, e.g. writing Chinese calligraphy, making wayang kulit and designing deepams. Students also showcase their language talents in poetry recitation, storytelling, singing etc and upload their performance clips via Padlet. Another highlight of MTL Fortnight is the online “Escape Room”. Putting on their thinking caps, students solve puzzles based on their own language and culture, making connections to their learning. These engaging activities and experiences will certainly pique our students’ interest in learning about their language and culture.
P1 & P2 Speech & Drama
This programme aims to develop students’ oracy skills and arouse their interest in the learning of the language through stories and drama.
Cultural Performance Exposure Scheme (CL & TL)/Theatre Experience (ML)
Students are provided opportunities to be exposed to language-related cultural performances by local and foreign performing arts groups. This year, we will again be bringing the students out to the theatre to watch these performances. We hope that through such exposure, it can help to sustain students’ interest in language learning and help them better appreciate their culture.
Authentic Learning Experiences (Lower Primary)
Authentic learning experiences are created within the curriculum to bring classroom teaching alive. For example, CL students take on the role of stallholders and customers when purchasing items. Students enjoyed the experience while learning the sentence structures for the lesson. ML students learnt the skill of journal writing through the unit “We are Active Learners”. Students learnt about animal folklore through storytelling and experienced paper weaving before writing about their experiences. Drama-based teaching methods are also employed in the TL classroom. By taking on different roles in an imaginary setting, students are empowered to engage in creative conversations with their peers. The enthusiasm shown by the students during these lessons brings out the joy of learning.
SUPPORT PROGRAMMES
P4-P6 Remediation Programme
This programme provides targeted support for identified pupils to address learning gaps and support pupils in their learning through a structured remediation plan.
EXTENSION PROGRAMMES
Competitions
The department provides opportunities and exposure to selected students to stretch their potential in relevant language skills, e.g. writing and oracy. Some competitions that our students have participated in include Text Recital Competition, On-the-Spot Chinese Creative Essay Writing Competition, National Primary School Picture Book Creation Competition, National Pintar Kata App Competition and Muthamizh Vizha.
USEFUL WEBSITES
FOR CL LEARNING
Xuele
Aligned to the 2015 Primary School Chinese Language curriculum. Focuses on developing students’ skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing in a fun way. Students can log on to Student Learning Space (SLS) with their account to access the resources..
FOR ML LEARNING
e-CEKAP
(Suitable for Primary 1 to 5) Aligned to the 2015 Primary School Malay Language curriculum. It provides complementary multimedia resources which develop students’ Malay Language skills and knowledge in a fun and engaging way. Students can log on to Student Learning Space (SLS) with their account to access the resources..
Young Readers Series, Nabil and Nabilah
(Suitable for Primary 1 to 3) Developed by the Malay Language Learning and Promotion Committee.
https://www.mllpc.sg/agab-publications.html (opens in new tab)
FOR TL LEARNING
Theen Tamizh
Aligned to the 2015 Tamil Language Primary curriculum, the multimedia resources include animated songs, stories, interactive pages etc. These resources focus on developing students’ language skills and knowledge through joyful learning. Students can log on to Student Learning Space (SLS) with their account to access the resources.
Kani Mani App
This app features a series of interactive and animated eBooks in Tamil for children. The stories and activities (in the form of games) introduces words from the stories in a fun and interactive manner. This eBook is jointly developed by the Tamil Language Learning and Promotion Committee.