Giveaway: Chinese eOracy HomeKit!

Chinese Oracy is one area that I cringe when it comes to exams and tests. Like most Singaporean children, I think that Dumpling is not as fluent as she should be when it comes to chatting in Mandarin. I have been more intentional lately when it comes to engaging her in conversations in Mandarin as she still has 病句. It is more about practice to build up the competency as well as right usage of words. 

So as a parent, how do we start and where do we start from? Especially since there’s been a change in the Oracy requirement for PSLE; where the format is now an e-format, using video clips and where the marks are now 25% of the total score. 

I then chanced upon a home kit – eTutor eOral Exam Pack by the creators of eZhiShi (and “newspapers” such as 新朋友which I believe many of the Primary school children are subscribing to). I decided to buy the set (retailing at $69) to try it out.  

:: What the pack consists of:

A Guide Book and a USB Drive

USB: 

In the USB, it consists of:

-          5 video conversations 

-          10 animation conversations 

-          15 read aloud 

The USB card also consists of e-oral procedure and simulation, oral prompts and reference answers. 

Guide Book:

The booklet is an e-oral guide which shares tips on scoring for the examinations. 

:: How it works

The USB drive comes in the form of a “card” where we need to insert it facing this way. 

Your laptop / PC should read the drive and there should be a pop up screen with folders inside. For most, you should be able to set it up by clicking “autorun”.  However, as I am not the administrator for the laptop which I used to try out this card, I had to then click on the “alt.drive” folder and then double click on the icon where it opened up this screen below:

After loading it, the page below should pop up:

The eOral pack, as seen above, has individual sections where you can work with your child directly on reading aloud, video conversations, etc. There is also a complete "end to end" mock experience (eOral Simulation) which leads from "read aloud" to "video conversation" seamlessly.

:: The main sections:

1) Read aloud
The format looks very similar to the www.ezhshi.net portal and in this USB, there are 15 read aloud passages.

Your child can then choose to read on his/her own or click on the "readaloud" button where a narrator will read it and as he/she does, the font colour changes, assisting the child to follow the "flow" better.

The great thing is that even if  you are not around as your child attempts it, you can get him/her to record the reading (red button) and you can review it later. In the event if there's any assistance needed, a quick click on the "question mark" will yield a "help guide" (below):

 

2) Conversation practice
There are 10 "scenes" used in this animated clips with different 生活单元 for discussions with your child.

Each conversation practice has 3 sections to the discussion (indicated by the numerals below) and like the other sections, this also allows your child to record his / her answers. Your child can also choose to read the text to the oral prompt given. 

Importantly, for some children who need more support as they are unsure of how to proceed, a sample "answer" is provided - both the text as well as someone narrating it. 

3) Video Conversations

Besides the 10 animated clips, this eOral pack also includes 5 video recording. I understand that more clips will be added after a quick call with the company :)

Like the animated clips, these also has 3 sections to the oral prompts. 

4) eOral Simulation 
Lastly, there is an eOral simulation which brings the child through an "end-to-end" Oral Examination experience - Reading aloud + the conversation after watching the video clip. 

You can view a sample of the video clip here as well as a simulation of the procedure at the same link.

:: What I like about it

Convenience & Content
Honestly, this is #1 reason because I believe many of us will have challenges being able to get our hands on the resources to be able to view any video / animated clips. To have this in a ready format brings convenience to a whole new level as it is basically a "plug and play" hit.

Additionally, I really like the content as it is based on authentic experiences (生活单元) where I believe that it is easily understandable and relatable to children.

Content flow
The flow is thought through properly and Dumpling was pretty much able to navigate through easily. While Dumpling may not be at the level of the suggested vocabulary (this goes up to P6), I thought that it is a good exposure for her.

Guide Book
Importantly, this set comes with a guide book where the questions and the suggested answers are printed in it.

This makes it easy for us as we have a hardcopy to readily refer to as it provides a "compilation" of the activities and model scripts in it. :) 

I am pleased to share that I have 3 x eOral Exam Pack (worth $69 each!) to give away! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

1. The products are kindly sponsored by E Com Education International Pte Ltd and the giveaway is not endorsed, or associated with Facebook.
2. The products cannot be exchanged and are not exchangeable for cash
3. Please answer this question in the comments section below: “What are you doing to encourage / support your child's Oracy skills at home?”
4. Winners are to collect  (during office hours) from Monday to Friday at: 33 Ubi Ave 3, #03-23, Vertex Building, Singapore 408868
   
   GOOD LUCK! 

Disclaimer: My eOral Exam Pack was a personal purchase where I found it useful and collaborated with E Com Education on this giveaway. All opinions expressed are entirely ours.

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Primary School: Chinese Oracy Preparation

With the last post on the a new series where I share on Primary school resources, here's the second post on a guide that I found useful.

The book comes in a set of 4 from the same good people that brings us the Chinese magazines 新朋友。

:: Contents Page / Format
The book essentially is divided into 3 main sections - "read aloud", "picture talk" as well as some "show and tell" sample topics / presentation.

:: Read aloud

What I like about the "read aloud" is that it does not come with HYPY so for children who are already starting to recognise words, this would be a good guide for them to use. The read aloud passages are kept quite short (the kiddo told me that school is about the same) and the stories are on simple plots that the children can identify with. 

:: Picture Talk
The book is of quite good quality where the pages are thick and the illustration bright and colourful. The picture is also of A4 size which I personally prefer. (Some titles I have flipped through are in black and white and A5 in size which I feel totally unappealing).

Importantly, in the following page, a helping word list is provided. What I really like is that with each of the "item/term", there is HYPY, English term as well as a picture of the item and this will be really useful for parents as a reference.

But the part that is useful for most parents would be the suggested answer for the picture description which is "broken down" into 4 sections: introduction, an "overview", the flow proper and the conclusion. By providing a sample flow, I feel that this would aid the parent and child in planning out the stories. 

:: Show and Tell

For Dumpling, part of her oral assessment includes Show and Tell and I have previously shared on some show and tell tips for P1 here. Among all the guide books which I purchased, this is the only one that comes with a sample on "Show and Tell". I find this section a good reference in the provision of ideas / flow.

Importantly for me, as the publisher also publishes Chinese magazines 新朋友 which Dumpling's school uses to supplement her Chinese lessons, I do find the topics covered in this book in line with what school is testing them on, at this point in time. These books are also compatible with a reading pen which the publisher sells. This will be useful for children who requires additional assistance where they can use the pen to read out the passages, anytime and anywhere.  

I have previously written a post on nurturing a love for the Chinese language before and you can read more about it here:

Part 1: Read Read Read (books of a different kind)
Part 2: Speak it, Use it!
Part 3: Watch it!

Part 4: Play It! 

Part 5: Write it! (小书 Small Book) 

This is an ongoing series on documenting my learning and Dumpling's Primary School journey. 

Edit: Here's a sharing by Susan from A Juggling Mom on resources for Chinese Oral too! 

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram!  

Primary School: Chinese Picture Talk!

If you have not already heard, it was announced a while ago that the PSLE Chinese Oral exam will be updated where children will now watch a video recording and then record their answers using a voice recorder from 2017. This will effectively replace the good old “Picture Talk” – 看图说话。

Having said that, many schools are still starting the children with看图说话 especially in lower Primary which I think is good as it allows the younger children to cement their foundation in terms of appropriate vocabulary, stringing a sound sentence and then work on improving their description.

Like many of my friends, we do not speak enough Mandarin at home though I try hard to inject bits and pieces of it while we are driving / running errands where we describe our surroundings, etc., in Mandarin. But when it comes to assessment time I get all iffy and worried about the kiddo. So, I did the Singaporean thing and bought a few guide books to help myself help her. LOL.

Here’s sharing the first one which I find useful. I chanced upon this book when I was at Popular bookstore waiting for pick the kid up from her workshop. I am sharing on this book first as I feel that it serves as a good introduction to the various themes and the appropriate words to be used for each of those themes:

The topics are introduced thematically. I like that the topics are something the children are able to relate to and can understand; and that many are in line with the topics in their textbooks (which I did a comparison between the old and new Chinese syllabus here)

:: Contents page 

(P1 textbook)

The words introduced in the guide book are "everyday" words and scenes which are also relevant in Primary 2. 

:: Format

For parents who are not eloquent in Mandarin, the book is a bilingual title where the English words are written next to the Chinese words and the book also includes the HYPY of those Chinese words. 

In short, it is almost like a thematic "dictionary" but with colourful illustrations which is a plus point in attracting the children.

Each topic spans over 2 pages and includes a "read-aloud" section as well as a "conversation" （会话）section.

Some of the items / words below are also in the Primary 2 syllabus where food items were taught in one chapter.

For parents who struggle with knowing what to ask or what to discuss with your child, the questions in 会话 section would be useful for you.

The read aloud sections (fortunately or unfortunately depending on your preference) have HYPY at the bottom. Personally I prefer for the paragraphs not to have HYPY as they do not have it in the actual tests but I think for children who are just starting off, this may be less intimidating. 

The book was priced at SGD12.75 when I bought it last year and comes with an audio CD which basically reads out all the words in the chapters including the read aloud 读一读 and 说一说 sections. 

This will definitely be useful for non Mandarin speaking parents, for parents who are busy or for parents who wish to improve their children's pronunciation (though I must add that the narrator's way of pronouncing 我 sounded a tad weird to me :p). 

I have previously written a post on nurturing a love for the Chinese language before and you can read more about it here:

Part 1: Read Read Read (books of a different kind)
Part 2: Speak it, Use it!
Part 3: Watch it!

Part 4: Play It! 

Part 5: Write it! (小书 Small Book) 

Looking for more sharing on the Chinese syllabus, I recently interviewed a friend who is an MOE Primary School Chinese teacher on Chinese Composition which you can read about here too. 

This is an ongoing series on documenting my learning and Dumpling's Primary School journey. 

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram!  

Primary One: Learning about the Chinese Curriculum

Chinese is a language which I have been openly anal about since Dumpling was young. While we homeschooled on the rest of the subjects, Dumpling attended a Full Chinese Immersion daily classes during her preschool years but I did work with her on various activities at home for Chinese to further cement the foundation. 

Then lo and behold, MOE announced a change in the Mother Tongue syllabus for Dumpling’s batch during late 2014 where the focus is for our children to be active learners and proficient of the language. Hence with that, came brand new textbooks, workbooks and flashcards.

I noted some differences between the old syllabus and this new one. 

:: Meaningful topical approach
A flip through the book shows that the content is meant to be something relate-able and using topical approach on everyday topics.

This comparing to the old syllabus (see bottom half of the photo) where the topics are not something that is meaningful or useful for the children. 

:: More words

A quick comparison between the old versus the new one seems to suggest that new syllabus covers more words.

Below is the 生字表 comparing the words between the old and new:

This is also because based on the old syllabus, HYPY is very much the focus for the first few months before they embark on word recognition. With this new syllabus, HYPY is taught in every chapter.

You can also that with the new syllabus, children are taught to write more words and from Chapter 1.

:: More topics and a focus on Oracy

The new textbook appears to be more comprehensive with the wider range of topics which you can see from the contents page above. Additionally, it also has a stronger emphasis on the verbal part with more daily “conversations” captured in the illustrations. 

:: So what goes on for tests?

For Dumpling, she was on holistic assessments last year so there was no formal Semester Assessments. What took place instead for her school was that there were bite size assessments from week 5 where the “elements” were broken down into different weeks.

For e.g. for Chinese, Week 5 could be Listening Comprehension, Week 6 could be Oral – Read aloud, Week 7 could be Show and Tell and Week 8, the written paper.

So for Oracy, on a termly basis, there are always 2 parts: either a read aloud + show and tell or read aloud + picture description. Schools will usually send back a sheet to share guidelines and even a template. I have previously shared on some show and tell tips for P1 here.

:: What about Ting Xie?

For many of my GFs and Dumpling’s school, Ting Xie (Chinese Spelling) features a mix of Han Yu Pin Yin and the words. When I first saw the list, I was very worried. To me, HYPY is to assist the child to read better with a list of mix words in a sentence, how is the child able to recall which part are the words are and which, is the HYPY?

For Dumpling, her school teacher will prompt them either verbally or write the structure on the white board in a format of dash and squares.

So for e.g. for the first ting xie list in the below picture

 the teacher may write this out on the board for item 9:

This format allows the class to know which goes where. Of course, not all schools use this format so you may need to check on this with your teacher. 

So is the Chinese work manageable? At the moment, yes, but as always, I believe in consistent work. So how do I revise, you may ask. 

Here’s my 3 study tips.

1) Speak and Tell!  

To help make it more natural for Dumpling to speak it more often, I bought 2 books on Oracy practice to work on read aloud as well as picture description. I will share that in a separate post as this post is becoming quite long. 

I also try very hard to set aside a specific time – just that 10 mins car ride / during meal time to have meaningful conversations with her. It exposes the child to useful and applicable vocabulary (e.g. in Book 1B, there is a topic on food) which I think is important and useful.

2) Consistent work  

I go through the words with Dumpling weekly when it is time for her ting xie. Now, for your test prep work, you can refer back to this list too as there will be “fill in the blanks” part for the kids in the papers.

What you can do is also to use the glossary for revision for questions which ask about the 旁边. 

The glossary also provides a good list of words which your child should be able to "read" and "write". These will be the words that the tests should be based on for the moment.

3) Read read read
Though this is not a immediate tangible thing, I always encourage parents to read with and read to your children from a young age. It need not be a full book daily; a few pages is a good way to start. Download Chinese dictionary onto your phone which will be helpful if you come across any words that you don't know. 

The reading is important as it increases not only vocabulary bank but helps with proper sentence structure which will be useful when the children start to work on composition. 

I have previously written a post on nuturing a love for the Chinese language before and you can read more about it here:

Part 1: Read Read Read (books of a different kind)
Part 2: Speak it, Use it!
Part 3: Watch it!Part 4: Play It! 
Part 5: Write it! (小书 Small Book)

Mummy blogger Mrs Kam has also written about the new Chinese Curriculum here. In it, she addresses the issue of mixing HYPY and Han character and some sharing on her conversation with her son's P1 Chinese teacher. :)

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts (both to the kiddo and my furkid, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Primary One - Nurturing a love for Chinese #5: Write it! (小书 Small Book)

From an earlier post where I reached out to a friend, who is also Chinese teacher in a Primary school, on sharing some tips on Chinese Composition, came the suggestion of creating a 小书, Small Book. The idea of creating one is to engage the children to reflect and write, and at the same time, in a fun and creative manner!

So I decided to take this on to try with the kiddo and we created 1 小书 so far with another still "work-in-progress". 

For our first attempt, because I did not want it to be so taxing for her, I decided to make it with a 填充 format. To start, we made it as a 6 panel book using this format. I wanted to set her up for success so that she has a positive experience and I made it a fun story with open ended sentences where she can pen down her portion. 

I also cut out a window with a pen knife so that she is able to slot in whichever illustration she fancies for the moment. 

Pages 1 & 2

After jotting down the start of the story, before Dumpling began, I got her to read to me first and we discussed this in Mandarin. I prompted her with questions such as "她是一个怎么样的女孩?", "你觉得她会怎么样做?", etc.

She then started to fill the book on her own. 

I also left the illustration half completed so that it has room to allow for creativity and she can doodle what she likes.

Pages 3 & 4

As part of the objective of this exercise was also to encourage her to converse in Mandarin, I got her to write down dialogue too. It would then allow me to be able to gauge her sentence structure, the high frequency words knowledge (if she is able to recall), as well as to expand her vocabulary range.  

Pages 5 & 6
For these last 2 pages, I wanted to make it fun for her. Because we have loads of stickers at home, I cut out a plastic sheet and drew the face of the girl on. With the plastic sheet, Dumpling can then paste on whichever dress she fancies for the moment, making this activity an interactive one too as she can change the dress design any time she wants to. We also made a "closet" where she cut out dresses for the girl. These dresses can be "worn" by slotting them under that same plastic sheet. :)

If you are keen to make one too, here's what you may need for materials:

- A4 paper (if it is a 4-page book) / A3 (for 6 pages book). I prefer using construction paper as it is thicker
- Colourful pens / markers
- Scissors (may need pen knife)
- Glue stick
- Scotch tape
- Old magazines where you can cut out pictures from

- Optional: scrapbook materials (I bought 2 made-to-go albums for this purpose!) 

So there you have it! Our very first 小书 (Small Book) which is not unlike the lapbooks we have made in the past, only just in Chinese. :) I hope to share our next book soon!

This is an ongoing series on documenting my learning and Dumpling's Primary one journey. 

This is part of a 5-part series:

Part 1: Read Read Read (books of a different kind)

Part 2: Speak It, Use It

Part 3: Watch It!

Part 4: Play It! 

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram!  

Primary One: Chinese Compositions

I am blessed because in my circle of friends, I have many educators whom I am able to reach out to, to clarify and seek for advice / opinions. Though I was a part time tutor years back, there have been many changes to the Primary school syllabus over the years. I even had to do "investigative" work to understand the Stellar system and learn about the English curriculum again.

Importantly, there has also been a total change in the Chinese syllabus where the course materials have been updated and the focus is now on communication/oracy skills. (I have previously shared a post on helping your child to prepare for Show and Tell.) While working with the kiddo on Chinese oracy (will share in another post), one other thing that came up was composition.

To be able to write, it must mean that the children need to be able to string sentences together, have the right vocabulary and write the right words. Hence I reached out to a friend (a current Chinese teacher) to ask more about Chinese compositions in Primary schools.   

Q: Based on the current system with the change in P1 syllabus, which year is Compo needed?

A: Currently schools are doing 4-picture compositions from Primary 3, and 6-picture compositions from Primary 5. For some schools, they may start earlier with a 4-picture composition; these all vary slightly from school to school. 

Q: How do we support our children in writing? There seems to be a jump from just "fill in the blanks" (Tian Chong) to suddenly needing to produce a piece of work?

A: Basically, activities like Tian Chong in Paper 2 test on the pupils' reading and comprehension ability. To do so, they need understanding of vocabulary which is taught via textbook. Of course the new textbook teaches beyond vocabulary. Since at the moment, with the new syllabus, we only have P1 textbook, I would say that for P1, focus of the textbook is really more on oral and listening interactive skills.

Q: In terms of flow / content, is there a suggested format? (Say for lower primary?) Are there specific areas to watch out for?

A: Writing at young age is more about writing sentence or short story - 写句／写话. Importantly good sentence structure is very important for the Chinese language: 句式练习. The progression should be in this manner: 从字、词、短语、句、段、篇.

I engage my child (who is in lower primary) through the making small books (小书). I also use picture books to build up my child’s comprehension and inference skills. Hence, my child is very quick in Q&A sessions after being read a book.

With the picture books we read, I will then encourage my child to work on writing. To start off, it can be something that is related to the book we just read but progressively, my child has started to work on writing which is not related to the books we read.

To elaborate, for e.g. after reading 我爸爸，you can design the small book in the form of a大嘴书 to express what your child wants to say to his/her father. Also, for this book, there are many repeated sentences that begin with 我爸爸真的很棒，他像什么一样。So in my child’s small book, the same sentence structure (句式) was adopted. You can build up slowly – at first my child only started with drawing, then I guided on the writing slowly.

You can also do thematic topics too, like festivals or special days. Here’s one we did on National Day. 

(Above sample provided by "interviewee")

(If you like to know more about this approach, I adopted it from a Taiwanese master teacher, 林美琴, in her book: 从阅读到写作).

As for Primary 3 to 6 picture composition format, many schools train their pupils in having 开头，内容，结句，结尾.

结局 is the ending of the story, as in what happen to the character(s) in the end, but 结尾 is commonly expected in Chinese compositions when character reflects on the lesson learnt from the incident.

An example:

“怎么了？”林老师好奇地问。小美把事情的经过一五一十地告诉老师。林老师听到了，马上跟小美跑回课室。林老师一看到天明和大山打架，马上大声地喊他们，要他们立刻住手。林老师狠狠地把两人骂了一顿。大山和天明知道错了，马上跟对方道歉。林老师要他们握手言和。最后，这场风波就这样平息了。（结局）

俗话说：“经一事，长一智”，这件事让大山和天明上了人生宝贵的一课，他们从此做什么事情之前都会三思而后行。（结尾）

However, with so many model compositions available in the market, I feel that this has also led to pupils (even for Higher Chinese pupils) writing only in this genre/way. To write about life experiences, however it requires a different skill set. 

This will require parents to read to and read with your children and engaging them in meaningful conversations so that they are sharing their thoughts and views. Through small books, children can then write whatever that is on their mind or apply their experiences into these stories.

This is an ongoing series on documenting my learning and Dumpling's Primary one journey. 

Disclaimer: the article is a sharing based on my friend’s observations and it does not represent the teaching fraternity / education system.

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram!