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Why not teach reading?

July 12, 2016By Clarice Lim

This has to be one of the most common questions asked to me. The answer is quite simple.

Research has shown that children who acquire reading skills at an early age did not have an added advantage in reading comprehension later in life. In fact, those who were late readers (e.g. those who started reading fluently at 7 or later), when compared to early readers who started reading at 4 or earlier, caught up and matched the reading abilities of their earlier-reading counterparts within a few years.

Some studies had even shown that late readers develop much better comprehension than early readers due to the focus on development in other areas;

“Because later starters at reading are still learning through play, language, and interactions with adults, their long-term learning is not disadvantaged. Instead, these activities prepare the soil well for later development of reading.” – Dr Sebastian Suggate, 2009.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that our education system expects the students to be able to read by the time they reach Primary 1. Most schools still practise examinations every 3 months although they use words like “mini-quiz” and “review test” instead of the stress-associated terms like “SA1 Examinations” or “CA2 Test”. What’s worse is that parents are given the feedback during Parents-Teacher Meeting that their child is not performing, can’t read, can’t write etc. These all add to the stress that parents face, thus leading to them seeking help for their children to be able to read at an earlier stage.

Moreover, being able to read later in life doesn’t result in any disadvantage but focusing too much on reading when your child is still not ready will, on the flipside, turn them off from learning altogether.

This is precisely why I had focused my early childhood enrichment programs on enhancing the learning ability (ie. working memory, mental flexibility and inhibitory control), while infusing elements of phonemic awareness into the program as a secondary teaching objective rather than the primary. It is more important to gear the children with a heightened learning ability while developing their reading skills than forcing them to pick up an advanced skill and neglect their general learning ability, thus resulting in a delayed development.

To conclude, do not fret if your child is still not reading, carry on the stimulation of the mind and the training of the general learning ability to ensure that when they are ready to read, they can fly with the newly acquired skill.

CAPS or lower case?

July 5, 2016By Clarice Lim

Which is the correct answer?

I really love my grandfather.
I really love my Grandfather.
I really love grandfather.
I really love Grandfather.

The correct answer depends on how you address your grandfather.

The general rule is that all proper nouns should be written with a capital letter. Proper nouns refer to names of things. e.g. Clarice, Keming Primary School, Sony

Common nouns are names of things in general. e.g. woman, school, television. These words do not come with capital letters.

Therefore, Option 1 is correct because “grandfather” is simply used as a common noun that refers to the person as your father’s father because of the word “my” before it.

Option 2 is therefore wrong.

Option 3 is also wrong. Without the word “my”, “grandfather” becomes a proper noun rather than a common noun. Given that all proper nouns should come with a capital letter, Option 4 is correct.

In short, if you call your grandfather “Grandfather”, it must come with a capital letter. If you have the word “my” before “grandfather”, it must come with a lower case “g”.

Neither…nor VS Neither of…

July 5, 2016By Clarice Lim

Not just the students, the adults are very confused by these as well simply because they require some memory work. Also, the explanations online are not always consistent because the English language is a discourse that varies from context to context. However, for the sake of the PSLE standard in Singapore, the basic rule that students need to understand is this:

When using “Neither…nor” or “Either…or”, the form of the verb used in the sentence must follow the noun closest to it.

e.g.

Mother realised that neither the lamps nor the dining table was where ____________ should be.
(a) it	(b) its
(c) they	(d) their	( )

(Source: P6 Past-Year Exam Papers)

From the question above, you would have noticed the verb “was” after “the dining table” is singular, because the rule is to follow the noun closest to it, which in this case is “the dining table”. Therefore, the pronoun that follows “was” has to be singular as well, answer (a).

Now try this:

__________ either my brothers or my father responsible for the robbery?
(a) is	(b) are
(c) was	(d) were	( )

“my brothers” is the noun closest to the verb required in front. “my brothers” is plural. So the answer is either (b) are, or (d) were. Given that it is a question, we usually assume it’s a present tense because you are asking about it now. Therefore, the answer is (b) are.

When using “Neither of” or “Either of”, the form of the verb used in the sentence should be singular.

e.g.

We will be greatly surprised if neither of the boys ____________ how old Grandpa is.
(a) remember	(b) remembers
(c) are remembering	(d) have remembered	( )

(Source: P6 Past-Year Exam Papers)

In this case, we are really referring to none of the boys being able to remember how old Grandpa is, thus, the answer should be (b) remembers, since “none” is singular.

Try this:

Neither of the girls ________ attending the upcoming school carnival.
(a) is	(b) are
(c) was	(d) were	( )

From above, none of the girls is going to attend the upcoming carnival, thus it should be singular present continuous tense. Answer (a) is.

Why is “-ing” allowed after “to”?

June 1, 2016By Clarice Lim

We’ve all been there, our teachers in primary school told us we mustn’t add any participle to the verb if it follows after “to”. For example “to do”, “to run”, “to know”. And so we teach our children the same rule. However, there’s more to the rule than we can remember.

For example,

Jasmine is used to ________ in the room all by herself.
(a) sleep	(c) slept
(b) sleeps	(d) sleeping	( )

(Source: P6 Past Year Examination Paper)

The correct answer is (d) sleeping, and not (a) sleep.

This is how I usually explain to my students:

Jasmine is used to “something”. This “something” has to be a Noun, because Nouns are people, places and things. So this “thing” that Jasmine is used to is “sleeping in the room all by herself”.
But why must we add “-ing”? Because the rule is that in order to use a verb (sleep) as a noun, we’ll need to add “-ing” to the verb. By adding “-ing” to the verb, we can therefore use it as a gerund (which is a noun made from a verb by adding “-ing.”).

Now try this,

From getting the right angles to ________ the right filters, photography is a difficult art to master.
(a) choose	(c) chose
(b) chooses	(d) choosing	( )

Answer: (d) choosing

From “something” to “something”, what are the two “things” that makes photography difficult to master? 1) Getting the right angles and 2) Choosing the right filters.
Why is “-ing” necessary? Because the rule is that in order to use a verb (choose) as a noun, we’ll need to add “-ing” to the verb. By adding “-ing” to the verb, we can therefore use it as a gerund.

This kind of question usually appears only for the P6 papers, however, you can also spot them occasionally in P5 Synthesis and Transformation.

English

Why not teach reading?

CAPS or lower case?

Neither…nor VS Neither of…

Why is “-ing” allowed after “to”?

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