How To Help Your Child Speak Well More than ever before schools are trending towards a curriculum

that emphasises presentation skills. Theres little doubt that aconfident speaking style and polished delivery will alwayscreate a favourable first impression, both in and out of theclassroom. Furthermore, these traits will stand your child in goodstead in social as well as professional situations for the rest ofhis life. As a parent, what can you do to help him achieve this level of articulation? SPEAKING Engage - Encourage your childs speaking skills by engaging him in conversation and discussing things with him. Correct Gently correct his mispronunciation by repeating his sentence with the correctly pronounced words with no pressure on him to repeat after you unless hes in the mood to do so. In this way youll be creating a non-threatening environment for him to practise and perfect his spoken English. Interact - You could also arrange for your child to interact with English speakers who have native-speaker fluency. Learn Phonics - Knowing the fundamentals of Phonics can also be a great boost for basic pronunciation skills. LISTENING BBC radio - Set aside time for your older child to listen to BBC radio at least once daily. For younger kids it helps to have the BBC station just playing in the background, whether at home or in the car. This is useful because many Singaporean speakers have atendency to stress the wrong syllable in a word. BBC announcers provide good models for Standard English speech. Furthermore this provides opportunities to role model for your kid, by repeatingthe announcers pronunciation of words youre unsure of yourself. Audio books - Buy or borrow audio CDs of your childs favouritebooks, read and performed by professional actors. Diction, accent,pronunciation and vocabulary are often dramatically improved simply by listening carefully to articulate speakers. Pronunciation CDs - Buy a good dictionary with a pronunciationaudio CD that offers both British and American pronunciation styles. You could also subscribe to an online dictionary that offers pronunciation audio clips. READING Read, read and read - Make sure your kid reads broadly outsidethe school curriculum for vocabulary building. You cant impresspeople with your verbal skills when your vocabulary islimitedit will end up limiting you. Its cheap, its helpful, and it makes writing fun! Writing creatively outside the classroom is immensely valuable in expanding ones writing skills. Journaling provides practice as well as a way of processing ideas and making writing a more natural, less intimidating activity. It can also help your child think through a problem or difficult situation. There are no rules! Write whatever, whenever and wherever your child likes. Similarly, daily journaling should not be mandatory. That will make it seem like a chore to be avoided, and your child will lose interest. NIFTY TIPS & IDEAS

 Let your child select his own journal, with a design she likes.If the book appeals to her shell be more willing to write in it. She could also make journal entries on the computer. A combination journal/scrapbook is also a great project, brimming not just with words but also with your kids own drawings and photographs. She might want to paste mementos like movie tickets, postcards, dried flowers, etc. to complementher written entries. This is a fun option for kids who are very visually oriented. Specialised journals are something your child might want to experiment with, like one where she could record interesting nightly dreams; or perhaps a travel journal or readers journal, for opinions of her favourite books. Writing prompts for jumpstarting your kids journal may include topics like: Who is your favourite storybook/movie/TV character, and why? If you could live anywhere in the world, which country would you choose? Read other peoples diaries! That is, those journals and diaries that have been made public. Reading the work of others cannot only be entertaining and informative, it will expose your child to different writing styles and points of view. An e xcellent first choice is The Diary of Anne Frank: Anne was thirteen when she began her diary during the Second World War, and she tells of her Jewish familys experiences as they go into hiding from the Nazis. Even though your childs life may not be fraught with suspense and high drama (fortunately), her journal will serve as an intimate reminder of her growing-up years, as well as a place for her to tap spontaneously into her creative energy.

Powerful Strategies to Boost your Kids English Comprehension Here are 2 powerful strategies your kid can start using now to help boost her English Comprehension: 1. The PQ3R Strategy (Preview, Question, Read, Reflect and Review) Your upper-primary child can apply this simple technique to every comprehension assignment and exam. It can improve her recall of the given passage, as well as glean the most information from it in the least amount of time. Preview: Note the title and skim the passage quickly, then read any instructions or subheadings twice. Read the first and last sentence of every paragraph, then the first and final paragraphs in their entirety. Look at the pictures, if any, and their captions. ! Question: This is where your child actively engages with the text and asks questions based on her preview. Questions may be as basic as who, what, when, where, why and how, e.g.: What is happening in this passage? Who are the people involved? ! Read: Read the questions again, so you have some idea what you need to look for. Then read through the passage completely, underlining relevant words or information. ! Reflect: At the end of each paragraph ask yourself: What newinformation or development does it offer? How does it build on the previous paragraph? Does it provide answers to any ofthe given questions?

! Review: Think through the main points of the passage one final time. Have all your questions been suitably answered? Do you completely understand what the text is about? The more your kid practises the PQ3R strategy, the morefluent shell become in reading comprehension. Truly themost effective way to build a solid foundation for the English language is through reading widely which brings us to thenext strategy. 2. Read For Pleasure Without the Pressure If you want your child to pick up the reading habit start by taking notice of her current favourite song, singer, actor, sports, etc. If its a song, search for the lyrics to the songs and have fun figuring out the meaning of the song and words together,and sing along if you wish. She can then follow up by reading magazine or internet articles about the singer. Once she is in the habit of reading for pleasure introduce other interesting topics. Soon you should see a dramatic increase in her interest to read. 2008 Elly Sim PSLE English Composition Strategies As was implied in last months article one of the objectives of the English PSLE is to measure how well your child can express himself in writing. The Situational Writing component tests his ability to respond to a practical scenario, the purpose being to synthesize and convey the information provided effectively. Since this type of writing is most common Im sure many situations will arise athome that your child can take advantage of for practice. Does someone need detailed directions? Do you need to send an explanatory e-mail or fax? Get your kid to write it! (And dont forget to look it over and offer any necessary improvements as well as encouragement.) In Continuous Writing your child will be expected to construct a story based on a picture or verbal description.Narrative guidelines will be provided; still, a dash of originality and imaginative detail might make his writing stand out. Show him photographs and drawings withpeople or animals in them that he can spin a story around. Write down a brief description of something happeningthen let him take it from there. (This component carries more marks than Situational, so he should proportion his time and preparation accordingly.)But whatever the context or subject, writing well and clearly involves good vocabulary, knowledge of grammar, andthe ability to organise your thoughts. Examiners look for evidence of a strong vocabulary and its appropriate use. I would advise students against mindlessly repeating thewords given in the assignment; instead they should try substituting synonyms and using their own phrasing. Howdo you equip your child to do this? By encouraging him toread widely, both fiction and nonfiction, even poetry! This is the quickest and surest way to build ones vocabulary. Help your kid improve the organisation and coherence in his writing by reading stories and articles with him and helping him analyse how the authors have structured each piece. What information is provided first and why? Is there causeand effect at work? What are the plot elements and how are they developed? Remember, good reading begets good writing. 2008 Elly Sim Coming next month:

Tips On Reading Comprehension WHAT ARE COMPREHENSION SKILLS? Comprehension is the process of making meaning from a written text. Typically, children might havedifficulty understanding due to limited vocabulary and/or a lack of familiarity with the subject matter. Boththese constraints may be remedied by reading more widely and making friends with a good dictionary.Comprehension skills can also be acquired through practice, and here are some interactive reading strategies you can use to guide your child. THINKING ALOUD: Good readers think while theyrereading. They draw on their personal experience andknowledge, language skills and strategies in order tomake sense of what theyre reading. By thinking aloud foryour child as you read along with her (she should have acopy of the passage in front of her) you will be modellingthose same reading strategies she should learn to use onher own. Youll be coaching her to recognise what shedoesnt understand, identify the difficulty and where itoccursthis is also the mark of a proficient reader.When she comes across a difficult spot you might suggest that she try to paraphrase the section in her own words; or if a particular word or idiom proves troublesome, encourage her to consult a dictionary. When appropriate, advise her to skip forward in the passage, or refer back, for information that might help her. ASKING & ANSWERING QUESTIONS: Asking your child questions about the story or passage will help to focus his attention and intellectually engage with it.Questions could be as basic as who, what, where, when,why and how. What is the passage about? Where are these events happening? Why are they happening? Who are the people involved? And so on. You may also wantto ask open-ended questions, which require your child to express his personal opinion and draw on his own experiences. A final tip, with assessment tests and exams in mind. By reading with your child and following the strategies outlined above, youll be able to identify the types ofcomprehension passages that challenge him. You can then make a special effort to practise withsimilar texts and topics. Decoding PSLE English This is the first of a series of articles aimed at taking the mystery out of PSLE English, in order to reassure parents thatit can indeed be conquered through steady preparation and regular practice. Forthcoming topics will include strategies and practice tips covering key elements of the exam, e.g. composition, c omprehension, vocabulary and spoken skills. But first and foremost its critical that parents and studentsknow whats expected in the English exam, so I have providedthe following breakdown to help you identify where your childs strengths and weaknesses lie. Paper 1: Writing 55 marks, 27.5% The first part of this paper is Situational Writing (15 marks) inwhich students respond to a given scenario, e.g. e-mail, anadvertisement, etc. The second part is Continuous Writing (40 marks) where students choose to write either a story based on a picture,or a report of a given situation. Paper 2: Language Use and Comprehension

95 marks, 47.5% Booklet A comprises 30 multiple choice questions for 30marks. These test comprehension of both a prose passage and graphic/pictorial information, as well as punctuation, vocabulary and grammar. Booklet B consists of 50 open-ended questions for 65 marks. These include another comprehension passage, spelling and cloze (fill-in-the-blanks) passages. Paper 3: Listening Comprehension 20 marks, 10% 20 multiple-choice questions test students ability to understand spoken English. Various texts will be read to them, including news items, instructions or stories. Paper 4: Oral Communication 30 marks, 15% Reading Aloud (10 marks) tests their fluency in reading with appropriate inflections, and also their competency inpronunciation and articulation. Picture Discussion (10 marks) assesses a students ability to interpret whats happening in a given illustration, and to do so grammatically, with suitable word choices. Conversation (10 marks) tests the students skill in oral expression through onversing with the examiner on a set topic.