English

Objectives:

The English Language Department is focused in developing our pupils to be confident and articulate speakers, having the ability and skills to achieve critical visual media literacy, and to be able to be avid readers and inspired writers.

Our pupils apply the 21st century skills of communication, critical and creative thinking and collaboration in their lessons and various oral presentations in class as well.

The pupils’ effective use of the English language is achieved through a strong foundation and rich language for all. The department adheres closely to this approach in the teaching of English, using the EL 2020 Syllabus as a guide.

English Syllabus and Programmes:

Specific Aims of EL Syllabus 2020

The overarching aim of the EL Syllabus 2020 is to develop effective and affective language use in pupils in the following areas:

Learner Outcomes and Values

The EL Syllabus 2020 seeks to develop 21st Century Competencies in our learners through the teaching and learning of EL to enable them to be:

Literature

To further infuse creative and critical thinking skills in the learning of English Language, we have introduced literature to our pupils.

Through the Literature Programme from Primary One to Six, pupils gain an awareness and are opened to appreciate multiple perspectives through the study of texts from different parts of the world. Upon appreciating the contexts in which the literary texts are written, pupil then respond to the texts by giving their personal responses to different themes, for example on family, sibling rivalry, society and gender biasness. There is also an attempt to develop our pupils to be confident and empathetic towards others, both socially and culturally, through character studies in the texts.

The active engagement in classroom teaching between teacher and pupils during text analysis further develops communications skills and good language use through dialogues and writing.

Assessment

For teaching to be effective, teachers will identify and monitor pupils’ changing needs, abilities and interests so that they can modify or adapt their teaching methods to help pupils and provide them with opportunities to act on the feedback to improve their learning. Teachers will align assessment with the aims and learning outcomes in the syllabus. The pupils will be assessed formally and informally using different modes of assessment so that a wide range of skills, learner strategies, attitudes and behaviour can be developed, and the items and structures can be learned. The range of assessment modes and tasks include:

Formal/informal tests and quizzes Holistic performance assessments that assess pupils’ skills in carrying out an activity, e.g. show and tell, giving an oral presentation, project work Portfolios consisting of pupils’ written work and journals which record pupils’ reflections Teacher-pupil conferencing on a written product in order to help pupils make improvements