Today, Singapore is a thriving and cosmopolitan society, with English as it’s main language. It is thus important to uphold Standard English in order to facilitate harmonious interaction among the different races and nationalities. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, ‘Standard English’ consists of spelling, grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary that is generally uniform, well established, and is widely recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood. Nonetheless, government sectors, education institutions and mass media have been emphasizing on the importance of speaking Standard English. The government has even introduced the Speak Good English Movement to encourage the use of Standard English.
Unfortunately, Standard English has been largely threatened by the influence of Singlish and SMS/texting language. ‘Singlish’ is a variation of English, consisting of elements from the Chinese and Malay languages. While, ‘texting language’ consists of abbreviations and slangs commonly used on Internet chats/emails or in mobile phone text messaging. All of these informal English have caused much confusion to the children in our society today. The use of Singlish and texting language is now prevalent in many students’ daily English assignments, such as composition writing. This is especially so among children who are older (e.g. Secondary levels onwards) or those who have been widely exposed to the usage of mobile phones or Internet.
Nowadays, it is beneficial to enrich your child’s curriculum with English tuition. The additional and specialized teaching of the English language serves to rectify children’s improper usage of English. During the English tuition, the use of Standard English is reinforced and more practices are provided for the child to exercise the use and expression of Standard English.
Therefore, it is especially effective and essential to introduce English tuition to children at a very young age (for instance, at elementary or lower primary levels), just as they get started on their education path. This is essential in establishing a good foundation of English for the child, so that he/she can cope better with the increasing demands of the English subject as they progress, as well as to cope with other subjects like Science and Mathematics, which teachings and assessments are also based on the English language.
Within the English subject, students often perform badly in the Comprehension section. As the term ‘comprehension’ suggests, it is a component that serves to assess the students’ understanding of the passage and its questions, thus their ability to answer the questions as well. For the other subjects, students often struggle with Mathematical problem sums, as well as Science open-ended questions. All these difficulties that students face are often due to their poor command of English, resulting in their poor comprehension of the questions and the information provided, as well as their poor ability to provide quality answers. Even worse, the students’ poor command of English will also affect their job chances when step into the work industry.
As mentioned earlier, English tuition serves to provide specialized attention that is catered to the child’s weaknesses. For instance, some students are weaker in vocabulary, grammar, comprehension orcomposition. The English tutor can thus provide more teaching and monitoring on the child’s weaker component(s).
Spelling: Although being a very basic exercise, spelling practices are nonetheless important and are sometimes practiced all the way till the upper secondary level. Students often misspell certain words and it is important to rectify them before they commit the same mistakes in their tests/examinations again. Spelling exercises also serve to widen the child’s vocabulary, whereby new words encountered during the tuition can be added into the child’s spelling list. It is essential to ensure that the child is aware of the pronunciation and meaning of the spelling words too, so that they can apply the words appropriately (e.g. in the correct word form) in their future assignments.
Writing skills: Students are also taught the proper expression of language, correct grammar usage and relevant content for Creative Writing and Composition.
Comprehension skills: English tutors also teach students various skills in which they can better comprehend a given passage or article. To help the students do better in their Comprehension, tutors will also guide them in their understanding of the comprehension questions, as well as strengthen their ability to identify the answers from the passage and express the answers accurately.
Generally, English is the universal language. The widespread international use of English (in the global economic sector for instance), has further reinforced the need for Singaporeans to speak Standard English in order to express themselves clearly when communicating with foreigners within and outside of Singapore. Thus, parents and tutors alike are encouraged to realize the importance of building a good foundation of English for the child, partially through incorporating English tuition into the child’s curriculum.
Your child has an incredible ability to learn more than one language.
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I know from experience that my child cannot learn his lessons all by himself. He is a little bit weak particularly in English so I tried to help him. But I find that after our session I lose all my patience with him. He in turn would end up crying because of the pressures I gave him. This is not good for both of us. I needed help. So, I search from the web hoping to find a tutor, but I was surprised I ended up with Awesome Home Tuition site. There I learned that they could provide me with the english tutor I need and can assure me that they have screened all their tutors. They even promised to give me the right person for the job after telling them of my experiences with my child. Now my child showed more interest in studying his English lessons. A big thanks to Awesome Home Tuition.
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