Sneaking fun into PSLE English preparation

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SINGAPORE – Mountains of assessment books. Heaps of past-year exam papers. A child, hunched over and grudgingly filling in cloze passages and churning out compositions.

It is a familiar scene for many parents. Yet, revising for the PSLE English exam does not have to be all drill and kill, says Mr Tarek Amara, an English teacher at British Council Singapore.

With a new PSLE year under way, Mr Amara, 35, shares with The Straits Times a blueprint for exam readiness that swops out the usual mugging with fun exercises that hone language skills.

For instance, planning, scripting and stitching together YouTube shorts or podcasts can support children’s ability to express, synthesise and structure information. “Plus, children love being the stars of their own shows,” he says.

And in a vibrant city like Singapore, there is no shortage of activities, he adds.

For one thing, parents and children can create content about a museum visit or pop-up installation, turning the experience into a day-in-the-life reel.

The content does not have to be posted publicly, and parents with rudimentary editing skills can always use foolproof tools such as Canva Video and Audacity, he says.

Mr Amara holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Linguistics (TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). He gathered these ideas across seven years of teaching, three of which have been at the British Council, where he conducts English classes for PSLE students and adult learners.

PSLE preparation is like a marathon, he says. “You don’t win a marathon by going at it every day, exhausting yourself and risking injury. Better skill gains can be achieved through unconventional exercises which tend to stick more vividly in children’s minds.”

Since the English exam tests for holistic language mastery and rewards adventure, exploration and discovery, he believes families can afford to have fun with the subject.

“So don’t give your child 100 assessment book questions all at once. Joyful learning sustains motivation. If the process is not enjoyable and the tasks set out are too difficult, they’re going to lose interest.”

Mr Amara outlines additional activities parents can pursue with their children to boost their language abilities.

Chat over dinner

If PSLE oral and essay components are leaving students stumped, it might mean they do not have a mental store to draw on.

Chatting over dinner as a family is a quick fix for this, says Mr Amara, who has three daughters aged under five.

“Dinner is the perfect time to practise stimulus-based conversations. As a parent, you’ve to demonstrate how to speak at length.

“Talk about the standout moments in your day, the surprising or unusual encounters, and take a moment to reflect. This can foster essential skills such as clear articulation and thoughtful elaboration. I do this with my kids too,” he says.

Since some tweens might be tight-lipped, he suggests deploying techniques such as “PEEL” – make a Point, provide Evidence, Explain and Link the content back to the original or next point.

Parents can also structure questions around the five senses or the 5Ws and 1H (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How).

Read voraciously

Conventional wisdom still applies in preparing for the exam, says Mr Amara.

One must-do is reading. He advises parents to implement a 15-minutes-a-day reading habit from the start of the year.

Within this structure, provide children freedom of choice to select reading materials they enjoy.

Mr Amara recommends book series such as Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Harry Potter and Sideways Stories From Wayside School – known for its zany, hilarious classroom-based stories.

“Every time I bring one of these books to class, they get passed around and my copies come back dog-eared.

“The more we read, the more we’re able to naturally absorb language patterns.

“A student who is an avid reader will know the answers almost automatically and will be able to whizz through the paper. Such students might not necessarily be able to break down and explain the exact grammar rules, but they know what sounds and reads right. That’s a good sign in this context, it indicates they are reading enough.”

To boost their writing skills, children can keep a notebook or vocabulary bank of the words they have picked up and passages they have enjoyed.

When the habit has been built, children should then be encouraged to read widely and extensively.

Mr Amara says: “It’s important to have a breadth of subject knowledge to tackle the cloze passages and comprehension elements of the exam.

“If a text about cricket appears in the exam, it will be a lot easier for a student to access it if he or she has prior knowledge. He won’t have to expend as much effort figuring out the text.”

Flip the script

Sometimes, model compositions can be dreary to plod through.

Mr Amara advises shaking things up with a bit of artificial-intelligence wizardry. Parents can prompt bots to mimic the whimsical voice of fictional character Lemony Snicket or spin the content into an adventurous or mysterious tale.

Then he suggests asking the kids to pick the style, paragraphs or vocabulary words that resonate most with them. Giving children choice can be empowering and useful for their learning, he says.

Mr Amara also recommends relooking famous tales from the perspectives of villains or supporting characters. “For example, the story of The Three Little Pigs can be written from the wolf’s perspective.

“This fractured fairy-tale exercise is a fun classroom activity that works at home too. Let children brainstorm ideas. Predict typical answers and avoid those to encourage creativity.”

To level up skills and break the mundanity of exam preparations, parents can flip the parameters of the exam.

Instead of getting them to write compositions the usual way, restrict them, says Mr Amara.

“Get them to write the essay in five paragraphs of five lines each. With only 25 sentences to work with, they have to be economical with their writing and sentences tend to pop.”

Other tips

Mr Amara shares three other quick tips for parents:

1. Read aloud with your child and emphasise the importance of rhythm and intonation. This is important for the oral exam. You can also let your child listen to audiobooks from the National Library Board.

2. Encourage your child to identify his or her common mistakes. Have him or her read silently and mouth the words they have written to catch errors during practice sessions at home and in school.

3. The best cure for anxiety is preparation. “If students have an exam routine, and they know how to start and end well while pacing themselves throughout, they’re less likely to feel anxious,” he says.

Recommended books

With vivid prose and inspiring narrative rhythms that draw young readers deeply into each story, these titles and book series recommended by Mr Amara foster language development and a lifelong love of reading.

Parents can pick them up from bookstores such as Popular or borrow copies from the library.