Mother Tongue

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela

Mission

Delivering quality content to stakeholders

Vision

Unity in Culture, competence in Language

A safe, happy and harmonious environment invites children to take risks, make mistakes and learn. In CHIJ (Katong) Primary, the Mother Tongue Language department strives to create this happy and safe environment to engage our students in fun way of learning MTL through their primary education with us. By incorporating stories, songs and games into our lessons at the lower primary levels, we hope to ignite their interest in the language. ICT tools and other resources are also used to excite and support their learning.

As they move on to middle primary levels, there is more emphasis on the oral, reading, writing and comprehension skills to prepare students for more complex linguistic skills in the upper primary. In upper primary, focus will be on enhancing all language skills taught to prepare them for PSLE.

Key MTL Department Programmes

1) Reading and Culture Program

Out MTL teachers conduct a series of interesting story-telling session for every level and follow up with activities to be completed at the class level to promote the habit of reading among our students. Combined with the sharing of folk tales and stories, we conduct a series of culture sharing throughout the year to raise culture awareness and to allow our students to appreciate the local ethnic culture through the sharing of festivals, cultures and traditions.

2) Mother Tongue Language Fortnight Activities

An annual platform for all students to learn and appreciate their cultures through various cultural activities and to instill in the learning of Mother Tongue Languages. Students learn in a fun way and at the same time allow for authentic usage of their Mother Tongue Language. These activities include Chinese Bean Art, Chinese Hand Puppet Making, Calligraphy, Culture Appreciation, Speech & Drama, Dikir Barat, Taridra, Bangsawan, Indian Classical Dance, Debate and Drama.

Mdm Venus Tan
Head of Department (Mother Tongue Language)