Mother Tongue

Vision

Passionate, competent and lifelong learners of Mother Tongue Language and Culture

Mission

Developing and inspiring Andersonians to advocate learning and appreciation of their Mother Tongue Language and Culture.

Subjects offered by Department

Higher Mother Tongue Languages
Mother Tongue Language
Basic Mother Tongue Languages
Literature in Malay (Elective)

Additional Information : The MTL department strives to create an environment for learning and appreciating the Mother Tongue languages. We want our students to get in touch with traditional culture and fall in love with their Mother Tongue through classroom learning and various cultural activities.

Improvements in Classroom Learning

This year, we continued to use Making Thinking Visible (MTV) routines for teaching. At the same time, we use SLS and many ICT tools to enhance students' thinking and discussions in the classroom. We emphasize the use of mind maps to improve students' classroom discussions, sharing and feedback so that students can move out of passive learning to active learning. In the classroom, the use of iPad and various ICT apps enable students to communicate and discuss more quickly and conveniently, thereby stimulating students' enthusiasm for learning the languages.

Our MTL teachers participated in a MOE project called “Script it Right”, using Chinese Radio drama scripts to design a teaching package. Our teachers also designed oral exams in SLS, allowing students to sharpen their oral skills through watching videos and listening to radio dramas.

Learning beyond the Classroom

The department organizes various talks, workshops and activities to enrich students' learning. For example, during MTL fortnight, our teachers held various talks about Jade, Tea, Poetry, Translation, Historical Anecdotes and Zoombara. There were also Drama workshops, Public Speaking workshops and Xinyao Appreciation. Hands-on activities such as Wushu, Kite Making, Onde-onde Making and Pottery were conducted. Our students were also introduced to a variety of traditional games (Tarik Upih, Keleret Roda, Baling Selipar, Boling Kelapa and Guni) and traditional Musical instruments (Crosstalk, Wayang Kulit, Zoombara etc). Through these interesting forms, students immersed themselves in the cultures of the various ethnic groups.

At the same time, we also encouraged students to go out of campus and participate in language activities. The Chinese Language Unit has continued to train our students to be student docents. This year, our student docents attended the Making of Guided Tour Videos to introduce the Singapore Lion Dance “Guardians of Good Fortune : the History of Lion Dance in Singapore” Exhibition @ River Hongbao 2021.

Being an Elective Programme for Malay Language in Secondary School (EMAS) centre, the Malay Language Unit also provides an opportunity for students to speak and use the language in an environment that promotes an exclusive use of the language. Through a variety of language, cultural and literary activities, the programme aims to enhance students’ overall proficiency in the language and create a deep interest in developing and appreciating the Malay culture.

The Malay Language Elective Programme students actively participated in various cultural activities such as the Sec 3 Malay Literature Script Writing Workshop and Dialogue session with writers. This has enhanced their understanding of Malay literature and developed the students’ love for reading.

The Tamil Language Unit strives to ignite a spark in students that will inspire them to pursue the active study of their mother tongue, fuelled by their enthusiasm and love for the language. Our teachers adhere closely to the mission of the school through the organization of cultural activities, literacy programmes and competitions that seek to make the learning of the Tamil Language fun and engaging, while pushing students to actively pursue mastery in the language.

The MTL Fortnight Programme was accompanied by the Tamil Reading Programme, a brand new initiative, which sought to promote a love for literature in a positive and nurturing learning environment, while encouraging critical thinking and deeper engagement with selected pieces of literature. This activity has been held for the lower secondary students, and done so in collaboration with the National Library Board. Texts have been carefully selected to suit students’ reading capabilities and each reading has been followed by a class discussion and individual reflection. This Reading Programme boosts students’ enthusiasm towards Tamil literature and instil in them the good discipline of reading, reflecting and critical thinking.

Competitions

The MTL department believes that competitions provides an opportunity for students to further enhance their language abilities.

The Chinese Language Unit Students have participated in the National Secondary School Bilingual Debate Competition. This competition put students' debating skills to the test and also stimulated students' interest in learning the Chinese language.

Our school has participated in the Bilingual Youth Model United Nations Competition organized by Nanyang Girls’ High School. Mah Shi Lei, Rebecca from class 4/5 has received the Outstanding Delegate Award in the World Health Organisation.

Our school has also participated in The 12th Good Talk (Global Village) International Children & Youth Bilingual Speech Conference. Soon Hao Jun, Javen from class 4/5 has received the Most Potential Award.

The Malay Language Unit

Students have participated in the National Malay Language Debate Competition 4PM. This competition tested students' debating skills and also stimulated students' interest in learning the language. Through this competition, students not only sharpened debating skills, but also expanded their knowledge and improved their thinking skills.

Our school has participated in the Translation Competition organised by National Junior College. The team comprising Eunice Felicia Jo, Jadelyn Minneke Sutopo and Akasyah Shahrin from Class 4/5, was among the top 10 high performing groups.

The Tamil Language Unit

In spite of the various restrictions due to the pandemic, five of our students have participated in the Budding Artistes and Budding Writers Programme organised by CPDD, in a series of workshops via zoom that culminated in an inter-school competition. It was an enriching experience for all the students from various streams and levels, learning about essay writing and script writing from local writers and television script writers. We are proud of S.Vishalini of class 4/2 who wrote an essay that was commended and selected as one of the top entries!

“I have a strong passion for and interest in story writing. I gained new insights about the art of writing through the sharings of our local writers’ real-life experiences. Taking part in the various workshops was extremely engaging and it was a breath of fresh air. I am very grateful for this wonderful opportunity and thankful that I was also interviewed by CPDD to share about the essay that I wrote! ”
- Selvaraj Vishalini (4/2)

“I enjoyed the script writing workshop a lot. It was an amazing learning opportunity for me to learn from our local script writers. It was fun working together with my team to come up with a script and recite the lines. Thank you, Mrs Grace, for guiding us.”
-Shafanah Nusrath d/o Jagabar (3/9)

Some of our Secondary two students have taken part in a speech competition conducted virtually by the Tamil Information Technology Society. They were able to exhibit their public speaking skills and this boosted their confidence to speak boldy and clearly. This year, our students also took part in the ‘Kavimalai’ Poetry Competition and ‘Neengalthaan Nirubar’ competition organised by the Tamil Language Council and Thangameen.

“Taking part in the speech competition was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate my writing and public speaking abilities. It was a new experience for me as we had to upload our speech into a blog and for the 1st round we had to record our speech. Subsequently, in the 2nd round we had to speak via zoom. I am thankful for rare opportunities like these amidst the pandemic, to improve my Tamil Language skills and learn from the other participants.”
-Kamadchi Chandrasekar (2/1)