4 gals and 4 boys were specially selected for this "Eliza Doolittle" project and I felt very much like Prof Henry Higgins with my able co-teacher, Mrs K Fong. We have 8 sessions to do our miracle. Our students were given a simple test on their first English ability from none other than the Raffles Girl's Primary One exam paper which I managed to lay my hands on.
I was quite satisfied that they could understand the questions and were surprisingly good at the multiple choice types. Average score was about 70% - which was better than I expected. However, when it came to writing sentences, we had to almost start from ground zero.
We are into the 3rd English lesson and have covered nouns, verbs, adverbs and punctuations. Of course, every session incorporated a good deal of reading and learning new words. After all, writing well involves 3 basic ingredients of good grammar, a rich vocabulary and good spelling. Each morning, I would do a bible passage with them and today, we studied John's version of the Parable of "Fish Burgers". I got them to draw out the 3 main characters of the story - Jesus and His disciples, the 5000 crowd and lastly, the boy who offered his 5 loaves and 2 fishes.
What blew me away was their ability to draw really well. B and RM, especially were gifted artists and the fruits of their labour were very impressive that I had to take a photo. The drawings facilitated lively conversations among the group and helped to encourage the speaking of this "foreign" tongue. Those who spoke in Khmer were fined 10c and to date, we have collected a mere 70c. Seems like S'pore's more stick than carrot style works across our borders too.
The teens are also asked to keep a daily journal and this is helpful in allowing me to see any developments in their sentence construction skill and grasp of the language.
I'm not sure how much progress we can make in terms of English with 3 weeks left but will endeavour to do our utmost. Difficult as it is for them, their willingness to learn and great attitude can overcome any plain or rain that lies before my young friends.
I was quite satisfied that they could understand the questions and were surprisingly good at the multiple choice types. Average score was about 70% - which was better than I expected. However, when it came to writing sentences, we had to almost start from ground zero.
We are into the 3rd English lesson and have covered nouns, verbs, adverbs and punctuations. Of course, every session incorporated a good deal of reading and learning new words. After all, writing well involves 3 basic ingredients of good grammar, a rich vocabulary and good spelling. Each morning, I would do a bible passage with them and today, we studied John's version of the Parable of "Fish Burgers". I got them to draw out the 3 main characters of the story - Jesus and His disciples, the 5000 crowd and lastly, the boy who offered his 5 loaves and 2 fishes.
What blew me away was their ability to draw really well. B and RM, especially were gifted artists and the fruits of their labour were very impressive that I had to take a photo. The drawings facilitated lively conversations among the group and helped to encourage the speaking of this "foreign" tongue. Those who spoke in Khmer were fined 10c and to date, we have collected a mere 70c. Seems like S'pore's more stick than carrot style works across our borders too.
The teens are also asked to keep a daily journal and this is helpful in allowing me to see any developments in their sentence construction skill and grasp of the language.
I'm not sure how much progress we can make in terms of English with 3 weeks left but will endeavour to do our utmost. Difficult as it is for them, their willingness to learn and great attitude can overcome any plain or rain that lies before my young friends.
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