1. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Workshop for Parents 2013 English Language

2. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Objectives of this Workshop To update parents on the recent changes in the English Language syllabus To provide opportunities for parents to attempt some sections in the written paper To provide the participants with information on how parents can be more involved in their children’s learning

3. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Recent Changes for NT Papers Paper 1: Reduction in the duration of paper (1hr 40mins to 1hr 15mins) Comprehension questions moved to paper 2 Focus now on writing to a specific audience and context

4. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Recent Changes for NT Papers Paper 2: Duration is 1hr 20 mins Form filling moved to Paper 1 Focus on language use and reading comprehension; visuals will accompany texts Paper 3: Reduced weighting for Listening Paper 4: Increased focus on Orals

5. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Recent Changes for Exp and NA Papers Increase in the duration of Papers 1 and 2 from 1hr 40mins and 1hr 45mins respectively to 1hr 50mins for both papers Inclusion of Listening component for both Exp and NA (45mins, 2 main sections) Oral Communications (2 parts) Inclusion of graphic stimulus in papers 1 and 2

6. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Paper 1 – 1 hr 50 mins 3 sections Section A – editing Section B – situational writing with visual stimulus Section C – continuous writing based on any one of the four given topics

7. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Paper 2 – 1 hr 50 mins 3 sections Section A – respond to questions based on a visual text Section B – respond to a variety of questions based on a narrative or recount Section C – respond to a variety of questions based on a non-narrative text and write an 80- word response to a summary writing task.

8. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Paper 3 2 parts Section A – audio recording will be played twice. Candidates get to respond to a variety of listening tasks Section B – audio recording will only be played once and students have to do a simple note- taking exercise.

9. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Paper 4 2 parts, both will be thematically linked Reading Aloud – read aloud a short text Spoken Interaction – engage in a discussion with the examiners on a topic based on a visual stimulus

10. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence What is expected of the student? Students must be able to listen, read and view a wide range of print and non-print texts Students must be able to speak, write and represent in internationally acceptable English that is grammatical, fluent, intelligible and suitable for a variety of purposes, audiences, contexts and cultures Understand and use internationally acceptable English grammar and vocabulary accurately and appropriately

11. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence What is the school doing to help? Diagnostic testing Exposure to a variety of visual texts Explicit grammar lessons EL Camp for Sec 2s Variety of reading programmes Reading of rich texts in English lessons Participation in various writing competitions Opportunities to speak to a large audience

12. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence How can you help your girls? Encourage your children to write and speak in internationally acceptable English Discuss interesting posters, advertisements or webpages you come across Identify grammatical errors in signs / advisories you see (if any); correct them together without changing the meaning Encourage them to rephrase given information in their own words

13. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence How can you help your girls? Encourage them to read widely and actively Watch movies in English and / or listen to the radio to get used to the way people of different nationalities speak English Discuss news articles with them, encourage them to form opinions about various issues and justify their stands with facts and concrete evidence

14. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence In our efforts to go green, we have not printed any slides for you. All materials will be uploaded onto the school’s website: http://www.chijstjosephsconvent.moe.edu.sg/ http://www.chijstjosephsconvent.moe.edu.sg/

15. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Q & A Session

16. Women of Integrity with the Passion to Pursue Excellence Thank You