Singapore, 30 November 2016---- To help students ace the new PSLE Mother Tongue Oral Examination format starting in 2017, Lianhe Zaobao's Student Publications will be collaborating with Han Language Centre to conduct a Chinese oral training camp for Primary 5 and 6 students on 16 December(Friday).

In line with the Ministry of Education's efforts to enhance the use of Mother Tongue Languages through the 'Active Learners, Proficient Users' approach, the component of picture description in the national oral examinations will be replaced by video conversation with effect from next year's PSLE examinations.

This enrichment camp will be held at four branches of Han Language Centre on 16 December 2016.

The four branches are located at Jurong East, Simei, Sengkang and Yishun. Experienced teachers will conduct introductory lessons on the features of the new oral examination format. Students will be taught practical skills on how to score in the oral examination.

During the practice sessions, teachers will use the video oral guidebook (《看录像说话》) published by Lianhe Zaobao's student newspaper Thumbs Up (《大拇指》) to improve the participants' language skills.

To make learning more effective, the class size

will be capped at 10 participants. Inclusive of learning materials, each student will need to pay $150 for the training camp. The camp will offer morning and afternoon sessions. Interested parents can enrol with Han Language Centre at 67560051 or 63232925. Enrolment closes on 12 December(Monday).Apart from organising joint activities, Han Language Centre, which has more than 20 centres located across Singapore, is also planning to incorporate content from Lianhe Zaobao's student publications into its regular teaching materials.

Mr Ann Jong Juan, Principal and Founder of Han Language Centre, said, 'Since Han Language Centre was set up 23 years ago, we have been working closely with 'FridayWeekly' (predecessor of zbCOMMA) and later 'Thumbs Up'. Participating as a speaker and contributor to events organised by SPH's Chinese Media Group has also become part of my life.'

'Han Language Centre is currently undergoing restructuring and in addition to organising seminars with Zaobao's student publications, we will also use these newspapers as teaching tools to help cultivate our student's love for reading. The inaugural oral training camp is the first step towards realising this vision as we hope to satisfy the needs of more students.'

Ms Loh Woon Yen, Vice President, Culture, Education and New Growth of Chinese Media Group, said, 'Through the collaboration with Han Language Centre, our student publications will be able to extend its quality content offering to Chinese language enrichment centres. The Chinese Oral Training camp marks the start of the Chinese Media Group's partnership with Han Language Centre. We will continue to roll out more interesting and relevant programmes and initiatives for primary and secondary school students, not only to help them cope with the demands of examinations, but also to cultivate their interest in the Chinese language.'

Please see attached media release in Chinese.

Issued by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd
Co. Regn. No. 198402868E

For more information, please contact:

Ms Tan Leng Tuan
Editor
Student Publications
Chinese Media Group
Singapore Press Holdings
Email: nengduan@sph.com.sg

Mr Ann Jong Juan
Principal
Han Language Centre
Email: annjj@hanlanguage.edu.sg

Francis Mah
Senior Manager
Corporate Communications & CSR
Singapore Press Holdings
Tel: 6319 1028
Email: mahys@sph.com.sg

About Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Incorporated in 1984, main board-listed Singapore Press Holdings Ltd (SPH) is Asia's leading media organisation, engaging minds and enriching lives across multiple languages and platforms, ranging from print, digital, radio and out-of-home media.

SPH owns award-winning newspapers, magazines and best-selling books in both print and digital editions, as well as online classified businesses in the region. In addition, SPH has two English radio stations and one Chinese radio station, an out-of-home digital advertising unit, a regional events and conferences arm, and runs a chain of modern retail convenience stores. SPH also has a 20 per cent stake in MediaCorp TV Holdings Pte Ltd, which operates free-to-air channels 5, 8 and U, and a 40 per cent stake in MediaCorp Press Limited, which publishes the free newspaper, Today.

SPH REIT comprises Paragon, a premier upscale retail mall and medical suite/office property in Orchard Road and The Clementi Mall, a mid-market suburban mall. SPH's latest retail development is The Seletar Mall located in Sengkang.

For more information, please visit www.sph.com.sg

About Han Language Centre

Mr Ann Jong Juan is the founder and principal of Han Language Centre, Singapore's largest chain of private Chinese learning schools. He has over 45 years of teaching experience in the Chinese language. He was formerly a specialist writer for Chinese language teaching materials with the Curriculum Planning and Development Division, Ministry of Education. A prominent figure in Singapore's theatre arts scene, Mr Ann was awarded the Cultural Medallion (Drama) in 1990 for his contributions to the performing arts.

Since 1993, he is the key speaker for PSLE and O Level Chinese Examinations Preparation Public Lectures, and he is also an avid contributor to SPH's Chinese student publications and Lianhe Zaobao.

Han Language Centre has 22 branches all over Singapore and offers Chinese tuition cum enrichment courses for pre-schoolers to secondary school students. It also runs customised courses, short term courses and Chinese Language course for adults and foreigners.

Their qualified teachers are selected from well-known universities and teacher training colleges from Singapore, China, Malaysia and Taiwan. Han Language Centre currently has more than 200 teaching and administrative staff. Han Language Centre models their curriculum after the Ministry of Education's syllabus and further integrates materials from newspapers, songs, cross talks, movies, dramas and fine-tunes them to match students' needs.

SPH - Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. published this content on 30 November 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 30 November 2016 06:52:01 UTC.

Original documenthttp://www.sph.com.sg/media_releases/3046

Public permalinkhttp://www.publicnow.com/view/CE470880765EA242E51D843FB2A44919878301B6