Dr Connie Lum, Director of the Mother Tongue Language Curriculum at NTUC First Campus (NFC) shared insights on how to get children interested in their mother tongue in a Capital 958FM programme on December 1.

In a live radio broadcast and Facebook Live with Capital 958FM radio station, Dr Connie Lum, Director of the Mother Tongue Language Curriculum at NTUC First Campus (NFC), shared her take on ways to get children interested in their mother tongue. Dr Lum also gave insights on how to teach children the Chinese language more effectively. She will be sharing more tips at the Confucius Institute of Nanyang Technological University (CI-NTU) Seminar on Chinese Teaching 2022 (Online) on December 2 and 3. 

According to Dr Lum, teachers, parents, and grandparents play a vital role in helping children learn their mother tongue. She added that if a grandparent is struggling because the young child converses in English, the grandparent should still continue to reply in Chinese. Letting the child know that the grandparent is unable to understand English will encourage him or her to start speaking in Chinese more often, and thus helping the child practise the language.

Dr Lum emphasised on the usage of picture books as a method to help children to learn Chinese. In the past three years, NFC has written 66 picture books for children, which are designed to be closely related to children’s daily lives, such as having pictures of public buses in Singapore which the children are familiar with.

Children should also learn to listen to stories before they start learning how to read. In the upcoming seminar, Dr Lum  will share many ways to engage children during storytelling, such as using classical music in the background in the storytelling session. She will also be sharing more interesting information with teachers and parents, including tips on how to improve young children’s sense of sight and hearing and some principles and tips for selecting picture books for 0-3 years old young children.

CI-NTU Seminar on Chinese Teaching 2022 (Online) will be held on December 2 and 3. It is a free-of-charge and sign-up based virtual seminar held by CI-NTU with various international guest speakers, including Dr Connie Lum.

Media Coverage

Media Coverage

Capital 958FM (1 Dec 2022)