Culture learning is one of the three main objectives of Mother Tongue learning (MTL Review Committee, Ministry of Education, 2011). This study analyses, from the perspectives of sociolinguistics, second language teaching and Chinese culture teaching, the diachronic and synchronic changes in the elements of traditional Chinese culture taught in the four sets of Singapore primary textbooks compiled since 1986. It also investigates the challenges faced in the teaching of traditional Chinese culture and values and proposes feasible solutions. This study is a summary of elements of traditional Chinese culture education in the primary Chinese textbooks of the past 30 odd years. It is hoped that its findings will contribute to the future development in Chinese culture education in Singapore.

Keywords: primary textbooks, learning of mother tongue, Chinese culture, values, Singapore

The Chinese language textbooks underwent several changes in the period of Republic of China. Accordingly, the editorial arrangements (content selection and organization) of textbooks went through different stages of development before they were finalized in the 1940s. This paper aims at providing a holistic perspective on the editorial arrangements of Chinese language textbooks in that period. It tries to explore the formation and development of the editorial arrangements of high school textbooks through a historical review, and discuss the relationship between textbook editorial arrangements and syllabuses. It is hoped that the analysis will serve as a useful reference for contemporary textbook compilation.

Keywords: Republic of China, high school Chinese language textbooks, editorial arrangements, format, syllabus

Influenced by international large-scale assessment programs, countries around the world are paying more attention to academic quality assessment at the basic education level. Canada started to implement the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP) in 2007. Reading is one of its primary domains. For PCAP, reading literacy involves five elements, namely the reader, the text, the reader's purpose, the context and the interaction, and the sub-domains of the assessment include understanding texts, interpreting texts, and responding personally and critically to texts. This article is an overview of PCAP's definition of reading and reading literary, as well as its assessment framework. The findings indicate that PCAP has a complete and unique framework and provides important insight into reading literacy. It is hoped that the paper can shed new lights on the assessment of Chinese language reading and reading literacy.

Keywords: reading literacy, assessment framework, Canada, PCAP

Reading summarization process involves complex cognitive activities. It is not only about understanding sentences and words, but also about linking new content to their prior knowledge, which in turn facilitates the integration of information extracted from reading. Summarization is the most difficult and weakest skill for elementary school students. Teaching summarization strategies helps students with reading comprehension and encourages them to self-monitor and adjust their learning. This paper is about a research on teaching summarization strategy in the fifth and sixth grade and its effect. The teaching activities were planned based on the summarization-related instructional materials in the fifth and sixth grade. Two elementary schools located in Taipei City were taken as the research objects. During the research, the team recorded students' difficulties in summarization, collected teaching-and-learning feedback sheets and compared the difference between pretest and posttest. Based on the research findings, the paper reflects on the teaching of reading summarization strategies and provides suggestions for improvement.

Keywords: summarization strategy, reading comprehension process, reflective teaching

In comparison with phonograms, Chinese characters are more complicated as they consist of three elements, namely form, sound and meaning. Besides, Chinese characters can join to form unlimited words. This unique relationship between Chinese characters and words makes the teaching of Chinese characters and vocabulary inseparable. In this study, a teaching experiment using the "connective approach in Chinese character and vocabulary teaching" was conducted. The aims were to examine the effectiveness of the approach and provide reference for Chinese teachers. The results indicate that the teaching approach has led to a significant improvement in the learners' results.

Keywords: character-based, connective approach in Chinese character and vocabulary teaching, character comprehension, word comprehension

Drama in education was introduced into the school system to improve Chinese teaching and learning after the vigorous implementation of the concepts of "Teach Less, Learn More" and "Active Learner, Proficient User" advocated by the Ministry of Education (in 2004 and 2011 respectively) in its effort to reform education in Singapore. However, the implementation and current situation of drama in education have hardly been studied thoroughly. Adopting phenomenography as its research methodology, this paper aims to analyze the experiences and conceptions of drama in education among researchers, master teachers and teachers who have participated in drama education experiments. Based on teachers' perception of drama in education in Singapore, the study intends to form a Gestalt conceptualized structure to analyze the relation between drama in education and Chinese language teaching, and to propose suggestions on how to better infuse drama education into the Chinese curriculum.

Keywords: phenomenography, teacher experience, drama in education, Singapore education reform, "Active Learner, Proficient User", "Teach Less, Learn More"