SCCL invited to participate in MTL Symposium 2013

Minister of State Ms. Sim Ann (centre), Master Teacher Mdm. Chow Fong Yee (left) and Dr. Goh Hock Huan (right) sharing views on the role of multimedia in the teaching of Chinese

The 2nd Mother Tongue Learning Symposium was held at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre on 14 Sep 2013. Organised by the Ministry of Education, the event revolved around the theme of "Mother Tongue Languages - A Garden for Joyful Discoveries". It promotes mother tongue learning and bilingual education through the sharing of creative interactive learning activities by various schools and communities. The Singapore Centre for Chinese Language was invited to participate in the event and showcased the following publications:

• Fun Games for Learning Mandarin. Co-developed by SCCL and NTUC's SEED Institute under the sponsorship of Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism, this is a set of game-based learning aids which enhances Chinese Language teaching at preschools.
• The Little Caterpillar Series. Specifically designed for pre-schoolers from three to seven years old, this set of 4 graded Chinese picture books comes with multimedia bilingual CDs containing animations and interactive exercises.
• The SCCL Flying Fish Graded Readers Series. A set of 36 graded Chinese story books specifically designed for local primary school students, this series comprises illustrated stories and electronic supplementary learning tools, such as digital reading pens and an online learning platform.
• Chinese Idioms in Manga. This aims to assist primary school students to master the 48 Chinese idioms found in Singapore textbooks through manga and animations. It comes in two versions, one for students and one for teachers, both complemented with a DVD.

All these SCCL publications were well received by the public. They agreed that these materials could indeed stimulate children's interest in reading. In addition to the publications, an interactive game and story corner was set up to let parents and children indulge in the world of stories.