Goals
1. At the end of four years, students should be able to
- Understand that language is a meaning-making resource people choose strategically to achieve specific communicative purposes
- Understand that text types are discourse institutionalised socially and culturally to achieve specific communicative purposes
- Understand that language not only represents but also actively constructs our view of the world
- Listen to, read and view texts critically to understand and respond to the various uses of the English Language in achieving the purpose, context, culture and audience intended
- Speak, write and represent fluently and effectively using appropriate text types to achieve the purpose, context, culture and audience intended
- Use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) actively and purposefully in the understanding, learning and use of English
Heart of the Discipline
2. Language is functional as it is used to make and exchange meanings influenced by social and cultural contexts. In Singapore, the English Language operates at many levels and plays many roles. Locally, it is the common language that facilitates communication and bonding among the different ethnic and cultural groups. Globally, it allows Singaporeans to participate actively and effectively in a knowledge-based economy where English Language is the lingua franca of the Internet, of science and technology and of world economy.
Assessment
3. The lower secondary curriculum is designed to arouse and increase students’ interest and build their foundation in the English Language. This involves providing students with a rich print and non-print environment of various text types and text forms so that they engage with the language and understand how it is being used both meaningfully and contextually to represent and construct one’s view of the world. It also involves giving students opportunities to respond individually or socially with peers and teachers, so that they grow as English Language users through self-reflection or by receiving constructive feedback.
4. Students will assess their own continual growth in the understanding and use of the language as they complete tasks given in the curriculum. To assist them in doing so, students will keep a portfolio documenting the progress of their learning. In this portfolio, students will keep informal assignments given during lessons, draft copies of their work as well as finished products. They will also make use of rubrics which could be jointly created and refined with teachers on a termly basis for self-reflection. In addition, they will also check on their progress and understanding of their own learning through conferences with peers or teachers. There will not be any grading for formative assessment.
5. There will not be any mid-year examinations for the lower secondary curriculum. Students will however sit for milestone tests and year-end oral and written examinations and the results they receive will be used to formally evaluate them. In addition, finished products from their portfolios and the interdisciplinary projects would be used for summative purposes.
6. The upper secondary curriculum will build on what students have acquired in the foundation years and deepen their understanding of the use of the English Language in sociocultural contexts. More thought provoking tasks would be set to challenge students and progressively prepare them for the ‘O’ Level examinations.
Pedagogical Approaches
7. The overall approach of the English Language curriculum aims for students to acquire language proficiency and competence through using the language. Units of work are framed around text types to heighten the applied nature of the language in the real world.
8. The department incorporates the Langlit approach in certain units to develop students’ critical perspectives by giving them the metalanguage to analyse, compare and discuss how text types have been used to achieve specific purposes in different contexts and cultures, and for different audiences.
Glossary
9. Text types are also known as genres, and adopt different socially institutionalised structures to achieve specific purposes. In the EL Syllabus 2010, they could be broadly categorized as Texts for Creative and Personal Expression and Texts for Academic and Functional Purposes.
10. Langlit dovetails into the English Syllabus 2010, which uses the approach “A Strong Foundation and Rich Language for All” and where the teaching of language requires one area to be taught in the context of the others.
Printable version
