THE CHINESE CURRICULUM
SSIS regularly updates and refines our Chinese Language curriculum. In order to serve the diverse needs of our students with different proficiencies in the Chinese language, the school has implemented three categories of programmes to cater to our pupils’ abilities. We classify students from Primary 3 into different classes according to their different proficiency levels.
The primary Chinese curriculum falls into three categories as follows:
Singapore System-based Chinese
Teaching materials from Singapore, Higher Chinese Language for Primary Schools
Advanced Chinese & Ability-based Chinese
Teaching materials from China, Yu Wen
Basic Chinese
Teaching materials from China, Zhong Wen
SINGAPORE SYSTEM-BASED CHINESE
The objective is to enhance students’ cultural awareness as well as develop their abilities in the use of the Chinese Language. We adopt Higher Chinese Language for Primary Schools from Singapore and some local Chinese supplementary materials as part of our teaching resources.
For admission to this level, the student should be proficient in listening, speaking, reading and writing. It is aimed at providing students with adequate knowledge and skills for the PSLE examinations upon returning to Singapore. Singaporean students and students who need to follow the Singapore teaching curriculum are the main candidates for this level.
ADVANCED CHINESE & ABILITY-BASED CHINESE
ADVANCED CHINESE
Emphasis is placed on the appreciation of traditional Chinese culture. We adopt the Chinese teaching material, Yu Wen which is published by Shanghai Educational Press. Students who wish to take Advanced Chinese should be highly proficient in listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The objective of the programme is to help students develop their abilities in problem analysis and problem solving. Students who fail to reach the required standard in this level will be transferred to the Ability-based Chinese curriculum. The admission criteria will be based on students’ performance in each semester. This level is open to all students.
ABILITY-BASED CHINESE
This level adopts the Chinese material, Yu Wen which is published by Shanghai Educational Press. In terms of teaching objectives, importance is attached to the accumulation of vocabulary and sentence structure for the purpose of helping students improve their basic listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
The objective is to enable students to develop a high level of proficiency so that they can use Chinese in their daily lives. It is aimed at providing them with the skills to listen to and speak Chinese without difficulty, apart from their reading and writing ability. After completion of the level, and having attained the required standard, the student can proceed to the Advanced Chinese class. The admission criteria will be based on students’ performance in each semester. This level is open to all students.
BASIC CHINESE
This programme enables foreign students who have limited proficiency in Chinese to acquire the basic abilities of listening, speaking, reading and writing. For students from Primary 3 to Primary 6, we adopt the Chinese material Zhong Wen, which is popular among international schools as the basic textbook and some oral supplementary materials as our teaching resources. The teachers for this level will teach according to students’ different abilities, emphasizing listening and speaking skills as well as reading and writing exercises. After completing this level, the students will be able to communicate in the language with ease, master the common vocabulary set, as well as read newspapers and magazines independently. They will also be able to write simple compositions. The students who pass the admission test can apply for admission to the upper level ability-based Chinese class.
We wish your child every success as they make their personal milestones in their journey in exploring the Chinese language.