Mother Tongue Languages
Vision:
Learn to love the language • Love to learn the language
Missions:
To nurture Kranjians to love and appreciate their Mother Tongue Languages;
To help them to stay rooted in traditions and values;
To prepare them for a changing world.
Key Programmes
In alignment with Strategic Thrust 1 for nurturing future-ready learners, the Mother Tongue Curriculum is tailored to meet the diverse learning needs of all student groups. These programmes fall under a three-tier approach in our Teaching and Learning (T&L) Framework: Core, Enrich, and Aspire.
Under Tier 1, ‘Core’, the MTL department utilises the News Reading Programme to integrate global and national issues into classroom lessons. Students read MTL news articles assigned by their teachers through SLS Newslink or zbschool.sg (CL). Subsequently, MTL teachers conduct weekly discussions on these news articles to expose students to current affairs and promote global awareness.
We have designed self-paced Digital Literacy SLS lessons to encourage independent learning among students. These lessons cover New Media Literacies, which encompass competencies for curating, connecting, and creating information in the digital networked environment (e.g. oral assessment), as well as productivity skills for effective device and software operation (e.g. email response typing skills).
The MTL department is also working on a Professional Learning Team to create an e-gamification lesson package on SLS, aiming to enhance the students’ learning experience using game design principles to make learning more engaging.
Under Tier 2, ‘Enrich’, the MTL department organises MTL fortnight programmes to immerse students in Mother Tongue languages and cultures. These activities provide authentic opportunities for cultural learning, including tea appreciation workshops, traditional Chinese games, Wau Batik painting, Silat, Indian traditional musical instrument workshops, and pottery making. Through these activities, we aim to enrich our students’ cultural and language learning experiences.**
To stimulate students’ curiosity in languages, we also promote the MTL & EL Readership Programme to cultivate a reading culture in both their mother tongue languages and English within the Kranjian community. Additionally, the department organises various events, such as Lunar New Year Celebrations, Hari Raya Celebrations, and Deepavali Celebrations, to help students learn beyond the classroom and strengthen their cultural heritage and identity.
As part of our school’s ongoing internationalisation efforts, we have established a partnership with Xingzhi Junior Middle School in Hangzhou, China since 2015. This year, Sec One and Two students have participated in synchronous conference sessions, fostering a deeper understanding of the global community through interdisciplinary approaches. The exchange sessions enable students from both schools to share insights on culture, customs, Asian Games, Co-Curricular Activities (CCA), environmental conservation issues, and more.
Furthermore, we had the pleasure of hosting a school visit from Shifang Middle School from Sichuan, China. Our school has been engaged in the school exchange programme with Shifang Middle School since 2010, and it was truly heartwarming to welcome them back after the brief hiatus during the pandemic.
Under Tier 3, ‘Aspire’, the development of Kranjians; talent is approached in various ways, including involving students in writing, editing, emceeing, performing, or submitting for creative Chinese essay compilations such as the ‘Kspiration’ 《憧憬》 publications. We also organise an Author-in-Residence program, where we invite local writers to conduct workshops to hone our students’ creative writing skills.
Student-Initiated Learning (SIL) opportunities related to MTL subjects, such as contemporary issue debates in Chinese and Traditional Chinese Calligraphy, are provided to broaden horizons. Additionally, selected students are exposed to numerous competition and workshop platforms to go beyond syllabus requirements.
