A group of Malay students attempt to read through a Chinese passage together.

A taste of teaching

This partnership between Yu Neng Primary School and Bedok Green Secondary School was established in 2008. For the Sec 3 students, it provides a platform for them to learn new skills and helps to fulfil their Community Involvement Programme responsibilities. Two or three students are selected by their teachers based on their language grades, and they lead each primary school language enrichment class, work under their teachers' guidance to prepare lessons, and conduct the lessons entirely on their own.

"The closer age gap helps to build a good rapport between the trainers and the pupils," says Miss Lim Hui Ling, the co-ordinator of the programme at Yu Neng Primary. However, Miss Lim added that when teenagers are given the responsibility of conducting a class, the younger pupils can sometimes be rowdy. "That's when the teachers step in. Sometimes we need to remind the trainers to be firm."

While MOE draws up the programme's curriculum and provides teaching slides, teachers and student trainers come up with fun activities like games and role-playing to liven up the class. Traditional classics like passing-the-parcel, memory games and even cops and robbers are played, all in the language that the primary school pupils are learning.

A student trainer from Bedok Green Secondary School supervises some written work.

Putting a new language into practice

For Malay students learning conversational Mandarin, conversing with their Chinese friends is just one of many opportunities for them to test their new language ability. "Sometimes when I speak Mandarin at the hawker centre, the Chinese uncles and aunties are very surprised, and they ask me how come I know how to speak Mandarin," says Pri 5 pupil Humairah bte Zailan.

"I can now understand my family's Indonesian helper at home, and sometimes I help her translate into English, or teach her the correct English word," chimes in Pri 3 pupil Ng Kar Weng - and this is only his third month learning Malay. His classmate Audrie Leow has tried out her Malay conversational skills with her Malay neighbours. "They've asked me to teach them Mandarin!" she says.

Conversational language classes are also good opportunities for foreign students who are learning a second language that is not their mother tongue. It provides them with an environment to practise the language, as there is no one they can practise with at home. Such is the case for Taye Alfred Kittipong, a Pri 4 Thai pupil who is learning to converse in Chinese.

Joe Lim and Muhd Aniq Azfar take turns conversing in Malay and Mandarin, occasionally collapsing in giggles.

Ask the Sec 3 students about their charges, and the trainers beam with pride. "They're fast learners! And it's great when the can remember words that we taught them from a few weeks ago," enthuses Muhammad Khair Fadli.

Cassandra Goh best sums up what getting a taste of teaching is like. "At first when my parents found out I was teaching Mandarin, they thought I was kidding," she laughs. But she notes, "Teaching is both difficult and enjoyable. Sometimes the younger pupils are difficult to control, but at the same time you get satisfaction when they learn something you teach."