Chinese Enrichment Programme

What does 'Chinese Enrichment' Mean?

It allows students who need an extra challenge in the classroom to stay engaged and interested in learning. These programmes focus on specific subject areas students excel in and allow them to work at a level that feels most comfortable for them.

Importance of Language Development and Literacy in Children

Language development lays the foundation for the reading and writing skills in children as they enter and progress through school. Language is needed for all aspects of their education in the classroom as they connect with peers and teachers, and throughout their lives as they grow into adulthood. So, developing language skills is of absolute significance for every child’s progress in later life span both as social beings and in pursuing an education.

Main purpose of Chinese Enrichment Programme

• Maintaining child’s Chinese whilst developing English

• Allow children to flourish with their language learning 

• Developing Chinese literacy (中文素養), initially through oracy and comprehension (Writing should develop from speaking)

• Accessing curriculum in both languages successfully. 

• Enhancing students’ logical thinking level 

Understanding the Link between Language Development and Literacy

Language development is very closely linked to literacy of a child. A plethora of research has been done on this topic and all have proven that early literacy is closely connected to language development in children during the kindergarten years.

The link between the two is quite natural because long before a child learns how to read words and recognize symbols, they develop and hone the skills required to understand how language works. Additionally, before the age of eight, children form the foundation for language and literacy development by discovering that speech has patterns and symbols have meaning. As a result, successful language development is a vital part of later achievement in reading.

However, many times, owing to different reasons, language skill delays happen in children leading to inefficient vocabularies causing them to fall far behind their peers. Therefore, proper exposure to structured and age-appropriate instruction during the formative years of language and literacy development helps bridge this achievement gap.

How Can You Encourage Language Development and Literacy in Your Child?

The best method to encourage and boost your child’s speech and language skills is to do a lot of talking together about things that interest your child. You need to make the interaction with your child interesting, and keep responding to them so that they are encouraged with the communication. When your child starts using words, you can repeat and build on what your child is saying. Talking about what’s happening in your daily day-to-day life together is a great method of increasing the number of words your child hears. You can talk about things that make sense to them, and during the conversation can use lots of different words and in different contexts. These can really help your child’s overall language development and literacy.

What is the difference between Chinese Language and Culture (CLC) and Chinese Enrichment Programme (CEP)?

Chinese Language and Culture (CLC) is taught as a language development course underpinned with how language is formed by the Chinese culture. CEP students will continue join the CLC component of the ENC in the same way the main English only pathway does.

Chinese Enhanced Programme (CEP) is teaching the ENC in both English and Chinese, with an equity and equality in the experience of each language being used. Reading and reading comprehension skills are reliant on a solid oral language base. Literacy develops through the interactions a child experiences with others. Therefore, we focus on developing students' communication skills.

Developing language (Chinese) literacy. Literacy is increasingly a collaborative activity, where negotiation, analysis, and awareness of the audience are as critical as understanding or creating a message.