Online Registration For Mother Tongue Languages (Mtl) Symposium 2016 Is Now Open!
The 5th Mother Tongue Languages (MTL) Symposium will showcase more interesting and creative ways to encourage children to learn and love Mother Tongue Languages. Themed “A Garden for Joyful Discoveries”, this year’s MTL Symposium emphasises the importance of building a strong MTL foundation from young. It also explores how MTL learning could become a fun and fulfilling journey of discovery, extended beyond classrooms to the home environment and community.
2. To be held on Saturday, 20 August 2016, from 11am to 8pm at the Suntec Singapore Exhibition and Convention Centre, the MTL Symposium will have exhibitions to inspire parents and give useful suggestions on how a joyful MTL learning environment can be created for children. Ms Low Yen Ling, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education is the Guest-of-Honour.
Highlights of Mother Tongue Languages Symposium 2016
3. Into its fifth year, the Symposium continues to be a platform organised for educators, parents and young children from pre-school to lower primary levels. It seeks to bring together pre-school centres, schools and the community to share their collective efforts in developing our children as active learners and proficient users of MTL.
4. The Symposium will feature 28 sharing sessions and workshops, and 43 exhibition booths in total.
Sharing sessions and workshops: Participants can learn from local and international experts, and invited parent speakers such as Ms Diana Ser1, Mr Sujimy Mohamad2 and Mr Elamaran Natarajan3, on fun and engaging ways to involve children in the learning of MTL. Information sessions on the revised 2015 Primary School MTL Curriculum will be conducted by curriculum developers from MOE.
Exhibition booths: Set up by pre-school centres, schools and community partners, parents and educators can explore fun and innovative ways of nurturing a child’s love for MTL learning.
MTL Sensory Trail: A new exhibition feature, the MTL Sensory Trail consisting of four sensory gardens, is created this year to engage both parents and children to discover the joy of learning MTL with simple hands-on activities. Children will be encouraged to use their sense of touch, smell, sight and hearing to acquire MTL vocabulary that they can use in their daily life. Parents can converse with their children to reinforce the learning in this immersive experience.
5. A wide range of selected MTL learning resources including books, CDs and picture cards will be available for sale. Visitors can browse through recommended picks and specially produced books by community partners such as the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism.
Registration Details
6. Admission to the Symposium is free and the first 5,000 visitors will receive a goody bag. Registration for the sharing sessions and workshops is now open to the public at www.mtls.com.sg on a first-come-first-served basis. Members of the public may also visit the website for a list of activities and exhibitions at the Symposium.
7. Prior to the Symposium, parents and children can join in the fun and excitement in the heartlands on 30 July and 6 August, from 11.30am to 9pm, at Westgate and The Seletar Mall respectively. The LiVE!@Heartlands, a pre-Symposium outreach, aims to bring together exhibitions on MTL learning, fun language activities, and various performances. These performances, including puppetry and improvised story-telling, are put up by professional arts groups, such as Paper Monkey Theatre, The Finger Players, The Theatre Practice, aKt Creations and Sri Warisan.
Footnotes
- Diana Ser, a mother of 3 children, is the founder of Crazy About Chinese, an online site dedicated to help parents and caregivers promote Mandarin to their kids, aged 0-6 years old.
- Mr Sujimy Mohamad, a father of 3 children, is the Director of Screenbox Pte Ltd, an award-winning Singapore-based company that delivers International documentaries and media production services. He is also a member of the Malay Language Council and Malay Language Learning and Promotion Committee.
- Mr Elamaran Natarajan, a father of 3 children, is an educator and a TV personality on Vasantham.