Do you have concerns for your child’s English Language proficiency? Be better prepared for a good head start in 2018.
Experts revealed that preparing your child for school has several benefits such as building confidence in them and also reducing stress on your child.
As such, does your child have any learning gaps that are preventing them from being better in English?
<h3>Learning gaps that your child may be experiencing</h3>
1. They have difficulty in organizing thoughts and ideas
Many children face challenges in organizing their ideas and moving from one idea to the next with a logical transition. Some of them also face difficulties in analysing clues in a given text and interpreting the text effectively.
2. They are unable to speak well in front of unfamiliar audience
Most children can speak well with their parents and among their peers, but not all are confident to express themselves naturally in front of unfamiliar audience. For example, some children get emotionally hijacked and perceive oral examination as a difficult hurdle to conquer.
3. They are often disengaged during learning
A child’s brain is like a sponge: don’t discount the memory work. Often, children are capable of picking up new vocabulary words and are very eager to “show off” to their parents about their new learning through daily living.
Unfortunately, when learning is disengaged from real-life events or highly dependent on rote memory, children may find it difficult to appreciate the meaning of words and lack the practices of creating ideas from words.
<h3>So how can you help your child close his or her learning gaps in the English Language this holiday?
</h3>
1. Encourage your child to practise critical thinking and share ideas
Children who are open-minded and have alternative ways of looking at problems are more capable of organising ideas logically and effectively.
They are not easily stuck in the past experiences or rigid about ideas.
This is called critical thinking &#8211; an essential skill that enables children to write convincingly in compositions regardless of the varied essay titles and to fully understand texts of different context in comprehension examination.
To develop critical thinking, your child must believe that thinking is fun and want to be good at it. Just like how you had practised basketball or any other sport, you get better at critical thinking with intentional practice.
2. Provide your child with opportunities to practise public speaking
A great presentation does not happen by accident. It is planned, rehearsed, then delivered with flair. Provide your child plenty of opportunities to learn and develop good presentation skills.
Public speaking is a skill, not a talent.
3. Engage your child with real world topics to expand vocabulary and improve creative writing
In educational settings across the world, there is a growing belief in using concrete, real-world problems to engage and motivate young minds to come up with innovative solutions.
Use real world events and happenings such as news articles from newspapers to engage your children.
<h3>No idea on how to close your child’s learning gap?</h3>
Let <a href="http://www.elloquence.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ELLoquence</a> give you a hand!
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-50494 aligncenter" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell1.jpg" alt="ell1" width="700" height="380" /> 1. ELLoquence provides necessary practices for your child to build thinking
Whether it be studying a comprehension passage or critiquing each other’s composition writings, we invite our students to be:
<ul>
<li>CLEAR We challenge them to be clear by asking for explanations and examples.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>ACCURATE We encourage them to highlight related key facts using different colours to form connections within a text.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>RELEVANT We invite them to raise questions or topics that are pertinent to the discussion. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>LOGICAL We think through the details of the topic from different angles, and encourage our students to make logical connections and challenge assumptions.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>FAIR By making sure they consider other people’s perspectives when drawing conclusions, we weave in the life-long skill of empathy into their thinking processes. </li>
</ul>
Through consistent practices, your child will be capable of presenting facts and narrating emotions in their writing through the correct choice of words and sequence of events.
By applying critical thinking, they can learn to make inferences from the texts and explore alternatives and recognise assumptions. These skills are very useful to your child who needs to tackle higher-order thinking questions in Paper 2 of the MOE examinations.
The ELLoquence curriculum has been designed and tailored for Singapore-based students and are aligned to the Ministry of Education (MOE)’s syllabus.
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-50495 aligncenter" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell2.jpg" alt="ell2" width="700" height="563" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell2.jpg 700w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell2-640x515.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
2. ELLoquence gives confidence to your child to become a better speaker
At ELLoquence, we equip your child with the basic skills of making a good presentation and provide your child with ample opportunities to exercise such newly-acquired skills. 
Whether it is through a project work or sharing of research findings, we equip our students with:
<ul>
<li>STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS We empower our students with the processes on how to plan and prepare a presentation.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>EMOTIONAL AWARENESS We help our learners become more aware of their heightened emotions, thereby reducing nervousness and fear. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>CHARISMA We help your child gain rapport with their audience through a variety of techniques, including gestures, eye contact, and an appropriate use of humour.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>COMMUNICATION SKILLS We build on your child’s confidence by helping them to be clear about what they want to say and how they prefer to say it.</li>
</ul>
Through such intentional practice, your child will be able to deliver their thoughts and feelings clearly and convincingly, in any context. Through consistent practices, your child will be able to speak more naturally and confidently in front of unfamiliar oral examiners during the MOE examinations.
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-50496 aligncenter" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell3.jpg" alt="ell3" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell3.jpg 700w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell3-640x427.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
3. ELLoquence engages your child with real world learning
Students in ELLoquence can gain access to real world events and happenings, drawing on some 80 real-life themes to engage themselves. These themes range from ‘Self and Community’ (e.g. sports, friendship) to ‘Global’ (e.g. climate change, technology).
Through such a rich contextual approach, your child can pick up grammar, vocabulary and language skills much better than learning via boring textbook drills.
What is more, ELLoquence give our learners the opportunity to apply their new knowledge by participating in speaking and creative writing exercises!
<h5>Conclusion</h5>
ELLoquence English Learning Centre is confident in helping your child improves his or her language proficiency within a short period of time.
What can you do to let your child have a good head start in 2018? Let your child come onboard ELLoquence today!
<h3><a href="http://www.elloquence.edu.sg/contact/#REGISTRATION" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&lt;Exclusive Offer ONLY For Members of KiasuParents&gt;</a></h3>
<h3>If you are still unsure whether this works for you, we are offering 2 free trial lessons to readers of KiasuParents!</h3>
Take advantage of this promotion, visit our <a href="http://elloquence.edu.sg">website</a> or contact us 8742 2100. You can also drop us a message!
Terms and conditions apply.  For timely updates, tips and information, do check out our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/elloquence.sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> page.

How to Prep Your Child For a Good Headstart In English Language

English has become the language spoken most often at home in Singapore. The recent General Household Survey by the Department of Statistics shows nearly 40 per cent of residents aged five and older use English most often at home. Yet, many children continue to face challenges in using English fluently in daily conversation and creative writing.
What are the reasons behind these worrying trends?
The problem is that most children treat English as a school subject, which is the worst way to learn and master a language.
English is embedded in everyday life and contexts. This is the reason why real fluency cannot be attained through memorisation or assessment books—the progress gained through these tools are limited at best. 
Fluency is like a dance; learners must be able to relate their life experiences to the language in order to tap into their imagination. When your child is using their imagination, they are having fun; they are excited to learn; they are stretching their natural abilities.
So how do you spark your child’s imagination?
You can start by thinking about something that you love to do and imagine how it would be like to have the same passion for English. Connect the language to the things that your child naturally enjoys, including their natural abilities and interests.
Remember, “Life’s a journey, not a destination.” The same goes for learning English.
Here are 5 tips on how to help your child enjoy learning (and mastering) this beautiful language.
<h3>1) Connect English to what your child already enjoys </h3>
Perhaps your child has an inner artist, or he loves building Lego. Wherever his interests lie, use that as an entry point. Use new words to describe a favourite artist’s painting, for example. Or draw on his latest Lego creation to build a story or stage a drama; remember to throw in (or pretend to be) a villain, and use emotional words in your dialogue such as “bellowed” or “belittled” instead of “he said” or “she did…”
Another method is to draw on IT. At <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nomoseducation/videos/1761079054194758/" target="_blank">ELLoquence</a>, we embed technology in our lessons in a selective and engaging way, using it to help enhance our students’ understanding of certain topics, and to feed their curiosity.
<h3><img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-43702 aligncenter" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/thesys-image.jpg" alt="elloquence" width="455" height="256" /></h3>
<h3>2) Organise vocabulary into categories for meaningful application of new knowledge </h3>
Context is king. A same word differs in meaning and weight when used in varying context. Hence, learning it is more effective to understand how a word has been used and why it is used in the sentence. 
This is why we begin every English lesson with either reading a text or watching a video. It is also why we encourage our students to learn phrases rather than words. Through this contextual approach, our learners are better able to grasp how words fit together with each other as well as their definitions.
Learners expand their vocabulary through better understanding of sentence making.
Jasmine walks into the house. 
Jasmine walks excitedly into the house.
Jasmine walks into the house with a bounce in her steps.
To consolidate this, we give our learners the opportunity to apply their new knowledge in speaking and writing exercises.  
<h3>3) Teach English using your child’s preferred learning style</h3>
The seven learning styles include:
<ul>
<li>Visual: Your child prefers using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.</li>
<li>Auditory: Your child prefers using sound and music.</li>
<li>Linguistic: Your child prefers using words, both in speech and writing.</li>
<li>Physical: Your child prefers using his body, hands and sense of touch.</li>
<li>Logical: Your child prefers using logic, reasoning and systems.</li>
<li>Social: Your child prefers to learn in groups or with other people.</li>
<li>Solitary: Your child prefers self-study.</li>
</ul>
Your child’s preferred learning style may have more influence than you may realise. It guides the way they learn, and may affect how they internally represent experiences, recall information, and even the words they choose.
To help our students achieve fluency, <a href="http://www.elloquence.edu.sg/exam_preparation/" target="_blank">ELLoquence</a>’s team of teachers plans a variety of activities to engage with the kids’ different interests and learning styles. A typical English lesson would include audio texts, video clips, group discussions, writing and reading exercises, as well as reflective self-assessments.
<h3>4) Have a goal in mind</h3>
With purpose, comes motivation.
Your child should have an idea of the benchmark and standards in order to progress towards them. In line with our national English curriculum standards, we will guide your child to identify clear learning objectives and pen down well-defined personal achievements.
Beyond academics, we also advocate learning English holistically and teach non-academic life skills such as confidence and etiquette in handling the language. After all, the purpose of learning English is to equip your child with the skill to communicate with confidence, act with intention, and handle different life situations with ease.
<h2><img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-48774 aligncenter" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/elloquence-oct.jpg" alt="elloquence goal" width="455" height="303" /></h2>
<h3> 5) Practice and revise daily</h3>
As with everything, regular practice makes progress.
If your child does not have a habit to revise daily, start with small steps. The important thing is to be present to handle your child’s queries and arouse his interest to learn.
ELLoquence provides a digital curriculum that your child can access at home, at any time 24/7. You can also stay abreast of what your child is learning, so you can reinforce it at home.
Our hope is that your child falls in love with the English Language, seeing it not merely as a subject but also a life skill. When this happens, they will be able to attain higher proficiency levels, and do well in life to achieve their dreams.
<h3>Let your child come onboard ELLoquence today!</h3>
<h2>&lt;Exclusive Offer ONLY For Members of KiasuParents&gt;</h2>
We are offering 2 free trial lessons to readers of KiasuParents!
To take advantage of this promotion, visit our <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://elloquence.edu.sg" target="_blank">website</a> or contact us: 8742 2100 
Terms and conditions apply.  For timely updates, tips and information, do check out our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nomoseducation/videos/1761079054194758/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> page.