Teacher Profile

I am an ex-independent school teacher with many years of teaching experience.  I had taught at the Chinese High School (now called Hua Chong Institution), Fairfield Secondary School, Fairfield Primary School and Henderson Secondary School.  I am therefore familiar with students from all streams and is committed to help your children improve their English. 

I have a Post-graduate Diploma in English Studies from the National University of Singapore and an ACTL Diploma in ELT from Trinity College, UK.

My students include students from independent schools, neighbourhood schools and others who are foreign students.

I have been teaching since 1989.

Please contact me at low_siu_ling@yahoo.com.sg and leave me your contact number so I can come up with a suitable tuition arrangement for your child.  Thank you.

English Tuition for "O" level

New 'O' Level Syllabus for English Tuition

Highlights of Changes to the 'O' Level Syllabus

Paper 1 Writing 

There will be a new section called Editing (10 marks).  

Candidates will be given a continuous prose of not more than 250 words and they are expected to identify and then edit grammatical errors by writing the corrections in the spaces provided.  Errors in punctuation and spelling will not be tested in this section.

Paper 2 Comprehension

There will be a Visual Comprehension section (5 marks) comprising 5 questions.  An example is questions based on a webpage.

The Summary question has a new word limit of 80 words instead of 160.  This makes it a tougher section to tackle as candidates must use fewer words to state their points.

Paper 3 Listening

This is a totally new paper to be examined.  In Section A (24 marks) candidates will respond to a variety of listening tasks that will assess a range of listening skills.  The audio texts will consist of a variety of text types and may come with visuals.  Questions could be in the form of MCQs, matching, fill-in-the-blanks, true/false/not stated and filling in a graphic organiser.

In Section B (6 marks), candidates listen to an information text and complete a simple note-taking task.

Paper 4 Oral Communication (30 marks)

Instead of the previous three sections, namely Reading (12 marks), Picture Description (12 marks), Conversation (16 marks), the new syllabus comprises Reading (10 marks) and Spoken Interaction (20 marks). 

For Spoken Interaction, candidates view a visual stimulus, which is thematically linked to the reading text in Part 1, in order to engage in a discussion with the examiners.  The previous syllabus requires the student to describe the picture as if you are writing a composition, preferably without prompting or interruption.  But the new syllabus requires the candidate to keep up with a conversation.  Instead of merely describing the picture they would have to show critical ability in giving opinions.  For example, a student may be given a picture of an old grocery store at an old HDB estate and may be asked to compare the advantages and disadvantages of shopping elsewhere at a supermarket or at a convenience store like 7 eleven, even though these are not in the picture.  The student must give sound opinions for his preference and support them with reasons.        

For more details, refer to: http://www.seab.gov.sg/oLevel/2013Syllabus/1128_2013.pdf

English Tuition for PSLE

New PSLE Syllabus wef. 2015 for English tuition 

Highlights of Changes to the PSLE Syllabus wef. 2015

Paper 1 Writing

Instead of writing compositions with fixed scenarios, pupils can weave a story from pictures.  A student may get a series of three pictures.  He/She can weave a story around all three pictures or just one.

Paper 2 Language Use and Comprehension

Instead of open-ended comprehension which require answers to be given in a line or two, questions will be more varied and could include tables which pupils must fill in using information from the passage.

Paper 3 Listening Comprehension

Questions will use more graphics compared to the existing paper.

Paper 4 Oral Communication 

Instead of Reading, Picture Description and Conversation, pupils will give their personal response to a visual image linked thematically to a reading passage.