This week marks the start of the SA1 Oral component for many of our P6 students. In the next few weeks, our P4 students will also be having their SA1 Oral.In today’s blog post, I will focus on the Reading Aloud portion of the Oral component. These tips apply to students of every level.
What are the criteria that students are tested on for Reading Aloud and how can they excel in this portion?
1) Pronunciation
Clear Articulation & Consistently Good Pronunciation
Pronounce your end consonants clearly.
For example, the /s/ in the word ‘gifts‘, the /t/ in the word ‘project‘, the /d/ in the word ‘showed‘.
Pronounce the /th/ accurately.
Many times, students pronounce the /th/ sound like a /d/ sound. For example, the word ‘mother’ is often pronounced as ‘mah-der’.
During individual Oral testing in class, I will remind my students to highlight words in the reading passage with /th/ in them and advise them to practice reading aloud these words at home.
Know the difference between long & short vowels
Students should take note of the difference between words with long and short vowels. For example, ‘fat’ & ‘fate’, ‘sit’ & ‘seat’.
Take note of tricky words often found in the PSLE Oral Reading passages
Words such as ‘gasped’, ‘mischievous’, ‘chaos’, and ‘yacht’ appear in the PSLE reading passages. These words (and more) are there to trip up a student. To prevent this from happening during examinations, study the different reading passages and take note of these words.
2) Expressiveness & Fluency
Fluent, expressive reading, varying tone, pace, and volume
Well-paced reading
Do not read the passage too fast or too slow. Reading the passage too fast can cause the student to stumble over certain words, meaning a loss of marks. Reading the passage too slowly can come off as the student lacking confidence.
Pause at the right moment
Pause at full-stops and commas. I often tell my students to pause to the count of 2 when they see a full stop and to the count of 1 when they see a comma.
Pause before a connector such as ‘but’ or ‘and’ to the count of 1.
3) Appropriateness of Voice Quality
Appropriate stress and intonation to convey meaning
Read the passage with feeling
Right from the very first word, the student should read the passage with feeling. I often tell my students to imagine that the way they read can be seen on a heart monitor. If they do not add on appropriate stress and intonation by making sure that their voices go up and down, then the heart monitor would show a flat line. And no one wants to flatline during their Oral examination.
Stress on certain words
Certain words in the passage should be stressed to convey the message of the passage. For example,
Mrs. Rama was shocked by the chaos in her class.
The words in bold should be read louder and with more feeling to indicate the message in the sentence.
Direct Speech
Most PSLE reading aloud passages have direct speech in them. This is included to test the student’s ability to convey the correct feeling of the characters in the passage.
Students reading should change their pitch and tone, depending on whether the direct speech is reflecting excitement, fear, or sadness.
Now, that students are aware of what to look out for in the Reading Aloud portion of your oral component, remember the following points:
Use the 5 minutes given to prepare well. Take note of the things that you need to look out for.
Read your passage aloud quietly (in order not to disturb the student being tested nearby) during the 5 minutes, so that you will feel confident when you sit in front of the examiner.
Read passages found in Oral assessment books or the PSLE Booklet aloud to your family members or tutors to gain confidence.
Check the other articles from this section
- PSLE English Oral model Food
- P6 SA1 Oral Theme and Questions 2016 (Part 1)
- P6 English Oral model Holidays
- English Oral model A Birthday Party P6
- Preliminary Examinations 2015 Oral Topics
- PSLE Oral themes and questions to help your child practice at home
- Primary 6 Oral Past PSLE Conversation Questions
- List of 2021 Preliminary Oral Themes & how you can use the list to help you
- 2019 List of PSLE Oral Themes
- PSLE Oral – Water Conservation
- P6 Oral Common SBC Questions (part 1)
- PSLE ORAL – P6 2021 SA1 Oral Themes
- PSLE Oral stimulus-based conversation – Healthy eating model
- Stimulus-based conversation model PSLE 2020 Day 1
- List of 2020 Preliminary Oral themes Part 2
- List of 2020 Preliminary Oral Themes Part 1
- 6 PSLE Oral tips to help you score well
- P6: List of Stimulus-based conversation questions 2016-2018
- P6 Oral Stimulus-based Conversation – Kindness
- 2019 Preliminary Oral Topics
- List of PSLE Oral Themes 2019
- PSLE Stimulus-based Conversation Dance class model answer
- 2018 Preliminary English Oral Themes
- PSLE English Oral model Children’s Day
- P6 2018 SA1 Oral Themes
- Common Stimulus-Based conversation questions to prepare for PSLE Oral
- PSLE English Oral model Family
- PSLE English Oral Practices – Recycling, Saving water and Volunteering
- PSLE Oral Practice health
- P6 English Oral model Newspapers
- P6 Oral model Food & CA1 Results 2017
- Preliminary Oral Topics 2015 & 2016
- PSLE Oral Reminders
- P6 English Oral model Science Fair
- P6 Preliminary Oral Questions 2016
- PSLE Oral: Stimulus-based conversation key questions 2020
- PSLE Oral Gadget Addiction
P6 English tuition 2022 timetable
Branch | Day | Start time | End time |
---|---|---|---|
Bukit Timah | THU - FULL | 5 pm | 7 pm |
Bukit Timah | SAT - FULL | 9 am | 11 am |
Bukit Timah | SAT - FULL | 11 am | 1 pm |
Bukit Timah | SAT - FULL | 1.30 pm | 3.30 pm |
Hougang Pelikat | FRI - FULL | 5 pm | 7 pm |