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English Language Fundamentals - When is the best time to work on?
8 June 2026 | Joe Goh – English Specialist
As parents with small kids in an English medium of instructions country like Singapore, a few key questions would beget the learning of the English language fundamentals.
1. When would be the best time to learn, 2 years old, 4, 7?
2. What kind of social environment would be conducive to the child learning of the English language?
3. How effective are formal instructions in institutions such as public schools including kindergartens, and tuition centres?
"Language architecture develops rapidly between the ages of two and puberty, after which the brain's left and right hemispheres become specialized (lateralized), and the natural, effortless ability to acquire language diminishes drastically"
Eric Lenneberg (Linguist & Neurologist), 1967
As far as educationists and linguists are concerned, the learning of English language fundamentals should begin as early as possible where the young brain acquires the language with little effort in contrast to the later teenager’s mind. According to Dr. Patricia Kuhl (Neuroscientist) in 2011, babies could in fact distinguish different sounds at 2 years old. Ideally, the child should have the best exposure to the learning of the language when they begin to understand and talk. Nonetheless, in all practicality, this should happen in their pre-school and primary levels, not later where much more effort is needed due to the moulded mind.
The next concern would be the social environment which exposes the child to the language. First and foremost is the immediate family environment. Is proper English spoken at home? What kind of communication takes place between parents and the child? In a typical Singapore family nowadays, it is not uncommon to find local languages or mixed languages spoken, i.e. Singlish which influences the child to mimic. How does this help the child to acquire proper English? Next, the access to proper English content. Do family members read English books, newspapers, watch the news, documentaries or movies? Or, play computer games, chat on mobile phones and watch social media such as TikTok and YouTube? Likewise, the child will follow suit. All these beget the question, “How conducive is the home environment where the child has been learning the English language?”
Finally, when children enter formal education from kindergarten onwards, parents are assured that the school, with its organized curriculum, resources and teachers, will ensure their children are well taught in the English language and grounded in the foundation. Given the rigour of Singapore public school system, a strong English language foundation should ideally acquired by late primary. On the contrary, reality often defies expectation. At upper primary levels, how often do we find students unable to get their grammar right particularly in their writing? Common errors include tenses, subject-verb disagreement, prepositions and word form (noun, verb, adjective, adverb).
Let’s analyse official data:
Source: Ministry of Education via Singapore open data portal (data.gov.sg), Nov 2025
Paper Weighting (100%)
1. Writing 25%
2. Language Use & Comprehension 45%
3. Listening Comprehension 10%
4. Oral Communication 20%
Source: Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB), 2025
Analysis: From both set of data, the passing rate had been very high, about 94% (overall) national average), and this was attributable to the high weightage on Paper 2: Language & Comprehension (45%) and Paper 4: Oral Communication (20%). With adequate practices on paper 2 and possessing reasonable grammar and vocabulary, students usually perform well for this paper. For paper 4, most Singapore students can speak audibly due to English as the main national language and familiarity with the examination format would easily secure a pass or good performance. The real test of grammar application is in Paper 1 Writing and which is only allocated a mere 25% weightage. In many other examinations, writing component would easily be 1/3 or up to half the overall score. If this happens at PSLE, the outcome of passes would not so high. Evidently, the data does not reflect a strong grasp of the language fundamentals overall. Unfortunately, there is no access to official data on individual component of the PSLE English paper.
As much as parents hope or expect their children to acquire strong English language fundamentals at primary levels, the expectation is seldom met satisfactorily, and this would affect learning and academic performance when moving forward to the next level, secondary.
Copyright © 2025 Joe Goh
At CCK Tuition Centre, we focus on acquisition of the English language fundamentals at the primary levels when kids are at their best time of their lives to learn the English language.
Enquire now at +65 8913 0316 and let your kids join us for small group teaching with professional and dedicated tutors.