English Language and Literature

Vision

Every student a learner who uses language with Impact, Effect and Affect.

Mission

English Language is a language of beauty and power.

It is our goal to empower students to become proficient and confident users of the language, as well as to enjoy learning it. To complement the explicit teaching of language skills, we design close, extensive and critical reading and viewing experiences to immerse students in a rich language environment. We value thinking and use frameworks like Thinking Hats to promote diversified thinking in a language classroom. Students will also be given ample opportunities to use the language effectively in a variety of contexts through collaborative work with their peers and writing and oral performance tasks.

Performance Tasks as Alternative Assessments

We are committed to developing future-ready students by providing opportunities for them to undertake performance tasks that progressively challenge their language and digital competencies from Secondary 1 to 3. Guided and facilitated by teachers, students work individually, in pairs, and in groups to create illustrated stories, podcasts, and videologues or vodcasts. These tasks not only enhance their technological skills but also nurture their creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking skills, preparing them to thrive in a dynamic and interconnected world.

Click to view an illustrated story written by a group of Sec 1 EL students

Click to listen to a podcast produced by a Sec 2 EL student

Key Programmes

BLSTV

BLSTV was conceptualised as a language programme aimed to facilitate authentic learning experiences in language classrooms and beyond, and create opportunities for students to develop 21^st century competencies and outcomes, ie. confidence, creativity, collaboration and communication skills.

Students are empowered to take the lead in creating and hosting various types of content, including live news broadcasts and interviews. Leveraging the affordances of IT, school news, events, and achievements are presented in a fun and attention-grabbing format that revolutionises the way students perceive morning assemblies and engage with its content. Students also hone digital competencies which are crucial in the digital age. Each production stage provides a real-life context for students to apply their individual skillsets to the roles and tasks assigned to them.

Interested students learn about content creation and video editing through attending a Student Development Module conducted by a trainer from Apple and BLSTV team. Content created will be used for BLSTV episodes.

Studio hosts present an episode at the Media Broadcast Studio

Reporter interviews student audience during a live segment [at the classrooms and in the studio]

The AV crew at work behind the scenes

ELITe Fest

ELITe Fest is Boon Lay Secondary School's vibrant celebration of the English Language, where students immerse themselves in a week of engaging and creative activities. From solving Daily Crossword Puzzles to crafting compelling one-paragraph Flash Fiction narratives, the week is packed with opportunities for students to showcase their language skills.

Highlights include recording sports commentary voice overs for video clips, designing quizzes, and delivering persuasive sales pitch presentations for imagined games. The festivities culminate in an exciting game show grand finale, where the school's four Houses compete in a spirited series of English challenges, showcasing teamwork, wit, and a love for language.

The Gameshow, the finale to a week-long language fest

Oracy Programme

Students participate in different performance tasks and oral enrichment activities each year so that they gradually develop confidence to communicate effectively to different audiences. The Lower Secondary students will get opportunities to express themselves through language and motion by participating in activities like Choral Reading and Readers’ Theatre. The Upper Secondary students will be introduced to debating and public speaking to develop as persuasive speakers where they also hone their delivery skills such as pronunciation, fluency and rhythm in their speeches.

Choral Reading

Debating

Literature

In Literature lessons, students get to develop a deeper love and appreciation of the written words through creative tasks to enhance their interaction with rich literary works. They experience a curriculum undergirded by the literature pedagogical processes.

At lower secondary, students are seen as makers of meanings. As they explore texts with familiar themes like growing up, students bring their prior knowledge to unpack texts at the initial stage. As they dive deeper, strategies like role-playing and dramatisation are used to enhance their understanding. To nurture their ability to communicate ideas, students are assigned alternative assessment tasks like creating an Instagram story to recommend the text and share their analysis.

Click to view an Instagram story designed by a Sec 2 student

At upper secondary, students focus on dialogic thinking where they have thoughtful discussions and debates about literature. A regular participant of the National Schools Literature Festival, Boon Lay Secondary took part in the Upper Secondary Unseen Poetry Debate. The upper secondary literature cohort also attended the Authors' Dialogue and Autograph Session for the set text, How We Live Now: Stories of Daily Living; students interacted with fellow literature students from various schools and had insightful conversations with the authors, enriching their experience of the text.

Authors' Dialogue with Yeoh Jo-Ann, author of The Thing