Matilda Reading Club 02

        During the session, Hwei Shan and Zhe Qing took turns to talk about the characters, values and language used in the book. They also prompted a lot of questions to the audience and gave them opportunities to share about their opinions too. It was indeed a fun and interactive session. One of the participants, Sarah Yew Nuo-Lyn felt that the reading club was so much more engaging than she initially expected. “I first thought that it would be rather dull but it turned out to be very interactive. I am glad to have spent my afternoon attending this reading club.” Another participant, Tan Ming Thing mentioned that MATILDA was her first English book she had read in the past few years and it prompted her to continue reading English books. Amanda Theseira, however, dissected the book from the social science aspect, relating it to the injustice and corruption in the real world, which displayed the power of reading in promoting critical thinking skills. All the participants who came that day actively shared their thoughts about the book and they went back with Roald Dahl’s books as tokens of appreciation. 

        Mr. Tan Thong Hing, a school board director who was also one of the sponsors of the prizes, talked about the importance of boosting confidence through presentation and public speaking. “When you’re out there in the corporate world, nothing matters more than how you present yourself and your ideas. Self-confidence is very important,” he said enthusiastically. Mr. Tan also promised to sponsor more books to the English Language Centre and encouraged students to take part in such events. 

        The reading club ended with a fun mini quiz in which the participants were to answer thirteen questions correctly as fast as they could. The four lucky winners of the mini quiz were Mr. Teoh Kah Chun, a Chinese language teacher, Sarah Yew Nuo-Lyn, Tan Hui Yi and Elisa Ng. They were awarded with books from Roald Dahl’s splendiferous collection. 

        Mdm Boo, vice-principal and Head of English Language Centre was happy to see the impact a small reading club could bring. According to her, it not only encourages reading and literary appreciation, it also provides the opportunities for non-frequent users of English to speak the language with confidence in meaningful settings.