Teaching Philosophy

Dr Mary Delfin Pereira, founder and curriculum developer of The Pear Tree, had designed the Literature-Driven English Curriculum (LDEC) © as part of her doctoral research. The curriculum was implemented and tested in 4 schools in Singapore. The results indicated that the curriculum was successful in improving the English language skills of Express and Normal (Academic) students of varying language abilities. When she took on the post of Assistant Professor at the NIE, NTU , she continued to test her curriculum on the Normal (Technical) students in 2 schools in Singapore. These students too showed improvement.

The five language skills – reading, writing, oral communication, listening and viewing - were taught as an integrated whole and literary texts were used as tools to advance the learning of these skills. The LDEC © works on the principle language is best learnt when its use is appreciated, thus. when students learn language skills, grammar and conventions from a utilitarian perspective, it becomes easier for them to internalise these skills.

When Dr Pereira tested students with differing language fluencies and skills in the Singapore secondary schools, the results were overwhelmingly positive. Students reported that they enjoyed the lessons and that is another reason why their language skills were enhanced.

Dr Pereira launched The Pear Tree to bring her highly effective LDEC methodology to any student who wants to achieve high levels of fluency in their English regardless of their current abilities.

At The Pear Tree, the curriculum has been further developed to nurture confident thinkers, speakers and writers who are fluent in expressing their thoughts, ideas and opinions as well as in articulating the explicit and inferential information found in different kinds of text, be it print, visual or auditory. Lessons are also created with the objective of ensuring that students sit for their examinations with confidence. Hence, at The Pear Tree, we work towards nurturing the Confident-Fluent thinker, listener, writer and speaker.