[PSLE English 2025 Syllabus] Part 4: Update to Stimulus-Based Conversation

In this final article of our PSLE update series, we will touch on the changes to Stimulus-Based Conversation in Paper 4 (Oral). As shared in our previous article on the Reading Aloud segment, Stimulus-Based Conversation will now carry 25 marks instead of 20 marks. 

Being able to think on your feet as well as articulate your thoughts clearly and fluently are skills that are only going to become more important in education and the workplace alike. These are precisely the skills that Stimulus-Based Conversation will be testing you on, especially with the more challenging updates to this oral segment. 

Reading Aloud and Stimulus-Based Conversation are no longer thematically linked

Previously, the theme of the passage in Reading Aloud and the visual in the Stimulus-Based Conversation would be linked in some way. For example, the passage could be talking about the elderly facing challenges in using technology, while the visual could be about an event selling the latest digital games. With both sharing the same theme (technology), you may have been able to draw ideas from the passage to talk about the visual. In this case, you could perhaps talk about how the hobby of playing digital games may exclude members of the family who find it challenging to navigate a digital setup. 

With the change, the Reading Aloud passage may be about the challenges faced by the elderly in using technology, but the Stimulus-Based Conversation visual will be about something completely unrelated, such as picking up litter. Hence, students will no longer be able to draw on ideas from the passage to answer the conversation questions, so they will need to have a wide range of general knowledge to enable them to pivot quickly between topics.  

The visual stimulus is now a photograph

Previously the visual stimulus would contain some text, for example, it might be a poster or a drawing with words inside. The new visual will now be a real-life photograph instead, showing real people in a specific setting. The first question of the Stimulus-Based Conversation will focus on asking students directly about the photograph, so students will need to analyse the photograph carefully to pick up clues contained in the picture. The photograph will not contain any text-based clues, so students will need to hone their observation skills and infer emotions from the facial expressions and body language of the people pictured.

Here is an example of the table we use at TWC to help students analyse the photograph:

The first question will usually ask about what the people in the photograph are doing, or how they are feeling. Subsequent questions will expand the topic to questions that could explore likes and dislikes, personal opinions or experiences, and reflections on the theme.

Let’s look at an example. 

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Stimulus-Based Conversation (25 marks)

Questions 

a) How do you think the little girl in the photograph is feeling? Why? 

b) Do you think that families should adopt a ‘No Screens’ policy at mealtimes? Why do you say so? 

c) What are some other occasions when it is important to put away phones?

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Notice that Question a) refers directly to the photograph and asks students to infer the little girl’s emotions and possible reasons why she might feel that way. Question b) asks for a personal opinion and a reason for that opinion. Finally, Question c) expands the topic by asking students to come up with their own related examples. The questions will typically follow a similar progression.

Tip:  Scoring well in Stimulus-Based Conversation is not just about being able to speak well. You also need to have interesting and relevant content to talk about! Despite being fluent speakers, some students do not perform well because they lack ideas about what to say. To ensure you can think of points to talk about, keep yourself well informed by listening to or reading the news. You can also read non-fiction books and talk to your friends and family members about issues that interest you, in order to pick up more knowledge and examples.

Want to know what would be excellent answers to the questions of the above example? Download our Model Response now! 📥

Get our Model Response here

This is the last article in our series of posts on the 2025 PSLE changes. We hope you have enjoyed reading and have found it helpful for your PSLE preparation! 

If you would love to find out more about our English Tuition programme, which prepares you to tackle all components of the PSLE, please get in touch with us. You may also sign up for our PSLE Oral short courses to power up your skills before the actual paper!

These expert tips were brought to you by our in-house Curriculum Team.