Enrichment Programme for Secondary 2 and Secondary 3 Students in Chinese-medium Schools (2003) (For Secondary 2 and Secondary 3 levels)

The Enrichment Programme for Secondary 2 and Secondary 3 Students in Chinese-medium schools in Hong Kong, which consists of a series of teaching modules on cross-curricular topic, is developed to increase students’ exposure to English while they continue to learn in the mother tongue. Development of the Programme was commissioned to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology by the Education and Manpower Bureau of the HKSAR.
The Programme should be used for classroom teaching purposes only and teachers in Hong Kong may make adaptations to and/or reproduce the materials to suit the curriculum needs of individual schools. For more effective use of the materials, teachers are advised to read through the Overview of the Programme.

SCOPES AND OBJECTIVES

The project aims to produce an enrichment programme for Secondary 2 and 3 students in CMI schools. The programme will:

- provide, through the process of learning suitable inter-disciplinary or subject-based content areas, opportunities for increasing students' exposure to English and its use in different key learning areas;
- adopt learning tasks which will give learners the opportunities to acquire and apply knowledge and skills across the dimensions in an integrative way;
- increase students' motivation in learning and confidence in using English through the use of IT, media, imaginative and content-based texts as well as tasks or activities which involve meaningful and authentic use of the English language;
- encourage collaboration among learners and teachers through engaging learners in projects, discussions and role plays, etc. in English; and
- help students develop into independent self-motivated learners.

The main body of the programme consists of a series of teaching modules in English. Cross-curricular themes or selected topics from some key learning areas are provided for the participated schools to implement.

Knowledge and Skills Emphasised

a) Three major learning targets:

- reasoning
- Communicating
- Conceptualizing
- enquiring
- problem-solving

b) Five fundamental intertwining ways of learning and using knowledge:

- Communicating
- Conceptualizing
- enquiring
- problem-solving
- reasoning

c) Basic receptive and productive language skills:

- listening
- reading
- speaking
- writing

Details about the Materials

a) Each module consists of materials including:

- The Students' Copy (without answers)
- The Teachers' Copy (with answers)
- Supplementary notes which give details about:

- - objective(s) and focus of each part of the module;
  - extended activities;
  - recommended lesson plans; and
  - marking scheme(s).

- Audio/Visual materials
- A glossary

b)The majority of tasks are real and interesting to students.

c)Students are required to use a combination of language skills to complete each task.

d)Opportunities are provided for students to use and learn English in a meaningful, purposeful and authentic way.

e) The programme is learner-centred; all the modules are designed specifically to cater for the needs and experience of students.

On average, about 5% of the teaching time (roughly three periods per cycle) at Secondary 2 and 7% (roughly four periods per cycle) should be set aside for teaching these modules.

IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME COMMITTEE

It is the responsibility of every teacher in the school to make sure that the enrichment programme is effectively implemented by contributing their own part to it. However, it is strongly recommended that a committee (The Enrichment Programme Committee) with a co-ordinator be appointed to facilitate and co-ordinate the policy.

Suggestions:

- The committee should be a genuine language across the curriculum team, with a representative from each subject department.
- A senior member of staff should be appointed as the team co-ordinator who would be responsible for the effective functioning of the committee and the implementation of the Enrichment Programme.
- A co-ordinator with clearly stated job specifications and the necessary workload reduction is essential
- The subject department representatives should also be teachers who are able to motivate and support members of their own departments in implementing changes. Within the Enrichment Programme Committee, co-ordinators for each year level or for specific purposes, might also be established.
- The Enrichment Programme Committee should collect feedback from teachers involved to provide support and to clarify their understanding about the programme whenever necessary. Teachers may be worried that they cannot complete their original syllabuses because of the implementation of the Enrichment Programme. These worries should be groundless and teachers may need to be reassured of this. It is important to have thorough discussion and consultation to make sure that all teachers involved have a clear understanding about the rationale and objectives of the Enrichment Programme before implementing the programme.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS RAISED BY TEACHERS

1) Who should be involved in the programme?

;

Only teachers of English

;

Only subject teachers

;

Both teachers of English and subject teachers

2) What are teachers' roles?

;

Teacher of English or subject teacher?

;

Facilitator?

3) What should you do if your students cannot keep up?

;

Ignore them?

;

Find out the reasons?

;

Arrange additional lessons?

;

Adapt materials?

;

Adapt teaching schedule?

4) What could be done to motivate your students?

;

Emphasise the importance of improving English?

;

Emphasise the bad consequence of failing the programme?

;

Let students have sense of achievement?
- praise
- reasonable level of difficulty

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;

Select suitable materials?

;

Establish a warm learning atmosphere?

;

Build up a close relationship with your students?

EFFECTIVE USE OF MATERIALS

1) Before the lesson (For lesson preparation, subject teachers should work together with teachers of English so that they can make use of each other's subject knowledge and skills for effective use of the materials.)

familiarise yourself with the objectives of the enrichment programme and the principles/design of the materials
work out explicit learning objectives related to the content subjects and English language learning and teaching
analyse students' needs
carefully select appropriate materials
adapt materials, including necessary input, whenever appropriate
plan appropriate teaching strategies

2) During the lesson

build up a friendly atmosphere
teach systematically
signal the transition from one stage to another stage
use appropriate teacher talk
ensure enough interaction between teacher and students
ensure enough interaction amongst students
regularly collect feedback to allow for immediate modification of lesson plans

3) After the lesson

self-evaluation of teaching effectiveness
analysis of problems faced by students
assessment of students' progress
peer observation

EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHER TALK

Possible Problems Caused by Teacher Talk

1) fast delivery
2) complex grammatical structures
3) difficult vocabulary
4) stages of the lesson unclear

Strategies for Adjusting Teacher Talk

1) clear and slow articulation
2) simple language and sentence structure
3) simple vocabulary and paraphrasing
4) topic-fronting or mentioning the topic

e.g.

- Let's start now.

- Where did we stop in the last period?

- Any questions?

- Shall we move on to ?

- That's all for today.

Strategies for Improving Effectiveness of Teachers? Questions

1) Avoiding ambiguity so that your students understand your questions
2) Allowing longer wait-time so that your students have enough time to think about the answers
3) Involving more able students in helping teachers modify questions by asking them to translate the questions into Chinese whenever necessary

Other Strategies for Improving Communication

	STRATEGIES	EXPLANATIONS	EXAMPLES
1)	*Repetition*	Repeating what one has just said	Teacher: What should students do if they want to improve their English? Teacher: What should students do if they want to improve their English?
2)	*Substitution*	Revising what one has just said using simpler language	Teacher: Have you submitted your homework? Teacher: Have you handed in/ given me your homework?
3)	*Explanation*	Explaining what one has just said	Teacher: To share is to give everyone something. Teacher: Everyone has something when we share.
4)	*Contrast*	Giving examples which contrast with what one has just said	Teacher: Do you all know what gluesticks are? Teacher: You can buy them in the shop that sell paper, scissors, pens, rulers, etc.
5)	*Exemplification*	Giving examples to explain what one has just said	Teacher: Read your letter and answer the questions. Then ask your partner the questions. Teacher: For example, A asks B “Where does your letter come from?" B answers “India"and A writes “India".
6)	*Clue-giving*	Providing a clue to what one has just said	Teacher: French Fries? Teacher: You eat them with hamburgers. They're made from potatoes.

(British Council. (1994) The Secondary English Language Immersion Bridge Programme. Hong Kong: British Council., p.33)

STANDARDISATION OF ASSESSMENT

At the end of each module, there is an assessment task which is normally either a writing or a speaking task. Even though general marking schemes have been given, it is advisable for the teachers concerned to work together to elaborate on the existing marking schemes to make them task-specific. For example, instead of giving a general criterion (Is the vocabulary appropriate and varied?), the teachers could work out one which is more task-specific (Is the vocabulary related to the topic?). As more than one teacher may be involved in teaching the programme, to standardise assessment, teachers involved may consider the questions below.

Questions to be considered:

Do you and your colleagues agree on the allocation and weighting of marks to specific points such as content, language, appearance and presentation?
Do you and your colleagues agree on writing conventions, i.e. do you penalize students for spelling errors?
Is there a word limit, and do you expect students to have observed it, or are all your markers going to ignore it in marking?
Are there half marks, and if so, have you agreed on what basis they will be awarded?
Is there a time limit, and if so, are you going to penalize students who do not finish the task in the time allocated?

(Falvey, Holbrrok and Coniam. 1994.Assessing Students. Hong Kong: Longman. p.175)

This Programme comprises a total of 60 modules, 30 at S2 level and 30 at S3 level. Each module consists of the following:

Glossary

S2 Glossary (444 KB)
S3 Glossary (616 KB)

Since the programme (tryout version) is not designed for students' self-access learning, only the Students' Copy

Table of Contents S2 (25 MB)
Table of Contents S3 (26 MB)

and Glossary have been uploaded on this webpage. Schools which wish to obtain the Teachers' Copy and audio/audio-visual materials should send in their request to the following:

Review and Planning Section
Education Commission and Planning Division
Education Bureau
Room 1138, 11/F, Wu Chung House
213, Queen’s Road East
Wanchai, Hong Kong
or
E-mail address: eorp1@edb.gov.hk

Comments and suggestions on the Programme can also be directed to the aboveaddresses.