Diversified English Teaching Strategies Make Good Use of English to Sail Away

GCC&ITKD Lau Pak Lok Secondary School, make good use of multiple teaching strategies, adopt a small class teaching model and hire additional foreign English teachers to create an international learning environment and strive to improve students' English ability. Principal Wong Wai ManEncourage students to go out of the classroom, "listen more, speak more, read more, write more", and hone their English skills in real situations, so that in a globalized world, they can not only communicate in English, but also navigate diverse cultures and realize their dreams.

Enriching the foreign teacher team and interdisciplinary collaboration to create a natural context

The school has four full-time foreign teachers, a number far exceeding the average of similar local schools. In addition to being responsible for the regular English teaching and oral English classes for the entire school in Form 1 to Form 2, they will also serve as junior high school class teachers and actively promote interdisciplinary cultural exchanges. Four foreign English teachers are committed to creating a daily English communication atmosphere for students, such as "English Speaking Day" every Monday, and during special festivals and events such as Halloween and the Olympics. The four foreign teachers will dress up with themes, design booth games and singing activities, etc., so that students can learn and use the theme vocabulary. Foreign teachers will also learn English for daily life with students "out of the classroom", such as going to the supermarket for shopping or bowling. Students will also take foreign teachers to a Chinese restaurant to drink tea and introduce local culture in English. These diversified activities are designed to naturally enhance students' confidence and fluency in speaking English, allowing students to "listen easily and speak boldly" in real situations.

In addition, foreign teachers will also participate in a series of English interdisciplinary activities, such as the "English Fashion Week" co-organized with the Visual Arts Department and the Music Department. Foreign teachers and students served as models together, and the students also had to write English speeches and serve as emcees to introduce the inspiration and production process of clothing creation in English; students watching the performance also used the English vocabulary they learned to describe their favorite outfit.

In addition, the school closely links English learning to citizenship and values ​​education through different thematic studies. The English Department and the Computer Department cooperate to guide students to use English to produce short videos on identifying network information and understanding network security, so as to improve communication skills and information literacy. At the same time, the school also incorporates national education elements into English classes. Teachers and students discuss the sportsmanship and international achievements of Chinese athletes, and also learn about traditional Chinese culture (such as calligraphy and festival customs). Afterwards, they complete multimedia exercises, such as giving oral reports and designing posters.

Small class teaching comprehensively solves language skills and exam pain points

The school has rich English teaching resources, giving teachers more room to deal with students with different learning styles. During English classes, the school divides the four classes into six English teaching groups. Two of the groups from Form 1 to Form 2 are taught by foreign teachers, covering the teaching of the four volumes of reading, writing, listening and speaking, as well as English grammar, to comprehensively train language skills. At the same time, foreign teachers will also visit the campus from time to time to talk with students in English and play table games. In addition, the school's open trial classes and English speaking classes adopt a "three-tutor" collaboration model: one local teacher explains test-taking strategies, while two foreign teachers focus on improving language fluency and making immediate corrections. At the same time, the school has added intensive English speaking classes and individual test paper skills classes during lunch and after-school hours, allowing students to prepare for the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) in groups of up to 10 people.

Systematic writing course to assist in transition to DSE

Especially at the junior high school level, the school has begun to add elements that connect high school courses to help students gradually master the more complex writing requirements of high school and skillfully take the DSE exam in the future. Principal Wong Wai Man pointed out: "We hope that through systematic language training, students can see actual progress." The English department will carry out writing curriculum reform this year, and the curriculum design includes five major themes such as character description, event narration, and problem solving. The teaching process combines sample reading, "TREES Framework" in-class concepts and A.I.-assisted revision of test-taking templates to meet the requirements of the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination. At the same time, the school also uses artificial intelligence technology to assist with grammar correction, freeing up space for multiple rounds of "cyclic writing" to allow students to integrate the writing framework and related sentence patterns in a step-by-step manner, create personalized writing notes, and learn English with half the effort.

International English Exchange Group Cultivate global perspective

With the rich resource support of the school sponsoring organization, the school holds overseas English summer camps every year. By breaking through the geographical framework, students move from Hong Kong to the wider English-speaking world.

The classmate once went to Sydney, Australia for a 16-day study tour and stayed with a local host family. He learned to live independently from daily life. During interactions and dinners with family members, he learned to talk about daily life in English, build relationships and understand the living habits of local families. The activities not only train students' ability to be independent, but also enable them to master authentic English for daily life more naturally, thereby achieving the goal of "learning English" to "living in English".

In addition, students participate in English and cultural courses at local colleges and universities. In the classroom, students of different nationalities studied and reported in groups, and confidently used English to express opinions, solve problems and exchange cultures; local foreign teachers also led visits to famous attractions such as the Sydney Opera House, Featherdale Wildlife Park, and Bondi Beach.

This academic year, the school will take students to London, England, to visit the University of London campus, where they will participate in small-class English courses and fully immerse themselves in an authentic English learning environment through diverse activities such as sports, handicrafts, team games, and cultural evenings. They will also visit world-class cultural landmarks such as the British Museum, Oxford University, and Cambridge University to expand their international horizons in academic, historical, and artistic aspects.

These diversified and immersive learning activities are designed to encourage students to explore independently and flexibly apply what they have learned in different situations, thereby accumulating language and cultural knowledge, building self-confidence, and enhancing communication and collaboration skills.

Interdisciplinary vocabulary integration, online reading promotes independent learning

The school actively implements the concept of "Language Learning Across the Curriculum" (LAC) and designs a "Cross-Subject Vocabulary Booklet" to assist students in independent learning. The booklet contains professional English vocabulary and thematic reading materials for subjects such as geography, science, history, and civics, and also covers functional sentence structures. Teachers will teach relevant content in advance in English classes, such as explaining cause and effect relationships, describing trends, summarizing data, etc., which not only makes students more comfortable when learning other subjects, but also simultaneously cultivates common abilities. The booklet complements the school’s online English reading platform, providing students with richer learning pathways. The school hopes to pave the way for students' reading process and lower the threshold for reading English books by understanding more new words.

The school also encourages students to use the Bookr audiobook platform to combine reading with entertainment through rich visual and auditory effects, and gradually develop independent reading habits. The students' performance in the continuous reading process is ideal. The school was not only ranked among the top five best-performing schools in Hong Kong in the MySmartABC online reading program, but also won the Harvard Book Award, which fully demonstrates the school's accumulated efforts in English reading.

Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom in English, show your talent with outstanding performance

The school's English learning not only promotes curriculum innovation and diversified activities, but also actively extends outside the school, encouraging students to participate in various English competitions to demonstrate creativity, perseverance and self-cultivation. Students' writing has been published in the "Young Post" of the South China Morning Post many times and received excellent certification. Some students have even become resident writers for newspapers, communicating and learning with elites from various schools. In addition, students also ranked among the top 20 in Hong Kong and won outstanding awards in the "Animal Photography Poetic Challenge" co-organized by the Education Bureau and Ocean Park.

Students also performed well in the Olympic competition and won the gold medal; students not only won second place in the second Hong Kong English Hard Pen Calligraphy Competition, but also won good results in the Hong Kong School Speech Festival for five consecutive years starting from the 2019/20 school year (the same degree ranked third every year).

The school firmly believes that there are many ways to learn English, and students have multiple ways to demonstrate their confidence, ability and talent in using English. The school will continue to strive for resources and create opportunities to support students in improving their literary appreciation and expression skills in English learning.