A multi-pronged approach to create efficient English teaching English English is Around Us

As a primary school with excellent teaching standards and a focus on whole-person development, Yuen Long Long Ping Estate Wai Chow School has realized that under the influence of globalization, society's demand for international talents is gradually increasing, and mastering good English skills is like having a ticket to the world. In view of this, Principal Cheng Ting-hui led the school's English teaching team to integrate the school-based curriculum, based on expert theory, adding interesting teaching elements, and deepening e-learning through home-school cooperation to create a boundless English context. Principal Zheng shares the same teaching vision with his team and hopes to work with parents to accompany students to grow and cultivate positive values, so that they can become "lifelong learners" with good language skills, excellent moral character and academic performance, and caring for the society.

Optimize the course "reading and writing" and precise teaching

The school understands that the purpose of language is to establish communication relationships with others. If language learning only focuses on reciting English vocabulary or grammar without opportunities for practical application, it will not be possible to truly master the language. In order to avoid the "cramming" English teaching model of "rote memorization", the English subject team actively optimizes the school-based curriculum and adds a large number of reading, writing, listening and speaking elements into regular teaching, giving students the opportunity to make extensive use of English in classroom learning. In order to grasp the "golden period" of students' language learning, the school's curriculum also incorporates the British Pinyin course "Read-Write-Inc." (RWI). The class is based on teaching Pinyin, and also includes story reading and creative writing, so that students can "read and write" in the English learning process, accumulate sufficient English vocabulary and consolidate spelling skills, so as to comprehensively improve the four major English abilities of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Course director Li Zhimin added that the RWI course is led by foreign English teachers. Through its interesting and interactive teaching, students can quickly master 44 English original sounds and learn the skills of splicing and splitting original sounds. Then they can apply pinyin knowledge to read and write simple sentences, improve their reading ability, and extend their development to writing.

At the same time, the English subject team also specially tailors school-based curriculum units to meet students' needs and establishes interesting classroom discussions so that students can break their resistance to English and experience the joy of reading, thereby establishing a good learning attitude. The school has also established close relationships with education experts. The teaching team has participated in the Education Bureau's "School-based Curriculum Development Support Service" and invited education experts to the school to design English writing courses together to provide English teaching that best meets learning needs. Teacher Hong Manlong, director of the English Department, said: "The new writing course adds a lot of daily life themes. Students will try to record the communities and daily experiences they live in to achieve effective use of English." In addition, the new course will also deepen the learning objectives and make students' writing process more interesting and vivid. For example, when teaching "Hong Kong Attractions", the teacher will first explain the key points of grammar. Then introduce the genre characteristics of the article, and then ask students to collect information on their own, convert the content into articles, conduct self-evaluation and mutual evaluation with peers, and finally complete the article under the guidance of the teacher, and use different programs such as Canva to design patterns and print them into physical color leaflets. Students can improve their satisfaction with English learning through tangible learning results.

Cultivate higher-order thinking and penetrate into daily teaching

Based on the school-based curriculum, the teaching team has integrated the concepts of "Brain-based Learning" and "Higher-Order Thinking Learning - Thirteen Types of Gifted Framework" into daily teaching, allowing students to establish the habit of previewing texts from an early age, master reading strategies and note-taking skills, and deepen thinking training to equip students for their future learning journey. English teachers use the school-based "SDL Booklet" for training on previewing, extending and excerpting notes. "SDL Booklet" also includes English grammar materials, making it easier for students to read them frequently and achieve the effect of reviewing the past and learning new things.

Reading Everywhere Integrating Values Learning

Even though education has evolved in recent years, reading is still the primary tool for learning. In order to promote the reading culture in the school, the school made good use of the "Quality Education Fund" to open up the classrooms connected to the library, and used "Reading Castle" as the theme of the new library. The layout and setting of the library were designed with a student-centered concept, divided into "reading areas" and "e-learning areas". At the same time, a 75-inch interactive electronic screen was added to provide a comfortable and ideal reading environment, and promote the absorption of knowledge in various subjects through "reading". Principal Cheng pointed out: "Currently, the library has nearly 2,000 Chinese and English books, covering different subject matter and knowledge areas. We have also implemented the "Reading Everywhere" book policy and set up bookshelves in every classroom in the school so that students can easily access books in different corners and develop a wide range of reading habits." The English subject group is also committed to cross-subject collaboration with other subject groups and sets themes for inter-subject reading activities to build a coherent view of knowledge for students.

In addition, the English subject group also combines moral education with reading strategies to encourage students to feel their own value through reading different stories, and use the characters in the books as learning objects to build positive thinking and good moral character. In recent years, with funding from the Quality Education Fund, the school's "Mobile Reading Castle: Cross-Curriculum Reading" program has been very popular among students. It not only provides students with a wealth of extended reading activities, such as inviting students to speak about their favorite books in English or designing cards for books, teachers will also share their reading experiences in the form of videos during World Reading Week. The event also successfully extended beyond the school walls, inviting parents and their children to participate in the "Parent-Child Storytelling Short Film Creation Competition" using electronic platforms to promote parent-child reading.

Promote e-Learning and cultivate self-study habits

The primary school stage is an important period for students to build their learning abilities and develop good habits. Therefore, in addition to promoting reading, schools also use e-learning to help students learn to take charge of what they learn and build a lifelong learning spirit. The school actively promotes the "Autonomous Learning Award Scheme" and designs a school-based "Self-Study Task Workbook", which designs learning levels in different subjects, encourages students to practice the spirit of autonomy in the learning process, and learns to set staged learning goals, which is very important to improve learning efficiency and helps students continue to make progress.

In addition to school-based textbooks, the school also actively introduces different electronic platforms to meet the learning needs of all students and comprehensively improve teaching effectiveness. "Electronic whiteboards" have been installed in all classrooms in the school to implement the concept of "flipped classroom" and increase classroom interaction, allowing students to break through learning difficulties and master the essence of the subject faster. The English subject team vigorously promotes students to use "i-Learner" as an independent learning tool. Students can first use online self-tests to understand their personal mastery of the course, and then work together to improve through enrichment exercises. Parents will also play a supervisory role to encourage their children to complete daily independent tasks and improve their English skills. In classroom teaching, English teachers also make good use of different electronic teaching platforms to allow children to enjoy learning English and consolidate their English foundation through simple and colorful multimedia teaching materials and quiz games. The school also keeps pace with the times, constantly updating teaching equipment and software platforms in teaching, and vigorously promoting classroom interactivity.

Giant floor paintings create context

Last year, the English subject team also cooperated with the charity organization "Hong Kong Habitat for Humanity" to organize the "Colorful Campus Art Project", inviting 40 foreign and local volunteers to the school to work with the students in painting a 17-meter-long large-scale painting with "Value our variety" and "Strength with Actions" in the school's open square to express the school's teaching philosophy of cultivating students' diverse development and value education. During the activity, students not only were able to use oil brushes to paint in the open-air square and experience a special artistic experience, but they were also able to communicate and cooperate with foreign volunteers, build friendships, and demonstrate the importance of English as a communication tool.

Recruiting additional foreign teachers, diversified special activities, and incorporating English elements

In order to create more opportunities to use English effectively and allow students to communicate and interact with foreigners in real situations, the school has hired more foreign teachers in recent years to optimize the teacher-student ratio. Two foreign teachers are responsible for English teaching in junior primary schools and senior primary schools respectively. They perform their respective duties and establish a natural English context in the school. The school is committed to creating a natural and pleasant English context. Through activity-based learning, students can get out of the classroom and build English conversation skills in campus life. The school designated Tuesday as "English Fun Day". Foreign English teachers will lead the "English Ambassadors" to design special booth games according to the theme: "Scrabble", "Rainbow Throw", "Bowling Alley", "Dartman", "Ping Pong", etc. The English subject group has also set up different experiential learning to encourage students to actively learn English through different learning situations: For example, the primary 1 students will learn to make birthday cakes through simple English recipes with the theme of "Making a Chocolate Cake for Fred's Birthday", and sing birthday songs under the leadership of foreign teachers; while the primary 2 students will also work with the animal protection organization Animal under the arrangement of the teacher. Asia's two pet doctors meet and learn to care for animals under the guidance of staff in English; students at all levels will be arranged to conduct field trips outside the school, personally contact foreign tourists on the street, and conduct a series of extended English learning: For example, primary 4 students will go to the top of the mountain and try to visit foreign tourists at the scenic spots on the top of the mountain to introduce the local culture and characteristics of Hong Kong.

Teacher Chen Ai-yan, the head of the English subject, added that the school has also organized different English learning activities in the past, such as "World Culture Day", which introduced the cultural characteristics of different countries through full-day English activities to expand students' international horizons. In addition to setting up 10 booths representing the cultures of different countries, teachers will also invite foreigners to perform at the school. Foreign English teachers will also visit each class to hold workshops, allowing students to make Turkish mosaics, Indian Henna paintings, etc. to learn about different cultures around the world and enhance the fun of learning English.

Pay attention to home-school cooperation and establish a relationship of mutual trust

Parents play a vital role in the growth of their children. Principal Zheng attaches great importance to home-school cooperation in order to establish a good teaching collaboration relationship. The school specially offers a bridging course for primary school freshmen, and assigns foreign teachers to teach students and parents basic pinyin skills to promote parent-child learning. The school has also specially launched the "Learning and Teaching Parent Newsletter", which aims to establish close contact and allow parents to update educational information, learn to guide their children's review, and grow up with their children.