Utilize resources to hire additional manpower to help students lay a solid foundation for English learning

Carmel Alison Lam Primary School has always provided holistic education based on biblical truth, so that students can receive high-quality cultivation in moral, intellectual, physical, social, aesthetic and spiritual life, establish a spirit of self-discipline, grow in faith, hope and love, be able to live in the world, care about the country and society, glorify God and benefit others. Principal Lin Shufen and the teaching team are well aware of the need to improve students' awareness of using English through new teaching methods and provide them with sufficient platforms to apply what they have learned, so that they can lay a solid foundation at the beginning of their learning career and be able to confidently meet challenges in the future and contribute to society.

Three foreign English teachers each perform their own duties and join forces to enrich the English atmosphere in the school

Cultivating students' good biliteracy and trilingual skills is a major goal of the school. Currently, under the Education Bureau's "Native English Teachers" Program (NET Scheme), each primary school can have one foreign English teacher stationed in the school. However, in order to increase communication opportunities between teachers and students and expand students' English context, the school has used resources to hire an additional foreign English teacher in the past, so that the two foreign English teachers can clearly divide their labor and provide more appropriate teaching to upper and lower grade students respectively. As of this school year, the school considered that one of the foreign English teachers had completed a local teaching course and hired the foreign English teacher with a permanent teaching position in the establishment. Principal Lin said: "Under this transfer, we can more flexibly arrange the teaching roles of foreign English teachers. For example, in addition to continuing to teach Net sessions in upper primary schools, foreign English teachers will also teach one of the first-level regular English classes this school year to further strengthen students' daily English learning abilities."

At the same time, the school reorganized its resources and hired another foreign English teacher. In addition to sharing the teaching tasks of the original foreign English teacher, he was also mainly responsible for promoting English learning activities outside the classroom. "During the epidemic in the past, half-day classes resulted in the inability to carry out different learning activities. However, with the resumption of full-day face-to-face classes, we are able to organize a variety of English learning activities for students again to enhance their interest in English learning. This foreign English teacher can focus on arranging activities for recess, lunch and after school, extending English learning to daily life." Principal Lin pointed out that game activities can help break students' stereotyped and boring impressions of English, allowing students to combine learning with entertainment and virtually exercise their English ability.

Interdisciplinary Reading Focus on Practical English

Recruiting more foreign English teachers will give students more opportunities to communicate and listen to English. However, building students' solid English reading and writing skills is also an aspect that cannot be ignored. In view of this, the school attaches great importance to cultivating students' English reading ability. "Foreign English teachers are accustomed to using different readers as teaching materials in class. However, they often encountered many difficulties in the process of ordering readers in the past, resulting in the inability to provide one reader for every student. Therefore, this school year, we decided to purchase a sufficient number of readers from the school. When students learn the topic, they will be given it until the end of the teaching. "This measure not only helps reduce the financial pressure on parents, but also allows students to read relevant books at home, so teachers can study the topic more deeply in class and deepen their learning effectiveness. Principal Lin added that relevant measures allow teachers to adjust the curriculum according to students’ learning performance, so that all students can benefit from appropriate reading materials. Moreover, when the theme teaching is completed, foreign English teachers will also arrange a variety of summary activities, such as rewriting the ending, post-reading report, etc., so that students can output what they have learned and transform it into their own knowledge.

In addition to foreign English teachers promoting reading in the classroom, the English department has also implemented the "Seed Project" since last year to promote cross-subject reading, focusing on guiding students to read English books and broaden their reading horizons, especially readings other than novels. "Interesting fairy tales are the key to unlocking the door to reading. However, the vocabulary of such reading materials is single, which is not conducive to the development of students' general abilities. Therefore, through the "Seed Project", the teaching team guides students to read texts in different fields to expand the breadth and depth of reading. This not only broadens their vocabulary base, but also deepens cultural knowledge."

Vigorously promote e-learning and ignite students’ independent learning spirit

Everything has two sides to the same coin. Although the epidemic has prevented students from enjoying diversified learning activities, it has undoubtedly increased the importance of e-learning. The school has been committed to promoting "inverted classrooms" in the past, encouraging students to learn relevant knowledge points in advance at home. Principal Lin pointed out: “In terms of curriculum planning, many topics are relatively simple and straightforward. If students are able to complete them at home, teachers can use class time to solve students’ learning difficulties, or to upgrade basic knowledge to a higher level, such as analysis, appreciation, problem solving, etc., making the class more interesting. When the subject involves more abstract concepts, students can at least understand the content they will learn at home and make more preparations before class to deepen their understanding. In addition, teachers can also arrange extended exploration after class based on students’ performance in class to inspire students’ independent learning spirit.”

The school is also studying the feasibility of arranging more e-learning in the future. Principal Lin explained: “We hope to provide students with a variety of classroom activities, but class time is always limited. In the past, traditional classroom activity arrangements may not allow all students to participate, but through various electronic platforms, we can increase students’ classroom participation rate. For example, the English subject emphasizes students’ reading (Reading aloud) Aloud), the original class time is naturally not enough for the whole class to participate; if we introduce e-learning and allow students to record the reading content at home and send it to the teacher for comment, this will help greatly improve the level of English reading and enhance the effectiveness of learning and teaching. "

Combining the spirit of innovation and technology with English proficiency to shape new youth in the 21st century

The school has always been foresighted in the field of STEM education, emphasizing the cultivation of students' innovative spirit. The teaching team encourages students to remain curious about the world, but if they want them to be more self-study in innovation and science, Principal Lin believes that they must help them develop good English skills. "Most of the knowledge in the online world is based on English. Students often lack confidence and think that it is "normal" for them to not understand. In view of this, as long as teachers give students a little more help, they can recall what they have learned in class and use different reading skills to improve their understanding and analysis." If students can use these skills more to collect information for topics of interest to them, whether in terms of knowledge or experience,
In terms of knowledge, we will definitely be able to reach a higher level.

In addition, in the era of information explosion, students have many ways to access different information and materials. Therefore, schools really need to put more effort into information literacy and the ability to organize information. Principal Lin said: "We will teach a variety of thinking methods, such as Mind Map. Different methods will be taught in different subjects; different images can organize different information. The purpose is to 'teach them how to fish'. Students will gradually accumulate and use them, and they will become more and more mature."