Promote independent learning, diversified teaching policies, and create an immersive English context

Fanling Kau Yan College attaches great importance to the development of students' biliteracy and trilingualism, strives to create a rich language environment, and adheres to the school philosophy of "every child has dignity, every child can be taught, and every child can succeed." As a pioneer in promoting independent learning, the school began to optimize its teaching model ten years ago, focusing on developing students' self-study, self-evaluation and self-management abilities. Principal Yau Kit Ying, VeronicaLead the teaching team to keep pace with the times, continue to improve the professional development of teaching, create a diverse and comprehensive English teaching environment, design immersive contexts, and cultivate students to become outstanding talents with an international perspective.

"ENG-LISH" innovative concept, learn efficiently from practice

In terms of English teaching, Principal Yau Kit Ying, Veronica and the teaching team decompose the word "ENGLISH" into "ENG" (ENGage investment) and "LISH" (estabLISH establishment). They firmly believe that appropriate and engaging teaching materials and life-like learning situations can engage students in the classroom, help them learn efficiently from practice, and build motivation and self-confidence in learning foreign languages. Principal Yau Kit Ying, Veronica emphasized: “We regard ‘Engage’ and ‘Establish’ as the vision and teaching philosophy of English teaching. Students are fully engaged in (Engage) English classes and activities, listen more, speak more, write more and read more. If they live a successful life, they can build their attitude, interest, confidence and ability to learn English.”

Those who learn independently develop a perfect study plan

As early as 2012, the school took the lead in introducing independent learning to cultivate students' good study habits and establish an atmosphere of independent learning in the school. In the concept of "autonomous learning", the school emphasizes that students are the "leaders" of learning; teachers are "facilitators" and play the role of "guides" to help students set personal learning goals and plans, so that they can learn to evaluate their learning performance, understand their personal strengths, and manage time effectively, thereby constructing an appropriate learning environment.

At the same time, the teaching team will not only analyze the learning points and difficulties of each topic, but also pay more attention to students’ feedback, so that they can lead the class, take charge of what they learn, and establish a positive learning environment of “self-study”, “joint learning” and “mutual learning”. To this end, the school has specially set up 5 classes in the morning, each class is 50 minutes long; in the afternoon, a reflection and lesson preparation period is arranged, so that students have enough time to organize what they have learned, consolidate knowledge, and adjust their study plans independently. Thanks to excellent teaching methods, many teachers in the school have won the "Chief Executive's Award for Excellence in Teaching" and achieved outstanding educational results.

L.R.C creates future elites and forward-looking design of school-based courses

The school attaches great importance to the planning of English courses and strives to be student-centered (Learner-centred). The goal is to cultivate students' interest in reading (Reading) and cultivate future elites with confidence (Confidence) and an international perspective. In the past two years, the school has cooperated with the world-famous Harvard University and Stanford University, received support and guidance from professional scholars, optimized the course content, focused on improving students' thinking skills, and integrated life-related themes into the school teaching materials to improve students' learning interest and motivation. Director Xie Biyun of the English Department added: "The teaching team re-wrote the textbook articles and added real-life topics and familiar characters to the textbooks and examination papers. For example, the protagonist of the textbook story was changed to a familiar teacher to make learning more interesting."

In order to implement the concept of "reading as the teacher of learning" and create a strong reading atmosphere in the school, the school has set up a morning devotional time (POWER time) to encourage students to read across the curriculum, and holds weekly reading sharing meetings so that students can use the English sentence patterns in the school record book to learn how to share their favorite books with others, while also helping them develop their speaking skills. In addition, teachers of various subjects also cooperate with the library to promote the "Strategic Reading Plan", which selects suitable books for students based on their abilities and course content, and encourages them to connect words and knowledge in different subjects to build a broad knowledge base, thereby cultivating students' sense of ownership of learning.

Carry out "school-based pinyin courses" to master good conversational skills

To break students' fear of English and ensure they have a pleasant and confident learning experience and lay a good foundation in English. The teaching team incorporated the "school-based Pinyin course" into the intermediate-level English course to teach students the method of English Pinyin. First, they identify the pronunciation syllables of words, and then try to spell out the pronunciation of the words, combined with reading training. At the same time, the school encourages students to read English articles aloud. The sound of English reading is often heard on campus. After practicing every day, many students can speak English fluently. In addition, the school also holds an "English Editorial Reading Program" every week, in which foreign English teachers lead all students in the school to read English editorials. The program not only demonstrates reading skills, but also allows students to use English to learn social issues. By integrating English with daily life, students can comprehensively improve their English reading, writing and listening skills, stimulate their interest in English, and build self-confidence in the learning process.

Vice Principal Huang Huajun added that in addition to regular English classes, teachers will also design different learning experiences during the "Junior Middle School English Period" to increase students' opportunities to be exposed to English, improve their reading, listening and writing skills, and lay a good foundation in English. In regular courses, teachers also encourage students to hold discussions in English and jointly establish a space for "mutual learning" and "together learning." At the same time, for students with weaker abilities, the school provides special support materials (Language Support) in the textbooks, listing vocabulary and sentence patterns related to the topic as a reference, so that students of different learning levels can master the basics of English question and answer, and create a learning environment that encourages and supports students to use English. Many teachers also integrate relevant support materials (Language Support) into classroom layouts to integrate English elements into the campus environment, subtly allowing students to internalize commonly used English vocabulary and laying the foundation for English question and answer.

Hiring additional foreign English teachers for immersive learning of pure English

The school is committed to creating an immersive English learning environment. In recent years, the school has hired a number of foreign English teachers and arranged for them to participate in English conversation classes, which has greatly increased students' English conversation time. Foreign teachers created scenarios in the school's newly established aviation laboratory, simulated flight journeys, and taught students professional English. Director of the English Department Xie Biyun pointed out that the school specially hired foreign English teachers from different countries to allow students to communicate with these teachers with different cultural backgrounds, become familiar with different English accents, and improve their listening skills. This kind of communication also helps students master the correct English accent in daily teaching and conversations, and build confident and fluent English conversation skills.

In addition, in order to make students understand the importance of English, not just as an independent subject, but as an important tool for "learning to learn". The school tried to change the language of instruction, changing science subjects to English, and at the same time infiltrating English learning elements into other subjects to enrich students' English vocabulary and expand their learning scope. The English Department will also cooperate with other subjects to organize interdisciplinary activities to promote English learning and enable the integration of knowledge in various subjects. The school offers English Sock Puppets and English Drama elective courses for junior high schools. Foreign English teachers teach students puppet and drama expression skills to enhance students' confidence in using English.

Promote teachers’ professional development and continuously improve learning and teaching effectiveness

The school attaches great importance to teachers’ educational beliefs and teaching quality because they are the key to promoting students’ independent learning. Therefore, the school pays great attention to teacher training to ensure that teachers not only have academic standards and teaching skills, but also continue to learn. Some teachers even personally travel to various parts of the world for teaching exchanges and introduce excellent teaching methods into schools. They work tirelessly, continue to study and participate in multiple teaching courses, and also cooperate with Harvard University to conduct special research to explore teaching methods and effects. In addition, the school sponsoring group "The Christian Church of Hong Kong Tsung Tsin Church" has established the "Fanling Kau Yan College-Quality Education Training Fund" to support schools in organizing teaching and learning seminars, optimizing teachers and improving teaching standards, so as to provide students with high-quality whole-person education.

The teaching team is full of enthusiasm for teaching, incorporates innovative teaching concepts, abandons traditional teaching, and implements its role as a facilitator of students' independent learning. Principal Yau Kit Ying, VeronicaEvery time I talk about the teaching team, I feel very satisfied and can’t help but nod in praise: “In order to promote class discussions, the teacher will ask students to write their answers on the blackboard, and conduct whole-class discussions and corrections to deepen learning effectiveness and avoid repeated mistakes. In addition, we have also introduced a university teaching model to " "Group project study" is incorporated into daily teaching, and students are encouraged to conduct group discussions according to independent learning steps, including division of labor, information collection, lesson preparation and report production, and then learning and reporting knowledge. "The school's teaching method not only allows students to take the lead in learning, but also improves learning effectiveness and cultivates problem-solving abilities and cooperation.

Organize overseas exchange groups and participate in competitions to practice what you have learned

In order to help students learn English better, the teaching team realizes that classroom time alone is limited. To this end, the school actively cooperates with external organizations to prepare a variety of rich English activities to provide students with different learning opportunities. Vice Principal Huang said: "The school has been participating in RTHK's Teen Time Radio and Open Space programs for many years, allowing students to try their hand at being disc jockeys and expressing their views on social issues in English on radio programs." In addition, the school also organizes overseas cultural exchange groups every year, such as cooperating with the Canadian Chinese Cultural Education Association to implement the "World Classroom: Canadian Culture and English Summer Camp", which takes students to Canada to learn English, experience foreign cultures, and have friendly exchanges with local students and host families to enhance their confidence and skills in using English.

At the same time, the school encourages students to participate in various types of English activities and competitions to apply the knowledge they have learned, such as the international high school public speaking competition "Take the lead". Some outstanding students were selected to go to Canada to participate in the finals due to their outstanding performance, bringing them a new learning perspective. The school also makes good use of the electronic teaching model and has held online activities, inviting foreign photojournalists working for "National Geographic" to share their photo stories and journalism experience online, thereby broadening students' horizons. In addition, foreign English teachers hold different activities at the English Society every week to conduct in-depth discussions on food, dance, literature, festival customs, etc., allowing students to engage in cultural exchanges while learning English, thereby expanding their international horizons.