Create diverse contexts and apply what you have learned in English

HKFEW Wong Cho Bau Secondary SchoolIt has been 20 years since the school was founded. The school building is located in Tung Chung, which is exactly the intersection of Hong Kong’s air and land routes. It is close to the Hong Kong International Airport and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, and serves as a gateway for external communication. The school hopes that with the geographical advantages, students can become biliterate and trilingual, and become proficient in both Chinese and English. To this end, the school is committed to providing students with diversified learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom, creating an English context, helping students apply what they have learned, and strengthening their English ability and confidence.

All-round Learning Festival: Applying English through Experience

The school attaches great importance to English teaching and carefully creates a diverse English learning atmosphere through non-conventional courses outside the classroom. By posting English quotes on campus, it not only serves as a guide for moral education, but also enriches students' English vocabulary; an English week is held every year, during which a large number of activities and games are presented in English to immerse students in the English context. Principal Hui Chun Lung pointed out: "The 'All-round Learning Festival' is a major feature of the school. The English Cookery course will incorporate English elements, allowing dozens of teachers and students to learn to make snacks while communicating in English. Through hands-on cooking, students learn cooking-related English vocabulary and train their English listening and speaking skills."

Balanced school-based curriculum, English teaching classes in junior high schools

The school’s English teaching is divided into two entry points: regular courses and non-routine courses. As for the former, there are English teaching classes at each level of junior high school, and students with better learning conditions are arranged to enroll. Except for Chinese and Chinese history, all subjects are taught in English. On the one hand, students can have a relatively sufficient English learning context and establish a solid English foundation. On the other hand, by accumulating English vocabulary in other subjects, it will help them smoothly connect to high school courses.

Before the start of each school year, the school also launches a week-long transition course to high school, in which English elements are an indispensable part, to help students adapt to English learning as early as possible. Due to its geographical location close to Zhuhai in the Mainland, the school recruits cross-border students. However, considering that their English proficiency is not necessarily inferior to that of local students, it does not deliberately differentiate support. Instead, it adopts a strategy of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, and provides supplementary tutoring to students whose English skills are less than ideal in primary schools.

Adding an aviation simulation cockpit to inspire students’ language development

Principal Hui Chun Lung mentioned many times during the interview that education needs to be coordinated with the environment. Considering that the school’s location is closely related to the aviation industry, the school added an aviation simulation cockpit on the campus and provided 4 simulated pilots for students to use and practice, which helps create a real space for English use. Whether students are reading the operating instructions for simulated driving or communicating with instructors, they need to use a lot of English. He pointed out: "We are not a school that specializes in aviation training. The most important thing is to inspire students and provide other learning experiences. How much (professional terminology) they can absorb depends on the individual." In addition, aviation technology is applied to physical knowledge such as air pressure and mechanics. Physics teachers will also lead top students to deepen their learning in this part.

"Reading Buddies" program to make international reading partners

Learning should not only come from textbooks, but also improve English skills through reading. The school holds a reading festival every day after lunch break to encourage all students in the school to read newspapers. The school orders different newspapers, including English newspapers, for each class to use in turn to increase students' opportunities to read English. In order to enhance the learning effectiveness of newspaper reading, news clips of the day will be played at 1:00 pm every day, just in time for students to watch news videos before going to the reading festival, so that they can make comparisons when reading newspapers, and it will also help practice English listening and acquire new vocabulary.

The school continues to implement the "Reading Buddies" program, allowing students to form partners with peers from international schools to read and share together. At the same time, an English book fair was held on campus, with more than 5,000 books on display for students to browse freely. Through the program, students can make friends with peers whose primary language is English, creating opportunities for them to use English on a daily basis. Even if international school partners cannot be on campus all the time, the connection between them continues through the Internet, exerting peer influence on each other and stimulating learning motivation.

Sino-British interdisciplinary collaboration to study Chinese culture

The school has always actively promoted education on national conditions. After the epidemic returned to normal, it held two school-wide exchange activities, led hundreds of students to visit the mainland, and added English exchange elements. For example, during the exchange last May, we visited a local foreign language school. In addition, the school also arranges for students to conduct cross-disciplinary special studies in Chinese and English subjects, using traditional Chinese culture such as Hanfu and Chinese calligraphy as the exploration content, and using English as the medium, breaking the past practice of distinguishing the two subjects independently. Regarding the effectiveness of cross-disciplinary collaboration, Principal Hui Chun Lung observed that “the teachers are very motivated, the students are very engaged, and they also like to wear Hanfu.” Students need to use English to introduce Chinese culture and make English reports, which will help achieve the teaching goal of being proficient in both Chinese and English.