Create a natural English context with both knowledge and skills

TWGHs Sun Hoi Directors' CollegeAdhering to the consistent educational purpose of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, provide high-quality holistic education and cultivate talents, so that young people can fully develop their talents and give back to the society when they grow up. The school is committed to promoting biliteracy and trilingualism, with special emphasis on improving students' English proficiency. It promotes English teaching from different levels such as school-based courses, extracurricular activities, learning support, and interdisciplinary collaboration, so that students can have an excellent English learning environment and become global citizens equipped with knowledge, skills, and independent thinking ability.

Group teaching model implements teaching in accordance with aptitude

The school implements a group teaching model and implements the teaching strategy of "top-notch, supporting middle-class students, and supplementing the bottom". The four classes in each level are divided into six groups. Students are assigned to corresponding groups according to their English proficiency and learning needs. This helps teachers better understand and pay attention to each student's learning situation and provide more refined teaching. In addition, the school also sets up after-school English classes to provide additional language learning opportunities; advanced writing and speaking skills classes aim to help students improve their writing and speaking skills and dare to express themselves in English; and high school English enrichment classes provide richer and challenging learning materials. Through diversified teaching models, the school has successfully promoted students' all-round English development and enhanced their interest in language learning.

Professional teaching team to improve teaching and assessment efficiency

The professional teaching team plays an important role in improving teaching and assessment efficiency. The school has a professional English subject team. More than 90% of the English subject teachers have relevant master's degrees or above, and can deeply understand the principles and methods of English teaching. Their professionalism and rich experience provide students with high-quality English education. The English subject team has even received the Chief Executive's Certificate of Commendation for Teaching Excellence, which reflects its outstanding achievements and innovative ability in teaching. It can guide students to learn in an inspiring and interactive way, and stimulate their interest in and motivation to learn English.

At the same time, English teachers not only have rich experience related to public examinations, such as marking papers and coordinating school-based assessment divisions, but have also completed the HKEAA assessment literacy courses and public examination oral examination examiner training. They are familiar with the examination requirements and scoring standards, and can guide students to cope with the examination in a targeted manner and achieve excellent results. Therefore, in terms of in-school assessment, the school also adopts the public examination model to prepare and mark papers. For example, the composition test adopts a dual-assessment system, with two reviewers independently scoring; the speaking test or school-based assessment score adjustment mechanism ensures that the assessment of students' oral ability is more fair and accurate. Afterwards, the school will analyze students' abilities in grammar, vocabulary, listening and other aspects based on test results and statistical data, so as to adjust teaching content and methods in a targeted manner.

Designing school-based teaching materials to cater for learning differences

In order to ensure that the content and difficulty of teaching materials are suitable for students' level and help them better understand and master knowledge, the school-based teaching materials designed by the school fully consider students' interests and knowledge, so that they can actively participate in learning. For example, the Social Issues Booklet selects different topics and provides additional reading and writing resources to broaden students' learning horizons. In order to help students develop efficient ways to learn new words, the school also designed Word Panda to teach students how to effectively learn and memorize new words and accumulate English vocabulary. In order to deepen the effectiveness of the group teaching model, the school cooperates with the University of Hong Kong and the Education University of Hong Kong to develop tiered teaching materials, design reading materials and exercises of different difficulty levels, and provide a personalized learning experience. In addition, the school also grasps the trend of electronic teaching and produces teaching materials on various electronic teaching platforms according to the teaching content. It enriches the content and presentation of teaching materials through pictures and audio, and cultivates students' self-study habits.

Interdisciplinary Chinese language learning, learning knowledge in a fun way

Cross-curricular learning helps students comprehensively apply knowledge from different disciplines. The school actively promotes interdisciplinary language learning (Language Across the Curriculum), using a school-wide multi-subject participation model to combine English elements with different disciplines so that students can learn English in an interesting way. The school promotes interdisciplinary Chinese learning in non-language subjects in junior high schools and produces "LAC Booklets" to connect knowledge points in various subjects and enhance students' English learning abilities.

All LaC subject teachers in the school will also participate in peer class observations to exchange teaching strategies, promote collaboration and professional development of the teaching team, and improve students’ learning effectiveness. At the same time, in order to allow students to better grasp the course content, the school has specially launched transition courses to high school to help freshmen adapt to the LaC content of various subjects and break the boundaries of English learning. In addition to starting from the school-based curriculum and teaching model, the school also organizes an interdisciplinary Chinese Language Learning Fun Day (LaC Fun Day) to allow students to learn English and subject knowledge in an interesting way. With its outstanding teaching philosophy, the school won the Outstanding Performance Award in the Secondary School Category of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Teaching Award Scheme in 2019.

Develop reading habits and improve language knowledge

Reading is the key to learning and absorbing knowledge. The school attaches great importance to cultivating students' reading habits and firmly believes that it is an important way to improve students' language ability. During the English morning reading time every Monday, the English subject will arrange for students to read articles on the English Channel and use notebooks to collect practical sentence patterns to learn more English vocabulary and broaden their knowledge. The school also designed the RaC (Reading Across the Curriculum) booklet, which provides a wealth of reading materials so that students can enhance their reading skills and vocabulary while learning subject knowledge. Teachers in each subject group are also actively producing subject-related English reading materials to help students consolidate their subject knowledge and improve their language skills.

Diversified English activities create a school-wide context

The school is committed to improving students' English proficiency and cross-cultural communication skills, and has designed a series of related activities to this end. Every Tuesday morning, the school holds an English morning meeting to allow all students to communicate in English and practice their oral skills. The English subject team also uses English Day activities to deepen students' cultural literacy. For example, activities are held on holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Students can have an in-depth understanding of the cultural background and traditions of the festival, broaden their knowledge and learning horizons, and enhance their understanding of English. In addition, foreign English teachers will lead groups in after-school English corner activities, arranging English games, role plays, debates or other interesting English practice activities to improve their English skills in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, and to interact and cooperate with other students.

In addition to on-campus activities, the school also encourages students to participate in various inter-school competitions, such as recitation, drama and debate competitions, to practice what they have learned. The school received a grant of RMB 1 million from the Quality Education Fund to develop English musicals and dramas. Through English dramas and musicals, the school promotes value education and assists secondary 1 to 5 students in classroom and extracurricular training. By participating in English drama activities, students can use English in real and interesting situations where they need to understand the script and express the emotions of the characters, thereby improving their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

English Ambassador Program encourages students to serve the community

In order to promote an English learning atmosphere, the school has launched an English Ambassador Program to encourage students to use English more and develop leadership skills. Through activities such as the companion reading program, the Speakathon oral training program, and the Xinhai Learning Circle, students can apply English in real-life situations. Principal Li Chi Man said: "The accompanying reading program arranges for Form 3 students to lead Form 1 students in group format to teach reading skills, which not only improves the reading ability and comprehension skills of the new students, but also cultivates the leadership and teaching skills of Form 3 students; the Speakathon speaking training program allows Form 5 students to play the role of leaders, leading younger students to conduct oral training and learning More practical speaking skills and expressions, and promote communication and mutual learning among peers. "In addition to helping other students in school, the school also encourages students to actively participate in community services. Therefore, English Ambassadors will provide assistance and guidance to primary school participants in English activities, allowing them to learn and practice English in a relaxed atmosphere, while experiencing the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of serving others.