Enrich your learning experience and improve your English skills from multiple angles

Buddhist Tai Hung College With the school motto of "Wiseness and Compassion", the school aims to teach students to be honest and sincere, modest and self-denying, to be progressive in learning and thinking, to be independent and self-reliant, and to love and care for students. Principal Chiu Hong Ming attaches great importance to students’ English learning, starting from school-based courses and targeting the needs of senior and lower grades respectively; coupled with cross-disciplinary cooperation and extracurricular activities to create an English context and enrich students’ English learning experience.

Strategic school-based curriculum to meet the needs of different grades

The school takes care of the different learning needs of students and designs appropriate school-based curriculum to enhance learning and teaching effectiveness. Principal Chiu Hong Ming pointed out: "Students are worried about their English subject scores after entering secondary school, probably because they are less involved in class and lack a sense of success. In response to this situation, the school aims to increase students' participation and implements the policy of 'learn first, teach later' at the secondary level to promote independent and collaborative learning." In terms of "collaboration", the school adopts " Using the strategy of "leading the weak with the strong", students are assigned to assume different positions in the group. The teacher will also design corresponding questions according to the different levels of the group to take care of learning differences and stimulate students' learning motivation. In terms of "autonomy", the school encourages students to preview simple basic concepts first, and then deepen the teaching during class, and use different collaboration strategies, such as 1-min Talk, Gallery Walk, strengthen students’ ability to apply knowledge.

Teacher Du Xiaoyang, the head of the English subject, said: "At the high school level, the school focuses on helping students prepare for public examinations with the best performance. First, Form 4 students adapt to the examination mode of high school; Form 5 and Form 6 use oral training jointly organized with other secondary schools to allow students to observe the oral examination skills of other students from practical experience and promote their own progress." In addition, the teaching team analyzes the trends of public examinations every year and teaches examination skills in a targeted manner to prepare for the HKDSE.

Diversified English activities open the door to knowledge

In order to enhance the English learning atmosphere, the school designs diversified activities to create an English context and encourage students to communicate in English. Tuesday is designated as "English Day" and English learning activities are launched. Foreign teachers will share on life, culture and other topics during the morning meeting, and "English Ambassadors" will invite students in the audience to respond, promoting interaction among peers and improving self-confidence. After-school time, foreign teachers also lead "English Café" activities, allowing students to learn English through cooking, games, and story discussions.

English is an important language tool for understanding the world. While creating context, the school also actively broadens students' horizons. For example, a Halloween event is held, and foreign teachers explain the culture and origin of Halloween, so that they can experience the meaning of traditional customs while learning English about the festival. In addition, the school holds an "English Festival" every year, designing interesting activities to enhance students' interest in learning English, including inviting people of different nationalities to the school to interact with students, allowing them to understand different cultural characteristics around the world; senior students also organize English booth games to allow other students to learn English knowledge through activities, leveraging the power of peer learning.

Interdisciplinary collaborative activities achieve excellent results

The school implements the spirit of inter-disciplinary collaboration and arranges the English department to carry out inter-disciplinary collaboration activities with other subject groups, and is not limited to English courses to improve students' English ability from multiple angles. For example, in the cross-subject activity between English and Chinese literature, after the Chinese literature subject in Form 5 completed the teaching of poetry, the English teacher immediately taught the difference between English poetry and Chinese poetry, and helped the students try to translate Chinese poetry.

Teacher Liang Qiwen, head of the English Department, added: "Our school participated in the "Qisi Ancient Poetry New Interpretation and New Translation Award" competition organized by City University of Hong Kong. Teachers first analyze the theme of the poem and the author's insights in the literature class, and then the students translate it into English. During the process of translating from Chinese to English, attention should be paid to details such as rhymes and syllables in English poems, which can effectively deepen students' ability to apply English words and improve their English reading and writing skills. This year's school students won the championship in the secondary school category and performed well."

Electronic teaching mode VR immersive experience

E-learning is a major trend in teaching. The school keeps pace with the times, combines innovative technology with curriculum teaching, and invests resources in configuring VR glasses for use in teaching and activities in various subjects. The English subject team makes good use of VR glasses to design different learning themes for students to provide a rich and immersive learning experience. For example, with the theme of geography and cultural exploration, students can immersively visit famous foreign landmarks and gain a deeper understanding of the background and traditions of other countries. They can then share and promote English to their peers, creating an interesting language learning model.