Diversified development of English education to improve Chinese language ability in all aspects

Yan Chai Hospital Wong Wha San Secondary School Upholding the spirit of "Respecting Benevolence and Helping the World", we are committed to optimizing curriculum and teaching to promote students' whole-person development and cultivate them to become lifelong learners with a global perspective. The school creates a rich English learning environment for students, and strives to improve students' English abilities through diversified learning activities and information technology-assisted teaching. Principal Man Ka Yin and the teaching team carefully design school-based courses to cultivate students’ good character and deep knowledge base, helping them broaden their horizons and meet the challenges of globalization.

Small class teaching policy: Exploration and practice of cross-subject collaboration in English

In terms of English education, the school implements the concept of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and adopts a small class teaching policy. Each level is organized into 5 to 6 groups for group teaching according to the students' English proficiency. English teachers have also developed three teaching material packages for students at all levels with different learning abilities to take care of their learning diversity.

In order to promote interdisciplinary collaboration between English and other subjects, the school has established an "English Learning Group" to cultivate students' ability to comprehensively apply knowledge from different subjects. English teachers design targeted teaching content based on the needs of each subject. For example, in the English class of Form 1, the teacher will combine the content of the history subject and apply the history of Egypt to story writing.

In order to help students master the vocabulary of different subjects, the school has published a specialist vocabulary collection specially designed for Secondary One students to help them understand and use the professional terminology of different subjects more effectively. In addition, the school encourages students to write articles on the teaching content of different subjects and publish them in the student magazine "Huaxiang People", which provides a platform to display learning results and promote students' English creation.

In terms of extracurricular activities, the school actively participates in various competitions, such as the poetry adaptation competition organized by the Education Bureau. During the activity, students read and understood the poetry content before creating art, combining English with visual art knowledge, and won multiple awards, which greatly enhanced their self-confidence.

Diversified English activities create an immersive learning environment

The school designs diversified activities and sets up English Day on recurring Fridays. The activities on that day include English morning meetings and different oral activities. In addition, the school also holds song requests and English forums to allow students to improve their speaking skills in a relaxed atmosphere. At the same time, the school arranges an "Ice Cream Day" during the English week. Students complete small English tasks and exchange ice cream at the ice cream cart to enhance their English skills in practical applications.

In addition, the school encourages students to participate in off-campus competitions. Many students have won awards in inter-school recitation festivals, and one student has won a Harvard Book Scholarship, becoming one of only three winners in Hong Kong and receiving a scholarship of up to $10,000. These achievements not only enhance the confidence of the award-winning students, but also prove the school's English teaching level.

The English group also carried out special studies. Principal Man Ka Yin said: "In the special activities at the fourth level, students will design stationery and sell it to their junior high school classmates with virtual currency. Students need to set up virtual companies and conduct advertising sales to earn virtual currency. Students who participate in the activity can obtain virtual currency and use these funds to purchase different products."

Improve students’ competitiveness and obtain internationally recognized qualifications

The school actively supports students to take various international English tests, such as TOEFL Junior, TOEIC and IELTS. At the junior high school level, the school first sponsors Form 1 students to take TOEFL Junior to assess their English proficiency strengths and weaknesses. In the third year of secondary school, students will take the TOEFL Junior post-test again to track and improve their English proficiency based on the assessment report. For high school students, the school provides opportunities to take TOEIC and IELTS to help them fully prepare for public examinations and improve their competitiveness.

Every year, many students score more than 900 points (out of 990 points) in TOEIC, and many students get excellent scores of 7 or more in IELTS, and some students get 8 points. In order to further motivate students, Renji Hospital has established scholarships to specifically reward students with outstanding performance in international English tests.

Make good use of artificial intelligence to improve learning efficiency

The school has established an AI big data oral English training platform to improve students' self-learning ability and their ability to use English. Outside the classroom, teachers use AI technology to assist senior students in group discussions to improve critical thinking and communication skills. In addition, AI technology provides essay correction services, so students can get more specific improvement suggestions to help them strengthen their writing skills. In terms of reading, the school also uses big data to compare and analyze students' reading progress and comprehension levels to achieve better results in all aspects of English listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Expand horizons and communicate to shine on the global stage

In order to give students the opportunity to go out of Hong Kong and have in-depth exchanges with classmates from all over the world, the school not only hires foreign teachers, but also actively contacts students from South Korea and Australia to interact through video conferences. Before the epidemic, the school arranged for a foreign student to come to school for one year every year. They participated in various activities on campus, such as Halloween, New Year's Eve stalls, etc., allowing students to better understand the cultures of different places. In addition, the school organizes different exchange groups in English-speaking regions every year. Students are required to stay with local host families and take short-term courses at English schools. The school also arranges for students to have one-year exchange experiences in other countries. In the past, students have gone to Hungary and Poland to develop cross-cultural understanding and adaptability.