Excellent English Teaching Policy Flexible Application of Subject Knowledge

"Every child has dignity, every child can be taught, and every child can succeed" is the educational philosophy upheld by Fanling Kau Yan College. Principal Yau Kit Ying, Veronica and its teaching team split the word "ENGLISH" into "ENG" (ENGage investment) and "LISH" (estabLISH establishment), taking this as the vision and philosophy of English teaching. Through excellent English teaching policies, an excellent team of teachers, and rich English activities, the school builds an immersive English context so that students can fully engage in English learning and be able to listen more, speak more, write more, and read more, thus establishing their attitude, interest, confidence, and ability to learn English.

Forward-planning English courses won the "Chief Executive's Award for Excellence in English Teaching"

English courses have always been of concern to the school, and the school's curriculum is characterized by being learner-centred, cultivating students to become future elites with an international perspective. To this end, the school cooperates with world-famous universities - Harvard University and Stanford University, and obtains the support and guidance of professional scholars to strive for excellence in curriculum design, focusing on improving students' thinking ability, and integrating life-oriented themes into school-based teaching materials to improve students' learning interest and motivation.

The school optimizes textbook articles, spares no time to rewrite them, and adds real-life questions and characters familiar to students into the textbooks and examination papers. For example, the protagonist of the textbook story is changed to a familiar teacher to increase the interest of learning and stimulate students' learning motivation. The teaching team's dedicated teaching and serious and caring professional attitude hope that students can improve their English learning. Their outstanding performance and forward-looking English teaching strategies have been recognized by the outside world, and they were awarded the "Chief Executive's Award for Excellence in English Teaching".

Emphasis on the role of students as "leaders" to create a strong learning atmosphere

In the teaching and learning of English, the school emphasizes the role of students as "leaders"; teachers, as "facilitators", 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 weaknesses, and learn to effectively manage their learning time to build an appropriate learning environment for them.

In order to enable students to effectively play the role of "leaders", lead the classroom and take charge of what they learn, the teaching team will carefully analyze the learning focus and difficulties of each topic, and pay attention to students' feedback, so as to establish a positive learning environment and a strong learning atmosphere 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. The independent learning guidance plan designed by the school even won the Excellence Award in the "Autonomous Learning Teachers Award Scheme" organized by the Hong Kong Secondary School Principals Association.

Gradually break the fear of English and experience the fun of English with confidence

Only when students are not afraid of English can they experience the joy of learning English happily and confidently and lay a good foundation in Chinese language. The school has incorporated the "school-based pinyin curriculum" into the intermediate-level English curriculum to teach students the tips of English pinyin. In the Secondary One stage, the teaching team first teaches students to spell out the pronunciation of words by identifying the pronunciation syllables of words, and combines reading training to encourage students to read English articles aloud. With daily training, students will become better with practice, and over time they will be able to speak fluent English. Every week, the school holds an "English Editorial Reading Project", in which foreign English teachers lead all students in the school to read English editorials. On the one hand, they train students' reading skills; on the other hand, they let them use English to learn social issues, integrate English with daily life, and comprehensively improve students' English reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities.

In addition, the school designs different learning experiences during the "Junior High School English Period" to give students more opportunities to be exposed to English and lay a solid foundation in English. In regular courses, teachers will also encourage students to discuss and evaluate each other in English, and jointly establish a space for "mutual learning" and "joint learning". For students with lower abilities, the school provides special support materials (Language Support), which lists 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 gradually break their fear of English.

Applying interdisciplinary science and integrating knowledge

English is not just an independent subject, but an important tool for "learning to learn". The school adopts an interdisciplinary learning strategy, changing science subjects to English teaching, and incorporating elements of English learning into different subjects such as mathematics, information technology, geography, music, etc., so that they can apply English knowledge in the classroom and learn English vocabulary in different fields in different subjects. This enriches students' personal vocabulary, expands their scope of knowledge, integrates with different subjects, and consolidates English knowledge points. The English subject group will also cooperate with different subject groups to organize interdisciplinary activities, allowing students to use English from different subjects in the activities, apply what they have learned, and increase the fun of English learning.

In addition, the school actively cultivates a strong reading culture and effectively implements "reading as the teacher of learning". Every morning, the school sets up devotion time (POWER time) to encourage students to read across the curriculum, and holds reading sharing sessions every week, allowing students to try to use English sentence patterns in the school record book, use English to recommend their favorite books to others, train their English skills, and develop their speaking skills. In addition, teachers of various subjects also cooperate with the library to promote the "Strategic Reading Plan", which selects appropriate books for students based on their abilities and course content, connects words and knowledge from different subjects, and builds a broad knowledge base, thereby cultivating students' common abilities.

5+1 foreign English teacher, immersive English context

Principal Yau Kit Ying, Veronica is well aware of the importance of English to the development of students, so it does not hesitate to invest additional resources in English teaching to provide students with an immersive English learning environment. The school has specially hired five foreign English teachers, plus one overseas exchange student. They will participate in the English conversation classes of their classmates, giving students more opportunities to interact with foreigners and strengthen their English conversation skills through mutual communication. Foreign English teachers will also create scenarios in the specially designed aviation laboratory to simulate flight journeys, allowing students to learn practical professional English in a near-real experience.

Foreign English teachers are from Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia and Germany. On the one hand, students are allowed to communicate with teachers from different countries to become familiar with the English accents in various places and improve their listening skills. At the same time, they can master the correct English accent in daily study and conversations, thereby training fluent English conversation skills and building confidence in English. On the other hand, the six teachers come from different countries and each have different cultural backgrounds. Through communication and interaction, they help students understand cultures around the world and broaden their international horizons.

Diversified English activities to enhance participation and practical knowledge

By organizing activities, it can not only improve students' participation in English learning, but also help them absorb knowledge and skills in practice. The school offers junior high school elective courses English Sock Puppets and English Drama. Foreign teachers teach students puppet and drama expression skills, allowing students to use English flexibly in an interesting learning method, gain a sense of accomplishment through performances, and strengthen their confidence in using English. Earlier, during the post-test activities, foreign English teachers held a "Shakespeare English Drama Workshop" to teach the classic "Hamlet", allowing students to study the script to improve their reading skills, learn more English words and sentence patterns, and deepen their writing skills. At the same time, they used role-playing to interpret classic plots and cultivate students' interest in English classics.

The school also encourages students to participate in English competitions organized by different organizations, such as the North District Secondary School Principals Association English Storytelling and Speech Competition. There are many students with outstanding performance and they have won many awards. For example, the English recitation team has won the group and solo championships many times; there are also students who have won gold medals in the Hong Kong Gifted Story and Speech Competition with outstanding results. In addition, foreign English teachers also organize different activities at the English Society every week, allowing students to have in-depth discussions on food, dance, literature, festival customs, etc., and use English as a communication tool for cultural exchanges, making English learning and teaching more interesting and expanding students' knowledge and cultural connotation.

Connect the world, opportunities are everywhere, broaden your horizons and grasp the future

Principal Yau Kit Ying, Veronica said: "In order for Hong Kong to achieve the goal of "connecting with the motherland and connecting to the world," students need to have good English skills." The school organizes various types of overseas cultural exchange groups every year, arranging students to conduct study tours and research, and uses English as a bridge to connect the world and establish an international perspective. For example, students have the opportunity to travel to places such as Fiji and Canada, which can broaden their knowledge and create opportunities to use English. The exchange group itinerary is also quite rich. Taking the Canadian study tour group as an example, the school cooperates with the "Canadian Chinese Culture and Education Association" to implement the "World Classroom: Canadian Culture and English Summer Camp". In addition to arranging students to go to Canada to learn English, it also allows them to communicate with local students and host families, experience foreign cultures, build friendships with each other, and increase cross-cultural communication skills. Principal Yau Kit Ying, Veronica revealed that this year, the school plans to take students to Dubai and South Africa to learn about the local economy and tourism from the experience of studying in the Middle East, broaden their horizons, and discuss animal conservation issues in South Africa.

The school also encourages students to participate in international English activities to bring them new learning experiences and see more foreign people and things. For example, students are arranged to participate in the international high school public speaking competition "Take the Lead", so that outstanding students have the opportunity to be selected and travel to Canada to participate in the finals. In addition, the school makes good use of the electronic teaching model to organize online activities to allow students to connect with the world through the Internet. For example, the school has invited foreign photojournalists working for "National Geographic" to share their photo stories and journalism experience online, thereby broadening students' horizons. In order to help students equip themselves to meet the challenges of future studies, the school has specially organized a TOEFL Junior course for junior high school students this year and arranged for them to take the TOEFL Junior international assessment. The aim is to enable students to have an internationally recognized English test certificate since junior high school and prepare themselves for the future as early as possible.