Language Policy

II.The school has put much emphasis on the implementation of biliteracy and trilingualism, especially our students' English standard. The medium of instruction for the junior forms is shown in the table above. Putonghua is taught as a separate subject (2 lessons per week) and is also adopted as the medium of instruction in Chinese Language subject in some classes. In order to strengthen the English Language Arts education and better prepare our students for the NSS, English teachers have joined STELLAR Project launched by the Education Bureau.

For most students in TWGHs Lo Kon Ting Memorial College, the school is the only place where English is learnt and spoken. Thus creating an English-rich environment within the school and maximizing students’ use and exposure to English is crucial. This is especially important for our students if they are to learn their subject content through a second language, develop high levels of English proficiency, and fully benefit from an English-medium education.

An English Enhancement Committee is set up to co-ordinate the effective use of English and to explore various support strategies for promoting a language-rich environment. All students should speak English in EMI lessons and English Language teachers should also communicate with students in English outside classrooms. This language policy should be enforced, otherwise students will easily fall back to Chinese and it would be difficult to maintain an English atmosphere in which students feel comfortable using English. All teachers have to recognize that conscious effort must be devoted to build a tradition, and be committed, persistent and insistent.

A language-across-the-curriculum approach should be adopted to help improve students’ language proficiency and understanding of academic content. There should be close collaboration between English and content subject teachers. English teachers introduce and teach the skills (e.g. reading skills), reinforcing them from time to time in English lessons, while content subject teachers re-teach these skills or introduce related skills/concepts in their lessons, integrating language and content. Since more time and effort has to be spent on the development of students’ language proficiency, the subject content needs to be reduced at the initial stages.

EMI teachers should attend a minimum of 15 hours of EMI-related continuous professional development activities such as experience sharing sessions and seminars/workshops on dissemination of good practices in the use of English for the learning and teaching of their subjects every three years to help them achieve personal learning goals, gain professional knowledge, develop pedagogical and leadership skills suited to the needs of the students and contexts of our school.

At least three EMI teachers from different KLA are recommended to attend the 4-day/5-day Professional Development Course on “Using English as the MOI” each year.

Students should be provided with maximum exposure and use of English through all possible communication channels. The following are just a few examples :

1. Signage, Notices & Announcements
   All notices, display boards, circular posted around the school and our homepage should be in English or Bilingual. Student Ambassadors are trained to be English announcers and oral presenters.
2. ‘English Cafe’ every Tuesday; English morning reading every Thursday; ‘English Time’ every Friday during which each class takes turn to give an English presentation during morning assembly; ‘Meeting with NET’ in the English Corner after school
3. ‘Student Radio’ during lunchtime – students prepare and produce radio programmes which include news, weather, interview, song dedication etc.
4. ‘English Award Scheme’ in which students have to carry out certain reading, writing, listening, speaking or service tasks in English and be awarded for completing them.
5. Hall Assemblies such as Opening Ceremony, Inauguration Ceremony, Closing Ceremony and Sports Days are conducted in English.
6. Students are encouraged to take part in the Annual Speech Festival, Drama Festival and other Open Competitions
7. Students are encouraged to go to the Self-access Learning Centre where they can access independent learning materials to improve their English, such as listening to CDs, reading in English, playing games such as Scrabble and Monopoly, watching videos or movies, online English games and reading etc.