AN EXPERIMENT －－ AN EXPRIENCE IN SHARING

TUEN MUN CATHOLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL－－ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Question:

The general standard of English is very low. Pupils are fed up with reading their textbook because they don't think it will help them raise their standard. As a language teacher, I cannot help asking these questions:

1. What can be done to raise the reading interest of my pupils?
2. How have I been using the textbook with my pupils that they find it useless?
3. Why do I sometimes get so frustrated with teaching English?

Answer:

This is a very complicated issue but we ventured to discuss it on our panel meeting and we identified the following major problems:

  1. Most of our F.4 pupils can't even read simple newspaper articles. Usually it is the idiomatic usage that is putting them off. If there are any difficult words, they are unwilling to guess meanings or to use the dictioary because even if they take the trouble, they can't locate the relevant explanations. As a result, they can hardly see any fun with extensive reading.

  2. We teach whatever is in the textbook, supplemented with worksheets on writing and grammar. But pupils can`t see any cohesion between the various parts and they do not appreciate the purpose in doing such work. They think that learning English neither helps them to study the other subjects taught in English nor helps them to pass exams; and working life is too far-fetched.
  3. Many of our colleagues have the same feeling as you. At least 30% of the English Panel members say they would rather teach any content subjects than be a permanent English language teacher. Some say that one class of English is a treat; any more will be a burden.
In order to tackle this seemingly desperate situation, we 'voted' for a change. To do this, 4 teachers plus the panel chairperson were sent to Refresher Course at the ILE over a period of 3 years with the understanding that they would come back to initiate some new approach to our panel.

THE THEMATIC APPROACH (SINCE SEPTEMBER 1991)

Two teams each with two ILE graduates took up one level together and were put in charge of curriculum planning on a thematic approach with the following basic understanding:

  1. It is a reading initiation year, i.e. all effort should be made to enhance pupil' basic ability to read English for information and for fun. Only if they can overcome the initial hurdle in decoding the message hidden in the chunks of words and in understanding at least the main idea of a newspaper article or a story can we expect them to start reading on their own initiative.
  2. Each unit of reading materials focuses on a particular theme and works towards an interesting end product. Through producing something tangible, it is hoped that the common illusion that what is learnt in the classroom serves no real purpose can be changed. We hope to heighten their awareness that English is not only interesting but useful to their daily life. Even tests and exams will be thematic. This makes pupils feel that whatever they have learnt in class will help them in their tests/exams.
Question:

It all sounds very inspiring. But how did you go about doing it ?
e.g. 1 Where did you get all the extra reading materials?
2. How did you try to improve their basic ability to read?
3. What were some of the themes you covered?
Answer:

  1. All team members helped to look out for relevant supplementary authentic materials from newspapers and magazines to be used alongside reading materials in the texbooks. The materials were then organized into different projects, which were constantly modified and recorded as they progressed in different classes.
  2. Since all reading materials used in the same unit are designed to be dealing with only one theme from different perspectives, pupils will have a comfortable *anchorage* point when they start reading -- They will no longer be at a complete loss as they used to be whenever they were confronted with a completely unfamiliar article. They now have a specific purpose in mind when they tackle a reading passage, e.g. to find out how this particular article contributes to the theme as opppsed to the one they read the day before. In this way, they learn to look at the same issue from different angles. Reading is no longer a purely technical decoding exercise; it has become an interactive and informative channel which can broaden their vision.

    By developing their confidence and interest in reading, coupled with the introduction of other reading skills like skimming, scanning, recognition of key words, headings, subheadings, topic sentence and leading paragraph, etc. we can expect good improvement in their reading ability.

  3. Some examples of theme and end product:

　　a. Form One: Theme on food -- An interclass competition of a video production "Mrs. Fong cooks in English" : packing a 　　　healthy school lunch using a budget of $20.
　　b. Form Two: Theme on human relationship -- Extending friendship through writing to SCMP and/or cieculating displays 　　　to ask for help and/or responding to opinions expressed.
　　c. Form Three: Theme on tourism -- "The young ambassador of Hong Kong"campaign : a stage presentation to 　　　　　　introduce Hong Kong to overseas visitors as an entry in an international contest.

Question:

Did the new approach work? Did you experienec any difficulties?

Answer:

The result of the new approach was satisfactory and very rewarding.

  1. There was a generally higher motivation towards English language learning. The school saw an at least 3-fold increase in the purchase of English newspaper in the new academic year. Pupils went for English magazines like *I love English* much more readily than before.
  2. Teachers in Form 4 this year (92-93)saw an obvious improvement in pupils'language sense as far as reading comprehension was concerned. Pupils were also able to respond to a written piece of writing with far more insight than ever before, simply because they had been reading more extensively and purposefully.
  3. Most pupils felt more at ease in using English. Although their sense of grammar was still weak, they were less hampered and were more willing to express what they had in mind.
  4. There was a lot of team spirit within the departmrnt. Teachers wouldn't give up this new experiment for anything else.
However, since this was the first time we were running this program, there were bound to be some difficulties:

  1. Material preparation -- Selection and modification of authentic materials were extremely exhausting for the team members. The grading of materials for different levels also required great skill and effort because otherwise, the weaker class would not be able to come up with the expected end product.
  2. Use of textbook -- Parents complained that the textbooks had not been fully utilized; some new teachers also lacked a sense of security when they were steered away from the textbooks and a lot of peer group support was necessary.
  3. Tests and exams --Test/exam results were not always satisfactory. Most teachers found it very difficult to set a reliable question paper for assessing the pupils' achievement. It was difficult to predict performance in the exams. The pupils who did best in project production were not usually the best in exams.

Despite all the problems we have experienced, we think that it is a worthwhile project and we hope that by adopting the following modifications, we can run it more smoothly this year (92-93):
  1. There will be more division of labour among team members on the design and making of each theme. Existing materials developed last year will be studied and modified to achieve better gradation and selection.
  2. There will be a better use of the current textbooks. Chapters relating to the same theme will be adapted and included. More usage and grammar will also be incorporated into the planning of each theme.
  3. Test/exam results will be studied alongside the objectives to study the feasibility of each test/exam papers.


　

Back
Back to : PTU Home Page (English Version)