Officers-in-charge

• Florence YIP, Cecilia CHU and Rona LI

Schools involved

• Buddhist Lau Tin Sang Primary School (2006-2007)
• Hing Tak School
• HKRSS Tuen Mun Primary School
• LKWFS Ltd. Lau Tak Yung Memorial Primary School
• Po Leung Kuk Horizon East Primary School
• S.R.B.C.E.P.S.A. Ho Sau Ki School

Background

1. Teachers have varying degrees of experience in holistic curriculum planning. Setting up a learning community can facilitate experience sharing and cross-fertilisation.
2. Students in Tuen Mun have limited exposure to English as they do not have much access to learning English outside their own schools.
3. Community resources are essential for supporting the socially and economically deprived students in the district.
4. Using speaking as an entry point could foster confidence building which leads to the development of other skills.

Objectives

1. To develop potential curriculum leaders for sharing experience among network schools and reaching out to other schools in Tuen Mun
2. To boost students' confidence in speaking English by providing a platform for public speaking and to develop their speaking skills (e.g. communication, collaboration, storytelling) progressively by providing opportunities for students from different schools to take part in English speaking activities
3. To provide community support by developing potential student leaders in Tuen Mun for conducting speaking activities
4. To plan the curriculum holistically using speaking as an entry point at one level and across levels
5. To consolidate classroom learning through extension activities like speaking activities linking the formal and informal curricula

Implementation Strategies

1. School-based collaboration: Developing speaking skills through school-based curriculum planning and/or in-depth study
2. Networking: Conducting network speaking activities such as the English Speaking Fair, sharing of school-based practices at network meetings, and holding workshops on speaking

Assessment tools

1. Questionnaires
2. Reflection logs
3. Interviews

Activities held

Resources

Article in compendium (2006-2007): Maximising students' speaking opportunities through strategic integration of formal and informal curriculum planning

The activity materials are available for use in the DVD ‘Speaking across the Frontier’ produced in June 2009 by Language Learning Support Section.