Hong Kong: Language policy contributes to high scoring

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Six of the best for top Sha Tin college girls

Winnie Chong

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Students from lesser known schools were at the forefront of this year's
Advanced Level Examination while the success of one of the two six-As
students was attributed to small-class teaching, something that academics
have been calling for. The two six-As students came from Hang Seng School
of Commerce in Sha Tin while the 11 students with five As came from HKTA
Tang Hin Memorial Secondary School, Shun Lee Catholic Secondary School,
Immaculate Heart of Mary College and St Mary Canossian College as well as
Hang Seng. This year's top student, Yam Shu- jun, attributed her success
to serious study and applying what she learned to her daily life.

She said to obtain fluency in English, one has to love the subject. She
found that reading movie scripts is also an effective way to improve her
English. The other student with six As, Chan Sin-ting, said she worked
hard at her studies and this had paid off. School president Chui
Hong-sheung said Chan's success was also partly due to the fact that she
was in a small-size class where teachers could devote more time to the
needs of individual students. The elite schools produced two students with
four As each, one from Wan Yan College and the other from Diocesan Girls'
School.

However, two principals pointed out that the new scheme which allows
bright students to join university courses straight from Secondary Six
without taking the Advanced Level exams may have also affected results. La
Salle College vice principal Chiu Wing-tak said Friday 22 of his students
had decided to take advantage of the new rule while 40 others had gone
overseas after Secondary Five for studies. Wan Yan College principal Kwok
Ka-chu agreed this could be the case. "As such, it affected the elite
schools' advanced level results." Meanwhile, the English results in the
Advanced Level Examination hit their lowest level in 11 years, with one in
four students failing the exam.

This year's students comprised the second batch of candidates taking the
Advance Level Examination after the implementation of the mother-tongue
teaching policy in 1998. The policy allows 114 secondary schools to use
English as a medium of instruction for junior classes, although all
schools were allowed to switch to English at Secondary Four to Seven from
2001. While some Chinese medium of instruction schools were able to
celebrate a good pass rate among their students, others blamed the
mother-tongue policy for their poor results. Chinese-medium Confucian Ho
Kwok Pui Chun College principal Woo Kwok-yin said the school's overall
pass rate had dropped 8percent to 79.7 percent this year.

The English pass rate dropped from 90 to 80 percent. Woo said the language
policy, which emphasized the mother tongue, was partly to blame as
students had less exposure to the English language. However, another
school teaching in Chinese, Tin Ka Ping Secondary School in North
District, showed an 8 percent increase in the English pass rate.  The
percentage of candidates who satisfied the tertiary education entrance
requirements increased from 77 percent last year to 89 percent. The
school's principal, Yuen Pong- yiu, said teachers had enforced English
learning activities both inside and outside classroom.

He said he hopes the school would be allowed to switch wholly to English.
A traditional Chinese-medium school, Clementi Secondary School, also
boasted better results in both the English test and in the overall pass
rate, said its principal, Tang Chan Wai-ling who believed this was due to
the good learning environment in the school.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_print.asp?art_id=21939&sid=8660676