General

Many parents thought that students should be given English homework every day (68.7%) and English teachers should give immediate responses to students' errors (85.2%). They thought that students should always speak in English with their English teachers (91.7%) and therefore using Cantonese in the lesson should be discouraged (53.6%). English teachers, on the other hand, should always speak in English with their students (55.8%).

Games were generally viewed by the parents (68,8%) as important for their children's English learning as they believed that students learned English most effectively through playing games.

The parents (90.8%) regarded helping students to enjoy learning English to be more important than enabling them to do well in exams. To make the English lessons more interesting, most parents (84.9%) felt that the teachers could share their personal experiences with the students.

Many of the parents (70.6%) saw learning English as involving learning the culture related to the language.

In the NET related teaching and learning issues, the parents (78.2%) thought that NETs were more able than local teachers to introduce cultural aspects and values of the western world to the students, and that students would benefit more in oral (88.8%), listening (84%), and pronunciation (87.9%) if taught by a NET. In addition, most (82.5%) thought students would become more confident to speak in English after being taught by a NET.

Nearly a third of parents (26.7%), disagreed that NETs would enable their students to gain good results in English exams. They did not believe that students taught by local teachers would lag behind in their English development compared to students taught by the NET.

Neither did most parents (67.7%) believe that students with low English ability should not be taught by the NET.

More parents (45.8% agreed versus 21.6% disagreed) felt that NETs would experience more discipline problems than the local teachers in English classes. Most (79%) felt that knowing some Cantonese would enable NETs to understand students* learning problems. However, a majority (61.5%) felt that meeting students only once a week would make it difficult for the

NET to establish a good relationship with the students. When it came to choosing either NETs or local English teachers, slightly more parents opted for NETs to their local counterparts (323% versus 21%),

Comparison between the findings of the two administrations of the parent questionnaire surveys revealed stability of these views over time.

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11 Discussion

In this section, the findings of the study will be discussed in relation to the three research questions formulated to guide the evaluation based on the three major objectives for the NET scheme as a whole (please refer to Section 4 above). These objectives were to enable native-speaking English teachers to enhance the teaching of English by:

1) acting as English language resource persons in the schools;

2) assisting in school-based teacher development; and

3) helping to foster an enabling environment for students to speak English and practise their oral skills.

11.1 Objective 1

Acting as English Language Resource Persons in the Schools

The Questionnaire and Case Study findings are the primary sources of evidence of the extent to which the first objective of the scheme had been achieved within the first two years of operation. In each of the following sections, direct evidence of achievement of the objective is presented first followed by indirect evidence and counter evidence as appropriate.

11.1.1 Evidence from the Questionnaire Findings

Full details of the findings from the three questionnaire studies can be found in Sections 8-10 above. Pertinent findings which address Research Question 1 and provide evidence of achievement of the first objective of the scheme are included in this section.

DIRECT EVIDENCE

NETs successful in creating resources for language learning and development

Findings from the questionnaire for school personnel and parents provide evidence of the achievement of the first objective of the scheme. They show that local teachers and principals tend to agree that the NETs have created an authentic English speaking environment for the students, enhanced the quality of English extra-curricular activities, raised the image of the school, raised local teachers' English proficiency and knowledge of western culture. These are all aspects of serving as an effective English language resource person in the school

Students have gained confidence in using English

Responses to the open-ended items support this, with 20% of respondents volunteering written comments agreeing that the arrival of the NET has provided an authentic English-speaking environment for students and teachers to speak "genuine" English. Moreover, about 15% of the respondents to the open ended items perceive students to have become more active and confident in using English to communicate or more enthusiastic in learning English as a result of the NET exposure. This positive view however, should be moderated by other remarks from a smaller number of teachers which suggest that the impact of the NET is far too limited and confined to the small privileged group being taught by NET in all English lessons.

Agreement as to NET role as resource person

20 local respondents to the questionnaire, including a number of principals responded to the open-ended question related to Allocation of Duties. These personnel tend to agree that NETs

should be responsible for more English-related extra-curricular activities. Some suggestions they provide are introducing an English Club as well as the English Corner; arranging linguistic and cultural exchange activities with expatriate students and running inter-school activities in general. This reflects their wish to expose students to NET influence outside the classroom in a more casual and natural environment.

Performance evaluation indicates success

Evidence of the success of the NET in these aspects is provided in written comments volunteered by questionnaire respondents in the section on the performance evaluation/self-evaluation of the NETs. Local respondents agreed that NETs performed well in designing IT teaching materials, organising English learning activities, providing advice on and creative ideas to local teachers, showing enthusiasm in their teaching and.providing support to staff with problems in English teaching.

COUNTER EVIDENCE

Differences of opinion between NETs and others

However, the questionnaire findings also reveal a discrepancy in perceptions of the NET impact between the NETs themselves and their local colleagues. The NETs believe they have the potential to play the role of resource persons well. Local teachers, however, while agreeing that the NETs could have contributions in these aspects, tend to be more aware of the limitations of one NET with 1000 students. The impact, to them, potential and actual, was limited. These perceptual dissonances reveal a lack of communication and genuine collaboration between NETs and locals. (See Section 9.4.4 above and Section 3.2 below addressing Objective 2 of the scheme).

NET perceptions of limitations

NET respondents tend to rate their impact as limited. This is believed to be the direct outcome of limited resources and misallocation of duties. Unrealistic expectations had been placed on one NET, for example, to effect marked improvement or changes to the cumculum, students' learning motivation and the whole school community. In fact, as one local teacher pointed out, people should not have too high an expectation since the provision of one NET to serve 1000 students was not going to make much difference. In order to have the NETs used to their foil potential, another NET suggested that they should not be requested to teach as many classes as the local teachers so that time could be spared for duties tailored to their expertise.

NETs not treasured as change agents at the school level

In written commoits given in the self evaluation section of the questionnaire, NETs pointed out that schools were not able to recognise the special skills and attributes of the NETs, but simply placed them in a pre-detennined mould, disregarding the uniqueness of their talents and the needs of the students. According to one respondent, NETs are caught in a predicament between the expectations of the Education Department for NETs to act as change agents and the resistance of local staff who cling to traditional practices. Therefore, even though NETs might have very original and creative ideas on teaching, they might not be treasured as resource persons in the schools.

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