Need to pay attention to students’ difficulties in conducting assessment It should be noted that it is not always the NCS students’ ability that has

caused their underperformance in course work, tests and examinations.

For some of them, the assessment mode or question type may handicap their performance. For example, sometimes a listening test requires students to listen to a lengthy piece of audio input and students’ problem lies actually with memory rather than understanding. Teachers could improve by playing the audio input by sections and give students ample time to listen and comprehend.

In composition, sometimes students’ problem lies in their understanding of the topics. For instance, in a composition test the topic “Football Match for Kei Ying (耆英, an euphemism for ‘the elderly’)”, it is too hard for NCS students to understand the meaning of such difficult words. Teachers need to supplement the special terms with a footnote for students, or simply change the terms to those closer to their daily life. In this way, students’ actual language ability could be fairly assessed.

y Appropriate use of diagnostic tools at different learning stages of students Teachers need to diagnose students’ ability in Chinese language at different stages. At their point of entry into schools, NCS students’ ability of Chinese language has to be diagnosed so that appropriate learning objectives and contents can be set. Diagnoses at different learning stages would facilitate teachers’ understanding of students’ learning progress and facilitate timely adjustments in the curriculum. At the end of a learning stage, teachers can realise whether students have reached the threshold of the required standard of Chinese learning. Effective use of the diagnostic tools is a significant strategy in this Mode.

(5) Public Examinations

When NCS students reach the Chinese learning threshold and are able to immerse in Chinese Language lessons after taking Bridging / Transition programmes, they may sit for the HKCEE, HKALE, or the coming HKDSE examination. Apart from these, NCS students may also sit for the General Certificate of Education (GCE), the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations arranged by the HKEAA. (Please refer to Appendix XVIII.)

4.3 Specific Learning Purposes

Some NCS students are transient visitors or returnees who do not wish to further their studies in Hong Kong. However, as they need to live in Hong Kong for a short period of time, they have to learn Chinese for communication purpose.

Based on their specific learning targets for communication convenience, emphasis would be put more on the communicative function of the language.

(1) Prevalent Conditions

y Students are returnees or transient residents: They use English to communicate and their Chinese language standards are rather low.

y They are leaving Hong Kong in a short period of time while planning to study abroad: Cantonese serves as a daily life language. They seldom use Traditional Chinese characters as the medium of communication in formal writing.

y Students’ Chinese language standards are not high, they do not aspire to stay in the Hong Kong education system or to seek employment in Hong Kong:

They show better performance in listening and speaking, weaker performance in reading and writing.

y Students arrive in Hong Kong at teenage, have late contact with Chinese language and do not have aspirations to stay in the education system in Hong Kong or to seek employment in fields requiring proficiency in spoken and written Chinese.

(2) Advantages

y Suitable for students who are transient residents

To meet their various needs, NCS transient students in Hong Kong may focus on learning basic spoken Chinese and developing listening and speaking ability for daily communication; to learn the written language in daily life context for communication and application.

y Satisfying specific needs

With specific learning targets, NCS students usually have to finish learning within a short period of time. They do not need to go through all the learning areas in the Chinese language curriculum. For example, they may first learn listening and speaking, or reading and postpone the learning of writing with narrower learning areas selected to integrate with actual daily-life need, the content of learning should be easier to manage.

y Flexible management of learning levels

Since NCS students have their specific learning targets, teachers may select intensive learning content for students and manage learning levels flexibly to relieve learning burden and pressure.

(3) Challenges

Achievements of learning can only satisfy specific needs: Based on specific learning targets and selected learning contents, students may only be able to use Chinese language for limited social communication, for example reading advertisements and filling in forms. For language application in more complicated circumstance such as reading the newspaper, their Chinese language level may not be sufficient.

(4) Implementation

y Select learning areas of listening and speaking: The most basic demand of language for people to stay in a place is daily-life communication. NCS students need to possess basic listening and speaking skills in order to satisfy their need in this aspect. Teachers are advised to choose listening

and speaking as the core areas for teaching.

y Practical functions as the purpose: Learning with practical functions as the purpose includes reading notices, instructions, newspaper and advertisements, filling in forms, writing simple letters and memos etc., to cater for the reading and writing need in daily life. Teaching should focus on the functional application of Chinese language.

y Requirement for learning levels are relatively flexible: With specific learning targets, it is hoped that NCS students can reach the level of basic daily-life communication shortly. Therefore, teachers should not set the learning levels too high for students, and learning content should also be easier.

y Learning only Putonghua: Some NCS students are only transient residents in Hong Kong, they plan to learn simple Chinese and then move to the Mainland China for future development. Since they do not intend to live in Hong Kong for a long time, they may consider learning Putonghua instead of Cantonese.

(5) Public Examinations

For transient residents, overseas students returning to Hong Kong or those who are not going to further studies in Hong Kong or find jobs which require fluent Chinese language proficiency, they may focus on language learning for meeting daily-life or working needs. If these students want to obtain qualifications, since the learning content is relatively simple and easy, they may sit for the General Certificate of Education (GCE), the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations arranged by the HKEAA. (For related information, please refer to Appendix XVIII - Overseas Chinese Language Examinations and Appendix XIX - Multiple Pathways for NCS Students upon Completing Basic Education.)

4.4 Integrated

If schools have a large intake of NCS students who have diversified backgrounds and different parental aspirations, they may need to develop one or more recommended modes to facilitate students’ learning. For instance, NCS students can be arranged in different classes according to their learning standards. In this way, NCS students’ needs, wishes and aspirations can be met.

(1) Prevalent Conditions

y Schools have a large intake of NCS students with diversified backgrounds including nationality, language, year of arrival, Chinese language standard, etc. They may not all be able to immerse in Chinese Language lessons at the same time.

y Different family expectations and demands: Students who stay in Hong

Kong for a long time need to integrate into the society and become part of it; students who are transient residents need only to use Chinese primarily as a means of communication.

y A wide range of Chinese language standards: Some students who came to Hong Kong in their early teens may have relatively better command of Chinese; some older students who just arrived in Hong Kong had had no contact with the language before.

(2) Advantages

Schools can offer different programmes, each with a critical mass, tailored to cater for individual student’s needs: Teachers may opt to use the suggestions made for curriculum adaptation in the above recommended modes according to the standards of students. Moreover, they may design different access points for different students. For instance, for students who adopt the “Bridging / Transition” mode, teachers can use the strategy of “Diagnose of learning needs” of Mode I to understand their learning progression. Likewise, even for students who adopt the “Specific Learning Purposes” mode, teachers should also make good use of the power of peer assistance to facilitate their language learning.

(3) Challenges

y Schools need to design various programmes with different targets to meet diversified needs

y Cohesion of various stake-holders, helping one another

y School administration needs to render support and provide more resources

(4) Implementation

y Class and group arrangements according to language standard: After diagnosing students’ Chinese standards, students with higher standards can be immersed in Chinese Language lessons. Students with limitations in some language skills (e.g. reading) may not be ready yet for general Chinese Language lessons. They could join the Bridging / Transition programmes to strengthen their Chinese language foundation prior to the immersion. This kind of class and group arrangements enables teachers to cater for students’ needs and makes teaching more flexible. (Please refer to Appendix VI.)

y Streaming for different modes: Schools with large intakes of NCS students can adopt different recommended modes. They could place students in different streams, which gives them room for catering to the learners’ diversified needs and helps facilitate the allocation of resources, aiming at raising the effectiveness of teaching. (Please refer to Appendix VI.)

Schools can make reference to adaptation methods under the different modes, especially Modes I and II for flexible use to maximise the impact.

(5) Public Examinations

With integrated adoption of the above modes, students may sit for relevant examinations in gaining various qualifications, based on their various learning experiences, targets and expectations.

Curriculum modes that could be adopted by schools are summarised in the diagram below –

Mode IV -