The “Four Key Tasks”

To help learners develop independent learning capabilities, it is recommended that four key tasks – Reading to Learn, Project Learning, Information Technology (IT) for Interactive Learning and Moral and Civic Education – be incorporated into the English curriculum. Taking into consideration learners’ needs and interests, schools can flexibly use any one of these four key tasks as an entry point to enliven learning and teaching, and for helping learners progress towards the vision of whole-person development and learning how to learn. The following figure shows the relationship between the four key tasks:

Reading to Learn

Project Learning IT for Interactive

Learning

Moral and Civic Education

Figure 3: Four Key Tasks

Reading to Learn

Reading is a means to help learners seek information, develop thinking skills, enrich knowledge, enhance language proficiency and broaden perspectives. Reading is promoted across all KLAs and in the whole-school curriculum. Emphasis has to be placed on motivating learners and providing them with proper guidance and opportunities to enhance their enjoyment, learning capacity and personal growth through reading.

Language teachers can help promote a “reading to learn” culture through encouraging learners to read a wide range of text types with different subject content. Teachers select or develop appropriate learning activities based on texts that interest learners, so that they will learn to

EXEMPLARS 3 & 4 ELE KLA CG (P1-S3)

EXEMPLARS 2, 3 & 6

appreciate the value of reading and become motivated to make reading a lifelong pleasure. Reading is integrated into regular English Language lessons with the other skills of listening, speaking and writing. Please refer to Section 4.3.4 and Appendix 5 for further details and discussion about the learning and teaching of reading skills.

Schools can help learners develop the habit of reading by encouraging them to read outside class time and school, such as during morning assembly, recess and after school. Learners can be encouraged to notice and read the signs, display boards, notices and advertisements in their immediate environment. These materials can facilitate the development of functional reading skills and help learners relate English Language learning to the rest of their school life.

Project Learning

In English Language learning and teaching, project work typically involves a theme-based investigation that engages learners in integrative language use.

Projects have the advantages of:

• Providing an effective framework for language use and language learning – Through the process of planning, searching for information, note-taking, interviewing, data analysis, discussion, drafting and re-drafting, editing, presentation and other steps that are often involved in project work, learners are able to use language skills and language learning strategies in an integrated way.

• Helping learners develop independence and a sense of responsibility – Projects allow learners to pursue a topic of their own interest, set their own learning targets, and plan and reflect on their course of action. Personal involvement of this sort enables learners to become more responsible for their own learning.

• Facilitating lifelong and life-wide learning – Projects encourage learners to move out of the classroom into the community, allowing

investigations which involve exploring problems from multiple perspectives, presenting information in various modes, as well as planning and organization, learners develop not only language knowledge and skills but also the generic skills, positive values and attitudes that are conducive to lifelong development.

The teacher plays a crucial role in facilitating project learning. Co-ordination across KLAs may be necessary not only for interdisciplinary projects, but also for ensuring that learners are assigned a manageable number of projects at the same time. Before assigning project work, the teacher needs to plan and make appropriate arrangements, taking into consideration the theme or topic, Learning Targets, Learning Objectives, generic skills, values and attitudes, resources, amount of time required, parties involved and products. For details, please refer to the template for project learning in Appendix 6.

For project work to be genuinely learner-centred, the teacher needs to be flexible and open-minded when working with learners, and to provide appropriate support in the following three stages of project work:

• Preparation Stage – Idea initiation and brainstorming

• Implementation Stage – Enquiry process

• Concluding Stage – Knowledge building, sharing and reflection Information Technology (IT) for Interactive Learning

Effective use of IT can facilitate both classroom and self-access language learning. Through making use of the Internet, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software, educational CD-ROMs and application software such as word processors, teachers enable learners to interact with their peers, resources and others in the process of knowledge acquisition and construction, as well as to express feelings and show creativity. For example, teachers can:

• enhance learners’ motivation and language skills when they design activities in which learners make use of different sensory modes to gain quick and easy access to information, to interact with the

multi-EXEMPLAR 2 ELE KLA CG (P1-S3)

EXEMPLAR 2 ELE KLA CG (P1-S3)

EXEMPLAR 9

media resources and to get immediate feedback from the interlocutors online or in person;

• provide opportunities for learners to take charge of their own learning through online conferencing to negotiate the learning goals;

• encourage learners to become active users of English when they apply their skills for critical thinking, information evaluation and knowledge management, using information on the Internet; and

• engage learners in interactive and collaborative work through online discussions and sharing of ideas.

Moral and Civic Education

Central to the framework of the four key tasks is Moral and Civic Education. Learning opportunities within and beyond the English Language Education KLA should be provided for learners to reflect on their values and attitudes. The five priority values for personal and social development of learners to be promoted during the short-term phase are:

• National identity

• Commitment

• Responsibilities

• Respect for others

• Perseverance

In planning and implementing the school-based English Language curriculum, the English panel can ensure that the development of the five priority values has been included, by:

• selecting or developing materials or activities with relevant themes (e.g. showing respect for people from different cultures, showing how one’s commitment to society and the nation can be put into action) and providing opportunities for learners to discuss the relevant values in class;

• assigning tasks (e.g. group work and projects) to create opportunities

• building peer learning and peer assessment into the learning process, so as to provide opportunities for learners to practise showing respect for others and to take more responsibility for their own learning; and

• scheduling co-curricular activities (e.g. during assembly) in which learners share stories, read poems, sing songs or stage short plays promoting good personal qualities and virtues, or view and discuss films or multi-media resource materials on how people face adversities in life positively.