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Supplementary Guide to the Chinese Language Curriculum for Non-Chinese Speaking Students
E XECUTIVE S UMMARY
Preamble
1. Under a common curriculum framework, the Supplementary Guide supplements principles, strategies and recommendations for implementing the Chinese Language curriculum in schools in the learning context of non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students. For a holistic view of the curriculum, this Supplementary Guide should be read together with other curriculum guides for Chinese Language Education issued in recent years.
Chapter I - Introduction
2. Usual languages spoken by NCS students in Hong Kong include Urdu, English, Nepali, Tagalog and Hindi.
3. The language education policy of Hong Kong is to promote students’ language proficiency, making them bi-literate (in Chinese and English) and tri-lingual (in Cantonese, Putonghua and English). For better integration into the Hong Kong society, it is in the interest of NCS students to learn Cantonese and traditional characters, which are most widely used in Chinese Language lessons and the community as a whole.
Chapter II - Curriculum Framework
4. The Chinese Language curriculum designed by the Curriculum Development Council of Hong Kong provides a flexible and robust curriculum framework that is applicable to all Primary and Secondary school students. Based on this central Chinese Language curriculum framework, schools should adapt their own curriculum to cater for the diversified learning needs of the students.
5. The learning contents of the Chinese Language Education Key Learning Area include nine learning strands of Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Literature, Chinese Culture, Moral and Affective Development, Thinking and Independent Language Learning. These learning contents are applicable to all students.
6. Based on characteristics of NCS students’ learning, schools should consider realistically various factors when designing suitable learning contents, e.g.
recognising and writing Chinese characters, communication skills, knowledge acquiring skills, aesthetic development, diversified culture, moral and affective development and independent learning capabilities.
7. The Chinese Language learning process of NCS students typically reflects the characteristics of second language acquisition - starting with listening and speaking, then recognising and writing Chinese characters, then reading, then integrating writing with reading.
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Chapter III - Curriculum Planning
8. Schools should plan the Chinese Language curriculum to cater for NCS students’
ability, standards and interests, etc. The principles of curriculum planning include:
to provide balanced and comprehensive language learning, to adapt the curriculum for students’ needs and to meet the aspirations of parents and students.
9. School practices on curriculum provision can be categorised into four modes:
immersion in Chinese Language lessons, bridging / transition, specific learning purposes and integrated.
Chapter IV - Curriculum Modes
10. Schools may opt to use the following curriculum modes flexibly:
y Mode I - Immersion in Chinese Language Lessons
NCS students are studying Chinese Language alongside Chinese-speaking students. Schools may have to cater for students’ varied needs in learning, and provide focused remedial teaching outside lessons to facilitate immersion.
Prevalent Conditions: students arrived in Hong Kong before teenage, had early contact with Chinese language, learned Chinese in the kindergarten, almost reached the Chinese standard required for learning in Chinese.
Advantage: has rich Chinese language environment, provides peer assistance, displays racial harmony, merges different cultures.
Challenge: NCS students studying Chinese Language alongside Chinese speaking students of the school, demand for remedial programmes, need for diagnostic assessment tools.
y Mode II - Bridging / Transition
NCS students would have to leave normal Chinese Language lessons at the beginning. They would have intensive studies for a relatively short period in order to promptly enhance their Chinese language standards for studying Chinese Language alongside other students of the school.
Prevalent Conditions: students arrived in Hong Kong at teenage, have late contact with Chinese language, and have aspirations to stay in the education system in Hong Kong as well as to seek employment in fields requiring proficiency in spoken and written Chinese.
Advantage: school provides focused learning, intensive learning, ample time for adaptation, makes allowance for lower Chinese language standard at the start.
Challenge: need for diagnostic assessment tools, adoption of elementary levels of competencies.
y Mode III - Specific Learning Purposes
For specific learning purposes, learning Chinese language would facilitate communication in daily-life contexts.
Prevalent Conditions: students are returnees or transient residents leaving Hong Kong after their study and do not aspire to stay in the Hong
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Kong education system or to seek employment in Hong Kong, or students arrived 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.
Advantage: meeting with specified learning needs, allowance for selected (but narrower) learning, with daily-life contexts fully employed, focus on communication and application, flexible requirement in the level of learning standards, alleviate learning burden and pressure.
Challenge: only meeting with the specified learning needs.
y Mode IV - Integrated
To suit the different needs, aspirations and development of NCS students in the same school, it may be necessary for a school to develop more than one of the above modes.
Prevalent Conditions: school has a large intake of NCS students with diversified backgrounds, different family expectations and demands, a wide range of Chinese language standards.
Advantage: school can offer different programmes, each with a critical mass, tailored to cater for individual student’s needs.
Challenge: need to allocate more resources for designing various programmes with different targets to meet diversified needs.
Chapter V - Learning and Teaching
11. To teach NCS students Chinese Language, it is necessary to understand the differences between first language and second language learning, and targeted adaptation of learning and teaching strategies should be employed.
12. Affected by the differences of their mother languages from Chinese, NCS students are likely to encounter difficulties in learning Chinese graphemes, tones, vocabulary, classifiers, word order, etc.
13. Learning and teaching principles: to understand students’ ability, to have well defined learning targets, to meet diversified learning needs, to adjust learning standards, to adapt learning materials, to use self-access learning resources flexibly.
14. Learning and teaching strategies: to develop spoken language through imitation;
to separate the teaching of recognition and writing of characters, to employ reading materials according to students’ vocabulary and psychological development, to integrate reading with writing, to provide language learning context, peer learning.
Chapter VI - Assessment
15. Assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching. Diversified assessment methods are suggested in order to assess students’ learning performance comprehensively. Teachers should make use of assessment feedback to understand the learning progression in different stages.
16. Diversified assessments and multiple exits are provided to NCS students corresponding to different learning modes. Qualifications in Chinese Language:
iv Mode IV -
INTEGRATED
Mode II - BRIDGING /TRANSITION
Mode I - IMMERSION IN CHINESE
LANGUAGE LESSONS
Mode III - SPECIFIC LEARNING PURPOSES
Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE), Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE), the coming Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE); General Certificate of Education (GCE), International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE).
For the alignment of curriculum modes, assessments and exits, please refer to the diagram below.
Chapter VII - Learning and Teaching Resources
17. Development of curriculum resources for NCS students: basic vocabularies, learning software, examples of adapted school-based curriculum plan, learning and teaching exemplars, learning materials, assessment tools for learning, etc.
18. Further support and resources for NCS students: continued on-site school-based support, enhanced partnership schemes with tertiary institutes and Non-Government Organisations, enhancing teacher professionalism, support to parents, enhanced community support, various research and development projects.
Appendix
19. Reference materials include: linguistic characteristics of modern Chinese language, radicals and components of Chinese characters, Chinese Language learning experiences in districts with large Chinese population, a series of exemplars on curriculum and teaching, e.g. school adaptation of learning objectives and learning modules, school curriculum framework, teaching plan and scheme of work, school learning and teaching materials. Information is also provided on overseas Chinese Language examinations, multiple exits, package teaching reference materials that helps self-access learning of NCS students, and examples of learning and teaching resources available.
Education Bureau
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region November 2008
This document is originally written in Chinese. In case of discrepancy between the text of this translated version and that of the Chinese version, the Chinese text shall prevail.
HKDSE HKCEE / HKALE
GCSE / IGCSE GCE Other Studies
& Career
