 develop a better understanding of the design and the features of the English Language curriculum with an emphasis on the senior secondary level;

UNDERSTANDING AND INTERPRETING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM

FOR NEW ENGLISH TEACHERS

English Language Education Section Curriculum Development Institute Education Bureau

BY THE END OF THE WORKSHOP, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO

 develop a better understanding of the design and the features of the English Language curriculum with an emphasis on the senior secondary level;

 gain an insight into the latest development in the English Language curriculum

- integration of the Compulsory and Elective Parts;

- promotion of academic and creative uses of English, and

 enhance assessment literacy.

(CDC, 2017) (P1 – S6)

ELE KLACG

12 years

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION KLA CURRICULUM GUIDES

(CDC, 2004) (CDC, 2018) (CDC & HKEAA, 2007) with updates in 2015 4 (CDC, 2017)

OPTIMISING SENIOR SECONDARY ENGLISH LANGUAGE

5

EDBCM No. 39/2021

Curriculum:

Elective Part

• Fully integrated into the Compulsory Part and/or taught as enrichment/extension components,

• Promoting creative use of English through the language arts components

Cross-curricular links

• Promoting academic use of English through RaC and LaC, as well as co-curricular and LWL activities

Assessment:

Part B of Paper 2 (Writing)

• Delinkingquestions from the eight elective modules

• Reducing the number of questions from 8 to 4 School-based Assessment (SBA)

• Both marks (7.5% @)submitted based only on reading/viewing programme

• Adjusting the number of texts to be read/viewed from 4 to 2-4

QUESTION

How can these updates be integrated into the senior secondary English

Language curriculum?

Academic use of English

Creative use of English

Elements elective of modules

Senior Secondary

English Language Curriculum

THE SENIOR SECONDARY

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM

S6 S5 S4

Elective Part (25%) Compulsory

Part (75%)

2020/21: S4, S5 & S6 Cohorts 2021/22: S5 & S6 Cohorts

S6 S5 S4

Senior Secondary English Language Curriculum

2021/22: S4 Cohort onwards

Learning targets and objectives:

The four language skills

Language items and communicative functions

Vocabulary Text types

Unit 1

Task 1.1 Task 1.2

Unit 2

Task 2.1

Organising structure of M-U-T

Task-based Learning

Generic skills Positive values and

attitudes

TASK-BASED APPROACH:

FEATURES OF A TASK Context

Purpose

Product

Involves learners in thinking and doing Requires learners to

draw upon a framework of

knowledge and skills

ADOPTING A TASK-BASED APPROACH IN LESSON DESIGN

Module

Study, School Life and Work Teens’ Health ProblemsUnit

Final Task

Creating an Audio Visual Presentation on Weight Problems in Your School

Task 1 Understanding

Obesity

Task 2 Analysing the Overall Fitness of

Students in Your School

Task 4 Viewing and Analysing a Slide

Video on Youth Smoking in Hong

Kong Task 3

Reviewing Your Overall Fitness and

Setting Goals on Weight Management

ACTIVITY ONE

In groups, identify the following in each task:

• text types

• vocabulary

• language skills

• language items and communicative functions

• generic skills

• positive values and attitudes

ACTIVITY TWO

• Can you identify elements of academic use of

English in the set of materials?

WHAT IS ACADEMIC ENGLISH?

Academic English:

refers to the language required for studies in subjects

using English as the medium of instruction and it is a

prerequisite for success in Reading and Language across

the Curriculum

FEATURES OF ACADEMIC ENGLISH

Academic English

More complex sentences

Formal Expressions

Objective

tone Accuracy

& precision

Hedging words

Academic

words

WHAT IS CREATIVITY?

‘Creativity brings in changes or transformations and is manifested in new ideas, acts or products. It emerges spontaneously or through deliberate processes of

divergent and convergent thinking. It involves the

integration of general or domain-specific knowledge for a meaningful purpose.’

(A73, English Language Education Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 – Secondary 6))

WHAT IS CREATIVE USE OF LANGUAGE?

Creative use of English

Ideas

Language

Modality

Originality of ideas

Originality of presentation

Language use

Writing style Audio

Visual

WHAT DO WE EXPECT STUDENTS TO DO?

• To experiment with the language

• To look at things, issues and people in different perspectives

• To explore strategies to arouse readers’ interest and

sympathy, and create resonance

COMMON TYPES OF CREATIVE TEXTS poems

short films blogs

speeches

scripts

short stories

CREATIVE TEXTS

ELEMENTS IN SHORT STORIES

Characters

Plot Setting Mood

Time & place Opening

Ending

Language e.g. figure of

speech

Characterisation Tone / Point

of view

PUTTING MORE EMPHASIS ON THE CREATIVE USE OF THE LANGUAGE

Module

Cultures of the World MarriagesUnit

Final Task

Rewriting a part from Lu Xun’s “The New Year Sacrifice” (祥林嫂)

Task 1 Describing a

character’s appearance and

facial expression

Task 2 Describing a character’s action

Task 4

Presenting part of the story from a fresh perspective Task 3

Crafting the character’s speech, dialogue

and thoughts

PUTTING MORE EMPHASIS ON THE

CREATIVE USE OF THE LANGUAGE

ACTIVITY THREE

2. Incorporate elements of creative use of English

into the teaching of the following writing questions:

2020-DSE Eng Lang Paper 2 Part B Q8:

Sci-Fi magazine is organising a First

Chapter Competition. The competition involves writing the first chapter of a story based on the following scenario.

A journalist is sent to investigate a

research station in the Arctic after staff begin to mysteriously disappear one by one.

• You would like to enter the competition.

• Write the first chapter ONLY of your story.

2018-DSE Eng Lang Paper 2 Part B Q9:

Imagine you are a bird in a cage. One day your owner left your bird cage open.

Write a story from the bird’s point of view.

RECAP OF PART ONE

• The major components of the English Language Education KLA Curriculum and its latest

development

• Promoting the academic and creative uses of English through the task-based approach

Integrating the Compulsory and Elective Parts

ELEMENTS OF ELECTIVE MODULES

SCHEME OF WORK (1)

SCHEME OF WORK (2)

COMPULSORY PART AND ELECTIVE PART

Fully integrated into the M-U-T

structure Or Taught as enrichment /

extension components

ACTIVITY THREE

• In groups, design three tasks set against the

suggested modules/units in the previous slide to

develop or consolidate the target knowledge and

skills having two to three elements of elective

modules in the Elective Part incorporated.

EXPERIENCE SHARING

In your group, share with others your experience in planning and/or implementing the senior secondary curriculum. You may want to talk about:

•

if your school integrates different curriculum components;

•

the challenges you encountered/you anticipate in planning and delivering the curriculum; and

•

how you overcame the challenges/you think the challenges could be

tackled.

ASSESSMENT

THE LEARNING PROGRESSION FRAMEWORK (LPF) FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE

http://www.edb.gov.hk/lpfenglish

Reading

32

For planning and reviewing in the learning, teaching & assessment cycle

To provide reference for understanding students’ learning progress

To know how to help students progress along the learning continuum

To provide exhaustive criteria / To benchmark students through summative assessment

WHAT ARE THE PURPOSES OF DEPLOYING THE LPF?

Depth of Processing

Range and application of reading strategies

Text complexity

Abstractness

Organisation Density of information

Understanding

- Locating information

- Working out meaning of words and phrases

- Connecting ideas

- Identifying main ideas and supporting details

- Distinguishing facts from opinions - Organising information and ideas

Inferring

- Inferring feelings

- Deducing information and ideas

- Comparing information and ideas

- Working out main ideas and themes

Interpreting

- Analysing information and ideas

- Synthesising - Evaluating - Justifying

Reading Skills and Strategies

- Activating learners’ prior knowledge and experiences

- Selection of a wide range of texts of appropriate lengths and different topics - Interplay between texts and tasks

- The provision of teacher support and the need to promote learner independence

Underlying principles

COMPLEXITY OF TEXTS

Easier texts More difficult texts Abstractness

stated

 Straightforward & factual information

 Ideas and information implicitly stated

 Meaning hidden between lines or beyond lines

Organisation

 Organisation of paragraphs following sequence of events, logical progression (general to specific)

 Use of short paragraphs,

subheadings & cohesive devices

 Lack of well-defined text structure, mix of text-types

 Organisation of paragraphs not following a common pattern (problem-solution)

 Lack of signposts to facilitate understanding of texts

Density of information

 Most sentences/paragraphs containing one piece of information

 Sentence structures and

language largely simple, with occasional use of complex structures

 High lexical density – with a large amount of information- carrying words

 A wide range of complex sentence structures and language

Example:

2020 HKDSE Reading Paper Part B1 Easier Section (Text 2)

Example:

2017 HKDSE Reading Paper Part B2 More Difficult Section (Text 4)

ABSTRACTNESS

Graham Norton: “The letters I can never forget”

[2] I’m not sure who it was that once claimed there are no problems, only solutions.

[6] But I’m not sure the doctor’s

Hippocratic Oath was tailored to some bloke huffing because…

[7] Because there are ‘problems’ and there are problems.

ORGANISATION

Example: 2020 HKDSE Reading Paper Part B1 Easier Section (Text 2)

Example: 2020 HKDSE Reading Paper Part A Compulsory Section (Text 1)

ORGANISATION

Examples of

Organisational Patterns

Text Types Related Comprehension Question Intents

Time sequence • News articles

• Short stories

• Order of events/details

Compare/Contrast • Almost all types of writing

• Similarities and differences of opinions/perceptions

• Conclusion(s), if any

Order of importance • Mainly persuasive writing

• Reports

• Proposals

• Main idea(s)

• Evidence such as statistics, supporting details

Cause/Effect • Mainly expository writing

• Opinion writing

• Process reports

• Problem(s) & solution(s)

• Relationships & the logical flow

Combined/Multiple orders

• Mainly informal texts

• Commentaries

• Scripts

-

Example:

2020 HKDSE Exam Reading Paper Part B1 Easier Section (Text 3)

Example:

2020 HKDSE Exam Reading Paper Part B2 More Difficult Section (Text 4)

Para 10

Kite flying was one of the most popular leisure activities for children in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then, there were no restrictions on kite flying and kites could be seen in every corner of the city’s sky and even beyond – from the rooftops of Sham Shui Po to the corridors of Shek Kim Mei Housing Estate.

Para 5

Let me make no bones about it: [my tough love diagnosis isn’t for everyone] and [I’m aware that [there are those who have written to me in the expectation of a kind word and a couple of aspirin and have instead received a tongue-lashing and a slap in the face] ].

DENSITY OF INFORMATION

Depth of Processing

Range and application of reading strategies

Text complexity

Abstractness

Organisation Density of information

Understanding

- Locating information

- Working out meaning of words and phrases

- Connecting ideas

- Identifying main ideas and supporting details

- Distinguishing facts from opinions - Organising information and ideas

Inferring

- Inferring feelings

- Deducing information and ideas

- Comparing information and ideas

- Working out main ideas and themes

Interpreting

- Analysing information and ideas

- Synthesising - Evaluating - Justifying

Reading Skills and Strategies

- Activating learners’ prior knowledge and experiences

- Selection of a wide range of texts of appropriate lengths and different topics - Interplay between texts and tasks

- The provision of teacher support and the need to promote learner independence

Underlying principles

Example: 2020 HKDSE Exam Paper Part B1 Q20

Question 20

When is National Kite Month?

Example: 2020 HKDSE Exam Paper Part A Q3

Text 1 Para 1

For 179 years, the former Victoria Prison and Central Police Station compound stood aloof in the heart of Hong Kong, visible yet

inaccessible – unless you enforced the law or fell on the wrong side of it.

Question 3

What does ‘fell on the wrong side of it’

(line 3) mean?

A. broke the law [64%]

B. fell off a wall

C. made the wrong decision

D. put something in the wrong place

Example: 2020 HKDSE Exam Paper Part B1 Q34 Text 3

Para 2

Kites have a special place in Shum’s heart, as they were one of the few toys he had during his childhood. It is a different story for his daughter, whose leisure hours are filled with television and electronic games. Now, he wants her to know more about this fading culture in Hong Kong.

Question 34

Complete this sentence using the information in paragraph 2.

The trip to Tai Mei Tuk is important to Thomas because_________________

______________________________.

Text 4 Para 19

I’m not saying it will be all plain sailing. There will be lonely nights when you miss your friends and family, but this is 2020 so you have the luxury of calling or Skyping them…

Para 21

I would also strongly suggest that when things are proving challenging in your new home, you don’t give up at the first hurdle. Persevere and make that if or when you leave it…

Question 56

Norton says leaving Sweden as part of a ‘decision you are in charge of’

may be better than ‘simply running away’ (lines 63-64).

What fear of David’s is Norton responding to here?

______________________________

______________________________

Example: 2020 HKDSE Exam Paper Part B2 Q56

Example: 2020 HKDSE Exam Paper Part B2 Q58 & 59

Text 4 Para 24

Dear Graham,

The past 40-odd years have for me been an often fruitless search for a barber who can do a good job on my challenging hair. Now I have found one with whom I am perfectly satisfied, but while he cuts my hair, he continually picks his nose. I would appreciate your advice.

P Smith, Bracknell, UK Dear P,

What comes out of the top of your head? Steel wool?

But you aren’t driving a car or operating heavy machinery, so next time, why not do this thing I’ve discovered when confronted with something I don’t want to see – shut your eyes! A longer fringe may also help.

Question 58

What does Norton imply when he says ‘A longer fringe may also help’

(line 76)?

_______________________________

_______________________________.

Question 59

What is the tone of Norton’s response to P Smith?

A. bitter B. Amusing C. reflective D. supportive

Example: 2020 HKDSE Exam Paper Part A Q14

Example: 2020 HKDSE Exam Paper Part B2 Q51

Example: 2020 HKDSE Exam Paper Part B2 Q62 Text 4

Para 4

Am I properly qualified for this vocation? Well not really, my calling has been thrust upon me. But I am ready to serve, smelling salts in one hand, a sticking plaster for the soul in the other.

Para 6

But I’m not sure the doctor’s Hippocratic Oath was tailored to some bloke huffing because he was going to have to share the stage during his best-man speech…

Para 12

On a physician-heal-thyself note, I have found that thinking about other people’s troubled lives has stopped me…

Question 62

Throughout the text Norton often compares himself to a medical doctor.

Why do you think these

comparisons help to describe Norton’s role as an agony uncle?

APPLICATION:

DIVERSIFYING QUESTION INTENTS IN ASSESSMENT TASKS

Planning

&

Reviewing

AfL

Reading skills Assessment items

LPF

Locating specific information Identifying main ideas

Connecting ideas

Understanding the relationship

between ideas in the text (e.g. relating cause to effect, evidence to conclusion) Understanding text type features

Inferring the tone of the writer Working out the meaning of words/expressions

Inferring ideas

Making use of general and world knowledge

Application of grammar knowledge in context

To access the Teacher’s Copy and

more assessment

resources



ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING -

IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING

• Expose students to a wide range of reading materials of different subject areas and connect reading with their learning and daily lives

• Teach reading strategies explicitly

• Review the assessment items in reading (e.g. levels of difficulty, range of reading skills)

• Set the right questions / tasks for different pedagogical purposes

• Provide feedback to students on their reading skills development

(e.g. using the LPF as a framework for tracking progress) to help

bridge gaps

APPLIED LEARNING (VOCATIONAL ENGLISH)

Application period for early commencement at S4 (2022-24 cohort):

3 May to 1 Jun 2021

APPLIED LEARNING (VOCATIONAL ENGLISH)

Web link to ApL(VocE) leaflet:

https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/kla/eng- edu/aplvoce/Vocational%20Eng%20Leaflet%20v06.pdf

Information on ApL(VocE)

Information on ApL

Web link to ApL web page:

https://www.edb.gov.hk/apl

USEFUL RESOURCES FOR THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE CURRICULUM

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION

Curriculum Development > Key Learning Areas > English Language Education

USEFUL WEBSITES

Optimising

Senior Secondary English Language

https://www.edb.gov.hk/en /curriculum-

development/kla/eng-

edu/opimising_SS_English _Language.html

USEFUL WEBSITES

• Applied Learning (Vocational English)

https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-

development/kla/eng-edu/VocE.html

USEFUL WEBSITES

• Professional development programmes (PDP)



Information on PDP by Curriculum Development Institute, EDB http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/kla/eng-

edu/professional-development-programmes.html



Application and Details

http://tcs.edb.gov.hk

USEFUL WEBSITES

• Learning and teaching resources



Curriculum Documents http://www.edb.gov.hk/elecg



References & Resources

http://www.edb.gov.hk/eleresources

• English Treasure Chest

https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/kla/eng-edu/references-resources/recommended%20items.html

• Assessment Tasks for Senior Secondary

https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/kla/eng-edu/assessment_tasks_SS.html

• SOW

https://www.edb.gov.hk/sow



Educational Multimedia Platform

https://www.hkedcity.net/etv/en

USEFUL WEBSITES

• Other useful websites



Language Learning Support Section, EDB

https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/primary-secondary/applicable-to- primary-secondary/sbss/language-learning-support/index.html



NET Section, EDB

https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/resource- support/net/index.html



The English Campus of HK Education City

http://www.hkedcity.net/english/

Q & A

THANK YOU