Tseung Kwan O Government Secondary School, which is situated in Po Lam in Tseung Kwan O, organised a trip to England for a group of students during two successive summers.
Trip to England
TseungKwan O Government Secondary School
This English Enhancement Measure was regarded as exemplary good practice because of the originality of its conception and organisation and its impact on both the participants and the wider school community.
Participants in 2001
Exemplar 12: Organising the Experiential Dimension of English Language Learning
One of the two NET teachers
The idea of organising a trip to England was proposed in 2000 to the then principal by one of the school's two NET teachers. The principal was extremely enthusiastic about the idea because she was very keen to raise the standard of English in the school. She gave her wholehearted support to sponsorship and fund-raising initiatives. With the backing of the principal, the two NET teachers organised the first trip, which took place in summer 2001.
At an early stage, the decision was taken to limit participation to S.6 students only. They were felt to have the required level of maturity and to be most capable of benefiting from a period of immersion in an English-speaking environment. Also, they were not encumbered with the burden of public examinations in that year.
When the NET teachers conceived of a school trip to England, they had a very clear rationale. One key feature was that it should be more than just a study trip. Instead, it was to be an experience that would genuinely broaden students' experience with English and English culture. The NETs therefore organised the trip so that it would achieve a range of linguistic, cultural and experiential objectives:
To enhance students' language proficiency To strengthen students' English skills To develop students' confidence
To encourage students to become independent learners
To provide students with the opportunity to be immersed in the English culture
To enable students to practise their English in authentic social contexts
To develop students' social skills in various cultural settings
To foster students' love of EnglishTo enhance students' examination and employment prospects
The 2002 participants' scrapbook The 2001 participants
The distinctive feature of the school trip to England was that it was not just a two-week immersion programme. Instead, it was a year-long English enhancement project, involving not only the participants but also the whole school.
Since most of the students came from low-income families, one major issue in planning the trips was cost. In order to ensure that no student would be unable to take part in a trip for financial reasons alone, an ambitious programme of fund-raising formed part of the project
.
The S.6 students took a leading role in organising a school second-hand sale of stationery sets and products donated by Goodstar International Limited, and in obtaining support from Vitasoy for a year-long sale of the company's drinks in the school.
For all the S.6 potential participants, the year-long project involved not only organising the fund- raising activities but also planning the itinerary for the trip. English was used as far as possible throughout. For example, when students researched possible places to visit and stay, they presented the options, in English, to other would-be participants.
A Chinese dinner at the Yang Sing Restaurant in Manchester's Chinatown - the owner of the restaurant, who delivered a speech to the entire party, was one of the sponsors.
Since the 2001 group included a large number of boys, the organisers decided to include a visit to Manchester United Football Club in the itinerary.
The trips were tailor-made to suit the needs of the participating students and planned with their active involvement.
In the 2002 trip, since the group had different interests from the first group, more elements focusing on social history were incorporated.
The visits to the Victorian farm and the Victorian town
The homestay experience of Anthony, a participant in 2001
The nature of the trips also evolved in response to feedback from the students once the trip was over.
For instance, it was found that the homestay experience with host families was extremely popular with the 2001 students. They preferred home stays to hotels. Therefore, the number of nights that the students stayed with host families was increased significantly on the second trip.
The programme of fund-raising required everyone to use English: the potential participants and the other students. The impact on the school community was something that built up over the year. The trip began to become part of the school culture, with students in lower forms setting their sights on a similar trip when they entered S.6.
Interaction during a fund-raising activity
In the two years that the trip took place, the whole school rallied round, including the PTA and individual teachers. There was recognition that an experience of this kind gave students from
relatively poor backgrounds an opportunity that they would never otherwise have had.
For the students who participated in the trip, there were benefits of various kinds, not only linguistic ones but also cultural and experiential ones.
One former student compared the trip favourably with the university exchange programmes she had taken part in since leaving school.
Another student observed that, in addition to the obvious benefits to participants' English, for her the most important aspect of the experience was the opportunity of relationship-building with the two NETs.
One student was particularly conscious of the impact the trip had on his confidence in speaking English.
Twenty S.6 students participated in the first trip. Because the first trip was so successful, the number of participating students increased to 30 for the second year. However, a third trip, which was planned for summer 2003, had to be cancelled because of SARS.
The 20 participants in 2001 The 30 participants in 2002
Although the project has been suspended since the intervention of SARS, there are hopes that it will be revived in the near future. Based on all the evidence, it is clearly a model of good practice in both its conception and implementation, providing a unique opportunity for students to develop
linguistically, culturally and experientially.
