HKCEE English exams have long been a cat-and-mouse game between the exams authority and the armies of high-priced 'super-tutors'.
Typically, exam preparations are long on technique and short on substance. It is time to tutor-proof the design of the English paper and turn exams into tools for driving genuine language learning rather than filling-in-the blank exercises students can be drilled for.
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority is on the right track with the introduction of questions on the effective use of the dictionary. It has intensified interest in this key learning tool. But more needs to be done. Students should be sensitised to the special features of English.
For instance, unlike Chinese, it relies heavily on prepositions for meaning. There is a world of difference between having a contract 'with you' and 'on you'.
The same is true of the article. Misunderstanding the difference between 'Do you have time?' and 'Do you have the time?' can have social consequences.
Most Hong Kong students are woefully deficient in alphabetical literacy - in word-formational skills involving prefixes, suffixes, hyphens and roots, which are so valuable in creative writing. Pronouns are under-used as cohesive devices.
Cultural perceptions are encoded in language. Expressions such as 'keeping one's fingers crossed' are culture-specific and part of the vocabulary of competent speakers. Learning a language means using it idiomatically.