THE acting Director of Education and trustee of the Language Fund, Kwan Ting-fai, has approved funds totalling $3.42 million for 10 language-improvement projects recommended by the Language Fund Advisory Committee.
Of the 10 successful applications, seven are Chinese-language (including Putonghua) projects, two English-language projects and one aims to improve proficiency in both.
A spokesman for the Language Fund Secretariat said: 'There is a good combination of research, teaching and learning materials, courses and reading-award projects, as well as day camps for secondary students.
'All the projects meet the stringent criteria set by the Language Fund Advisory Committee and should be a great help in raising language proficiency and improving motivation for language learning.' He said that two projects were on the production of a TV series on the correct use of Chinese and video tapes for primary and secondary schools. There are also two research projects on the development of students' grammatical competence and language standards and assessment for student teachers.
