Strong foundation key to English learning

English is important because it is an international language. However, the English standard of Hong Kong students is declining.

The problem lies in our weak English foundation. Learning the alphabet correctly is the beginning of good English.

My younger brother, a Primary Two pupil, pronounces a lot of English words incorrectly. I am shocked to find that it is his teacher who taught him these pronunciations.

Children cannot distinguish right from wrong. They can only assume that knowledge passed on to them is correct.

I am not saying all English teachers are bad but I had a similar experience when I was a primary pupil.

I also had some teachers that were not very good and it took me a long time to correct my pronunciation and grammatical mistakes when I entered secondary school.