English too difficult? Easy - just dumb down the grades

IT HAS LONG BEEN known that English standards among Hong Kong students fall below the expectations of universities, employers and even teachers.

Many are frustrated that a considerable proportion of young people, who start learning the language at the age of three, have still not mastered even basic conversation skills by the time they leave school.

Researchers at the Education Department's Curriculum Development Institute (CDI) have now concluded that most students are in fact being taught well beyond their abilities. They suggest an obvious but radical solution - for Hong Kong - that the level of English taught to most senior primary and junior secondary students be lowered by two year grades and that children should be grouped according to their actual proficiency, regardless of their age and year.

The institute's research officer, Tsui Hon-kwong, says his research and pilot scheme, called the Cross Level Subject Setting Scheme, shows that students' English proficiency is generally at least two years below the levels of the government-approved textbooks used to teach them.

He proposes that more than half of Primary Six pupils should in fact be taught English at the level equivalent to Primary Three, while Form One students should learn the language at the current Primary Four level.

His recommendation stems from the poor results of more than 400 senior primary and junior secondary students in English tests over the past two years as well as from the progress of students in his pilot project who are now being taught through this more flexible approach.