HKIEd tunes in to the fine-tuning of English language presentation

The Hong Kong Institute of Education has announced a series of measures to boost English education in response to the increase in demand for teachers proficient in the language following the government's proposal to 'fine-tune' the medium of instruction policy.

Announcing the establishment of a faculty of languages consisting of the departments of Chinese and English - formerly under the faculty of languages, arts and sciences - the institute's vice-president Lee Wing-on spelled out the measures which include an increase in the number of training places for serving teachers and other English enhancement schemes.

Professor Lee said HKIEd needed more resources to help cope with the rising demand for language training. 'We haven't got any extra resources yet,' he said.

Leonard Chan Kwok-kou, dean of the faculty of languages, said HKIEd would carry out more research in Chinese and English language education.

'Our Centre for Language in Education will explore the provision of more English enhancement courses to strengthen the English proficiency of our students,' he said.

Professor Chan is among a team of language experts recruited by the institute over the past few months to strengthen its language education programmes. Other language experts who recently joined the institute include professor of English David Li Chor-shing, an expert in socio-linguistics from City University, and chair professor of Chinese Zhu Qingzhi, a Chinese linguistics scholar from Peking University.