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Teacher intervention is essential for providing “scaffolding”, or assistance, to students not exposed to English at home. Photo: Handout

Letters | How Hong Kong’s English standards reflect the wealth gap and what can be done to bridge it

  • Critics of the English standards in Hong Kong schools should remember that it’s a system for non-native learners with less exposure to natural English
  • To narrow the rich-poor gap in language input, textbooks written for learners of English as a second language and teacher intervention are both critical
As a frontline ESL (English as a second language) teacher, I disagree with Andrew Lee’s comments (“Broken English shows Hong Kong schools need to fix the system”, April 4) on the efficacy (or drawbacks thereof) of the local English curriculum.

Without referring to the curriculum documents laid down by the Curriculum Development Institute, any attempt to attribute students’ failure to attain high English proficiency to the local system falls wide of the mark. According to the Education Bureau, the English Language Education Key Learning Area is an integral part of the school curriculum that provides students with a wide range of learning experiences to enhance their English language proficiency for study, work and leisure; personal and intellectual development, and social skills; cultural understanding and global competitiveness. Therefore, it is never a goal for the bureau or local schools to help students attain native-like proficiency.

With all due respect, Mr Lee seems to have overlooked one important fact – there exist differences between first-language acquisition and second-language learning.

Non-native speakers do not have much chance of incidental learning ... both their receptive and productive language skills can only be acquired and applied at school

Unlike kids in English-speaking countries, Hong Kong children lack a language-rich environment to acquire English. While native speakers of English enjoy the privilege of picking up the language subconsciously through daily interaction with other speakers, non-native speakers do not have much chance of incidental learning. Instead, both their receptive and productive language skills can only be acquired and applied at school.

Hong Kong children from wealthy families are fortunate enough to have read many English books, watched English films or interacted with native speakers since childhood. By the time they are teenagers, they may have already built a sizeable vocabulary and gained a full mastery of syntax. However, they are in the minority.

To narrow the gap between the rich and poor when it comes to language input, both materials written for learners of English as a second language and teacher intervention at school are critical. The zone of proximal development, a key concept developed by Soviet psychologist and social constructivist Lev Vygotsky, postulates that for any meaningful learning to take place, “scaffolding” or assistance has to be provided for learners. The scaffolding is most effective when one starts from the child’s level of knowledge and build from there.

Textbooks written for second-language learners and a local curriculum catering for them are essential.

Jason Tang, Tin Shui Wai

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