HKU programmes help students gain confidence in speaking English
Two volunteer HKU programmes are helping students gain confidence in speaking English in public, writes Annemarie Evans
It's 8.15am on Monday at Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club College in Sai Wan Ho. A group of Form Two students gather in a circle and show me the role-play part of a voluntary English-language programme. Acting out a character like Captain America or Iron Man, and speaking the lines in English, is fun, they say.
Now it's my turn and I'm nervous that they'll choose a Japanese cartoon character, or an up-and-coming Korean pop star I've never heard of. But they're nice and keep it generic - I have to act out a Santa Claus. They applaud politely.
We didn't want students who were just looking for something extra to put on their CV
"I was nervous [at first] speaking English to the whole class," Kevin Wong Ki-fung, 13, tells me later. "Because I lack experience in doing this, I was afraid that the whole class would be disappointed."
These days, he explains, that initial nervousness has disappeared. That's down to the SpeechExpress course he's taken over the past semester, which is organised by student volunteers from the University of Hong Kong at the Sai Wan Ho school. It also takes place at Clementi Secondary School in Fortress Hill.
Law students Emily Li Sze-wa and Alison Song Ming-jie, both 19, are key members of the board that oversees the SpeechExpress course, which has taken advice on public speaking from Toastmasters International. Both women are members of the university's Toastmasters' group. Song was previously a student at the Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club College, and the course has been welcomed by the vice-principal, Joanna Wong Ip Sook-kuen.
"We would sit in classes of 35 students and above, so there was very little opportunity to practise our spoken English," says Song. "Students can often write in English, but they can't speak it."