English Language, Literature in English, French, Japanese 

At UCCKE, the Faculty of English and Foreign Languages uniquely amalgamates the second languages (English, French and Japanese) and Literature in English so that its students can enjoy, master, enhance and gain knowledge and exposure to the linguistic and literary world. The curriculum is premised on the tenet that students achieve the competence of trilingual and biliterate language proficiency in a global society like that of Hong Kong.

Students are encouraged to acquire language proficiency at an early age within the confines of a language-rich environment provided via appreciating a diversity of texts written by various authors studied within the perspective of a Christian worldview. 

English Language

It is the desire of the school that students apply English authentically in tasks via meaningful communication to produce a final product. The English language curriculum is a school-based language curriculum built on pedagogical approaches with the objective of making use of a broad range of activities and materials (including the integration of faith) that is applied
through the generic skills, e.g. creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving, etc., to develop students’ God-given potential through various avenues and channels while given exposure to the different genres through the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. 

Aims and Objectives

  1. To enrich the enjoyment of learning English as it is the language of global communication.
  2. To apply English as a learning tool and as a medium to access knowledge around the world.
  3. To integrate Christian Faith that attends to values and attitudes via learning English.
  4. To enable students to appreciate English through various mediums, e.g. books, internet, newspapers, radio, television, films, interaction with foreigners, etc.
  5. To expose students to the structure and skills required of the NSS curriculum.
  6. To enhance the preparation of the NSS electives, i.e. short stories, social issues and debate.
  7. To enable students to experience English coming alive through inquisitive learning and application.
  8. To enhance alignment between curriculum and assessment towards promoting assessment for learning via school-based assessment and standards-reference reporting. 

Curriculum

The Junior Secondary curriculum consists of two components, namely, English Language and Literature in English. Learning content and activities are arranged to enhance the students’ English proficiency by developing our students’ linguistic knowledge and skills in English language, and widening their exposure to the language.

On the one hand, the curriculum is designed to equip our students with a robust foundation in English reading, writing, speaking and listening; on the other hand, it also underscores the development of the generic skills in collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking. Besides, the whole curriculum places importance on providing the students with various experiences in coming into contact with English, so that the language can be appreciated as a tool for communication and not be reduced simply as an academic subject. It is our belief that this three-pronged approach would help our students to gain confident mastery of English for study, work, leisure and personal enrichment. Definitely, this would also get them well-prepared for the challenges in the NSS English curriculum.

Methodology

This section focuses on how the teaching content and approach, class arrangement and the other co-curricular activities help optimize English learning for the students.

Teaching of General English (reading & usage) is organized into different modules and units, which are theme-based. Different kinds of tasks are often employed in our lessons, which are aimed at creating a learning context, similar to the authentic situation, for the students to absorb the linguistic knowledge and make use of the language.

Concerning the grammar teaching, integrated tasks, in addition to the unit-based exercises, are included in the daily practice and examinations.

To further encourage the students to build up a reading habit, class readers are assigned to them with the reading guides given. Newspaper and magazines are often used as well for guided reading, class discussion or assignments. In fact, we attach great importance on extensive reading of theme-based articles.

Concerning writing, our school takes the process writing approach in which students are able to make changes on their first draft, after receiving the teacher’s feedback and their peer’s response. This provides the students with a chance to understand their weaknesses, seek improvement and gain higher autonomy in learning. They can hence attain stronger sense of satisfaction
to see their progress. Moreover, they can train up their own communication and critical thinking skills when giving comment on their classmate’s work.

As for speaking, each class is split into two halves, taught by two different teachers. The small class teaching is to facilitate the interaction between the teacher and the students, and that between students. In the junior forms, besides learning the International Phonetic Alphabet, students would carry out various speaking tasks in the form of individual presentation, group
discussion, drama or other performance.

In addition to these traditional core components of English teaching, our students gain wide exposure to the language through studying the Literature in English. They are guided to read and analyze different genres of texts, like poems, play scripts, short stories and so forth, and hence they can grasp a more comprehensive understanding of the language. On the other hand,
the incorporation of language arts into the existing curriculum also helps broaden our students’ scope of English learning, by studying authentic texts like poems and short stories.

To take full advantage of information and communication technology in language learning, we implement “Bring Your Own Device” Scheme in S.1. It is conducive to enriching the teaching materials, and diversifying modes of learning and teaching.

Besides the class time, our school makes every effort to build up an English-language-rich environment. In addition to having the English teachers communicate with the students in English, the daily announcement and the school assembly are predominantly conducted in English by both teachers and students. Moreover, many of the school publications are written in
English. To enhance life-wide learning, the cultural exchange program and short mission trips render great opportunities to students to communicate with the English-speakers in other countries. 

Gifted Education

The school is blessed with a pool of linguistically gifted students who have the potential to engage in independent, autonomous and inquisitive enquiry where their talent is stretched through in-house and pull-out gifted programmes, along with participation in challenging competitions, e.g.speech, debate, a curriculum catering to learner diversity, budding poet, individualized learning, etc. are made available to the students.

Assessment Components

a. Homework (news cuttings, grammar exercises, online exercises, vocabulary exercise book and projects)
b. Dictation
c. Listening exercises
d. Writing
e. Individual presentation f. Oral discussion
g. Quiz
h. Examination 

 

APPENDIX
English Language Marking Criteria

I. Writing
Note: If content is off-topic, candidates should not be awarded more than 3 marks in each of the other domains. 

 

II. Listening and Integrated Skills

A. Language (5 marks)

This is an overall impression mark of language used. The following areas should be considered:

  • –  Vocabulary (i.e. range, variety, accuracy)
    –  Grammar (i.e. range, variety, accuracy) – Spelling 

 

Literature in English

In the study of Literature, students appreciate the English language with both sense and sensibility. Great Literature inspires. It provokes thoughts and sympathy. Through close study of different authentic texts, students are encouraged to read critically and develop their own views. This can motivate students to appreciate any books they read or movies they watch, and thus enhance their language ability and nurture critical minds.

In junior secondary levels, texts which bring out healthy messages are chosen to make up the curriculum. The texts include short stories, poems and plays. Teachers help students understand the language, cultural contexts and historical backgrounds of the texts, to which students are encouraged to respond critically.

The learning of Literature features vocabulary building, basic comprehension, perceptiveness, creativity and effective delivery of arguments. Students with different abilities may choose their own goal to achieve in this spectrum.

Aims and Objectives

Students should

  1. build a more extensive vocabulary bank through reading authentic texts

  2. be able to comprehend and appreciate literary texts

  3. develop ability to analyze literary texts critically

  4. be able to present their own arguments in the form of a critical essay which follows the standard conventions. 

French

Aims and Objectives

The broad aims of the junior secondary French syllabuses are that students should:

  1. develop interests in basic French language;

  2. understand simple French conversation in daily lives;

  3. appreciate French language and culture;

  4. cultivate positive attitudes towards French language acquisition in Hong Kong.

Based on the broad aims, the general objectives for the syllabuses are as follows:

  1. understand basic French vocabulary in daily lives;

  2. understand basic French conversation;

  3. acquire fundamental French language;

  4. make use of basic vocabulary to create basic French dialogues;

  5. write and present project related to French language and culture;

  6. be aware of social issues related to France;

  7. appreciate the French language, history and culture. 

 

Japanese

Aims and Objectives

The three-year introductory Japanese course aims to equip students with a general understanding of the Japanese language and how it is applied in various scenarios. This is also a medium to widen the global perspective of students and help them appreciate and experience another culture.

The syllabus covers the basic pronunciation of Japanese syllables, daily conversations, short articles and stories. Students are exposed to various graded listening, reading and writing exercises. Games, songs and video clips are supplements to motivate and sustain their interests. In order to attend to students’ individual needs, tailor-made audio recordings are uploaded to the school intranet; so that students can access the teaching resources outside their class time.