英文科

(1) Objectives:

To help pupils develop their learning skills, in order to build active and enthusiastic habits in learning. In order to improve the school-based curriculum, elements of thinking and generic skills will be included.
To develop the skill-based curriculum, in order to develop pupils’ generic skills. (collaboration skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, study skills, self-management skills, information technology skills)
To use different learning strategies, in order to cater for learner diversity.
To create opportunities and a rich language environment, in order to raise abilities in English.
To use assessment data to evaluate the effectiveness of learning and teaching.
To promote the professional exchange among teachers.

(2) Curriculum:

PLP-R/W (P. 1-3)	Twice a week, all students in Primary 1, 2 and 3 go to the English Room to take part in the Primary Literacy Program Reading and Writing (PLP-R/W). PLP-R/W teachers reading and writing, in an integrated and holistic fashion.
New reading and writing programme in KS2 (P. 4-6)	Background In 2008, we embarked upon the new and exciting PLP-R/W, in P1. It was designed solely for Key Stage 1. Since we implemented PLP-R/W, students’ reading levels have consistently shown greater improvement than in previous years. New Reading and Writing Programme By utilising students’ familiarity with the PLP-R/W format, we will ensure that they continue to learn in a style and structure to which they have grown accustomed, over the last three years. Moreover, students’ literacy development will be thoroughly catered for, in a wide range of text types. Home-readers Shortly, we will purchase class readers for P4 and P5 students. These readers will provide additional support in comprehending the context, subject-knowledge, and linguistic features of the literary genre studied in class. Consequently, students will be further exposed to the text type they are studying, and their literacy development will be more deeply supported.
Six Thinking Skills	We apply Six Thinking Skills in teaching reading and writing. Six Thinking Skills is a simple and effective parallel thinking process that helps students be more productive, focused and mindfully involved.
Concrete Feedback	In order to help students express their ideas coherently, teachers introduce different cohesive devices and give concrete feedback, i.e. teachers give prompts, positive feedback and written comments, which help pupils’ self- improvement.
Provision of an English rich environment in upper primary through cross-curricular collaboration	In order to prepare P6 students for the NSS, we infuse language arts (social issues) into the P6 curriculum. Through teaching thinking skills, reading articles about specific topics (e.g. global warming) and student-led discussions, students are ready to give presentations about their own findings to others. All of these elements maximize students’ exposure to English and their use of English as a tool to learn.
Dictionary skills	Using references such as the dictionary is an essential study skill. They provide meanings of words as well as useful information like pronunciation, parts of speech, phrasal verbs and, through examples, demonstrate how words are used in context.
Promotion of learner independence	With the challenges in the 21st century, we want to nurture our students to be independent learners. Through the help of different pre-lesson preparation tasks and the discussion in the online forum, our students will become more motivated learners. Students are equipped with different learning strategies such as dictionary skills, thinking skills and various learning strategies in dictation, which will enable them to be active problem-solvers. Students set their own goals based on understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.
Building the English environment	To create the opportunities and language environment, pupils have to use English to communicate with English teachers both inside and outside classroom. Moreover, we have two NETs in our school starting from this year. One NET goes into P.1-3 classrooms to have PLP R/W with pupils and the other NET goes into P.4-6 classroom to have speaking training with pupils.