24%小三生英文未達標基本能力評估 教局指成績意料之內

FXPC

Hi eviepa, mattsmum,

Totally agree with your viewpoint. (The present education system in HK, now, trains kids to Examination Oriented rather than teaches them how to "LEARN/THINK/EXPLORE"  which I think is far more important.)

Glad to hear that some more parents here adopt the "reading approach" to nurture your kids. The key success to good english is to let your kids exploring/reading books. (From books, they can not only acquire knowledge, but also learn "language".)

For my experience, I started to read books with my son everyday since he was 3.5. He is able to read the storybook (~ORT level 6-7 5 yrs old)  now.


By the way, you may download some free activities sheet (teacher's note, characters sheets and activity sheets) for Oxford Reading Tree Stage 1-9 from the OUP official website with the following links:

Free Downloadable Activities and Teacher's Notes for Stages 1-9

eviepa

Matt'smum,

Thanks for your information.

eviepa

Hi FXPC,

Thank you for your information and sharing.

I was always wondering why most parents do not adopt "reading approach".

I would rather my daughter spend less time on doing homework or prepare for the examination.  But I insist that she has to read both Chinese and English book every day.  

This is my daughter's motto:
"生果日日食，生字日日記，
中英文書日日睇。"

(Note: 記生字 - merely recognise the pronunciation and meaning, no need to memorize the spelling, usually done by matching games)

In primary education, there are only 4 components for the academic aspect: Chinese, English, Maths and 常識.  Wide reading can make your kids perform well in Chinese, English and 常識.  This means that you can kill 3 birds in one stone. 何樂而不為？

eviepa

Philip,

Thanks for the article.

It is exactly what I believe and what I have been doing to my daughter.  This confirm my believe.

ChiChiPaPa

In the article posted by Philipwhau, “按上文下理也可猜度出意思” actually refers to a skill named contextual guessing. There were many researches evaluated the effectiveness of contextual guessing in acquiring new vocabularies (e.g. Haynes, M. (1993). Patterns and perils of guessing in second language reading). Although 胡蔭亭博士 said, “不應隨便翻閱字典”, I believe that it is important for kids to learn both skills of contextual guessing and the use of dictionaries. I expect my daughter, as a primary one student, to start learning to use English dictionaries. So I bought her a dictionary. With the dictionary, she is able to blend sounds for new words. Pronunciation of words cannot be learnt through skills of contextual guessing.

For the “reading approach” mentioned by Eviepa, it is a broad term. Educational researches are more specific and so it may be hard to find articles or books supporting Eviepa’s approach. For a narrower meaning, there are many researches and papers on incremental vocabulary learning through extensive or intensive reading. In these papers, the writers also compared its effectiveness with that of the intentional vocabulary learning (e.g. Krashen, S. (1989). We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading: Additional evidence for the input hypothesis.). In these papers, there are many concepts which are useful for implementing “reading approach”, e.g. contextual guessing, sight words, repeating aloud, mnemonics, and motivated learning. I support the “reading approach”, and I totally agree that extensive reading and word recognition are far more important than spelling. However, I am not against intentional vocabulary learning. Other than daily reading, I have arranged my daughter to attend a tutorial session of Cambridge Mover Exams once a week so as to accelerate her vocabulary building.

This is my limited understanding on the “reading approach”. The ideas and information posted by Eviepa, Philipwhau, Matt'smum and other BK members are very useful. Let’s share more on the experiences in applying the “reading approach”.

eviepa

BK真是臥虎藏龍，我平時同朋傾開計，根本搵唔到知音，但係呢度居然成為主流意見，真係開心。仲有就係，係咁咦作個term “reading approach”出來居然有人同我elaborate，你話幾犀利。

eviepa

Philipwhau 寫道:

However, the tragedy of most of the local schools is that the teachers do pass so much homework and assessments to their student everyday.  As a result, the children cannot squeeze extra time for maintaining a constant reading habit.  The students do get high marks in the examinations but scarifying the reading ability.  This is the tragedy of Hong Kong local education system.  Most of the teachers, educators and the whole education system of Hong Kong itself are suffering from serious short-sight.  How stupid they are!!!

I

Whereas I agree that Education system, teachers are to be blamed, I also believe that parents should hold responsibility for the low reading abilities.

Most parents regard reading books other than text books are 可有可無.  Most of them spend all their energy to push up their kids' marks by bombarding them with private turoring, supplementary exercises etc which not only occupy children's valuable time but also kill their motivation.

If parents can minimize children's unnecessary activities, I don't see why their kids do not have enough time to read books.

The biggest problem for today's parents is not because their kids do not have time but because they do not see any importance for their children to read 課外書.

eviepa

Whether HK's education system on a whole is extremely bad is debatable.  I personally think that it is very bad at English education and the cultivation of creativities.  Other areas seem to be OK especially mathematics.

Anyway, whoever dissatisfy with the present education system please send your children to non-traditional schools.

My daughter is studying at a direct subsidised school.  With no dictation, no test, no marks, no ranking, it provides a good environment for her to explore the world.

If most parents get away from the main stream schools, the system can be beaten.

ykwong

stccmc,

其實我想問好耐，乜野叫做 with Arup?

Is that Ove Arup? 一間 consultant?