The Blackburn English Language School is a government school which provides English language education for international students and students who have just arrived in Australia. Both students of primary and secondary levels study there.
I was able to pay a visit to a Primary Three class, in which students were either seven or eight years of age. It was quite a small class with only 10 students - a big luxury compared to the typical class size of 35 - 40 in Hong Kong primary schools. The benefits of having such a small class could be easily observed - when the teacher wanted the students to practice the questioning structure of "How do you go to school?" and the structure of "I go to school by (mode of transport)", all the students had a chance to practice at least one of the structures orally.
Also, during the following activity in which students were asked to interview their peers concerning the mode of transport they take in order to go to school, more attention could be paid to each individual student. Students feel that they are being valued in the activity as the teacher is able to show every student that she cares about them by praising them and/or correcting them. As a result, all the students participated actively in the activity. Based on these observations, I think that the teacher succeeded in taking advantage of having a small class.
From my own experience and observation, this type of communicative activity is quite rare in Hong Kong because of the big class size, and even when such activities are carried out, many students choose to not participate in them, speaking in their mother tongue instead of the target language. While there may be multiple factors contributing to such a phenomenon, the big class size is certainly one of the more significant ones.
Aside from the class observation, another point of interest is how the school encourages students to use the target language - English - and takes advantage of every opportunity to give students the chance to do that. After the principal and vice-principal gave us a brief introduction to the migration in Australia and the school, Year Eight student from mainland China were invited to give a speech in front of us. Then, the student and her classmates toured us around the campus, describing places of interest to us as we went along. Such an atmosphere created by the school effectively sends a message to students - practice English whenever they can.
I think the active participation of the Primary Three students mentioned earlier could be the result of such an encouraging learning atmosphere created by the school.
No comments:
Post a Comment