HKU Bulletin February 2013 (Vol. 14 No. 2)

Research subjects,” explains Professor Stephen Andrews, Dean of the Faculty of Education. “Since many students struggle with subjects like maths and science even in their first language, asking them to study those subjects in a second language, English – which they also may be finding difficult to learn – could have disastrous results.” The problem may be further exacerbated if teachers of those subjects have little or no experience of EMI teaching. “In short, it can result in the worst of both worlds,” says Professor Andrews. “Despite increased exposure to English, students’ English proficiency shows no improvement, while the teaching of the content subject becomes impoverished, with teachers focusing on transmitting knowledge in the second language (spoon-feeding to try to ensure comprehension) rather than providing the intellectually rich and challenging learning experience that students might have enjoyed in the first language.” Whole-school approach The Faculty of Education has been working on ways to help schools deal with the challenge and has developed a ‘whole-school approach’ to the problem with its Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) programme. Says Professor Angel Lin, Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Learning Two years ago, the Government implemented what it termed a ‘fine-tuning’ of its Medium of Instruction (MOI) policy, giving individual schools increased autonomy regarding decisions on the MOI adopted within each school. Many schools wanted to seize the opportunity to increase students’ exposure to English Medium Instruction (EMI). However, it was not simply a question of switching languages – it soon became evident that while the ‘fine-tuning’ shift represented an opportunity to schools, it also represented a major challenge. “The challenge is to switch MOI without undermining students’ successful learning of and Teaching) of the Faculty of Education, who worked with a team of colleagues in developing the programme, “LAC is about enhancing both academic language awareness and academic content awareness. Teachers need higher awareness of everyday English styles and academic English styles.” “This year people have been caught up with the Korean pop phenomenon Gangnam-style. It has helped me illustrate a point that when it comes to English, we have many styles – US-style, Australian-style, Hong Kong-style – and now with MOI fine-tuning we have academic style! This is what LAC is all about. Whether the medium is English, Chinese – any language that is used as the MOI – that medium must be transparent.” Students and teachers cannot automatically pick up the different styles: they need both proper exposure and explicit instruction on differences in academic styles and everyday speaking styles. But for this to happen, the whole school needs to be behind the initiative – it requires planning and leadership at school management level and commitment at teacher and student level. Professional development “Persuading teachers is my number one job,” says Professor Lin. “Many feel they don’t need any more training. I have to convince them of the need for professional development across the curriculum.” The Education Bureau is beginning to appreciate the need for a more organised approach too. Last November, they co-organised with the Faculty a symposium on the subject. There were 300 places, but 400 teachers signed up and so a screen was set up in an adjoining lecture room and Professor Lin’s keynote speech broadcast there simultaneously. “We have worked with over 50 Hong Kong schools on LAC already,” says Professor Lin, “and some of them shared their experiences at the symposium. They are very enthusiastic but need more incentive – workshops are a start but they are not enough. The Faculty has therefore introduced a Master of Education in Language Across the Curriculum, initiated in 2012. It is the first of its kind in Hong Kong and across Southeast Asia.” In addition, the Faculty held a meeting in January with representatives from other universities and Chair of Education Professor Cheng Kai-ming to talk about how to provide incentives to teachers for professional development in EMI teaching. It is not only in Hong Kong that the Medium of Instruction question is under scrutiny. Known as CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), it is a hot topic of research in Europe and Scandinavia – particularly Sweden, Spain and Germany. “All over Europe now they are trying to teach some subjects in English,” says Professor Lin. In June, there is a conference on CLIL in Spain, to which she will be taking a group of her research students. LAC is a prime example of teaching, research and knowledge exchange combined. The Faculty has already tried the programme overseas. Professor Lin and PhD student April Liu Yiqi spent four weeks at the end of 2012 at a bilingual school in Thailand. Bilingual education is becoming popular in Thailand, where increasing numbers of schools want to do some lessons in English. “April tried out our LAC approach on an EMI class which has both Thai teachers and English teachers. She taught them how to improve their English essay- writing techniques in the subject of social studies, and over just four weeks there was significant improvement,” says Professor Lin. “The school is very pleased with the results.” M Persuading teachers ismy number one job... I have to convince them of the need for professional development across the curriculum. Ü Ú Û Û Ý ¼ º Ú Þ ß ¼ ¡ ² « ± « ´ ¨ à ¶ Å ¡ ¤ ¯ ± ¨ Â § ¤ « ¿ Ð ´ ¡ ¤ ¯ ± ¨ ¯ ¤ ± á ¡ ¤ § ¨ £ Á ¨ ± « ¬ ³ · ¤ « Å ´ « Ð ´ ¤ ¬ ¨ Á ¨ § ¤ ² ¨ ¬ ´ ¨ · ¨ § ± § ¤ « ¿ ± ¬ ¨ ¤ © ¨ ± ± ¤ ¶ « ¿ ¨ § à « Ì ´ ± ¯ ¬ ¨ « ¶ ² § à ¯ â ã Ð ´ ´ ¨ ä ¬ ¨ Ç Ñ ¡ § ± ± « ´ ¨ ½ § « ¿ ¯ § ± ¡ ´ ¤ ¤ § « £ ´ § « ¬ Language Across the Curriculum – Think the Gangnam-style The Faculty of Education develops a programme to help local schools cope with government’s Medium of Instruction policy. 25 Feburary 2013 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin