內地跨境及新來港學童的校本支援計劃

A Proposal on School-based Support Scheme for Cross-border and Immigrant Children in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) was formally established by statute in April 1994 by uniting the former Northcote College of Education, Grantham College of Education, Sir Robert Black College of Education, the Hong Kong Technical Teachers' College and the Institute of Language in Education, as recommended by the Education Commission in 1992. The HKIEd. is a publicly-funded tertiary institution that the main sources of income are University Grants Committee funding and tuition fees.

The Institute's mission is to provide our students with a high quality education to prepare them as professionals, serving in all types of schools and other work settings, and to support them in their professional development and lifelong learning. Our whole person approach to education will instil in our students not only the necessary skills and competencies, but also a commitment to education, a caring attitude towards the students they will teach, as well as the skills that will enable them to contribute positively to the well-being of society. At the same time, our supportive intellectual and social environment will advance teaching, learning and research.

The Hong Kong Institute of Education is the only institute that solely dedicates to the upgrading and professional development of teacher education in Hong Kong. Currently, we provide doctor, master and undergraduate degree, post-graduate diploma, certificate and a range of in-service programmes to around 7,000 pre-service students and serving teachers.

Debates over the right of abode of new arrivals from the Mainland reflect social resistance and exclusion widely exists. They have direct bearing on educational provision for immigrant students.

Immigration is an uprooting process and immigrants often experience conflict between home and school values. Immigrant students often enter a school community that is new to their own cultural background and history. Research findings from the west suggest that the maternal language of non-English speaking immigrant students is the key language learning issue (He, 2002, Phillion, 2002). Likewise, a recent local study found that English is the greatest hurdle for the cross-boundary (border) students to overcome in Hong Kong schooling (Lo, 2006).

This Support Scheme is sponsored by the Simatelex Charitable Foundation (HK). The purpose of this School-based Support Scheme is twofold: (1) to enhance the English level of the cross-boundary (border) and newly arrived students from Mainland China; and (2) to involve our English major student teachers in school-based English teaching. Specifically, this project aims to achieve the following:

Support schools and parents to address the English language learning needs of cross-boundary (border) and newly arrived students from Mainland China.
Provide school-based professional support for accommodating the learning needs of cross-boundary (border) and newly arrived students from Mainland China.
Provide effective English reading strategies for parents of the target students.
Collect and disseminate good practices in supporting the target students by publication of newsletters and a book.
Provide hands-on teaching opportunities for the full-time HKIEd students for teaching the target students.

In order to achieve these goals, we have selected 12 English major student teachers to provide professional help for these student groups. They will join regular English classes and become involved in group teaching and/or offering individual learning support. As some of the student teachers also come from Mainland China, they can set a good role model for our target student groups.

We believe parents play a significant role in their children’s learning. Therefore our parent-child reading workshop is designed to help parents become more motivated in encouraging their children to learn English. During the workshop, two experienced educators, Mrs. Ellen Yip and Dr. Sam Leung Cheung-shing, will help conduct a parent seminar. They will also suggest specific pedagogical strategies to enhance the children’s learning motivation. In addition, an experienced NET will also help organize a series of English activities for the participants. In the parent-child English reading workshop, parents will be able to try out their newly learned strategies. We believe that with the right support from parents, children will be encouraged and supported to overcome the language barrier at an early stage in their Hong Kong schooling. This is the primary reason for us to provide such services and support. Towards this end, however, we also hope they will be encouraged to enjoy their schooling. Although learning English is difficult, we strongly believe that in order to achieve positive results the learning process should be fun and enjoyable.

To help facilitate the goal of fostering the talents of students, there will be published a product based on all the strategies used by our student teachers during this programme. Through reading the sharing from our student teachers, we hope parents will become inspired and apply these strategies to encourage their children in other areas such as art, music and science. Although concentrating on English, this School-based Support Scheme has the whole development of the child in view.