Low morale and a lack of confidence jeopardising improvements, forum told
Improvements in students' English standards could be jeopardised by low morale and confidence among teachers and a "drastic decline" in the number of them prepared to take up the subject, a consultant to a major study has warned.
Dr Stephen Andrews, associate professor in the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Education and consultant to the study of good practices in English language teaching, told a forum on medium of instruction policy that implementation of policies to improve English could be "severely undermined" by teachers' lack of confidence, which he blamed on the fact that they were being "bashed" by negative publicity.
The study, led by Professor Amy Tsui Bik-mei, chair of curriculum studies at HKU, identified conditions for raising students' language standards and asked teachers to comment on their own perceptions of their effectiveness by way of questionnaire.
"In the last few years we have done a wonderful job painting language teachers in the worst possible light," Dr Andrews said.
The result was that there had been a "drastic decline" in the numbers of young people applying to train for the profession as well a low sense of effectiveness among serving teachers. "Unless we address this problem implementation of the language policy will be severely undermined," he said.
Dr Andrews made his comments as fears mount that young people are shunning the language teaching profession.
Professor Mark Bray, dean of HKU's Faculty of Education, which hosted the forum, said: "Across Hong Kong all teacher education providers are seeing a substantial decline in the number of applications." However, final numbers for the next academic year would not be known until June.
"They may be put off by the talk of declining birth-rates and school closures, but I don't think those factors are so relevant for English, where the government insists there is a teacher shortage," he added.
HKU is doubling the size of its language teacher education programmes with the launch of a BA and BEd double degree in English, in response to the shortage of trained language teachers.
Professor Bray said the 50 places would be filled, but added: "There is a danger we won't get top candidates. The campaign of teacher bashing has discouraged the best applicants."
Perceptions of teachers' heavy workload and the alternatives available for students with good English were other factors driving demand for places down, he said.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong Institute of Education said the numbers applying for its language courses were also down, though figures were not yet available.
南華早報網上版 Katherine Forestier