Job Discussion Forums

[misutabiru]

Does anyone know how I could get my hands on a copy of the curriculum guide for English education in Hong Kong at the primary and/or secondary levels, or if an English version even exists?

mr. bill

[lambada]

Yes it exists in English and you should be able to get it from various govt bookshops. You may have to ring the EMB for details.

[dodgee]

Last year before I interviewed with the EMB I downloaded the new one off the EMB site. Helped me a little when I talked about the impending changes (doom?) and how my experience in project work could be utilised. I am sure you can find it easily.

[anninhk]

I was going to suggest you going to emb.gov.hk too, and looking at the Resources section where you will find a lot of materials that can be accessed online.

[briandwest]

This might be what you are after:
http://www.emb.gov.hk/index.aspx?langno=1&nodeID=3083

[misutabiru]

Thanks for your replies, everybody. The link you provided was exactly what I was looking for, briandwest. I am checking out the EMB "References and Resources" page right now, and it's super sweet!

For anyone who hasn't been there before, here it is: http://www.emb.gov.hk/index.aspx?langno=1&nodeID=2773

[lambada]

I noticed that it is dated 2002. There is a later version 2004 which is considerably different. Just so you are aware of that. I don't think it's on line as I guess they want to sell a few copies first:P

[11:59]

Yes, it sure looks impressive, doesn't it? Don't take it too overly seriously though, the people who produce such materials and who place them online certainly don't and they are typically on mythical salaries. Remember that the EMB are not really all that concerned with what is actually happening in the classroom, only what it says is happening in the classroom in some document somewhere. Unsurprisingly, they find the latter easier to control.

Also, it's all very well and good having resources, schemes, and frameworks like that online, but it is all ultimately of questionable worth when, in the typical classroom of 42 plus students, kids are made to stand up, have a microphone shoved half way down their throat, and are ordered to repeat words and phrases verbatim with little or no understanding involved, and are shouted at for making a 'mistake' (i.e., not matching the local teacher's non-native-like pronunciation, timing, stress, and rhythm, etc.).

In addition, the EMB also seems to work under the assumption that teachers actually have time to teach, which, to judge from what teachers in the school system (both local and non-local) say, is flying in the face of shop floor realities. I don't work within the school system here, but I did the last time I was in HK and if anything things appear to have only got worse. When I was in the system my lessons quite often seemed to get in the way of the work (non-teaching related paperwork, meetings, and meetings about meetings, and meetings about meetings about meetings, etc.)

Furthermore, you have to check a lot of those downloadable resources very carefully before using them as many are written by non-native speakers, who, due to the 'culture' here, are rarely if ever told that they are mistaken. I have just looked at an EMB-produced picnic/healthy-eating/food pyramid resource (the food pyramid is one of their old chestnuts) and it states that "Eating fruit and vegetables are good for our health." They (the writers and editors) are unable to see that 'eating' is the subject and so the finite verb must agree with that, and that it is singular. The 'fruit and vegetables' is a complement and is a real red herring as regards subject/verb concord. There would have been discussion of this, but no native speakers (or non-native speakers with native-speaker competence) would have ever been asked � remember, this is the omnipotent EMB we are dealing with and its employees want to cling on to their $80,000 HK a month. You even see errors such as this in the materials produced by the Exams and Assessment Authority and which kids have to sit. The problem is of course that it is not just some grammatical nicety. How can one mark the students as being incorrect in tests and exams when the mistake itself is actually in the language input to the students?

But, as I say, it's always good to have such resources, if only as theoretical constructs.

[lambada]

got to love you 11:59. Now be a good little teacher and teach the text book, mark it and wait for the Principal to mark you. Curriculum - what curriculum? -Just teach the damn book:wink: