Updates from Centre for Language in Education

The Centre for Language in Education (CLE) plays an integral part of the students’ language learning in the University by offering the regular Chinese, English and Putonghua enhancement programmes and supplementing the formal curriculum with non-formal language learning activities including various workshops for preparing students for the public language tests. To address the diverse language learning needs of different groups of students in 2018/19, CLE works closely with different units of the University, eg the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts (on the music busking activities to connect people through music and languages), the Department of Early Childhood Education (on the support for non-Chinese-speaking students), the Faculty of Education and Human Development (on the pilot scheme of International English Language Test System [IELTS] and Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi for higher diploma students), etc.

CLE emphasises the importance of assessment for learning and administers internal language tests, eg English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA), Tertiary Putonghua Test, etc. for the diagnosis and tracking purposes. To encourage students to take internal and external tests seriously and attain better results, CLE administers the English Language Improvement Award (based on ELPA results) and IELTS scholarship scheme. For instance, more students have received the English Language Improvement Award recently, ie, increased from 159 and 155 recipients for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 cohorts respectively to 195 recipients for the 2016/17 cohort.

With the financial support of the University Grants Committee, the Arthur Samy Language Learning Centre (ASLLC) was renovated in 2018 and re-opened with a rejuvenated look in 2018/19, which provides students with a more relaxing environment. More students visit the Centre for self-access language learning, workshops, individual consultation, Reading Clubs, some festive activities and contests like Halloween Night, CLE’s GoT Talents, Biliterate and Trilingual Storytelling Competition, etc.

A new team of the International Tutors (ITs) from all over the world has joined the University to enrich students’ learning experiences and raise their cultural awareness by organising a variety of non-formal activities. For example, the ITs organised TEDxEdUHK in April 2019 with the theme “(DIS)CONNECTED” for nearly 200 participants, bringing innovative ideas to the University. Apart from the ITs, students are engaged to participate as language ambassadors to facilitate peer learning. All these learning opportunities can be easily sought by students simply through making a reservation for the activity they like via the online registration system in the CLE website or visiting the ASLLC.

CLE looks forward to more vibrant learning activities for enhancing students’ language proficiency at the Centre.

The adjudicators and the organisers celebrated the success of the winners of the Biliterate and Trilingual Storytelling Competition.

Around 200 participants joined the TEDxEDUHK on 13 April 2019.