From Words to Whole Text: Effects of Note-making and Joint Construction Stages of 'Reading to Learn' Pedagogy in Hong Kong Junior Secondary CSL Classroom

Abstract

In Hong Kong, the number of secondary schools admitting Non-Chinese Speaking (NCS) students has increased from 31 to more than 200 in recent years (LegCo, 2016), in which most of them are mainstream schools. To cater the learning differences of NCS students, various supporting programs have been employed to help NCS students to improve their Chinese so as to ease their difficulties in applying for universities and finding jobs (Loh & Tam, 2016), and hence enhancing upward social mobility (Leung et al, 2017). Thus developing suitable Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) pedagogies has caught much scholarly attention with pressing needs. Under such backdrop, the paper discusses the use of “Reading to Learn (R2L)” Pedagogy (Rose & Martin, 2012) to support the junior secondary CSL teaching and learning in a secondary school with high NCS density. The research team developed school-based teaching and learning materials based on Chinese Language Curriculum Second Language Adapted Learning Framework (EDB, 2014) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) syllabus. Based on collaborative lesson preparation, class observation, teachers and students focus groups, close examination of students’work, the study aims at finding the effectiveness of R2L in enhancing students’ reading and writing abilities of explanatory essays, as well as their motivation. Through Detailed Reading, Note-making, Joint Rewriting and Joint Construction, with extensive scaffolding and teacher-student interaction, students are able to understand the register variables and transfer to individual writing of explanatory essays. Discourse analysis and focus group interviews also show that R2L can enhance the motivation of students and their confidence in learning Chinese. The study explores the potential of applying R2L pedagogy to enhance the reading and writing of explanatory essays, as well as discerning the praxis and effectiveness of various teaching stages.