THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, OCT. 26, 1906.
ENGLISH.
1899
8. Colloquial.--In the Preparatory School, Class VII and VI E, the teaching of Colloquial English continues to be very satisfactory. The Normal Class is doing good work, and the Pupil Teachers are entering into the spirit of teaching the subject by scientific methods. Unfortunately it does not seem possible to retain their services as Pupil Teachers for the full term of three years. Could this be managed, it would have, we feel sure, a great and beneficial effect on their careers as teachers. They have still much to learn, not only as regards method, but also of the English language; and their pronunciation is far from perfect.
9. The great majority of the boys who enter the College have previously studied in private schools, whether in Hongkong or Canton, where old-fashioned methods of in- struction are practised, and an incorrect pronunciation acquired. It is doubtful whether the knowledge that such pupils bring with them is any compensation for the mistakes they have to unlearn. However this may be, it is clear that they now acquire quickly an ability to speak English, while the use of Chinese as a medium of explanation seems to have been almost entirely discarded, except as a very last resort.
10. Where all did well, the Pupil Teacher of VI E deserves notice for the clever which he illustrates his meaning by sketches on the blackboard.
way in
11. The main fault we noticed, though it was less conspicuous in the Preparatory School than in the higher Classes, was that the boys do not answer loudly enough. The speaker addresses the master, who strains his ear to catch the reply above the little noises of the Class and the buzzing of the fans, and then repeats it for the benefit of the Class; who ought on the contrary to have been themselves with ears attentive for the answer,
and quick to notice where it was wrong. Thus, all would be kept alert, and the teachers be spared unnecessary fatigue.
12. Except IV A, and as regards the teaching of Hygiene, Classes VI, V and IV are under Chinese Masters. In VI D some little slackness was noticeable. There does not seem to be any method ruling the teaching of Colloquial by means of wall pictures. The only two we were shewn were one of a farmyard which, like that other one of a railway station adversely criticised last year, was full of detail that was much too small to be distinguishable from the back scats, and the other was a picture of a squirrel. Why a squirrel? To teach successfully from wall pictures, a graduated series should be used. At the same time it must be admitted that the illustrations in the Readers seem to fulfil all practical needs.
VI C was much stronger; the Master, whose work as a Pupil Teacher was favourably mentioned in the Report for last year, makes his boys speak up, and gives them a good vocabulary. Division A and the top boys of B did well; but there are many boys at the bottom of the latter, who seem to regard the examination as something beyond their range, and unless addressed personally, dissociate themselves from it altogether. This inability to cultivate the attention of an entire Division is a weak point in the teaching of many of the Chinese Masters. In this Class we heard a few, but only a few, orders given in Chinese.
13. The four Divisions of Class V are all making fair progress. D was noticeable for the smart way in which orders were given in English. In B, the articulation of the boys is very distinct.
14. In Class IV, C was rather weak : A and B did very well.
15. In the Upper School, the boys with few exceptions were well able to auswer when asked ordinary questions, though some of them would only do so under a good deal of pressure. It however remains to make them talk correct English. Their grammar is on the whole very weak: in fact, though they would probably be surprised and disgusted to hear it said, they use a sort of "pidgin" English, which has marked features of its own. Of these, the commonest are the discarding of inflections and the omission of auxiliary verbs. Thus, “I asked him where he was coming from, and he said he had been for a walk”, would be put in some such way as this: "I asked him, Where you coming from ? He say, I been
for a walk".
16. Reading was good and fairly fluent in the four Divisions of Class VII. The boys shewed themselves quite ready to answer questions on the lesson. Those in A were very alert and attentive.
17. In Class VI, reading was also very fair; meanings of words and phrases were fairly well given. In B, which appeared to be the weakest in this subject, the boys shewed less inclination to exert themselves, and were somewhat listless and inattentive.