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| March 2000 Language skills Some schools not equipped to encourage reading habits By Lauren Lam Article from the same section: Although most educationalists and teachers would agree that reading would help improve students’ language skills, there are actually not many schools that have enough resources to set up libraries or organize book fairs to encourage students to read. Li Yuet Yi, a Primary 3 student, said she loves reading. However, she does not find her school supportive of her interest. Said she: “I have to spend my recess time reading books. There is no reading lesson in my school. “I can borrow books from the school library. However, we cannot always go to the school library whenever we want. We can go there only once a week.” Also, she said that only three book fairs are held in her school every year. She read many English and Chinese books that were displayed at the book fairs, but her mother did not allow her to buy them. Explained Mrs. Li Chun Lin: “Sometimes I buy children’s magazines for my daughter when she asks me to. “I don’t know which type of books is suitable for her. “In addition, I find the content of the books sold in the book fairs rather simple and the books are quite expensive.” In fact, according to teachers, book fairs organized in local schools are not really effective in promoting books. Miss Chau Pui Lin, an English teacher at Confucian Tai Shing Primary School, said that the school where she teaches has rarely organized book fairs in recent years. Said she: “The response from past years was not that great. “Moreover, we found that most parents can’t afford to buy the books for their children.” Besides holding activities such as book fairs, financial help is also offered by the government. Schools that have joined the English Extensive Reading Scheme organized by the Education Department can receive a grant of $6,500 every year. “With the grant, we can buy over 200 English books for students every year,” Miss Chau said. The scheme is divided into two streams, Chinese and English, and the grant is for buying books and multimedia packages. Miss Chau said that the scheme would not force the students to read a specific kind of books. She said that students could read books according to their abilities and interests. She also said that more students are interested in reading books after the launching of the scheme as the numbers of books borrowed by students is increasing. Said she: “The Education Department sent some book lists to us. “Students can read the books once a week during the reading lesson and they are asked to do some reports and exercises after they finish reading the books.” However, as a student, Li Yuet Yi thought that book reports were not that useful. Explained she: “We are asked to write book reports during long vacations like the Christmas holidays. “I don’t like writing those reports especially when I find a book is not interesting. I simply make up the content of the report.” When asked what teachers can do to promote good reading habits among students, Miss Chau thinks that there are not many things they can do. She said that whether the students read books greatly depends on the students’ self-consciousness. And the parents also could not do much, according to Mrs. Li. She said that parents have a great responsibility in promoting good reading habits among children as she knew that children could learn more about the world and improve vocabulary through reading. As a saleswoman, Mrs. Li gets a few holidays only, so she does not have enough time to help her daughter develop reading habits. Even if she has time, she cannot read with her daughter because she does not know English. Besides, the other family members have no time to bring Li to the public library either. Said she, “I dare not let her go alone for safety reasons.” With both parents and teachers having difficulties in promoting reading habits among children, some organizations are striving to encourage reading among children. One of them is Children’s Chinese Book Club, which aims at choosing high quality children literature and promoting Chinese language and culture. It promotes books from places like Taiwan and the Mainland. At first, the club acts as a middleman by buying books from the publishers and sells them to the readers. According to Miss Karen Cheung, assistant manager of the club, the club promotes reading by sending book lists to about 30 international and private schools. As most of their students are foreigners or overseas Chinese who are learning Chinese, sending book lists to them can help both teachers and parents to choose the suitable books for their children. The club also organizes book fairs in local primary schools and sponsors some events in encouraging children to read. Mass mailing of catalogues is one way of informing the children and parents about the club. Explained Miss Cheung: “We also recommend some books for some social organizations like youth centers. “Many of these organizations have library corners and we give them free samples of our publications.” The club organizes different kind of activities for its members. For example, they invited writers of children’s books from Taiwan to share experiences with parents on children’s reading habits. Some special guests were also invited to tell stories in primary schools to order to arouse children’s interests in reading. “In one of the activities, children were asked to act as historical figures. In this way, they can acquire more knowledge about Chinese history,” she said. When the members take part in the activities of the club, they are given books free. She said that this could help promote reading among children. According to Miss Cheung, one of the difficulties they face is that their participants are limited to the club members. They find it hard to inform other children about their activities. “Owing to such a small market in Hong Kong where not many families can afford to buy children’s books, it’s quite hard for us to get a place.” On the other hand, some may think that books sold by local book companies are too expensive. The prices of the books have been falling and the average selling price is $50. Besides the quality of the books, Miss Cheung said that the costly materials for package also attributed to the increase of production cost. “For books with content of high quality, there will usually be better packages. Their average prices will be about $100, but many of them sell well,” she said. However, she said the sales are even better for cheaper books, though. |
A special guest is invited to tell stories to the Children’s Chinese Book Club. (Courtesy of Children’s Chinese Book Club)
Li Yuet Yi says she does not like doing book reports (Lauren Lam)
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