Empowering Linguistic Diversity: CLC’s Innovative Audible Picture Books Project Boosts Chinese Literacy for NCS Students
Outreach
Led by Dr David Yuen, the CLC team has received a HK$2,441,029 grant from the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research for a project titled “A Project on Designing Audible Picture Books and Paired Reading to Facilitate Chinese Reading Development of Non-Chinese Speaking (NCS) Primary 1 to 3 Students”. It aimed at enhancing Chinese literacy among non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students in Primary 1 to 3. The initiative involves three primary schools with Chinese instruction in Cantonese and Mandarin and includes the creation of 30 Chinese picture books with audio across three grade levels, along with paired reading services.
NCS students do paired reading and play Chinese word games in classrooms.
The project has already produced over 10 picture books, receiving positive feedback from students and teachers. From February to July 2024, around 70 NCS students participated in ten paired reading sessions, led by trained reading ambassadors from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. These sessions focused on activities to improve Chinese literacy skills, such as understanding radicals, vocabulary building, and sentence formation.
(Left) A field trip to the Hong Kong Palace Museum. (Right) Project team members (from right): Ms Sarah Wong, Dr Jie Zeng, Dr David Yuen, Dr Liu Lu, Ms Cathy Wong, Ms Eva Cui from the CLC.
Furthermore, the students went on two cultural field trips to significant sites like the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. These trips aimed to deepen their understanding of Chinese and Hong Kong cultures, thereby enriching their literacy learning with real-world cultural experiences.
