Schools, teachers and groups concerned with ethnic minorities have always been requesting the Education Bureau (EDB) to establish clear and specific curriculum, and teaching guidelines for Chinese as a second language, but have not received positive response. Since 2014, the Education Bureau (EDB) implemented the “Chinese Language Curriculum Second Language Learning Framework” (“Learning Framework”) with the objective to help non-Chinese Speaking (NCS) students integrate into the mainstream Chinese curriculum; schools are expected to adjust the mainstream Chinese Language curriculum according to the Learning Framework and develop school-based curriculum for the Chinese teaching and learning of NCS students. However, the lack of clear and specific teaching and learning goals, benchmarks, systematic teaching materials and teacher training leave teachers at a loss as to how to teach NCS students, and adversely affects students’ Chinese learning. The EDB, schools, academics and NGOs have conducted numerous studies and support programmes on the education of ethnic minority and/or NCS students in the last decade; however relevant results, best practices, and available resources have not been methodically consolidated, making it difficult to develop a set of comprehensive effective and efficient measures to support the teaching and learning of Chinese for ethnic minority students.
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