Hundreds of people committed to promote English
Hundreds of people joined hands with the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) at the kick-off ceremony for the first English Festival held today (3 April) to make commitments in promoting the learning and use of English.
Funded by the Language Fund, the English Festival is organised by SCOLAR with seven different activities in the coming two months.
Speaking at the ceremony, the festival organising committee chairman cum member of SCOLAR, Mr Stephen Chan, encouraged students and the public to participate in the festival activities.
"There is certainly something for everyone. The English Festival 2005 is a new initiative of SCOLAR to raise public interest in the learning and use of English through a variety of activities targeted at students as well as the general public of different age groups and educational background," he said.
At the kick-off ceremony, two aspiring young artistes, Mandy Cho and Alex Fong, were appointed as English Festival Ambassadors.
English Festival 2005 will last through April and May. The TV programme series, "One-minute English", produced by the Television Broadcasts Limited will be launched on TVB Jade Channel at 11:05 p.m. on Monday (4 April).
Festival activities already launched earlier last year included English Play Stations, a series of English workshops for young children organised by the Tsung Tsin Primary School and Kindergarten, and Momentum – The Rising Bunch, a year-long programme comprising debating, word games and poetry writing competitions for Chinese middle school students organised by the Association of Hong Kong Chinese Middle Schools.
Other activities to come include "Interacting" in Hong Kong – A Theatrical Learning Experience, interactive English drama performances and workshops by the British Council; Newspaper Show-n-Tell by SCMP Young Reporters Programme, experience-sharing session and exhibitions on English newspaper editing and reporting by the South China Morning Post; Skipping Rhymes – Jumping Jive, a competition on skipping with rhymes for Primary Three to Five students by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators; and Shakespeare-rama: A Midsummer Night's Dream, drama performances by primary students by Shakespeare4All.
For more details of the festival activities, please visit the SCOLAR website at http://www.language-education.com.
Established in 1996, SCOLAR advises the Government on language education issues and the use of the Language Fund.