P. L. LIU
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172
ment for students to learn language and help children develop
their own portfolios. Most teachers comment that children can
learn happily.
However, this research has also found that some teachers
cannot fully carry out the in-depth spiritual meaning of the
whole language approach. Firstly, whole language emphasizes
on functions of environmental print and cultivation of chil-
dren’s sensitivity to words, which are significant for the crea-
tion of a learning language environment. However, the envi-
ronmental decorations are not created by teachers alone; teach-
ers and children should have interactive activities of designing.
Moreover, children’s mechanical copying activities are contrary
to the whole language approach. Furthermore, portfolios are
one of the tools to assess children’s whole language learning
but teachers may not be sure how to develop children’s portfo-
lios and they have difficulties in understanding the concepts of
portfolios and the whole language approach. In general, many
teachers have to bear heavy workloads when using the whole
language approach.
The findings suggest that teachers lack in-depth understand-
ing of implementing the whole language approach. Thus, prac-
tical training courses and resource supports should be provided
for teachers. It is suggested that educational institutions and
universities can organise more teacher development courses
and workshops on the topics of “Language Awareness in the
environment”, “Developing children’s writing skills in the whole
language approach” and “The use of portfolio and the Whole
Language approach”. The workshop sessions organized in the
course should provide them with opportunities to discuss rele-
vant issues with other teachers and this questioning and sharing
can help them identify problems, evaluate their practices and
learn from each other. The Hong Kong Education Bureau should
provide more resources and fund for kindergartens to buy more
reading materials. Also, it can recommend kindergartens with
outstanding performance in implementing the whole language
approach to share their experience and teaching materials on
intranets so that kindergartens can support each other, which
may lessen their heavy workloads.
Whole language is not an elixir which can improve chil-
dren’s learning in kindergartens at once. This research is only
preliminary in nature. It is expected that an action research
approach can be adopted in future to drill down again into the
effectiveness of whole language learning of children who are
promoted to Primary 1.
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