The effectiveness of the 'whole language approach' in Chinese language learning among academically less -able students: A study at a secondary school in Hong Kong

This study attempted to examine the effectiveness of the "Whole Language Approach" in Chinese language learning among academically less-able students in a secondary school in Hong Kong. A programme of eight months' duration was conducted with an experimental group of about 250 Secondary One students of a school, which has a large intake of "Band 5" students. Classroom observations and interviews were carried out by the researcher in order to find out how the programme worked in the classroom of the experimental group. At the same time, there was another group of about 360 students from six other schools with large intakes of "Band 5" students set up to be the control group. Both the experimental group and the control group were invited to write a composition and answer four sets of questionnaires in the pre-test and post-test. In order to verify the effectiveness of the programme, a retention test was designed for and taken by the experimental group. The results of Hong Kong Attainment Test were also taken as one of the indicators of any improvement shown in students' language ability. The data collected from the experimental group were compared to those collected from the control group.;From the classroom observation notes and interviews, it is confirmed that the programme has been carried out with most of its key elements found in the classroom of the experimental group. Significant changes were found in the post-test scores of both the experimental and the control groups. The experimental group has made much improvement in both the cognitive domain and the affective domain while notable drops in the two domains were found in the control group. The experimental group scored decisively better than the control group. The findings of this study provide evidence that the Chinese language programme developed with the "Whole Language Approach" is effective in enhancing the academically less-able students' language ability and successfully motivates them in Chinese language learning. This programme has also provided enjoyable experience for the experimental group, which led to desirable changes in both the cognitive domain and the affective domain in Chinese language learning. Implications of the results and for future researches are discussed in the Dissertation. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).