Philosophy

Language and communication are at the heart of the human experience.

As members of an international school and community we endorse this statement by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Learning languages encourages students to respect and to understand other cultures as well as heightens the awareness of one’s own culture. It also enhances divergent thinking and self-motivated learning. Language learning equips students to participate more actively in the global community and to be more adaptable. Chinese is particularly important at HKIS since Hong Kong is part of China.

Literacy is built upon a foundation of spoken language competence; therefore, we believe that oral communicative language should rest at the heart of language instruction. Pictographic and ideographic characters are introduced from R1. Reading is gradually introduced, once students develop a basic semantic foundation, followed by writing. We also believe that the central goal of language learning should be the communication and exchange of ideas, perceptions and needs, both orally and in writing.

The HKIS Chinese Studies Program fully embraces the different needs of our learners. Because acquiring an additional language is dependent upon multiple factors, the HKIS program places a differentiated focus on the broad areas of reading/writing, listening/ speaking and culture dependent upon the learner. Regardless of emphasis, the aim for the HKIS Chinese Studies Program is to develop communicatively competent and culturally enriched students in Mandarin (Putonghua).