Speak 3 works side by side with schools to lift students’ English speaking and writing abilities, offering our bespoke Self-access Language Learning (SALL) solutions, as well as both online and on-site activities that suit all levels, from from elementary starters to seniors getting ready for the DSE Paper 4.
Institutions who works with us benefit from a wealth of external resources, including:
Trained native English speaking teachers
Reading materials catered to different abilities and interests with Hong Kong’s education system in mind
Language assessments for students with personalised feedback and explanations
“Each and every student fully showcased their abilities by speaking accurately, clearly, and above all, confidently. I am extremely proud of how diligently the students worked over the 4-week course. This project has also impressed our Board of Members and Sponsors…”
C. Y. Wong, Principal of Scientia Secondary SchoolSpeak3 was engaged by a secondary school in Kowloon to help some of their students catch up and get ready for open exams. The English learning progress of certain students at the school has fallen behind and the school realised individualised attention and support would make a difference.
Facing constraints in internal resources, the school decided to tap into the expertise of Speak3 and commissioned a project on English speaking.
As the project’s pilot programme, a research project was implemented from December 2020 to March 2021 with 109 students at S3 to S5 levels. Each student received personalised corrective feedback on their reading/speaking accuracy and fluency five days a week for a period of four weeks.
The result was remarkable according to evaluations conducted before and after the programme. In terms of EWPM (Effective Words Per Minute: number of words spoken per minute with acceptable comprehensibility), there was an increase of 373% (from 22 wpm to 104 wpm). There was also a 34% improvement in Speaking Accuracy, with the percentage of words spoken with acceptable comprehensibility jumping from 56% to 91%.
Student feedback from the pilot study indicated that:
“The parents are very impressed with how much their children have improved with just 4 weeks of effective teaching from your company’s Super Coaches. Each participated student has improved one way or the other in their English fluency and accuracy. Some of our students even tripled their effective speaking speed! I support your philosophy of ‘practice (a lot) makes perfect. I am a great believer of ‘there is no substitute for Hard work’ too!”
T. M. Chan, Principal of Sau Ming Primary SchoolA primary school engaged Speak3 for an English speaking improvement programme targeting 60 of its gifted students. The pilot was conducted in July to August 2021, in which tests were carried out before and after the programme as part of the evaluation process.
Students worked with their weekly assigned passages 5 times a week; assigned passages involved aspects of general reading, singing, tongue twisters and poetry. Students received professional personalised feedback on their daily reading /speaking exercise from their (native speaker) English language pronunciation coach.
During the four-week study, students kept a daily journal record of their mispronounced words, in addition to doing supplementary dictionary work as part of their daily exercise. Each week, students upload their videos of their reading onto a designated platform, shared with the entire student and parental body via the school website. The programme was well received.
“The use of the latest information technology during the lessons made learning more efficient. Our students did find this course useful as it raised their confidence in speaking English, and changed their attitude towards English language, which they, in the first place, feared the most among all subjects.”
L. M. Cheung, Principal of Cognitio College (HK)Back in 2016, Speak3 was engaged in a pilot project with a secondary school in Hong Kong with their Form 1 to Form 5 students. They were new immigrants from Mainland China. The students desperately needed help to boost their confidence in their English language.
We approached the project by providing mentoring and language coaching to students. This was combined with physical activities to reduce anxiety and fears. Research confirms that exercise can be a proactive way to release pent-up tension and can release natural brain chemicals (endogenous cannabinoids) that can enhance a person’s sense of well-being. This was exactly what the students needed, so they can ‘speak aloud’ in English without being worried that they can’t pronounced words perfectly.
After 3 months of regular reading, with one-on-one personalised corrective feedback, students’ oral fluency had improved greatly, and self-esteem escalated.
