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Final Report on the Study of Good Practices in Secondary Schools
for Enhancing Students' English Language Proficiency
Synopsis
The aims of this study were two-fold: (i) to identify good practices in the teaching of English in local
secondary schools, i.e. practices that bring about positive English learning outcomes, and (ii) to
investigate conditions that maximise English language learning.
As good practices adopted by schools are highly context specific and dependent on the complex
interplay between various situational factors, a case study approach was deemed the most suitable for
the purposes of our research. A total of 12 secondary schools (8 CMI schools and 4 EMI schools) and
38 secondary-school teachers agreed to participate in this study. Eight pairs of researchers and
research assistants conducted a total of 377 school visits, 363 lesson observations and 332 interviews
with principals, panel chairs, English teachers and students. In addition, 53 out-of-class English
activities were observed and various types of data and artifacts were collected. Apart from the
qualitative data gathered, two English assessment tests were administered in the case study
schools/classes in order to study the effect of teaching on the English proficiency of students. A total
of 388 teacher questionnaires were administered to obtain an overview of the current teaching
practices and beliefs of English teachers in secondary schools. A total of 6,716 student questionnaires
were also administered. The findings of the questionnaires were triangulated with the qualitative data
collected to examine the impact of the good practices identified on the changes in students'
perceptions of their achievements, their self-assessment of their English performance, their
motivations for learning English, and their strategies for learning English, etc.

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