The Speaking Contest for Hong Kong Students

Rational and effective communication is the cornerstone for social harmony and development. Having good communication skills, especially in school-based assessments, public examinations and university interviews, has become indispensable in meeting the different challenges in life. Under the circumstances, tailor-made oral training is vital for cultivating students’ mastery of different language skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking which are interdependent. Listening widens students’ range of vocabulary and fosters critical thinking skills which promotes speaking and writing skills. Speaking develops students’ ability to summarize and synthesize what they have learned, facilitating the development of thinking skills and writing skills. As students may have inadequate life experience or less confidence in public speaking, they usually find it challenging to respond eloquently to fulfill the public assessments requirements.

In response to students’ pressing needs to speak well, the first Speaking Contest for Hong Kong Students was held in 2006. Through the territory-wide contest, students can broaden their horizons, enhance their critical thinking, communication and social skills. A professional assessment report is provided for students to improve their communication skills so that students are in a better position to meet the standard of the public assessments requirements and social expectations.

Over 120,000 attendances have been recorded and nearly 380 primary and secondary schools have participated in our contests since the kick-off of our project in 2006. A research  which was done earlier shows that this contest has provided healthy competitions and a favorable learning environment, which has enabled students to learn from each other and further developed their speaking and group discussion techniques.