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The following is issued on behalf of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research:
A Hong Kong record was made today (May 15) with over 25,000 primary students singing English folk songs at schools.
An application for the record to be set as a Guinness World Record of the largest number of primary students singing on one single day is being made.
Titled "Little School Bags - Folk Songs Sing Along: Sing Along", the event is part of the "English Festival 2006" organised by the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR).
Participating students sang the theme song "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" at their own schools during the day. The event culminated in 15,000 primary students singing together at the same time at 3pm.
Witnessing the making of the record at one of the participating schools, SCOLAR Member, Mr Tony Choi, encouraged students to learn English by singing and listening to folk songs more.
"SCOLAR always supports learning of English through multiple ways. To extend the spirit of this activity, a teaching kit on English folk songs has been prepared for teachers participating in the mass singing today for their future reference in using English folk songs to teach the language at school," he said.
Free copies of the teaching kit are now available for other teachers or parents on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested parties may call SCOLAR Support Unit at 3527 0178 from May 16 to June 20, 2006 for collection of the kits.
"Little School Bags - Folk Songs Sing Along" is organised by the Rotaract Club of Kingspark Hong Kong for the "English Festival 2006" to motivate students to appreciate English folk songs. Participating students are introduced to various classic folk songs that have been familiar to many Hong Kong people since the early seventies, such as "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", "Country Roads, Take Me Home" and "Vincent".
President of the Rotaract Club of Kingspark Hong Kong, Miss Vivian Choi, also attended today's mass singing event.
Funded by the Language Fund, the English Festival was first launched in 2005 to raise public interest in the learning and use of English. There will be school-based activities including drama, debate, games, music, painting and writing, and two television programmes this year.
More information about the English Festival 2006 is available online at http://www.englishfestival.hk.
Established in 1996, SCOLAR advises the Government on language education issues and on the use of the Language Fund.
Ends/Monday, May 15, 2006
Issued at HKT 17:28
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