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Bilingualism and Diversity

Malvern College Pre-School Hong Kong is an international pre-school that welcomes and celebrates diversity, acknowledging each pupil’s unique heritage. A prominent feature of our curriculum is the equal exposure of pupils from diverse cultural backgrounds to the English and Chinese language.

We believe young pupils’ acquisition of language is most effective when it is taught holistically as part of an integrated curriculum rather than as a compartmentalised subject.

Our dedicated native English and Chinese speaking teachers use a range of activities to help pupils building their vocabulary from an early age. Songs and nursery rhymes allow children to link words with actions and expose them to a range of sounds, laying the foundation for future work on phonics. Our staff create an engaging and supportive learning environment in which all children flourish and gain a good standard of English and Chinese.

Teachers are carefully chosen so that each classroom will have native English-speaking teacher and Mandarin-speaking teacher, who will guide children with practising and consolidating their first language and then embracing the other. Mandarin Chinese language skills are delivered by native level speakers with Chinese teaching qualifications. When in the company of, or working with a teacher, then her native language must be spoken. Most children, in a matter of months, become extremely adept at seamlessly and effortlessly switching from one language to another.