We write to seek your assistance with a telephone survey to be conducted for the captioned project.

The Standing Committee On Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) was established in 1996. Its objective is to advise the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government on language education issues and provide an institutional framework for language education research and language enhancement initiatives.

The "English in the Air 2003/04" project is one of SCOLAR's latest language enhancement initiatives to encourage active use of the medium of television in the teaching and learning of English in secondary schools. This project is a continuation of the pilot project conducted in partnership with TVB Pearl in the 2002/03 school year.

We would like to gauge the views of English panel chairpersons of secondary schools in Hong Kong on the project. In the following week starting 25 November 2003, the Public Opinion Programme (POP) of the University of Hong Kong, as commissioned by SCOLAR, will carry out a telephone survey with English panel chairs of secondary schools drawn in a random order. Some ten questions surrounding the project and the concept of making use of TV programmes to teach and learn English will be asked. The whole survey will last for less than ten minutes. Should you be selected, we would be most grateful if you could spare a few minutes to complete the survey for us. Kindly note that three more telephone surveys in the same format will be conducted by POP on our behalf in the school year to track the progression of views of English panel chairs across the territory. They will be run after the Chinese New Year in February 2004, after Easter in April 2004 and in the middle of June 2004. We will be forwarding reminder letters to you on the matter in due course.

We have faxed a copy of this letter to your principal (see below). We would appreciate it very much if you could help bring this matter to his/her attention accordingly.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or Miss Louisa Yam of the SCOLAR Support Unit at 2892 6558.

Yours sincerely
Dr Tony Lee
for Secretary, SCOLAR

cc: Principal