Facilitating the development of a “reading to learn” culture, helping learners acquire effective reading skills and develop good reading habits through the use of language arts materials and texts, incorporating a wide variety of text types to develop their critical thinking skills, creativity and cultural awareness Developing learners’ generic skills, values and attitudes and exposing them to rich learning experiences through moral and civic education, project learning, reading to learn, information technology (IT) for interactive learning (the four key tasks promoted in the curriculum reform) Using a learner-centred and a task-based approach in the planning and organization of learning, teaching and assessment materials and activities, ensuring that emphases are put on helping learners master both language forms and communicative functions for use in appropriate contexts Catering for learner diversity through developing a wide range of open-ended learning tasks and activities, and employing teaching strategies that suit the specific needs of both less able learners and more able learners, as well as the needs of learners with different learning styles Promoting learner independence through the development of lifelong language learning skills and strategies such as vocabulary building skills, phonics skills and information skills, and providing opportunities for the mastery of these skills through purposeful tasks and in meaningful contexts Creating a language-rich environment through promoting a crosscurricular approach to learning, and making use of community resources to facilitate learner participation in life-wide learning activities Promoting assessment for learning in addition to assessment of learning through greater use of formative and criterion-referenced assessment to gain insights into learners’ strengths and weaknesses, to provide feedback informing learners about their performance, and to indicate how to make further progress in their learning