Rowena Tam
Rowena Tam

About Rowena

A life in language

Rowena Tam is an expert in ESL teaching, a writer, a columnist for Goodschool Magazine and a designer of many educational programmes e.g. Double R Amalgam, Edventure Park and Language Explorer— now more than three hundred books across fifteen learning platforms. Rowena's full biography will appear here.

Early Career

Rowena Tam began her teaching career in Hong Kong over three decades ago, working with Chinese learners who struggled despite years of English study. She saw the same pattern repeat in classroom after classroom: students who could memorise vocabulary and drill grammar rules but could not read, speak, or think in English with confidence. They could pass a test on Friday and forget everything by Monday. The problem was not effort, and it was not intelligence — it was the framework. Most English teaching materials available in Hong Kong were written by native speakers for native speakers, assuming a Western learning path that Chinese learners had never walked. Rowena Tam watched students labour through these materials year after year, and she began to ask a different question: what if the problem was not the student, and not the teacher, but the mismatch between the material and the learner? This observation became the foundation of everything she would later build. She started experimenting in her own classroom, looking for ways to bridge the gap between Chinese and English instead of pretending it did not exist.

The Origin of Double R Amalgam

The method was born from a simple observation: Chinese and English are two different thinking systems. They share some structure, but they diverge in ways that trip up Chinese learners at every level. Instead of teaching English as a foreign subject — a pile of rules to memorise — Rowena Tam developed a framework that uses what Chinese learners already know from their first language and teaches them directly where the two languages differ. She called it Double R Amalgam. The word "amalgam" means two things blended into one, and that is exactly what the method does: it blends the Chinese the learner already knows with the English they need to learn, so the two languages work together instead of against each other. Where Chinese and English share structure, students draw on their first language as a bridge, saving years of re-learning. Where the two languages diverge, students are taught the difference directly, in simple terms, before it becomes a fixed habit. The method does not replace any textbook — it transforms whatever material the teacher already has, so that a Chinese learner can absorb it. This is why the method works in any classroom, at any level, with any existing curriculum.

Teaching Philosophy

A teacher trained in Double R Amalgam does not depend on any single textbook. Like a voltage transformer, they can take any curriculum, any level, any school context, and convert it into something a Chinese learner can actually absorb. The teacher adapts the input to the learner, not the other way around. This is the core principle: the method is not a set of books, it is a way of thinking about how Chinese and English interact. A teacher who understands the method can walk into any classroom, pick up whatever textbook the school uses, and teach it in a way that Chinese learners can follow — because they know where the two languages share ground and where they do not. The teacher does not need to throw out the school’s materials or invent new ones. They transform what is already there. This is why the method works across primary, secondary, and adult learners, and why it has been adopted in over 200 Hong Kong schools without requiring any change to the school’s existing syllabus. The teacher is the transformer; the textbook is the raw material; the learner is the one who finally absorbs it.

Work with Schools

Over 200 Hong Kong schools have hosted Rowena Tam’s programmes, including English Fun Day, World Cultural Day, themed workshops, Edventure Park Challenge, and PTA Picnic Day. She and her team work alongside existing school curricula without requiring any change to the syllabus. The approach is practical: whatever the school already teaches, the team adapts it so that Chinese learners can absorb it more fully. Schools do not need to buy a new textbook or restructure their English programme. Rowena Tam’s team comes in, works with the existing material, and shows teachers how to apply the Double R Amalgam method in their own classrooms. The programmes are designed to fit into a school’s existing calendar — a single Fun Day, a week of workshops, or a longer partnership. Teachers who attend the workshops leave with a method they can use the next day, with the textbooks they already have. This is why the method has spread across Hong Kong without requiring schools to change what they teach: it changes how they teach it, and that is enough.

Books and Publications

Rowena Tam has written 60 grammar books, 30 phonics books, and over 200 English readers, organised into 6 series spanning kindergarten through adult learners. The series are: Double R Foundation, a kindergarten phonics programme (K1–K3); Double R Novice Text Books and Double R Novice Exercise Books, covering primary through adult phonics; Double R Boosters, a grammar series for P1 through adults; Eyes on the World with Little Penguins, building reading fluency and character for K3–S3; and Alien Books, introducing careers and life planning for P4–S3. Every series follows the same teaching method: the whole word family is learned as one sound before it is broken into letters. Samples of every book can be previewed on this site, and hardcover copies can be ordered directly. Beyond the books, Rowena Tam publishes over 80 articles on English teaching in Hong Kong education magazines, including a regular column in Goodschool Magazine. The articles cover phonics, grammar, dictation, reading, and exam preparation — the same topics that fill the books, but written for teachers and parents who want to understand the method behind the materials. Together, the books and articles form a complete picture of how Chinese learners can learn English more effectively.

In-school & outreach

Our Programs for Schools

All courses and activities are inclusive of teaching and materials fees.

Our Programs — programme brochure pages
Programme brochure

English Language Courses

In-school or outreach courses covering every skill, from first sounds to exam readiness.

  • •Double R Phonics
  • •Double R Grammar
  • •Double R Reading
  • •Double R Writing
  • •Double R Speaking
  • •DSE Exam Skills
  • •Cultural Quotient (CQ)
  • •STEAM
  • •Drama
  • •Musical
  • •Puppetry

Suitable for

Primary 1–6 · Secondary 1–6

Teacher & Parent Workshops

Hands-on training for English panels, whole staff, and parents.

  • •Double R Phonics teacher training
  • •Double R Grammar teacher training
  • •Staff development day: language systems
  • •Reading skills: sentence structures
  • •Cultural Quotient workshops

Suitable for

Secondary 1–6 students · All teachers · Parents

English Fun Day & Performance

Whole-school events — language games, drama and cultural performances for festive or year-end functions.

  • •World Culture & World Festivals games
  • •Halloween & Christmas Traditions games
  • •Cultural dance & drama
  • •Chinese performance conducted in English

Suitable for

Whole-school functions · Festive/year-end functions · Secondary students

Teaching Materials & Reading Enrichment

Original storybooks and grammar materials used in enhancement and reading lessons.

  • •60 Grammatical Items series
  • •Double R Phonics (used in Australia)
  • •"Eyes on the World with Little Penguins" (100+ titles)
  • •"Alien Teachers" story books (40 titles)

Suitable for

Enhancement programmes · Reading lessons · Secondary students · Mainland Chinese students

Outdoor Learning & Edventure Park

Outdoor challenges and prize presentations that extend reading lessons beyond the classroom.

  • •Edpark Challenge after reading workshop
  • •In-school prize presentation
  • •Outdoor learning & prize ceremony, Cheung Chau Cinema

Suitable for

Enhancement programmes (any theme) · Reading lessons

School Outings

Half or whole-day outings combining English activities with cultural destinations.

  • •Cheung Chau Cinema
  • •Sha Tau Kok / Sheung Shui Farmland
  • •Parent-child outings

Suitable for

Half/whole-day activity · Min. 50 participants

English Courses & Workshops

$150–280 per participant · min. 10 · 1–1.5 hr

Half/Whole-day Outing

$280–380 per participant · min. 50

In-School Fun Day Themes

$80–180 per participant · min. 200 · 2–4 hr

Enquire about a programme →

Enquiry hotline 68886242 (Miss Tam)

Double R Amalgam

My Method

Fountain pen on paper beside a book
I

Sound before symbol

Double R Amalgam begins with phonics, so learners hear and say English before they read it.

II

Structure through stories

The second principle of Double R Amalgam explains how grammar and reading are integrated, so each structure is met inside meaningful text.

III

Character with competence

The third principle sets out how cultural quotient and good manners run alongside language skills at every level.

Credentials & career

Timeline

  1. —

    Co-developed Double R Amalgam with Miss Rita

  2. —

    Published by Hong Kong CQ Center Company Limited

  3. —

    Columnist, Goodschool Magazine

  4. 2025

    Double R Phonics course for newly arrived students, Ching Chung Hau Po Woon Secondary School

  5. —

    Double R Phonics & STEM course, S.K.H. Good Shepherd Primary School

  6. —

    English Teachers Workshops

Across the ecosystem

Where I teach