Social class and language attitudes in Hong Kong

Social class and language attitudes in Hong Kong

• Lai, Mee Ling Dept of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education

International Multilingual Research Journal, 4(2), 83-106, 2010

Routledge

2010

• A Human Growth & Development
  • AE Socioeconomic & Cultural Differences, Class & Family Background
• N Students & Student Services
  • NC Charactieristics & Conditions of Students; Opinion & Attitudes of Students, Problems of Adjustment

Working Class Student Attitudes Language Attitudes Educational Attainment Measures (Individuals) Foreign Countries Mandarin Chinese Secondary School Students Social Class Socioeconomic Background English (Second Language) Sino Tibetan Languages Educational Policy Language of Instruction Interviews Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

This article examines the relation between social class and language attitudes through a triangulated study that analyses the attitudes of 836 secondary school students from different socioeconomic backgrounds toward the 3 official spoken languages used in postcolonial Hong Kong (HK; i.e., Cantonese, English, and Putonghua). The respondents were divided into 3 social class groups (viz. middle, lower-middle, and working class), according to their parents' occupations and levels of educational attainment. This particular group of students started its secondary school education when the mandatory Mother Tongue Education Policy was just implemented after China resumed sovereignty over HK. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey and focus-group interviews. This study was designed to test 2 hypotheses: (a) that the middle-class group would be the most positively inclined toward English and (b) that the working-class group would display the most positive attitudes toward Putonghua due to closer social distance. Although the results from the questionnaire survey appeared to provide a degree of support for both hypotheses, little evidence was found in the interview data to indicate that the working-class group did, in fact, aspire to Putonghua either as an alternative form of linguistic capital or a symbol of preferred social identity.
[Copyright of International Multilingual Research Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19313150903500945]

• English

Journal Articles

• 19313152

• 10.1080/19313150903500945

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/11c64e2f

2011-01-20