The politics of bilingualism: A reproduction analysis of the policy of mother tongue education in Hong Kong after 1997

The politics of bilingualism: A reproduction analysis of the policy of mother tongue education in Hong Kong after 1997

• Lai, Pak Sang Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Byram, Michael Durham University, UK

Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education, 33(3), 315-334, 2003

Routledge

2003

• F Learning & Teaching
  • FE Medium of Instruction, Language of Teaching, Bi-& Multilingual Education, Problems of Bilingualism, Code-mixing & Code-switching
• P Social Context of Education
  • PE Law & Education ; Politics & Education
• R Educational Policy & Administration
  • RC Educational Planning & Decision Making Process, Educational Administration

Bilingual Education Chinese Colonialism Comparative Education English (Second Language) Family Involvement Foreign Countries Global Approach Government Role International Communication Native Language Instruction Regional Dialects School Choice Social Class Technology Upper Class China Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

After the resumption of sovereignty in 1997 mother tongue education in Hong Kong, though it began with the good intention of national reintegration, politi-cally, socially, culturally and educationally, has escalated the tensions and contradic-tions of the politics of bilingualism in its implementation. The government policy of bi-literacy and trilingualism addresses, rather than resolves, the problems of hegemonic struggle among different social groups in the society, and between the indigenous elite class and national ruling elites at both the local and national level. A reproduction analysis is conducted to examine the events pertinent to the language shift of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) to Chinese as a medium of instruction (CMI), with particular emphasis on controversial issues such as parental choice, antagonism of elite classes, and group politics in the face of the internationalisation of English under globalised developments of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). English, a colonising language in the past and now a world language for changes in ICT, remains problematic for Hong Kong's language policy undergoing decolonisation and internationalisation in its early post-transitional years. Putonghua, the national lan-guage of China, challenging Cantonese, the regional dialect, as the formal and high Chinese language of the society, has added complexities to the discourse of polemical mother tongue education under the 'one country, two systems' framework practised in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305792032000107786]

• English

Journal Articles

• 03057925

• 10.1080/0305792032000107786

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/ff1bf7ef

2010-09-27