Journal Articles
Towards 'biliteracy and trilingualism' in Hong Kong (SAR): Problems, dilemmas and stakeholders' views
- Towards 'biliteracy and trilingualism' in Hong Kong (SAR): Problems, dilemmas and stakeholders' views
- AILA Review, 22, 72-84, 2009
- John Benjamins Publishing Co
- 2009
-
- Hong Kong
-
- 1997.7onwards
-
- Post-Secondary Education
- Despite the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) government's determination to implement the 'mother tongue education' policy amid strong social resistance one year after the handover, English remains a prestigious language in society. The need for Putonghua (Mandarin/Standard Chinese) is also increasing following ever-expanding trade and other activities with mainland China. The societal demand for both English and Putonghua in postcolonial Hong Kong is important for understanding the SAR government's language-in-education policy called 'biliteracy and trilingualism'. The learning of English is fraught with two main problems: (a) the absence of a conducive language-learning environment outside the classroom, which makes English in Hong Kong more like a foreign than a second language, and (b) tremendous typological difference between Chinese and English on one hand, and considerable linguistic differences between Cantonese and Putonghua on the other. Given the significant phonological differences and, to a lesser extent, lexico-grammatical divergence between the majority's vernacular and modern written Chinese, the learning of Putonghua is no straightforward task either. The dilemmas of the medium-of-instruction (MoI) debate will be discussed by elucidating the main concerns as seen from the respective vantage points of the government and five key stakeholder groups: employers, parents, school principals, teachers and educationalists, and students. [Copyright of AILA Review is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co.]
-
- English
- Journal Articles
-
- 14610213
- https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/6ff5774f
- 2014-12-23
Recent Journal Articles
Learning strategies for Chinese character handwriting by CSL students in international schoolsJournal Articles
Primary school teachers' classroom-based e-assessment practices: Insights from the theory of planned behaviourJournal Articles
Language choice and code-switching in bilingual children’s interaction under multilingual contexts: Evidence from Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolersJournal Articles
Pathways to early science literacy: Investigating the different role of language and reading skills in science literacy among early primary school childrenJournal Articles
Examining the complex connections between teacher attitudes, intentions, behaviors, and competencies of SEN students in inclusive educationJournal Articles
ADPS: A prescreening tool for students with dyslexia in learning traditional ChineseJournal Articles
Advertising a school’s merits in Hong Kong: Weighing academic performance against students whole-person developmentJournal Articles
The effects of generative AI on initial language teacher education: The perceptions of teacher educatorsJournal Articles