In this chapter, we attempt to capture experienced Chinese language teachers’ voices on the medium of instruction (MOI) issue as Putonghua is being promoted as an MOI for teaching Chinese in Hong Kong schools. The interpretative inquiry involved the collection of eight experienced Chinese teachers’ professional experiences with a focus on their attitudes concerning the potential shift towards the use of Putonghua as an MOI in Chinese classes. Through a collaborative interpretative process, the study revealed a wide spectrum of attitudes including reservations and enthusiasm for the possible switch to Putonghua as an MOI. We interpreted the participants’ attitudes with reference to shifting political, demographical conditions, the participants’ experiences of curriculum reforms and their concerns with pedagogical conditions.
[Copyright © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht]

Despite the fact that PMI is not the government policy, an increasing number of schools in Hong Kong have adopted different modes of using PMI in teaching Chinese Language since 1997. Such a trend has caused general concern because Putonghua (the standardized spoken form of Modern Chinese) is not the mother tongue of most teachers or students in the local community. The switch of medium in teaching the language subject may have profound impact on the cognitive development of students because most teachers and students will need to acquire another system of speech sounds and lexicon in handling the subject matter. Nevertheless, as the PMI trend prevails, language teachers are under "pressure" to adjust their teaching medium so as to meet the changing social expectation of equipping students with the standardized form of a world language. This paper reports the findings of a recent study of teachers' views of teaching Chinese through PMI in Hong Kong. Among the group of 20 serving teachers in a postgraduate course, some are proficient in Putonghua and some are not. Through a series of seminar presentation and discussion, these front line teachers revealed the current practices in different school contexts. Insights of these participants represent an "insider's" view of the issue and should inform the development of effective ways of reforming the teaching medium of Chinese in a complex social context.