As a multilingual society, three major languages co-exist in Hong Kong: Cantonese, English, and Putonghua. After the political transition to Chinese rule in 1997, the Hong Kong government adopted the Biliterate and Trilingual policy, which aims to make citizens of Hong Kong trilingual in Cantonese, English, and Putonghua and biliterate in Chinese and English. However, there are no clear government guidelines on which language should be used as the medium of instruction (MoI) for which subject in primary schools. In order to gain a clear picture of how trilingual education is being implemented in Hong Kong primary schools, a survey was carried out across 155 primary schools and detailed case studies were conducted in three of the surveyed schools to find out the extent to which the MoI policies instituted in each school facilitated students’ trilingual learning. The findings suggest that the principals’, teachers’, students’, and parents’ views towards the use of different MoIs vary, as do the ways trilingual education is implemented. It is hoped that this chapter will help readers to gain a better understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong primary schools, and of which methods of trilingual education best serve the interests of the students. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Peter Siemund and Jakob R. E. Leimgruber; individual chapters, the contributors.

This book focuses on Hong Kong as a multilingual society. It investigates how trilingual education is implemented in Hong Kong primary schools. Based on a large scale survey of 155 Hong Kong schools and in-depth case studies in 3 selected schools, the book gives an overview of trilingual education in Hong Kong primary schools, revealing the views on trilingual education of all stakeholders: school principals, panel chairs, subject teachers, students, and parents. The research findings presented in this book suggest that the implementation of trilingual education varies significantly from school to school, as does the effectiveness of the trilingual education models used. It shows how students’ views towards the use of different media of instruction (MoIs) also vary, and how their mother-tongue backgrounds affect their perceptions. By documenting views, policies and implementation methods, the book provides insight into the practice of trilingual education in Hong Kong and offers suggestions on potentially effective implementation methods. Copyright © 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

After the handover back to Mainland China in 1997, the Hong Kong government adopted a 'biliterate and trilingual' policy to help Hongkongers develop an ability to read and write Chinese and English, and to speak and understand Cantonese, English and Putonghua. However, there are no clear government guidelines on how and when the three languages should be introduced and taught in primary schools. Based on a survey of 155 Hong Kong primary schools, it was found that individual schools have adopted their own medium of instruction (MoI) policies, but these policies are decided by the school policymakers, without much consultation with the students and their parents. In this study, questionnaire surveys and interviews on students' and parents' perceptions of trilingual education were conducted in three case-study primary schools. The research findings suggest that students' and parents' views towards the use of different MoIs vary, which will be discussed in the paper in detail. Schools need to take these factors into consideration when developing MoI policies. Copyright © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

East and Southeast Asia represents a linguistically and culturally diverse region. For example, more than 700 languages are spoken in Indonesia alone. It is against this backdrop of diversity that the ten countries that comprise Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have recently signed the ASEAN Charter which, while calling for respect for the region's languages, cultures and religions also officially nominates English as ASEAN's working language. In this article, we examine the language education policies of the region and consider the implications of these policies for the maintenance of linguistic and cultural diversity on the one hand and the promotion of English and the respective national languages on the other. As ASEAN is closely connected to the three major countries of China, Japan and South Korea, as indicated by the 'ASEAN + 3' forum, we also include these countries here. We stress that, as space forbids an in-depth treatment of the language education policies of each of the 13 countries, we have chosen to describe and discuss in some depth the policies of 5 countries (China, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam), as these provide a cross-section of language policy contexts and approaches in the region. We add brief notes on the policies of the remaining countries.

Hong Kong is linguistically complex and diverse with three principal languages: Cantonese, English and Putonghua. A substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages has continued for more than two decades among policy-makers and educators. The political transition in 1997 has greatly affected Hong Kong society, including language education. Since then, the HKSAR government has made a series of language policy reforms trying to create a reasonable balance among the three languages in Hong Kong. The policies of ‘biliteracy and trilingualism’ and ‘mother-tongue teaching’ are two of the most significant in terms of controversy and impact. They are now guiding the curriculum design in Hong Kong language education. The goal of the former policy is to train Hong Kong people to be truly biliterate (written English and Chinese) and trilingual (spoken English, Cantonese and Putonghua). However, Hong Kong primary schools presently do not have an agreed method for the implementation of trilingual education. After a comprehensive historical review of the development of language education in Hong Kong schools, this study aims to find out how the ‘biliterate’ and ‘trilingual’ language policy is currently implemented in Hong Kong primary schools. 155 Hong Kong primary schools participated in a questionnaire survey on how trilingual education is implemented in the schools. The findings suggest that the implementation of trilingual education varied significantly from school to school, and the effectiveness of the trilingual education models varied as well. It is hoped that the findings will help us to gain a better understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong, and the study could lead to some insightful and theoretical contributions to multilingual education in general.
[Copyright © 2015 Wang and Kirkpatrick; licensee Springer.]

Since 1997, the 'biliterate and trilingual' policy has been adopted by the Hong Kong government, and is now guiding the curriculum design in Hong Kong primary schools. This language policy aims to ensure that Hong Kong students become biliterate (written English and Chinese) and trilingual (spoken English, Cantonese and Putonghua). However, Hong Kong primary schools currently do not have an agreed method for the implementation of trilingual education. As a preliminary step in the investigation of methods of the implementation of trilingual education in Hong Kong primary schools, we carried out a detailed case study of the trilingual education model adopted in a primary school. Views of key stakeholders (the principal, teachers, students and parents), on how successful the model is, were collected, and a number of lessons taught using English, Cantonese or Putonghua as the medium of instruction were recorded and analysed. On the basis of the research findings, a possible model for implementing trilingual education in Hong Kong primary schools has been suggested.
[Copyright of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2012.689479]