Exploring how local English as a Second Language secondary students aware of the existing localized Hong Kong accent of English, the author finds that an extremely high proportion of students prefer the speaker who use Received Pronounciation.

As native English teachers have been employed in secondary schools since 1997 and they are remunerated with a more attractive package than that given to local teachers, the author argues that this will cause inequalities between the local teachers and the expatriates, but then students are provided with equal access to symbolic linguistic and cultural capital.