Over the past decade, the education systems in mainland China and Hong Kong have implemented major changes to language policy. In China, English has been introduced at Primary 3 level, while in Hong Kong the initial post-handover guidelines have been effectively reversed by the so-called “fine-tuning” of the language policy in 2009, which favours English as the Medium of Instruction. In both places, there is also huge parental demand in the Kindergarten sector for helping young children to learn English. This paper uses the triadic framework of Fagerlind and Saha (1995) that comprises political, socio-economic and educational perspectives, to understand the phenomenon of English in terms of its role and status in education in mainland China and Hong Kong, and to identify the implications of these language policies. It finds that, while the learning of English at a young age can benefit the children in preparing them for socio-economic advancement, there are issues of social equity, identity, resourcing and curriculum balance that need to be addressed. While the focus is on mainland China and Hong Kong, the findings are relevant to many education systems in the Asia Pacific region where English is a foreign language.

After the handover of Hong Kong to China, a first-ever policy of "bi-literacy and tri-lingualism" was put forward by the Special Administrative Region Government. Under the trilingual policy, Cantonese, the most dominant local language, equally shares the official status with Putonghua and English only in name but not in spirit, as neither the promotion nor the funding approaches on Cantonese match its legal status. This paper reviews the status of Cantonese in Hong Kong under this policy with respect to the levels of government, education and curriculum, considers the consequences of neglecting Cantonese in the school curriculum, and discusses the importance of large-scale surveys for language policymaking.
[Copyright © SpringerOpen].

If drama is to work as a technique for language education, it needs to work as drama, but in Hong Kong, the objectives of each lesson must be language objectives. This implies that we need intermediate objectives, process objectives, to make drama work for language education. This article examines two previous models of drama in language education, drawing imagination, aesthetics and emotion from them as process objectives. It is proposed that all three should be used in a single complex model. This study focuses on a course that presented this three-part model to student teachers, examining survey and interview data together with their essays for the course. Student teachers find the model to be usable in practice. Obstacles arise from the school system, however.
[Copyright © The Hong Kong Institute of Education].

The whole language approach is an important language theory in the West. In recent years, many kindergartens in Hong Kong have been implementing the whole language approach. To understand how this western educational concept is being implemented in the Chinese society, this research aims to investigate the current practices of teachers implementing the Whole Language Approach in Hong Kong. The study employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods with data collected through questionnaires and interviews. 138 questionnaires were sent to experienced teachers. A total of six teachers were interviewed, and they were all experienced. Findings indicate that most of the kindergarten teachers have the basic understanding of the whole language approach. However, it finds that many teachers cannot fully implement the meaning of the whole language approach in it entirely. Further training for teachers is needed.
[Copyright © Scientific Research Publishing, Inc.].

有很多非華語學生長期在香港居留。學好中文能使他們融入社會，認識香港。在香港中文課堂，教師多數使用粵語，書面語則用繁體字。教師要教導非華語學童學習中文實非易事。教師該如何幫助這些非華語學童學習中文呢？本文旨在提出一些「浸入式」教學策略：從「小氣候，大環境」中學習、善用生活化的單元、多樣化的活動、大量的圖書閱讀、強化互動中的隨機教學、"浸入式"的評估和教師語言的妙用，希望藉此有效幫助非華語學童學習中文。
[Copyright © 2012 南大-新加坡華文教研中心出版社.]