This paper reports the interim findings of a longitudinal study which aims at exploring the effectiveness of a 3-year English Enrichment Programme, on top of the regular English curriculum, in exposing secondary students to more subject-specific English while they learn their content subjects in the mother tongue. The study was carried out in response to the Hong Kong government's decision to firmly promote mother tongue teaching in her post-colonial era after 1997. To evaluate the effectiveness of this programme on students' learning of English, in-depth study with selected schools was done and different research tools including questionnaires, lesson observations, interviews and language proficiency tests were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. It is found that the increased exposure to English may have had a positive effect upon students' perception of learning English, if not on actual performance. A closer look at the cases, however sheds light upon the intricate interplay between factors leading to the different degrees of perception about the effectiveness of the programme. These factors include: the willingness of the school to pool resources and efforts in making the most of the programme, the language competence of students, and the teaching focus and methods in class. Recommendations on the way forward will be discussed.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

The switch of the teaching medium of junior secondary classes in Hong Kong from English (EMI) to Chinese (CMI) in 1998 has met strong opposition from parents for fear of possible decline in the learners' level of English proficiency due to reduction in exposure. To make up for this and to smoothen the transition from CMI to EMI in senior secondary level, a 3-year English Enrichment Programme (EEP) was piloted in selected schools starting 2001. An evaluation project assessing the effectiveness of the EEP was also launched in the same year. This paper reports the preliminary findings from the evaluation project on how well the students learnt in the EEP.
In the evaluation, emphasis has been given to analysing the extent to which three conditions necessary for optimal L2 learning were present in the students' learning process in the EEP. These conditions include comprehensible exposure and input, opportunities for L2 use with feedback, and motivation. The paper reports the process and findings of this evaluation. It was found that the three conditions did exist in the learning process, yet the quality of the provision of these conditions was doubtful. Recommendations will be offered on how the design and implementation of the EEP could be improved to ensure quality provision of the conditions so as to improve the effect of learning.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

Curriculum is not neutral. Curriculum as actuality is a representation of selected ideas, skills, values, norms and practices within society (Smith and Lovat, 2003). Moral and civic education is a key aim of the Hong Kong English Language Education Curriculum. To incorporate moral and civic education, a set of values and attitudes is proposed. The Hong Kong Extensive Reading Scheme is a reading program in the Hong Kong English education curriculum. Students participating in the Extensive Reading Scheme are recommended to read large quantities of books that are of their interests and within their linguistic competence. My research examines the extensive reading materials to demonstrate how the texts may contain hidden values and attitudes.
This paper is drawn from research in progress and it studies the extensive reading materials suggested by the Hong Kong curriculum from a critical discourse perspective. It aims to draw implications for raising the teachers' awareness of the cultural and political values inherent in the reading materials. In addition, this paper studies the Hong Kong English Language Education Curriculum. It proposes the need for having pedagogy that supports the critical approach of teaching English in the curriculum.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

Following initiations in educational reform that began in the 1990s, Hong Kong continues to experience considerable pressure for educational reform. On the surface many of these initiatives parallel reform policies/movements in Asia and indeed, globally. The success of any reform is dependent on how it is contextualised prior to and at implementation. In this article, an exploration is made into how reforms in four particular sareas, namely: professional development of principals, higher education, English language standards, and inclusion of students with learning difficulties have been conceived, contextualised and managed in Hong Kong, as it moves gradually toward increased adoption of education reforms. These areas are linked in that each describes and critiques contextualization with reference to areas such as accountability, co-operation and professional control.
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