In Hong Kong, three principal languages co-exist: Cantonese, English and Putonghua. For more than two decades, among policy-makers and educators, there has been a substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages. Since the political transition in 1997, the Hong Kong government has made a series of language policy reforms trying to create a reasonable balance among the three languages, and a “biliterate and trilingual” policy has been adopted, with the aim of enabling Hong Kong residents to become biliterate in written Chinese and English, and trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua and spoken English. The policy is now guiding the curriculum design in Hong Kong language education. However, currently, Hong Kong primary schools do not have an agreed approach or method for the implementation of trilingual education, and there is an urgent need to explore current successful or unsuccessful models. 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. A large scale questionnaire survey were carried out among Hong Kong primary school principals on how trilingual education was implemented in the schools. The findings suggest that, from school to school, the implementation of trilingual education varied significantly, and the effectiveness of the trilingual education models varied as well. It is hoped that this study 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.

Language in education debates in Hong Kong focus on the role and status of English (as the former colonial language and an important means for international communication); Cantonese, the mother tongue of the majority of the population; and Putonghua, the national language of China. I will examine language in education policy from an historical perspective, with particular emphasis on the period after the retrocession of Hong Kong in 1997. The questions I will address include: How have the role and status of each of the three language changed over time? What are the major influences on policy decisions? What do policy changes reveal about educational values and ideologies in Hong Kong? Who wins and who loses out?

香港是一個多元化的社會。2006年的人口統計，有超過34萬少數族裔人士。在少數族裔中，巴基斯坦、尼泊爾、印度尼西亞、菲律賓等人士，他們的孩子通常入讀本港的學校，與本地學生一樣享受12年免費教育。入讀公營學校的少數族裔學生，稱「非華語 (Non-Chinese speaking，簡稱NCS) 學生」。過去的教師培訓課程，從來沒有注意「非華語學生」這個板塊。任教中文科的老師，只接受過以中文為第一語言的教師培訓。香港教育學院在2009年1月首次推出「非華語學生」中文課程的教學與評估，為期8周。課程有三個必修單元，各佔30課時。本論文旨在介紹該教師培訓課程規劃的理念、設計、教學法和評估方式，與同行交流。
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回歸以來，香港的授課語言在社會上曾引起不少爭議，發展“兩文三語”的方案眾說紛紜，討論熱烈。對中國語文教育而言，爭議的焦點往往是語文科應否採用普通話為授課語言。為此，本文嘗試借鑒話語修辭的理論和分析經驗，通過分析兩位香港小學語文教師的課堂語言，對照粵語與普通話的教學話語差別，以期揭示其中的規律及特徵，加深對近年香港語文教學媒介何去何從的思考和認識。

香港中小學都以粵語作為中國語文科的教學語言。隨著九七回歸，部分語文教學專窕學者倡議改用普通話作為中國語文科教學語言。這種改變會給語文的學與教帶來深遠影響，因此，在這種想法付諸實踐以前，有必要進行研究，探討教學語言的改變所引起的問題。 本研究嘗試通過比較研究的方法，初步探討社會上實際的語言環境對語文科教學語言運用效果的影響。研究涉及香港和臺灣兩個地區，研究範圍包括語言運用調查和教學實錄分析。相關的資料分析可以幫助找出教學語言的改變所引致的問題，並以此作為思考配套支援措施的參考。 研究結果顯示，由於香港社會上普通話環境之不足，不能幫助教師和學生發展全面的普通話運用能力，假如在這種情況下改用普通話教授語文科，會影響到教與學的成效。因此，在改用普通話教授語文科以前，必須為教師提供恰當的普通話教學能力培訓，以保證合理的教學成效。