The contributions of six important reading-related skills (phonological awareness, rapid naming, orthographic skills, morphological awareness, listening comprehension, and syntactic skills) to Chinese word and text reading were examined among 290 Chinese first graders in Hong Kong. Rapid naming, but not phonological awareness, was a significant predictor of Chinese word reading and writing to dictation (i.e., spelling) in the context of orthographic skills and morphological awareness. Commonality analyses suggested that orthographic skills and morphological awareness each contributed significant amount of unique variance to Chinese word reading and spelling. Syntactic skills accounted for significant amount of unique variance in reading comprehension at both sentence and passage levels after controlling for the effects of word reading and the other skills, but listening comprehension did not. A model on the interrelationships among the reading-related skills and Chinese reading at both word and text levels was proposed.
[Copyright of Scientific Studies of Reading is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2010.482149]

The medium of instruction (MOI) and its impact on improving the language proficiency of students has become a debated issue worldwide. The policy-makers of post-colonial Hong Kong believed that the general Chinese competency, Chinese writing and Putonghua proficiency of students would be improved through the use of a Putonghua-medium-of-instruction (PMI) rather than the Cantonese medium, the mother tongue of students and teachers. Therefore, using Putonghua to teach the Chinese language has been promulgated as a long-term goal by the Curriculum Development Council. Early studies have placed an emphasis on using standardized tests to assess students' learning outcomes with the use of PMI, but unfortunately the findings have been inconclusive. Despite teachers' involvement in implementing the MOI policy, there is a dearth of studies examining the perspective of teachers regarding the language learning of students under PMI. This paper aims to explore this important issue in greater depth through a case study of a high school, which has implemented PMI to teach the Chinese language for 10 years. The findings indicate that there are mismatches between the stated educational policy intentions and the language learning of students in various aspects. Further studies and follow-up measures on the language policy and education are suggested.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2011.573076]

As in many parts of Asia, the learning of English is highly valued by parents in Hong Kong as it is regarded as a path to upward social mobility. Children in Hong Kong who speak Chinese as a first language typically begin to learn English when they start kindergarten at age 3. This study investigated the teaching and learning of English in Hong Kong kindergartens through two interrelated studies. The objective of Study 1 was to examine the patterns of English language teaching in different kindergartens. On the basis of the findings of Study 1, three kindergarten teachers were selected for a multiple case study in Study 2 to gain a deeper understanding of their English teaching practices and their students' engagement in the learning of English. About 38 % (n=256) of the kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-nurseries in Hong Kong were surveyed in Study 1. The results from the survey indicated that (i) the teaching of English to 5-year-olds was widespread and there were many cases of teaching of English to 3-year-olds; (ii) the English instruction time was relatively limited; (iii) English as a specific subject was taught by "specialist" English teachers with varying academic and professional backgrounds; (iv) in schools that allocated relatively less time for English instruction, teachers did not usually have professional qualifications to teach preschool children and/or English; (v) there were varying degrees of collaboration between "specialist" English teachers and local non-English speaking teachers; (vi) a wide variety of teaching materials and pedagogies were deployed; (vii) written homework assignments to improve children's English were common; and (viii) teachers exerted efforts to create a bilingual (Chinese – English) environment at school. Study 2 was a multiple case study in which three teachers - one with a professional qualification in early childhood education, one with professional qualifications to teach English as a Second Language, and one untrained