CALPIU are proud to welcome two visitors from the Research Centre into Language Education and Acquisition in Multilingual Societies (RCLEAMS), Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Andy Kirkpatrick

This paper will focus on the major issues confronting language policy makers in East and Souteast Asian settings associated with the teaching and learning of different languages fordifferent needs. Typically these include the need for English as the international lingua franca and language of modernization, a local lingua franca as the national language for national unity, and local languages as languages of identity and community. Choices faced by policy makers include which languages to use as media of instruction and when, and how to ensure that the languages complement each other rather than compete with each other. Particular focus will be placed on the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where English has recently been enshrined as the sole working language of the group. In face of the almost universal introduction of English into the early primary school curriculum – often as a medium of instruction – it will be argued that it is essential to ensure children become literate in their first language before they are asked to study in English. A consideration of the continuing use of local languages given the domain spread of English and regional lingua francas, including the increasingly important Putonghua, concludes the paper.

David C. S. Li

In this seminar, I will first outline the macrolinguistic situation in postcolonial Hong Kong, assessing the relative significance and vitality of Cantonese, English and Putonghua, before discussing the main problems of the learning of Cantonese and Putonghua as an additional language in this self-proclaimed “Asia’s World City”.

Being a metropolis of about 1,100 square kilometers, Hong Kong is home to over seven million people, making it one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The population is largely homogeneous, with about 95 per cent being ethnic Chinese, of which over 90 per cent speak Cantonese as their usual language. English is an important language in this former British colony, both for historical reasons and for the prestige and value (symbolic as much as instrumental) it has attracted after becoming the world’s de facto global lingua franca. Although English is taught from kindergarten till the end of postsecondary education, relatively few Chinese Hongkongers manage to learn English up to a high proficiency level.

With Hong Kong gradually evolving into a knowledge-based economy, English figures prominently in the SAR government’s goal in its language-in-education policy – biliteracy and trilingualism – the ability to read and write English and Chinese, and the ability to understand and speak Cantonese, English and Putonghua (Mandarin). Well before the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China in 1997, despite huge expenses devoted to improving the quality of the teaching and learning of English, the learning outcomes are far from satisfactory. Two main factors contribute to this disappointing state of affairs: linguistically, tremendous typological differences between the two languages at practically all linguistic levels; and sociolinguistically, a lack of a conducive environment for using English largely because Hong Kong Chinese are under great inhibition not to use English entirely for intraethnic communication (unlike Chinese Singaporeans in this regard).

As for the learning and use of Cantonese as an additional language, research to date shows that many non-Chinese people in Hong Kong, visitors or residents alike, do have an interest in learning Cantonese, but for both linguistic and sociolinguistic reasons, they tend to find it difficult to extend their classroom input to actual social interaction with native speakers of Cantonese. Linguistically, it was found that the quality of teaching was generally poor, while the romanized writing system (or script) for representing Cantonese words (‘morpho-syllables’ to be more exact) has little reality outside the classroom. In terms of language choice, when spoken to in Cantonese, Cantonese-speakers tend to respond in English or switch to English after a few unsuccessful attempts at using Cantonese to get their meanings across.

What about Putonghua or Mandarin, the national language of the People's Republic and the lingua franca in Greater China in general? More and more people in Hong Kong are learning Putonghua largely out of instrumental motivation. Knowledge of Putonghua is increasingly perceived as a useful if not an indispensable asset for job seekers as a result of ever-closer links in trading, commerce and tourism between the SARs, Hong Kong and Macao, and mainland China. In the education domain, there is also increasing pressure to use Putonghua as the medium of instruction, but there are serious doubts at present regarding the feasibility of such a policy. The absence of a Putonghua-speaking environment in society and inadequate support at home are two major concerns, but a lack of qualified teachers of Putonghua is an even greater worry.

Non-Chinese people in Hong Kong, be they residents or visitors, may be inconvenienced by not being able to speak Cantonese, but they could somehow manage to get their meaning across if they could converse in English. This is because most Hongkongers are able to understand and speak at least some English – thanks to the compulsory education policy (to Secondary Three or Grade 9, age 15). Every year there are thousands of non-Chinese students and academics coming to Hong Kong on short-term visits, typically up to 12 months. Relatively little is known about these transnational visitors’ readiness to learn Chinese (Cantonese or Putonghua). The presentation will end with a brief description of a CALPIU-inspired project promoting the use of Cantonese and/or Putonghua as regional languages of internationalization between transnational students/academics and local people.

Li, David C. S. & Sherman Lee. (2004). Bilingualism in East Asia. In Tej K. Bhatia & Bill C. Ritchie (eds.), The Handbook of Bilingualism. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 742-779.

Li, David C.S. (2006). Chinese as a lingua franca in Greater China. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 26: 149-176.

Tinker Sachs, Gertrude and David C.S. Li. (2007). Cantonese as an additional language: Problems and prospects. Multilingua 26: 95-130.

Somewhat dated but informative of the Hong Kong language situation (with a focus on English) in early 1980s and late 1990s:

Luke, K.K. and Richards, Jack C. (1982). English in Hong Kong: Functions and status. English World-Wide 3(1):47-64.

Li, David C.S. (1999). The functions and status of English in Hong Kong: A post-1997 update. English World-Wide 20(1): 67-110. Reprinted in K. Bolton and Y. Han (eds.), Language and society in Hong Kong. Open University of Hong Kong Press. 194-240.