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English or languish
Probing the ramifications of Hong Kong's language policy

Quality Assessment
Section Two
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HONG KONG ENGLISH
An over-touted subject area

Introduction

Although the English language ranks number one in quantity, in terms of quality both English language and literature rank far inferior. In general the quality of a Hong Kong child's English language education depends not on the ability of his or her teacher to teach English, rather on that teacher's overall level of education. English language literature ranks at the very bottom of teacher and student interest, as there is no subject area exhibiting fewer teachers. Even those who teach English language literature are not well-qualified. In contrast Chinese language and literature teachers are better qualified in their respective subject areas, and Chinese literature teachers are far more numerous.

Section Index
Discussion and Explanation

Learning English as a foreign language

Having obtained a rough, but probably accurate overview of Hong Kong's academic priorities, let us now take a closer look at Hong Kong's language education in general.

It would be surprising to learn, for example, that most Hong Kongers learn English in the same way that they learn Cantonese -- their mother tongue. As few Hong Kongers are native English speakers, and those that have studied English abroad represent only a small fraction of the entire population, most Hong Kongers probably learn English in
much the same way they learn other academic subjects -- in a classroom with many children and a teacher who provides instruction, assigns homework, evaluates performance, and hopefully creates a learning environment that inspires intellectual and social development. In other words, it would be an important mistake to consider the subject area English language in the same way one considers the Chinese language, even though they stand together as two of Hong Kong's Big Three,

By way of further illustration consider the students of a Chinese language classes. Not only do they have a working spoken knowledge of at least one Chinese language before they enter class, but they also have all of Hong Kong society and China's neighboring provinces to reinforce outside of the classroom what they learn inside it. This external potential for reinforcement simply does not exist with regard to the English language. In 2001 there were fewer than 20,000 British speakers of English in all of Hong Kong -- no more than 0.3% of the total population. Though advertised by Hong Kong's Education and Manpower Bureau, English language industry, and business and academic communities as a second language, for most Hong Kong children learning English must be far more akin to learning a distant foreign language than another spoken language in one's own homeland. (index)

1st, but 14th
The bottoms of both graph 6 and table 6 illustrate the high priority that the Hong Kong school system places on English language instruction. No other subject area in Hong Kong's entire secondary system of education employs as many teachers! With such a strong emphasis on English language training, one must then wonder why the quality of those who provide English language instruction is so abysmally low.

Graph 2 ranks all subject areas according to the proportion of teachers with degree training in their principal subject taught. In addition the proportion of teachers with degree training, but not in their principal subject area of instruction, is also shown. Subject areas are listed in descending order according to the proportion of teachers with degree training in their principal subject area. Coursework that focuses on language training per se are highlighted with special coloring.

With less than half of all English language teachers completing degree course work in their principal subject, the English language ranks only 14th in terms of quality among Hong Kong's 30 principal subject areas (see table 2).
Those who teach English language do appear to have reached an overall higher level of education than those who teach the Chinese language. This latter observation is substantiated by the larger number of teachers holding degrees not necessarily related to their principal subject taught. This arrangement suggests that in the past it was enough to have received an advanced degree to become a qualified teacher of English, but more was required to qualify for teaching Chinese1. In so far as holding an advanced degree in Hong Kong probably means that you have spent four additional years reading college textbooks written in English, one might say that you are better qualified2. What this has to do with your ability to teach the English language, however, is unclear. Just because you can read better does not mean that you can teach children how to speak and write. In consideration of the extra-school enhancement opportunities generally available to students of Chinese, but not to those of English, this arrangement is all the more curious. (index)

English and Chinese language and literature: A quick comparison
A closer examination of the relationship between the English and Chinese languages and their respective literatures provides even greater insight into Hong Kong's language educational priorities. The information contained in graph 3 and table 3 was taken from table 2. In particular graph 3 examines the relative importance assigned to Chinese and English language and literature based on the certified quality of teachers claiming one of these subject areas as their principal subject taught. With regard to both language and literature, teachers of Chinese language or literature are better qualified in their respective areas. With special regard only to literature the qualification gap is even more pronounced; not only are those who teach Chinese literature nearly three times better qualified in their subject area, but they also enjoy an overall higher level of education. In fact, along the entire spectrum of Hong Kong secondary school subject areas the teachers of Chinese literature are the best qualified in their subject area and rank number three in overall education (see top of table 2). Moreover, there are more than six times as many teachers teaching Chinese language literature as there are teachers teaching English language literature (see table 6). In fact, the number of those teaching Chinese literature ranks on par with other College bound subject areas. If one were to rearrange the column pairs of graph 3 in descending order of training in subject area taught, Chinese literature would rank number one, and English literature would rank second from the bottom just above business English. With regard to the 30 principal subject areas constituting Hong Kong's secondary educational system English language literature ranks number 22 in terms of subject area quality (see bottom of table 2)  and number 30 at the bottom in terms of teacher number (see top of table 6). Even business English, a subject area of exceptional importance in a top ranked East Asian trade and finance center, ranks only second from the bottom (just under English literature at the top of table 6) and number 27 and 26, respectively, in terms of subject area trained teachers and overall teacher certification (see table 2).

Those who claim that the private sector does better might like to consider graph 5 and table 5. In both of these figures teacher quality is ranked according to the percentage of teachers with no subject training in their respective subject areas including Chinese language, English language, Chinese literature, English literature, and Business English. Only in business English does the private sector outperform the public sector in terms of teacher quality. In so far as private schools are probably more in tune with the needs of private business, this is probably not surprising. Noteworthy, however, is the general pattern
that permeates the whole of Hong Kong secondary education with regard to language and literature. Might it not also be worth noting en passage that no language other than Chinese and English are taught as principal subjects at the secondary level. This same observation must also hold for the primary level. The social, political, and economic ramifications of these general patterns are discussed in the next section.



1The current government strategy is to raise the level of teacher certification for Hong Kong's English language teachers. Such a strategy will surely lead to an incremental improvement in the overall quality of Hong Kong English. It cannot solve the larger, more important problems addressed by the HKLNA-Project. (text)

2Recent results from the CEPAS examination suggest that among Hong Kong university students with the best English language skills there is a significant gap between active and passive language ability. Whereas a medium to high proficiency in passive reading skills is exhibited among most students, there exists between a half and full point gap between students' passive reading and listening skills and their active speech and writing skills. This gap increases with the institution's reputation for quality research. See figures 17 and 18 in Appendix 1 of Understanding the nature, cause, magnitude, and direction of English language attrition in Hong Kong Society: Measurement and assessment. [online document] <http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/earth/current/hklna/documents/proposals/030828-1a.pdf> (17 November 2003). This document is a 109 page research proposal submitted to and rejected by the Hong Kong government with the reason that supporting science that could appear to undermine current government policy would not be entertained. Source: Telephone conversation in September 2003 with Chris Wardlaw, Deputy Secretary for Curriculum Quality and  Assurance, Education and Manpower Bureau. (text)

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