2. 1 Topic 7 – Language attitudes

3. 2 What is your language attitude? Which language do you think is the most beautiful? Which language do you like most? Which language do you think is the most valuable? If you were given a second chance, would you want to be a Cantonese/PTH/English speaker?

4. 3 Your language attitude Use the speech rating scale sheet provided, listen to three different speakers and rate them on 13 personality traits. How did you make the judgment?

5. 4 Language Attitude Test The test was conducted in 2001 with 1048 F.4 students from 28 different secondary schools The subjects were the first cohort of students under the mandatory mother tongue education policy

6. 5 ResultsResults (appendix) Solidarity – Cantonese highest; PTH lowest Competence – English highest, PTH lowest Personal attractiveness – English highest, PTH lowest Aggressiveness – English highest, Cantonese lowest

7. 6 Implications How do the results reflect on the roles of the three spoken languages in HK? What contributed to these attitude patterns?

8. 7 Topic 8: Medium of Instruction (MoI) Policy in HK

9. 8 History of EMI Education in Hong Kong  1935 - 42,000 EMI students  1958 - 54.9% (EMI); 45.1% (CMI)  1965 - 71% (EMI); 29% (CMI)  1970 - 76.7% (EMI); 23.3% (CMI)  1972 - Chinese Campaign; 1974 - Chinese became an official language  1985 - 90.5% (EMI); 9.5% (CMI)  Up till 1997 – 90.8% (EMI); 9.2% (CMI)

10. 9 Questions  How could EMI Education gain popularity so quickly over the past years?  Why did EMI education work well in the old days but not in the last 15 years?

11. 10 Questions to ask

12. 11 Llewellyn Report (1982)  It is a matter of whether to jeopardise the educational progress of the majority (and perhaps endanger the culture itself) in order to guarantee a sufficient number of competent English speakers; or to value the whole group (and in so doing conserve the culture) but accept the loss in capacity to deal with the international environment and hence a possible decline in the economic prosperity

13. 12 What policy to adopt?  Universal EMI  Universal CMI  Largely CMI / some EMI  Some CMI / Largely EMI School-based decision

14. 13 Stages of development in medium of instruction policy  1) 1974 - 1984 : laissez-faire  2) 1985 - 1997 : positive discrimination in favour of mother tongue instruction  3) After 1997 : compulsory Mother Tongue Education

15. 14 Why Mother Tongue Education Policy?  Mixed-code teaching is detrimental to language learning  Students under-performed both in languages and academic subjects under universal EMI education policy

16. 15 Why Mother Tongue Education Policy?  Compulsory education in 1976 - mass education done in a foreign language ended up in undesirable learning outcomes

17. 16 Why Mother Tongue Education Policy?  EMI education benefits only students whose English standard is above the threshold level

18. 17 Why Mother Tongue Education Policy?  Not all students need a high level of English for their later life

19. 18 Before the implementation of Mother Tongue Education Policy  EMI - 421 secondary schools (i.e.90.8%)  Reality - mixed-code  CMI schools rejected by parents

20. 19 The Mother Tongue Education Policy  Policy imposed in Sept. 1997  Starting from Sept 1998, all secondary schools became CMI by default  EMI status: special application required  124 secondary schools applied  100 schools succeeded  24 rejected

21. 20 The Mother Tongue Education Policy  20 schools appealed  14 won  114 EMI schools altogether

22. 21 Mother Tongue Education Policy  Biliterate & Trilingual Policy  Cantonese - the main medium of instruction  Putonghua - a core subject for both Primary and Secondary  English learnt as a subject except in 114 EMI schools  No mixed-code is allowed

23. 22 SCMP survey (1997)  1000 parents and students interviewed  Learning in Mother Tongue is more effective - 55%  English standard would further decline - 73%  Mother Tongue Education Policy would diminish students ’ competitiveness - 50%

24. 23 SCMP survey (1997)  Accept mixed-code teaching - 80%  People believe in the educational value of Mother Tongue Education. What they don ’ t believe in is that Chinese will have higher market values than English

25. 24 Criticism 1 : A divisive policy

26. 25 Criticism 2: Labeling effects

27. 26 Criticism 3: Schools should choose their own MOI

28. 27 Criticism 4: Mother Tongue Education should be universal

29. 28 Criticism 5: Putongua should be the MOI

30. 29 What is the best policy??  Current policy?  Universal mother tongue education for all schools?  Schools choose their own MOI?  One school, two systems?  Different languages for different subjects?