HK ‘needs a radical language overhaul’
(June 7, 2008 press release)
Hong Kong needs a “complete overhaul” of its language policy if it is to achieve its goal of dual literacy and trilingualism, a leading education expert told a public lecture last night.
Andy Kirkpatrick, head of the Hong Kong Institute of Education’s department of English, presented a radical schools model that would see Putonghua become the main language of instruction after Primary Three, a dramatic shift in the role of English and Cantonese being taught as a written language.
In his “One Country, Two Systems, Three languages” talk, Professor Kirkpatrick called for an end to the distinction between English and Chinese-medium schools, and instead for all schools to be seen as “multilingual sites”.
Speaking to Education Post ahead of the talk, he said the switch to Putonghua was “inevitable”, although he admitted there were not enough qualified teachers to make it possible immediately. When it happened, he said, Cantonese should be introduced as a subject to preserve its cultural importance.
However, his proposals have been dismissed by other figures in the education sector as impractical and “very unlikely” in the foreseeable future.
The Education Bureau is looking into ways to “fine-tune” the implementation of new rules governing which language secondary schools can use to teach, due to come into force in 2010.
Education Secretary Michael Suen Ming-yeung announced details of his “fine tuning”, giving schools flexibility to divide students by ability to remove the rigid distinction between English and Chinese-medium schools in place since the mother tongue policy was launched in 1998. The proposals are likely to mean an increase in the number of schools permitted to teach in English.
Speaking before the announcement, Professor Kirkpatrick said it was “good that the government is listening”, but he was not convinced. “The kind of fine-tuning that is being talked about at the moment does not seem to address the real issues,” he said. “The whole system needs a complete overhaul.”
The system was “geared towards gaining university entry” for less than a fifth of students, meaning it was skewed to an over-emphasis on English skills and the “completely false expectation” of all students reaching the standard of a native speaker.
Students should be set the more attainable goal of “functional trilingualism”, using each of the languages to the level they needed. However, he conceded such a move would be resisted by parents.
Cheung Man-kwong, president of the Professional Teachers’ Union, said it was unlikely the plan would be welcomed by teachers. “There is even resistance to the suggestion that Putonghua could be used to teach Chinese. It would be even harder to gain acceptance for using it to teach other subjects as well.”
University of Hong Kong assistant professor of education Cheung Kwok-wah, a member of the working group that set down the medium of instruction policy in 2005, said there was neither the political will nor demand for schools to switch to Putonghua. “Politically this is still very sensitive. It is very unlikely that this could happen in the short term.”
But Dr Cheung was most dismissive of the idea Cantonese could be taught as a written language. Although value could be seen in writing in the Cantonese vernacular, teachers frowned upon it.
“I think the majority of the Chinese teaching profession would have great difficulty accepting that.”
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