Research on Bilingual Education in Hong Kong
Research on Bilingual Education in Hong Kong
In this chapter, an overview of key empirical studies conducted on issues related to the medium of instruction in Hong Kong schools is presented. The overview follows a chronological order and covers key studies in four main periods: (1) from the 1970s to the early 1980s, (2) the 1980s, (3) the 1990s, and (4) the 2000s. Major research findings in the past three decades point to the general lack of prerequisites for the successful implementation of English-medium education in the majority of secondary schools in Hong Kong. The unfavourable conditions found in these allegedly English-medium schools include: (1) inadequate English skills of the students to benefit from studying in English, (2) lack of language support provided by the school to these students, (3) lack of professional development opportunities for both EMI content teachers and English language subject teachers, (4) lack of Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) co-ordination: little co-ordination among EMI content teachers themselves as well as between the EMI content teachers and English language subject teachers, and (5) unsuccessful design and implementation of the existing Bridging Courses (i.e. the Longman and Macmillan Bridging Courses). In the final section of this chapter, some future directions for research are outlined.
Keywords: Medium of instruction, English medium instruction (EMI), English-medium education, Bilingual education, Hong Kong
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