Classroom Language Use in Hong Kong's Reformed English-Medium Stream

Abstract

During the last two decades of colonial rule, a wide gulf existed between policy and practice in Hong Kong's English-medium secondary schools: while English was the medium of textbooks, assignments and examinations, Cantonese and Cantonese Á English mixed code were the dominant media of classroom communication.Although mixed-mode instruction was defended in some quarters, during the 1990s it was regarded in government circles as the main cause of unsatisfactory English standards. To eliminate mixed-mode instruction, and thereby ensure the consistent use of English or Chinese as teaching media, the postcolonial government introduced a controversial language policy in 1998 which permitted only 112 schools to remain English-medium, while most schools were forced to switch their medium of instruction from English to Chinese. This paper presents the findings of an investigation which aimed to gauge the extent to which the new policy has been translated into classroom practice in the 'reformed' English-medium stream. The findings indicate that teachers and students make greater use of English in the classroom than their counterparts during the era of 'mass' English-medium education, although, as might be expected, the language-learning experience provided in the 'reformed' English-medium stream generally falls short of the full immersion programme envisaged by policy makers.

Coping with English as Language of Instruction in Higher Education in Rwanda

“…The most common strategies relate to the use of different languages at their disposal to negotiate meaning and construct knowledge, peer support systems, extensive reading, lecture attendance, completing assigned work and memorization. Findings in this study corroborate earlier findings as regards meeting and adjusting to challenges posed by English as the language of instruction, especially in contexts where it is used as a foreign language (Björkman 2011;Evans andMorrisson 2010, 2011;Ljsland 2010;Praxton 2009;Van der Walt and Dornbrack 2011). However, the informal, but well structured, student initiated peer mentoring system seems to be a Rwandan construct probably developed to overcome learning problems emanating from the persistent request to learn in foreign languages.…”

“…Similarly, learners engage in collaborative construction of knowledge through more animated classroom interactions. In his earlier research about classroom language use in Hong Kong's reformed English medium streams, Evans (2008) observes that the use of students' mother tongue to explain lesson content was a necessary, inevitable and understandable strategy in order to ensure complete understanding. On the African continent, Setati, Adler, Reed and Bapoo (2002) note that switching to a language that learners and teachers understand better assists them in the understanding of concepts and communication of ideas.…”

“…As a response to challenges posed by the use of the English medium in higher education, considerable research has been undertaken to investigate how students meet and adjust to such challenges (Andrada 2006;Evans andMorrison 2011, 2010;Praxton 2009;Ramsey 1999;Van der Walt and Dornbrack 2011). Although some of the studies investigate foreign students trying to adjust to the demands of English as a medium of instruction in main Anglophone countries such as the US and Australia (Andrada 2006(Andrada , 2009Jones and Baker 2007;Ramsey 1999;Ramsey, Raven and Hall 2005), their findings seem to be in line with those studies carried out in less English speaking contexts (Björkman 2011;Evans andMorrisson 2010, 2011;Ljsland 2010;Praxton 2009;Van der Walt and Dornbrack 2011).…”

Student challenges and learning strategies at Hong Kong EMI universities

“…The questionnaire survey was adapted from existing scales, thus the validity and reliability of which have been statistically confirmed in previous studies in students’ perceptions and strategies of EMI learning [ 55 – 57 ]. It covers 149 items in total, with 7 questions related to demographic information, 142 items related to self-assessments of one’s situation (e.g., experience with EMI education prior to university, the degree of English usage in current science classrooms, English use inside and outside of university, and the medium of instruction interactions in the science classroom) and perceptions of major content-subject learning (e.g., degree of English difficulties in speaking/writing activities, English challenges in learning science, the importance of English in the study of science, the frequency and usefulness of strategy use related to the study of science, etc.).…”

At the Crossroads of TESOL and English Medium Instruction

“…Scholars who view it as a pedagogically valuable means of drawing on the affordances of multilingualism sometimes prefer to avoid the negative connotations by using alternative terms: translanguaging (e.g., García & Wei, ; codemeshing (Canagarajah, ), mixed‐mode instruction (e.g., Evans, ). Regardless of how it is evaluated, such use is well documented in English‐medium settings (e.g., Evans, ; Shaw et al., this issue). Macaro (, p. 19) offers an example: “a teacher's explanations of concepts (including terminology) may be in English, whereas all lesson management might be in L1 [first language]” (this scenario has also been studied by Malmström, Mežek, Pecorari, Shaw, & Irvine, ).…”