The causes of shadow education in English language for secondary school students

Abstract

Private supplementary tutoring, which is also called shadow education, has become an indispensable component of the education system in Hong Kong owing to its popularity and incessant development in recent decades. Compared with the shadow education of other subjects, the participation rate in English tutoring among senior secondary students who need to face the public examination at the end of their secondary studies has been particularly high in the territory. Though researches on private supplementary tutoring has been conducted for decades, researches on the major causes that facilitates a myriad of students to receive English tutoring in Hong Kong are rather limited.

In light of this, this research aims to fill part of the research gap through focusing on the English tutoring of senior secondary students in large-scaled tutorial companies in Hong Kong. Qualitative research methods were adopted to figure out major causes, which facilitate those English tutees who are studying in band one schools to receive English tutoring. The research also displays how the perceived discrepancies between the English teaching in mainstream school and English tutoring from the perspective of students themselves has contributed to their participation of the tutoring, which would deserve further attention from educationalists and educational practitioners.