Stepping into writing mystery: What are the Chinese writing difficulties of the South Asian ethnic minority students in Hong Kong?

Abstract

Chinese language, with its heightened status in Hong Kong, holds a key for South Asians with low socio-economic status to obtain upward mobility (Shum et al., 2011). However, South Asian ethnic minority students as a disadvantaged group of second language learners, lack efficient pedagogical support in Chinese language learning in Hong Kong. The study aims to understand the Chinese writing difficulties of these students in order to prepare them for targeted pedagogic interventions for better Chinese language acquisition. Based on the students’ pre-tests and interview data, genre-based “Reading to Learn, Learning to Write” (R2L) assessment criteria were used to evaluate and identify the deficiencies in the students’ writings. The finding lays a solid foundation for teaching that would be specific to the needs of language learning of South Asian ethnic minority students in Hong Kong.