Teaching English as a subject in Hong Kong secondary schools (1970-1995) : a perspective on colonial language planning

Abstract

Language policy and planning (LPP) has evolved from the ‘classical’ study of formal authorities’ efforts to alter language structure and function, into a broader discipline that recognises the potentially oppressive nature of languages and the complexity of the power relationships between planning bodies and individual agents. The popular notion of a Centre-Periphery dichotomy has given rise to many investigations into the ‘dominance’ of English in colonial and post-colonial contexts, most prominently Phillipson’s Linguistic Imperialism (1992). A core tenet of Phillipson and many other ‘critical’ theorists’ work is that English Language Teaching (ELT) is in essence a mechanism that asserts and maintains the structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages. Having experienced more than 150 years of British colonial rule before being handed back to China in 1997, Hong Kong has understandably been of special interest among LPP practitioners. However, as far as education is concerned, the debate has mostly revolved around the issue of medium of instruction from the 1970s to the 2000s; little has been written about the teaching of English as a subject in schools and the LPP processes involved in syllabus development and implementation.

Following Tollefson, who sees the historical and structural pressures that lead to particular language policies as the object of study in LPP, this thesis seeks to reconstruct three key episodes in the period 1970 – 1995, pertaining to ELT at the secondary school level, through a close study of archival documents and supplemented by interviews with educational administrators and teachers of the time. The debates include which ELT ‘methods’ or ‘approaches’ would be most appropriate for Hong Kong; whether and how English curriculum and assessment should be reformed in the context of mass schooling to address diverse needs; and whether the English and Chinese language subjects should be merged into one to recognise and promote diglossia in Hong Kong. It is found that these LPP attempts, to a certain extent, were both produced and constrained by a single form of pressure, that is to say, a longstanding concern about declining language standards expressed not only among policymakers but also members of the public. This ‘historical-structural’ analysis of the development of secondary school ELT thus questions whether the narrative of English linguistic imperialism may be fairly applied to late colonial Hong Kong.