Resumen de An investigation of the language difficulties experienced by Hong Kong secondary school students in English‐medium schools: II some causal factors

Vivienne W.S. Yu, Paul Atkinson

• There is considerable research evidence to prove that the English‐medium education in Hong Kong is ineffective for the majority of pupils, but hardly any research has been done on the factors that lead to this phenomenon. The present study is an attempt to examine some contributory factors.

  118 subjects responded to a questionnaire designed to investigate the subjects’ language, educational and social background as well as their opinions on the two languages and the medium of instruction. The responses indicated that several factors contributed to the ineffectiveness of the English‐medium education in Hong Kong: the pupils’ lack of exposure to English outside the classroom; the absence of the Hawthorne effect previously shown to have positive influence on new second‐language immersion programmes; and the possibility that the pupils suffer from ‘subtractive bilingualism”, which prevents them from learning the languages effectively.