Resumen de An investigation of the language difficulties experienced by Hong Kong secondary school students in English‐medium schools: I the problems
Vivienne W.S. Yu, Paul Atkinson
The predominance of English‐medium secondary schools in Hong Kong has been under considerable criticism by educationalists who argue that the students cannot learn effectively in a foreign medium. The present study investigates this problem by examining the linguistic competence of secondary school students in English immersion courses.
The English and Chinese compositions on the same topic written by 124 Form 4 Hong Kong students in three different groups were assessed by two independent markers, and analysed linguistically. The results show that a significantly greater number of pupils in all three groups did better in Chinese than in English composition writing. Moreover, the majority performed below average in English composition writing while most pupils obtained average grades in Chinese composition writing.
Case studies and error analysis of the pupils’ compositions reveal that many pupils lacked communicative competence when writing in English. Hence in addition to problems in composition writing, pupils would also find it difficult to argue, discuss or explain competently when writing essays in other subjects. The study therefore supports the argument that the English‐medium education in Hong Kong is ineffective for the majority of pupils.
