Controversies in Medium of Instruction Reform - The Experience of Hong Kong

The book is an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the case of language in education reform and language policy controversies of Hong Kong over the initial two decades after 1997. It is a scholarly monograph of conscientious educators and researchers who have been active during the education reform, collaborating with different parties on school development and classroom teaching experiments. This book provides a multiple-perspective investigation into the education and language matters. Besides socio-political perspectives, this book also emphasizes the frontline educational and practical perspectives. The book explores the benefits and effective methods of mother-tongue and multi-lingual teaching that have emerged in the period.  Based on the problematic experience of language purism and bifurcation in the reform, the book argues for an inclusive multilingual education policy with mother-tongue as the core. This book provides potential solutions and good practices to tackle the complex issues brought about by medium of instruction policy reforms in post-colonial times.

List of contents

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Languages used in HK.- Chapter 3: Medium-of-Instruction policy: historical background and the 1998 reform.- Chapter 4: Transitional issues in the implementation of new MOI policy.- Chapter 5: Collaborative support and facilitation of change in the reform.- Chapter 6: Interlanguage and subject-specific genres.- Chapter 7: Multiple-case study at the school level.- Chapter 8: Evidence of success of the MOI reform.- Chapter 9: Review and "fine-tuning" of the MOI reform policy.- Chapter 10: Conclusion.

About the author

Professor Shek Kam Tse was Associate Dean and Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Chinese Language Education and Research in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. For many years, he has provided a consultancy service to several organizations, including the Chinese Education Centre of the Netherlands Government, the Ministry of Education in Singapore, the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of the Macao Government and five international universities. He was bestowed the Eminent Scholars Award in 2018 by Singapore Centre for Chinese Language and the Dick Wolf Memorial Award by IEA in 2007. His research interests include the learning and teaching of Chinese as a first or second language, early childhood Chinese language education, bi-lingual reading and medium of instruction. He has published more than 70 books, 300 research articles and book chapters.

Dr. Wing Wah Ki was Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. He had been teaching in the Faculty for over 30 years before his retirement. He was the co-founder of the Dragonwise Chinese Learning System, TeleNex English Language Teachers' Network and the Chinese-as-Medium-of-Instruction Teacher Support Centre, and postgraduate and undergraduate programmes in Computer Studies and Liberal Studies of the Faculty. He has also been Chairman of Association for Computer Education of Hong Kong. His research publication and teacher development projects cover a wide range of areas, including ICT and education, phenomenography, critical pedagogy, variation theory of learning, second language acquisition, special education, and multicultural and multilingual education.

Dr. Mark Shiu Kee Shum is an Honorary Associate Professor in the University of Hong Kong where he has served for more than two decades. He was the Founding Head of Division of Chinese Language and Literature (2009-2015) in the University. He has also been an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Education in the University of Melbourne. His introduction of applying Systemic Functional Linguistics to researching Chinese language education is pioneer in Hong Kong. His research areas include Chinese language (in) education, subject-specific genres, text analysis, second language Chinese pedagogy etc. His major publications include The Functions of Language and the Teaching of Chinese, Teaching Writing in Chinese Speaking Areas, Integrating IB Philosophy and Pedagogy into Chinese Language Teaching, Appliable Linguistics in Chinese Speaking Regions: Language (in) Education in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, etc. 

Product details

• Authors: Wing Wa Ki, Wing Wah Ki, Mark Shiu Kee Shum, Shek Ka Tse, Shek Kam Tse
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 07.01.2022
• EAN: 9789811657832
• ISBN: 978-981-1657-83-2
• No. of pages: 324
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 23 mm x 235 mm
• Illustrations: XV, 324 p. 22 illus., 7 illus. in color.
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Education > Education system