Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:25:31.123Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language attitudes of the first postcolonial generation in Hong Kong secondary schools

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2005

MEE-LING LAI
MEE-LING LAI
Affiliation:
English Department, Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10, Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, Hong Kong, mllai@ied.edu.hk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Following the return of sovereignty from Britain to China, Hong Kong has undergone significant sociopolitical and educational changes. This study is a quantitative investigation of the language attitudes of 1,048 secondary students from the first postcolonial generation brought up amid the significant changes after the political handover. The results show that the respondents feel the most integratively inclined to Cantonese (the vernacular variety), and they perceive English (the colonizers' language) as the language of the highest instrumental value and social status, while Putonghua (the language of the new ruler) is rated the lowest from both the integrative and the instrumental perspectives. Unlike what has been predicted by scholars, Putonghua has not yet taken the place of English as the language of power. Despite this, there are signs of a subtle transition toward an accommodating attitude to Putonghua, mainly induced by the growing instrumental value of the language for economic purposes.

Keywords

Language attitudespostcolonial Hong Kong
Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , July 2005 , pp. 363 - 388
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adamson, B., & Auyeung-Lai, W. (1997). Language and the curriculum in Hong Kong: Dilemmas of triglossia. In M. Bray andW. O.Lee (eds.), Education and political transition: Implications of Hong Kong's change of sovereignty, 87–100. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong.
Adamson, B., & Li, S. P. (1999). Primary and secondary schooling. In Mark Bray & Ramsey Koo (eds.), Education and society in Hong Kong and Macau: Comparative perspectives on continuity and change, 35–58. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong.
Axler, M.; Yang, Anson; & Stevens, T. (1998). Current language attitudes of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents and young adults. In M. C. Pennington (ed.), Language in Hong Kong at century's end, 391–418. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Bauer, R. S. (2000). Hong Kong Cantonese and the road ahead. In David C. S. Li et al. (eds.), Language and education in postcolonial Hong Kong, 35–58. Linguistic Society of Hong Kong.
Boyle, J. (2000). International attitudes to language and the study of global issues. In David C. S. Li et al. (eds.), Language and education in postcolonial Hong Kong, 59–80. Linguistic Society of Hong Kong.
Comrey, A. L., & Lee, H. B. (1992). A first course in factor analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Dornyei, Z. (2001). Researching L2 motivation in the 21st century. Plenary address to International Language in Education Conference, 2001 organized by Hong Kong Institute of Education.
Dornyei, Z., & Csizer, K. (2002). Some dynamics of language attitudes and motivation: Results of a longitudinal nationwide survey. Applied Linguistics 23:421–62.Google Scholar
Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, H. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Edwards, J. (1994). Multilingualism. New York: Routledge.CrossRef
Fishman, J. (1967). Bilingualism with and without diglossia. Journal of Social Issues 23:29–38.Google Scholar
Fitz-Gibbon, C. T., & Morris, L. L. (1987). How to analyze data. London: Sage.
Foddy, W. (1993). Constructing questions for interviews and questionnaires: Theory and practice in social research. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London & Baltimore: Edward Arnold.
Gardner, R. C. (2001). Integrative motivation and second language acquisition. In Z. Dornyei & R. Schmidt (eds.), Motivation and second language acquisition, 1–20. Honolulu: University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Gorsuch, R. L. (1983). Factor analysis. 2nd ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hong Kong Census, &Statistics Department ( 7/2002). Labour force, unemployment and underemployment. http://www.info.gov.hk/censtatd/eng/hkstat/fas/labour/ghs/labour1_index.html
HKSAR Government (1999). Hong Kong Annual Report 1999. http://www.info.gov.hk/hkar99/eng/22/22_02.htm
Hyland, K. (1997). Language attitudes at the handover: Communication and identity in 1997 Hong Kong. English World-wide 18:191–210.Google Scholar
Lai, M. L. (1999). The mother tongue education policy after the change of sovereignty: Tensions between the government, schools and parents in Hong Kong. In Selected Papers of the 12th World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA '99, Tokyo), August 6, CD-ROM Disc 3.
Lai, M. L. (2001). Hong Kong students' attitudes toward Cantonese, Putonghua and English after the change of sovereignty. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 22:112–33.Google Scholar
Lai, M. L. (2002). Language attitudes of the first postcolonial generation in Hong Kong secondary schools: Issues in gender, medium of instruction, social class and cultural identity. Ed.D. thesis, University of Durham (UK).
Lai, M. L. (2003). Cultural identity and language attitudes in postcolonial Hong Kong. Paper presented at the International conference in Language, Education and Diversity, University of Waikato, New Zealand.
Lau, S. K. (1997). Hongkongese or Chinese – The problem of identity on the eve of resumption of Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong. Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Li, D. C. S. (2000). Hong Kong parents' preference for English-medium education: Passive victims of imperialism or active agents of pragmatism? Plenary address at the Fifth English in Southeast Asia Conference, Perth, Australia.
Loomba, A. (1998). Colonialism/postcolonialism. London & New York: Routledge.
Lyczak, R.; Fu, G. S.; & Ho, A. (1976). Attitudes of Hong Kong bilinguals toward English and Chinese speakers. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology 7:425–36.Google Scholar
Mazrui, A. M. (2002). The English language in African education: Dependency and decolonization. In J. W. Tollefson (ed.), Language policies in education, 276–82. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Memmi, A. (1998 [1968]). The colonizer and the colonized. In Translation Department of Lingnan University (ed.), Decolonization and nationalism, 1–28. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Pennington, M. C., & Yue, F. (1993). Assessing pre-1997 language attitudes in Hong Kong. Research Report No. 28. Department of English, City Polytechnic of Hong Kong.
Pennington, M. C. (1998). Colonialism aftermath in Asia. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics 13:1–16.Google Scholar
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pierson, H. (1994a). Ethnolinguistic vitality during a period of decolonisation without independence: Perceived vitality in Hong Kong. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 108:43–61.Google Scholar
Pierson, H. (1994b). Cantonese, English, or Putonghua – unresolved communicative issue in Hong Kong's future. In G. A. Postiglione (ed.), Education and society in Hong Kong – toward one country and two systems, 168–83). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.
Pierson, H.; Fu, G. S.; & Lee, S. Y. (1980). An analysis of the relationship between language attitudes and English attainment of secondary school students in Hong Kong. Language Learning 30:289–316.Google Scholar
SCMP (2002). We have lost the can-do spirit. Hong Kong South China Morning Post, 11 July 2002.
Stapleton, C. D. (1997). Basic concept and procedures of confirmatory factor analysis. http://ericae.net/ft/tamu/Cfa.htm
Tsui, B. M.; Shum, S. K.; Wong, C. K.; Tse, S. K.; & Ki, W. W. (1999). Which agenda? Medium of instruction policy in post-1997 Hong Kong. Language, Culture and Curriculum 12:196–214.Google Scholar
Vines, S. (1998). Hong Kong: China's new colony. London: Aurum.
Wright, S. (2002). Language education and foreign relations in Vietnam. In J. W. Tollefson (ed.), Language policies in education, 225–44. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.