1. Introduction
In 1985, Braj Kachru put forward the famous “Three Concentric Circles” framework to explain the spread and usage of global English. The inner circle includes the country where people speak English as native language. Then, the outer circle refers to the society which English is treated as a second language while the extending circle indicates the nation which English has the status of foreign language. (Bolton, 2000, p.266) Due to the colonization, English has maintained and gained official status in Hong Kong. Based on the theory, Hong Kong should be categorized into the outer circle. However, English is mainly adopted in international communication rather than in personal domains. (Groves, 2009, p.57) In this view, Hong Kong also has the trait of extending circle. Furthermore, Hong Kong has gone through a transition from British colony to a Special Administrative Region of China. The dramatic change of social politics called for a great change of linguistic situation.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the local sociolinguistic environment and discuss the extent of multilingualism in Hong Kong. The paper is mainly divided into five sections. The first section is a brief introduction of the article. The following part goes to define multilingualism by using Singapore as an example. Then, the third section is the analysis of the language use in Hong Kong at individual level. Several dimensions of linguistic situation of Hong Kong are considered. The use of language in the perspective of social society will be discussed in section four. The last part is to summarize the previous argument and provide some reflections on the issues.
2. Definition of Multilingualism
Multilingualism is a very common phenomenon all...
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Hong Kong has always remained a very unique city, one which is said to have ‘a Western past, an Eastern future’. Since its colonisation by the British in the 1860s, it has maintained to a very large extent its Chinese identity and its connection to its Motherland, while at the same time, has frequent contact with the Western world, politically, economically, and culturally. Hong Kong’s unique position has made the city a vibrant international metropolis that acts as a bridge between East and West. Yet after it was returned to China in 1997, this former British colony has been constantly reassessing its British past, struggling to find its new position and redefining its identity.
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Singapore’s education journey can be divided into three broad phases namely the Survival-Driven Education (1959 – 1978), Efficiency-Driven Education (1979 -1996) and the Ability-Based, Aspiration-Driven Education which Singapore has adopted since late 1990s. The education policies have evolved to address the context of the country’s stage of development and the challenges it faces at each point. More recently, we are transiting into a knowledge-based economy to face external challenges such as market volatility, increasing globalisation and rapid technological advancement. As Singapore does not have its own natural resources, it is a necessity to develop the people to their fullest to survive. And as the future becomes more volatile with rapid
The Concentric Circles Model proposed by Kachru is a method encapsulating the “types of spread, the patterns of acquisition and the functional domains in which English is used across cultures” (Kachru, 1992: 356). On the basis of these three characteristics, the scholar divided countries into three groups: The Inner, The Outer and The Expanding Circles. The Inner Circle refers to countries traditionally regarded as the bases of English, that is, nations where English is the mother tongue of a substantial part of the popula...
The largest educational system is in china there is a law that makes it mandatory that all Chinese students have nine year of education experience this law was passed in 1986. The importance of having an education is the key to success to be comfortable and abl...
The increased concern with different languages was obviously related to the World War but also to the major shift in the quantity of immigrants to America. For centuries, the United States of America has been considered the ultimate country where dreams are made and a place where everyone wants to migrate to for better living standards. It is argued that dialectally diverse nations need a standard language to permit mutual understanding and in a global society, for instance, it is the whole world that can benefit from a national language. French as well as Latin once took on this role as an international medium of communication and in this era, as well as the future years, English is and should be the global voice.
The demand for international school in Hong Kong is increasing in the recent years. According to the annual questionnaire survey done by the Education Department, the total number of students in international schools increases 83.2 % from 1610 to 2950 within four years (1997/98 - 2001/02). Moreover, the total number of local students attending those schools also increases 63.2% from 6.8% to 11.1%. (Detail of statistics can be found in appendix P. 12) We can see that, local parents have a high value on their children's entry into international schools. In this essay, I am going to explain some reasons for the lure of international schools in Hong Kong. Firstly, I will discuss their packaging and images by exploring the web pages of some international schools in Hong Kong. Secondly, I will compare these schools with local schools in order to find out the reasons why these packaging are so attractive in Hong Kong context. Finally, I will also interview with a previous international student and his parents to find out their points of view on this issue.
In recent years, Hong Kong education system has undergone a great change. In the past, students studied five-year junior secondary education, two-year senior secondary education and three-year tertiary education. Since school year 2009/10, secondary and tertiary education composed of three-year junior secondary education, three-year senior education and four-year tertiary education (3-3-4 Scheme). Apart from the academic structure of education system, new compulsory subjects like Liberal Studies was also introduced to facilitate independent thinking of students. The examples given above showed that the HKSAR government is working hard to change the education system from similar to the British system, to similar to the Chinese system. Given that Hong Kong’s education system changes from time to time, how will the sociologists see from these changes? The following essay is going to discuss the education system of Hong Kong based on the following three sociological perspective: the structural-functional approach, the social-conflict approach and the symbolic-interaction approach.
For decades, the education system in Hong Kong has been burdening, obstinate and exam-oriented. Despite having undergone several reforms, the education system still fails to cater for the needs of different students and achieve the genuine purpose of education. If I were given the chance to change the education system in Hong Kong, I would resize the curricula, deprioritise examinations, promote life-long learning, accept divergence and expand the capacity of tertiary education.
Secondly, studying overseas would help to increase the maturity of the participants. On account of students would receive less resistances like from their families when living in Hong Kong, they have to finish tasks like housework and buying clothes by themselves, this thus enhances their self-reliance. Also, according to the survey conducted to studying abroad’s participants by Dwyer, the overwhelming majority of respondents (97%) agreed that they have become more mature and independent. As most of the students have less opportunities to learn to be independent in Hong K...
English spreads widely in each countries, no matter the area of region or information transfer, English becomes an important position in global language. As the specification of a global language, it essentially refers to a language that learned and spoken internationally, so English can be the most out-standing. According to the number of English-speaking calculations, English is the official language used by most countries, English is the most widely used second language in the world, and the percentage of web pages with English content is estimated to be over 50% (Crystal, 2003). Meanwhile, the history and usefulness cause English to be a global language, and they mainly influence to spread English faster in China and to bring convenience
The spread of English where it used as a foreign and/or a second language may be compromised if it is replaced by another language such as Chinese or Spanish. For example, if China continues to gradually dominate the world economically, politically and technologically, its language could replace English as the major foreign language taught and learnt in various countries’ education systems because they b...
In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.