Challenges of Teaching Chinese in Multilingual Societies

Challenges of Teaching Chinese in Multilingual Societies: Hong Kong and Singapore

Chinese, English, Mathematics and Liberal Studies are the four main topics for all local high schools in Hong Kong. By then, students can receive free education from elementary to intermediate level 6. In 2012, university education will also change from three years to four years for most bachelor's degree programs. Regarding Secondary Education (MoI) in Hong Kong, Cantonese is commonly used in most elementary schools, although there are a few elementary schools using Mandarin or English as the MIA. In the secondary sector, currently only 114 secondary schools can use English as the MOI, although there are over four hundred secondary schools in Hong Kong.

Mol's "Chinese" topic has also been the subject of heated debate in Hong Kong since 1997. In the face of the growing political and economic importance of Putonghua and low birth rates, many elementary schools lineserved.com/11-class-computer-book-11th-computer-science-book-pdf/ have already used Putonghua as a prayer in Chinese as a measure to attract students to keep schools alive. In October 2007, when research showed that using Putonghua to learn Chinese could improve writing skills, the Hong Kong Standing Committee for the Study of Language Education lineserved.com/biology-book-class-11-fsc-part-1-pdf/ allocated a budget of HK $ 200 million to encourage schools to develop Putonghua as a Molu. Chinese language. The relationship between the subject of Chinese and Putonghua in the school curriculum will certainly be discussed over the next years. Obviously, that English is considered L2 in Hong Kong and this raises questions about the status of Putonghua. Auyang (1998) argues that Putonghua should be located between L1 and L2, as Chinese in Hong Kong read and write Modern Standard Chinese course lineserved.com/chemistry-book-class-11-chemistry-fsc-part-1/ and speak Cantonese.

From a pedagogical point of view, teachers are trained to apply the L1 methods in teaching the subject lineserved.com/fsc-1st-year-part-1-physics-book/ of the Chinese language, although its written form is Putonghua. However, for a Mandarin subject that only focuses on listening and speaking, most teachers are trained to apply L2 teaching strategies in their teaching (Ho 2005). Ultimately, if the subject of Putonghua is to be combined with the subject of Chinese, the role of the latter should be adjusted accordingly to L2. If this is a trend, then what should Chinese teachers be doing during this transition period? The Teaching of Putonghua and the Teaching of Chinese in Putonghua are two separate but related topics. The first is teaching L2 listening and speaking skills, while the latter is really the subject of learning Chinese. Ho (2002) notes that due to the rich linguistic experience in Putonghua, students studying Chinese in Putonghua will improve their competence in Putonghua, in particular their listening skills. However, if you apply Putonghua as a MIA to school subjects other than Chinese, you can also improve the Putonghua standard in students.

Since the nature of the two subjects, Chinese and Mandarin, is different, teachers of the two subjects must have two different sets of academic knowledge and professional skills. Moreover, a qualified Putonghua teacher may not be qualified to teach Chinese in Hong Kong. According to the Action Plan for Raising Language Standards in Hong Kong, published by SCOLAR in 2003, all new teachers of a Chinese subject must hold a Bachelor of Education (BEd) with a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese or a Bachelor of Arts (BA) plus a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), all majors in Chinese or equivalent. Those wishing to teach a Chinese subject in Putonghua must pass the "Language Use in the Classroom" test in the Putonghua Language Proficiency Assessment Test or achieve "Level 2 Second Level" in the State Test of the Putonghua Language Proficiency Test.


maxthomas

2 Blog posts

Comments