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Distance Language TeacherEducation: New challenges forHong KongLiying ChengPublished online: 19 Aug 2010.
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Open Learning, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2000
Distance Language Teacher Education:
new challenges for Hong Kong
LIYING CHENG
University of Alberta, Canada
ABSTRACT An urgent need for a relatively large number of quali® ed Putonghua language
teachers in Hong Kong has led the Open University of Hong Kong to establish a distance
education programme for in-service language teachers, most of whom are non-native
speakers. The programme designed by the university involves distance study coupled with
regular face-to-face tutorials, and is designed to enable the in-service teachers to apply their
learned knowledge directly in their daily teaching. The article explains how evaluation of
the ® rst presentation of the course in 1996 showed that the course alone could not fully
address the actual de® ciencies in the teachers’ Putonghua listening and speaking skills
while, additionally, there was also a need to restructure the teaching methodology compo-
nent of the course. The basis upon which these judgements were made is explained, and the
steps taken to strengthen the course to meet these perceived de® ciencies, while not adding to
the students’ workload, are outlined.
Language learning, which used to be considered too complex an undertaking for
distance education, has been making steady progress in recent years, especially in
the areas of open-access and self-access learning. One advantage of such an endeav-
our is the possibility for language learners to draw on resources available in the world
outside the classroom. Distance education permits learners to continue working, and
apart from the personal bene® ts arising from this, there is a signi® cant professional
advantage for the teacher± learners compared with face-to-face full-time teacher
education courses (Howard & McGrath, 1995, p. 5). This study discusses a distance
education programme for Putonghua [1] teachers within a special language context
in relation to the language benchmarks set for all teachers in Hong Kong. There is
an urgent need for quali ® ed Putonghua teachers in Hong Kong [2]. The Open
University of Hong Kong’ s distance education programme stands out because of its
¯ exibility and scale of training. The article also discusses the design of the course,
and feedback from its ® rst presentation as well as the ® nal examination results. As
this study shows, the Putonghua language pro® ciency of our teacher± learners
remains low mainly due to the limited period that Putonghua has been part of the
core school curriculum.
5
0268-0513/00/010005 ± 12 Ó 2000 The Open University
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6 L. Cheng
Language Learning and Teacher Education at a Distance
Language teacher education through distance learning offers challenges both for
language learning as well as for teacher education. McGrath (1995, p. 70), when
comparing the advantages and disadvantages of teacher education by distance and
face-to-face learning, asserts that a distance-only continuing education course is
more likely to be successful in promoting steady long-term change than a pro-
gramme with comparable content in a face-to-face mode. However, when it comes
to pre-service teacher education, McGrath argues for a mixed-mode programme as
the distance-only programmes lack the crucial dimension of classroom practice. I
would suggest that when it comes to in-service teacher education, such as the
language course within the current study (our course being mixed-mode with
regular tutorials), the above disadvantage is minimised, as in-service teachers are
actually teaching in the classroom at the time of their study. Their training through
distance learning can become a distinct advantage. On the one hand, they are able
to apply their knowledge directly into their classroom teaching. On the other, they
can study at their own pace without interrupting their normal teaching. Such
advantages in in-service teacher education, together with the time-scale, scale of the
training, and the ability of the teachers under training within the Hong Kong
context, provides a great opportunity for our distance Putonghua teacher education
programme in Hong Kong.
Another im portant point to be stressed here is that the stimulus to make languages
a part of distance education has come from policies driving literacy, language
education and further education (Lyman-Hager, 1995; Johnson, 1992, 1993/1994).
This is especially true within the Hong Kong educational context, where two
language policies provide considerable challenges and opportunities for distance
language education.
The Hong Kong Language Context
The ® rst such language policy is the Education Commission Report No. 6 (ECR6)
(Education Commission, 1995), which fully addresses the concerns expressed by the
government, business and commerce, and educational bodies about declining stan-
dards of language skills, and the need for high level language skills among the
workforce in Hong Kong as it moves from a manufacturing to a service industry
base. The policy aims at achieving the goal for secondary school graduates to be
pro® cient in writing English and Chinese, and able to communicate con® dently in
Cantonese, English and Putonghua (bi-literate and trilingual). Putonghua thus has,
for the ® rst time in Hong Kong education history, become part of the core
curriculum from the 1998 school year starting from Primary 1, Secondary 1 and
Secondary 4. The subject will be examined in the Hong Kong Certi® cate of
Education Examinations (HKCEE) by the year 2000. The HKCEE is the large-
scale secondary school leaving examination which plays a very important role for
students whether they seek employment or go on to tertiary education. Furthermore,
it was also stressed in the 1997 Policy Address by the Hong Kong Special Adminis-
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Distance Language Teacher Education 7
trative Region (SAR) Chief Executive that `con® dence and competence in the use of
Chinese and English are essential if we are to maintain our competitive edge in the
world’ (Hong Kong SAR Government, 1997). This policy highlights the urgent
need to train teachers in the three language competencies. Putonghua teacher
education is more pressing as it is a relatively new school subject.
The second in¯ uential policy followed by the ERC6 is the one that sets language
benchmarks for all teachers (English, Cantonese and Putonghua) by the year 2000.
The policy requires all new teachers to meet the benchmarks before they join the
profession in 2000, and in-service teachers to be retrained if they fail to meet the
benchmarks. All serving language teachers are required to meet the language
benchmarks by the year 2005. The setting of language benchmarks for teachers has
signi® cant implications for language education planning, assessment and evaluation.
Consequently, the Hong Kong teacher education institutions are facing an urgent
need to provide training for the existing in-service language teachers within the
limited time-scale and at a relatively fast rate, so that within 5 years of the
benchmarks being set, all teachers will be able to reach them. They are also being
exhorted by the government to pay more attention to `language awareness and
language skills issues’ (ECR6, C3).
Besides the pressing need for language teacher education under the two new
language policies, Putonghua teacher education is under other pressures. Even in
1991, only 52.7% (among 408 primary schools) offered Putonghua courses.
Putonghua was taught usually for 1 hour per week (He, 1994). According to a
survey carried out in 1996, 92% of teachers of Putonghua are non-native speakers,
and 99.1% of them teach part-time, of whom only 21.5% majored in Putonghua.
The current situation of Putonghua teachers in Hong Kong is that, ® rst, the
government’ s language policy, by emphasising the importance of the Chinese
language, puts Putonghua teacher education under a great time stress. Second, the
lack of trained Putonghua teachers in schools, as well as Putonghua being a
relatively new school subject, indicate a training need at a relatively large scale.
Third, the urgent requirements of language benchmarks, and the current situation
of the language ability of teachers, require a training course taking account of both
the language abilities and teaching competencies of the teachers under training.
Teacher education institutions in Hong Kong face the urgent need to produce high
quality teachers at a reasonably fast rate, who should be both competent in the
pedagogical skills and in language skills within a short period of time. The Open
University of Hong Kong’ s distance in-service Putonghua teacher education course
® ts well in the context and shows its advantage in dealing with the above pressing
situation, though there are other teacher education institutions offering similar
courses at the same time, but on a relatively small scale.
Putonghua Teacher Education at the Open University of Hong Kong
The distance learning programmes for teachers at the School of Languages and
Education, Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK), are mixed-mode in-service
teacher education with regular face-to-face tutorials. All our teacher± learners are
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8 L. Cheng
TABLE I. Putonghua teacher education course components
Unit Theme
Unit 1 Hong Kong Putonghua teaching and learning situation
Unit 2 Modern Chinese grammar
Unit 3 Phonology
Unit 4 Listening ability
Unit 5 Reading aloud training
Unit 6 Speaking ability
Unit 7 Theory in teaching and learning
Unit 8 Pedagogy in teaching and learning
Unit 9 Practicum in teaching and learning
Unit 10 Language assessment and evaluation
teaching at the time of their study. Some of them are allowed a lighter workload, and
some are not, depending upon the speci® c situation at their serving schools. The
teacher education programmes are designed to maximise the ¯ exibility of teachers at
work, and the application of their learned knowledge directly into their daily
teaching. Most of them cater for hundreds of teachers in one presentation, com-
pared with the traditional face-to-face course offered at other teacher education
institutions, where each course caters for only a limited number of teachers (20± 30)
at a time. The Bachelor of Education (BEd. in Primary Education) programme
consists of eight classroom teaching options, three of them being language teacher
education, namely English, Chinese [3], and Putonghua. They are all designed
locally. English is self-explanatory. The second two subjects are unique in Hong
Kong. Chinese, referred to as Modern Chinese in Hong Kong, emphasises the
teaching of reading and writing aspects of the language. Putonghua focuses on
enhancing listening and speaking skills, in addition to the training in classroom
teaching methodology and language awareness that is common to both courses. The
three language courses, English, Chinese and Putonghua, were developed in parallel
in course components, yet with different focuses on each speci® c language context
in Hong Kong.
The Putonghua course was developed by taking the above special language
situation in Hong Kong into consideration. It made use of the distance learning
mode by employing a task-based approach with a multimedia element. The course
was offered for the ® rst time in October 1996. It was designed to comprise
socio-linguistic and methodological issues, language awareness, curriculum and
assessment, as well as a language skill training component to address the problem of
insuf® ciently quali ® ed Putonghua teachers in Hong Kong. The course is a 1-year
higher level BEd. course with 10 units of study (see Table I). Tutorials were
scheduled about once each month for the ® rst presentation, with roughly 200
teacher± learners enrolled.
Compared with the Chinese teaching option focusing on reading and writing
mentioned above, the Putonghua course focused on listening and speaking training
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Distance Language Teacher Education 9
through Units 3 ± 6. However, what was unknown to us at the time of the course
design was the actual Putonghua language ability of the teachers who would take our
course. It was only after they started the course, and after soliciting feedback from
them and various other sources, that we realised that language ability remained an
issue for many teachers under training. Besides, the language situation was far more
complicated than we expected.
In late 1997, after the ® rst presentation, an overall formative and summative
assessment was conducted for the Putonghua course. Feedback from tutors,
teacher± learners and the external examiner was also collected. The formative assess-
ment consisted of a series of ® ve Tutor-Marked Assignments (TMAs), which
accounted for 50% of the total course grade. These TMAs were marked by tutors
during the course presentation. The summative assessment was a ® nal achievement
examination, which was made up of another 50%. The ® nal examination was
conducted at the end of the course, which consisted of the following elements:
1. a face-to-face oral interview: 15% (covering Units 5± 6);
2. a listening component: 10% (covering Unit 4); and
3. a written essay examination: 75% (covering Units 1± 3, and 7± 10).
The written part consisted of one compulsory component on teaching methodology
(25%) highlighting the requirement in our language teaching options at OUHK
(Units 3 and 9), and ® ve optional components on language policy (Unit 1),
semantics (Unit 2), teaching and learning theory (TLT) (Unit 7), lesson planning
(Unit 8) and assessment (Unit 10). Teacher± learners were required to choose only
two from the ® ve options (25% each). The assessment design placed different
weightings on different course components so that the ® nal examination re¯ ected
the overall requirements of the course. However, it should be pointed out that the
design made the reporting and interpretation of the exam scores demanding. The
® nal examination was conducted on two separated occasionsÐ one for listening and
the written part in a huge, centrally controlled hall, another for the oral, stretching
over a day with ® ve oral examiners.
The ® nal examination results were analysed using SPSS. The ® ndings from the
® nal examination further illustrate the current language ability concerns that we
obtained over the course presentation. Table II presents the results of a descriptive
statistical analysis of the ® nal examination raw scores on all course components. The
® gures such as mean and standard deviation shown in this table are reported
according to the raw scores in the exam, for example, listening 10%
(mean 5 5.5309), and oral 15% (mean 5 8.1550). However, this does not mean that
the mean of oral is higher than listening; it is actually lower after being weighted (see
Fig. 1). Figure 1 shows the average percentage of ® nal scores after raw scores in
Table II are weighted according to the design of the ® nal exam. The report of the
raw scores in Table II is provided to verify the ® ndings before they are weighted, so
that readers can see where they come from.
The raw scores in the ® nal examination were weighted and converted into
percentages of students’ achievement in each component, e.g. oral weighted against
15% of its weighting in the ® nal examination and semantics against 25%. In that
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10 L. Cheng
TA
BL
EII
.D
esc
rip
tive
stati
stic
so
fth
era
wsc
ore
sin
eigh
tco
urs
eco
mp
on
en
ts
Lan
gu
age
Less
on
Lis
ten
ing
Ora
lM
eth
od
olo
gy
po
licy
Sem
anti
csT
LT
pla
nn
ing
Ass
ess
men
t
NV
ali
d1
52
15
41
52
64
13
34
82
53
4
Mis
sin
g9
79
97
28
11
31
36
12
7
Mean
5.5
30
98
.15
50
91
10
.78
62
15
.73
44
19
.77
07
16
.51
04
18
.50
00
14
.02
94
Std
err
or
of
mean
0.1
17
10
.19
43
10
0.3
77
40
.68
40
0.1
58
20
.51
95
0.5
80
20
.63
26
Med
ian
5.4
84
67
.99
96
00
10
.70
83
16
.33
33
19
.83
33
17
.16
67
18
.20
00
14
.00
00
Mo
de
5.5
07
.00
05
9.0
02
0.0
02
0.0
01
8.0
01
7.5
01
4.0
0
Std
devi
atio
n1
.44
39
2.4
11
32
34
.65
34
5.4
72
11
.82
42
3.5
98
92
.90
11
3.6
88
5
Var
ian
ce
2.0
84
95
.81
44
81
21
.65
43
29
.94
42
3.3
27
71
2.9
52
08
.41
67
13
.60
52
Ran
ge
8.0
01
0.9
99
52
1.0
02
3.0
09
.00
15
.00
11
.00
17
.00
Min
imu
m0
.80
3.0
00
00
.00
0.0
01
5.0
07
.00
12
.00
6.0
0
Maxim
um
8.8
01
3.9
99
52
1.0
02
3.0
02
4.0
02
2.0
02
3.0
02
3.0
0
Su
m8
40
.70
12
55
.88
40
16
39
.50
10
07
.00
26
29
.50
79
2.5
04
62
.50
47
7.0
0
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Distance Language Teacher Education 11
FIG. 1. Percentage of teacher± learners’ performance in eight course components.
way the teacher± learners’ achievements in particular assessment components can be
easily seen against the course requirements, and compared with other assessment
components (see Fig. 1).
It can be seen that among the eight major assessment components which made up
the course, our teacher± learners achieved more than 55% of the course requirements
in ® ve components, i.e. language policy, semantics, teaching and learning theory,
lesson planning, and assessment. After reviewing the ® nal examination papers, the
external examiner commented that our teacher± learners had achieved a solid back-
ground in teaching the subject, and a good standard in the above ® ve areas. The
same result was also revealed through their TMAs.
However, it can also be seen from Fig. 1 that the language pro® ciency compo-
nents Ð listening and speakingÐ remain relatively low compared with the other
components. A word of caution is needed as the examination performance shows
only one source of the feedback obtained from the course. The examination results
shown in Table II and Fig. 1 are not used here as absolute indicators. For example,
the differences in the ® nal examination scores in each of the components might be
due to the degree of dif® culty built into the design of the examination questions and
formats. Some questions might have been more demanding than others. The data
are used here for illustrative and comparative purposes across the ® nal examination
components only, and as well as being used with the feedback on other aspects of
the course.
Thus the low achievement (or situation) of our in-service teachers on listening and
speaking was supported by the feedback from our own tutorial visits, the tutors, the
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12 L. Cheng
teacher± learners themselves, as well as from the external examiner who served on
our BEd. programme. All the feedback from various sources, together with the ® nal
examination results, illustrated the need to further strengthen and intensify training
of the language ability in Putonghua teacher training, and this is true both for our
distance learning course as well as for other, similar, traditional courses. Referring
back to the special language situation in Hong Kong and the limited time since
Putonghua was introduced into the school curriculum, the fact that language
pro® ciency remains one of the weakest areas of teachers under training is not
surprising, even though we have brought in pro® ciency training (Units 3± 6) in our
teacher education programme.
The above results suggest that language pro® ciency (listening and speaking) in the
Putonghua teacher education course needs to be further enhanced. This is usually
not the case for most of the language teacher education courses, where language
pro® ciency is already a prerequisite. However, within the Hong Kong context
described above where, on one hand, Putonghua has just become part of the core
school curriculum after the hand-over to China, and on the other hand, there is a
severe shortage of quali ® ed teachers of Putonghua; it is language pro® ciency en-
hancement that is an important factor for the success of our course and similar
courses. Moreover, while a relatively large amount of audio and video learning
materials have been built into the course, the pro® ciency level of language skills for
this group of teachers still needs to be increased in order for them to meet the
language benchmarks.
Apart from the two pro® ciency components, another low-achieved component
was that of teaching methodology. This component (a combined requirement from
Units 3 and 9, but also related to Units 4± 5) required teacher± learners to analyse a
particular common phonemic situation, explain why Cantonese speakers [4] ® nd it
dif® cult to master or are likely to make L1 (® rst language) transfer mistakes, and
then design a suitable teaching method to tackle such a problem. In this way, they
can help learners master the language more effectively. The component tested a
hierarchy of skills, especially the ability of analysis, synthesis, and application of the
knowledge they learned in the course. In addition, the teacher± learners need to
recognise the phonemic differences between Putonghua and Cantonese, and be able
to explain the differences theoretically. This exam question inevitably set a rather
demanding task for them. However, it is strongly believed by the course team that
our teacher± learners should make use of real-life opportunities and day-to-day
classroom teaching at the time of their distance learning. It is also felt that the low
scores in this component might also result in a low level of pro® ciency in listening
and speaking. If they have not mastered the phonemic elements involved, it is
unlikely that they could solve the above problem satisfactorily. This is indeed a
paradox for Putonghua teacher education in Hong Kong, not only for our distance
learning programme, but also for the face-to-face mode as well. On the ® rst level,
these teacher± learners need to be fully pro® cient in the language since (owing to the
major dialectal differences in Putonghua and Cantonese, and notwithstanding that
both share the same written form of the language), speaking is the key issue for
non-native speakers of Putonghua in Hong Kong. The main differences lie in
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Distance Language Teacher Education 13
pronunciation and intonation. On the second level, they needed to know why and
what tended to cause the L1 transferring and over-generalisation errors or mistakes.
In this sense, it is worthwhile focusing more attention to the comparison and
contrastive analysis of ® rst and second language acquisition in this course, especially
considering that the majority of our teacher± learners teach Chinese as a major.
Conclusions
These ® ndings, combined with the survey information, formative and summative
assessment and various feedback, suggest that an emphasis on language pro® ciency
for in-service teachers of Putonghua in Hong Kong remains crucial if they are going
to meet the benchmark standards set by the Hong Kong Government. As speci® ed
in the language benchmark standards, both language pro® ciency and teaching skills
are required. The Open University of Hong Kong’ s distance learning programmes
allow its teachers to apply what they have learned directly into their teaching at the
time of their study, and this is a positive advantage when compared with face-to-face
full-time programmes. The students are also highly motivated as it is their own
choice to pursue such a programme. However, restructuring the distance Putonghua
teacher education course to enhance the language pro® ciency at the same time as the
development of teaching skills has proved to be a great challenge for us. We are
under great time constraints to achieve the above goal in this 1-year course.
In terms of language pro® ciency, which tends to play a minor role in in-service
teacher training in other teaching subjects, I would argue that we have to give
Putonghua teacher education special treatment in Hong Kong. We could add in
more language enhancement elements within the existing course by fully making use
of our distance learning mode and our multimedia advantage to offer teachers in
schools an extra hand in coping with such a new language curriculum. Alternatively,
we could set up a separate language enhancement course as an entry requirement
into this teaching component within the BEd. programme.
The original course design for the ® rst presentation relied on an integrated
multimedia, multi-activity approach. The multimedia element designed for the ® rst
presentation mainly consisted of a series of audio and video tapes focusing on the
training of language abilities (Units 3± 6). Audio tapes provided our teacher± learners
with an opportunity to work independently, yet with the help of teachers’ voices.
Videotaped instruction provided an im age demonstration of certain phonetic aspects
of the language, which could not be explained through written texts. Task-based
activities were designed after each topic in a unit, and focused on developing
problem solving skills in learning and teaching the language which are closely linked.
These activities were designed throughout all 10 units of the course, which allows
the teacher± learners opportunities to carry out the tasks in their teaching.
Apart from feedback from those who attended tutorials regularly (tutorials are not
compulsory at OUHK), and from one of the TMAs consisting of both a written
paper as well as a taped performance, we were not able to evaluate exactly during
the presentation how much time was spent by teacher± learners on the various
multimedia and multi-activity elements of the course. What we knew was
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14 L. Cheng
that they struggled to achieve on each of the course components, especially on
language pro® ciency (i.e. listening and speaking). The worry and stress were obvious
towards the end of the course. We came to a conclusion that the course workload
was very demanding, and that we could not add more materials, thus over-burden-
ing the students. Nevertheless, we realised after careful consultation that a multime-
dia and multi-activity course design is the right way to continue. What we eventually
did was to reshuf¯ e the course presentation to highlight our emphasis on skill
training.
The course was offered for the second presentation based on the above consider-
ations. The reshuf¯ ing of components, and thus modi® cations to them, were made
especially in the language pro® ciency part of the course, for example, in terms of
scheduled study time (Units 3 or 4 were given more suggested time for study);
tutorial rescheduling to allow extra help in the language skill part (i.e. listening and
speaking skills); and emphasis on skill training through course supplements (to guide
teacher± learners), tutorial manuals (for both tutors and teacher± learners), and tutor
training. As a result, our tutors have become clearer about the goals and objectives
in enhancing pro® ciency, and aware of the issues involved. They are also required
to use Putonghua to conduct tutorials and to encourage our teacher± learners to use
the target language in tutorial discussions. Tutorials, brought forward from the later
units, were rescheduled to coincide with the study of Units 3± 6. We also encouraged
our teacher± learners to make the best use of telephone tutorials, which had been
neglected and used only as a source for consulting on TMAs during the ® rst
presentation. A new CD-ROM for Putonghua learning was being developed. Addi-
tionally (and coincidentally), by the time of the second presentation, more and more
Putonghua TV and radio programmes were being broadcast in Hong Kong. Fur-
thermore, efforts were made to make use of `phoning in’ through the local public
radio system, but this was not successful due to the massive work involved on both
sides. We also brought in more problem-solving tasks in the teaching methodology
part of the course (similar to those we designed in the ® nal examination).
In the end, after careful consideration of the overall situation of the course, the
pros and cons of different options in dealing with the current language concern, and
the heavy content in such teaching options within the BEd. programme at OUHK,
we decided not to add much extra content and time for training in language skills
within the course itself. We kept the main course components and made
modi® cations such as those mentioned above. Instead, within our School of Lan-
guages and Education we were developing two language pro® ciency courses in
Putonghua that focus solely on language skills training. Such courses, taking into
account relevant issues in distance language education, could offer our teachers an
opportunity to enhance their language ability before they go into the teaching
option. These courses were also developed with the Hong Kong Putonghua situ-
ation in mind so that they could cater to various requirements of teachers and
students at OUHK.
Furthermore, what we aimed at was to have these courses serve as compulsory
prerequisites for the teaching option. In this way teachers could have an opportunity
to enhance their skills before they get to the teaching option. They do not have to
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Distance Language Teacher Education 15
struggle with so many requirements at the same time as pursuing the higher level
teaching option. Such a restructuring could maximise the ¯ exibility of our courses
in different programmes, and also allow our teacher± learners an opportunity to
choose what is appropriate for them. At the same time, we understand that there is
a long way to go in designing appropriate screening procedures, either to place
students in certain language training courses, or to let them go into the teaching
option directly. We feel that only in this way can we provide quali ® ed teachers of
Putonghua for Hong Kong at a reasonable rate, quality and quantity, and thus meet
the language benchmarks set by the Hong Kong Government.
Dr Liying Cheng is based with the Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty
of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2G5, where she
teaches and researches in the area of language teacher education. She was previously
Assistant Professor at the School of Education and Languages, Open University of
Hong Kong, where she taught and coordinated several language teaching courses
including English, Putonghua and Chinese within the BEd. Programme. E-mail:
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank Professor Ronnie Carr for comments on earlier
versions of the paper. Many thanks go to my colleagues on the Putonghua team and
clerical of® cers at the School of Education and Languages, Open University of Hong
Kong. The author would also like to thank the Killam Trust for the Postdoctoral
Fellowship at the University of Alberta.
Notes
[1] Putonghua, also known as Mandarin, refers to the of® cial spoken and written Chinese
language in China. Putonghua has become a core school subject from the 1998 school year
in Hong Kong after the hand-over of sovereignty to China in 1997. China is used in this
paper to refer to Mainland China, i.e. the People’ s Republic of China.
[2] Hong Kong has a population of 5.9 million people of which 98% are Chinese. The majority
is Cantonese-speaking with small numbers of Chiuchow, Hokkien, Hakka, Shanghainese,
and Putonghua speakers (Johnson, 1993/1994). The population is now close to 6.5 million.
[3] Chinese within the Hong Kong education context refers to Cantonese for the spoken form
and Modern Chinese for the written. Written Chinese in Hong Kong is largely the same as
written Chinese in China, except that complicated characters are used in the former instead
of the simpli® ed characters used in the latter. However, there are certain regional variations.
[4] The major differences between Cantonese and Putonghua are phonetic. The ability to
discriminate phonemes and analyse such situations in teaching by comparing Cantonese
and Putonghua is important as a teacher in the subject.
References
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