Paper presented at International Symposium “Preparing Students for Communicating in East Asia” held on  March 8, 2016, at Hokkaido University

Abstract

Hong Kong education system is very challenging in that it attempts to implement an innovative approach to language learning called “late immersion programs.” This study attempts to investigate how Hong Kong education system and its reforms reflect growing need for English education in a multilingual society. In Hong Kong, there are significant reforms made in 1990 and in 2000, which shifted their system to the late immersion programs and banding system. Content-based instruction, in which learners learn a second language simultaneously, as they study subject matter contents, has been practiced in a great variety of approaches. Among them, French immersion programs in Canada have been implemented since 1960s in Canada (Lambert & Tucker, 1972) and well-known for its longevity for nearly half century. A bulk of research has shown that French immersion programs have succeeded in developing good listening skills, fluency, and confidence in production of second language. Hong Kong immersion programs differs from French immersion in Canada in that it starts in secondary schools, and it does not necessarily presuppose that language proficiency, unlike early immersion, follows cognitive development. It is also unique in that it comes with the band system. The interviews conducted for this study shows some aspects of the Hong Kong programs. There are some “band 1” schools whose medium of instruction is exclusively English. But language instruction in many of Hong Kong middle schools varies with band systems and grades. More details about “band 1” schools and immersion programs will be discussed in the presentation.