A study has explored the relationship between students’ educational background and their academic adjustment at a local university.
Dr Bruce Morrison
Proficiency in English is a key determinant of socioeconomic status and mobility in Hong Kong, even though most local people speak Cantonese as their first language and Chinese is the medium of instruction (CMI) for Forms 1-3 in the majority of Hong Kong schools. Parents and teachers are thus concerned about whether Hong Kong’s CMI schools are best equipping students to prosper at university, where all courses are taught in English.
Prof. Stephen Evans (deceased) at the Department of English and Dr Bruce Morrison at the English Language Centre set out to determine whether Cantonese-speaking students from local Chinese-medium schools actually are disadvantaged in some way. With a novel emphasis on the language of instruction, they conducted a research on the relationship between students’ educational backgrounds and their performance and persistence at undergraduate degree level.
The researchers carried a campus-wide survey of first-year students from all faculties and schools at PolyU, and a complementary series of indepth interviews. They found that compared with their English-medium counterparts, graduates of CMI schools did initially have lower proficiency in English and thus faced more obstacles in their adjustment to university and weaker performance in academic writing, reading, listening and especially speaking. Hearteningly, though, most of the CMI graduates had overcome these obstacles by the end of their first year, showing outstanding diligence and tenacity.
The findings of the study, published in the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, provide critical insights for university and public policy makers both in Hong Kong and worldwide. It is urgently necessary to help students from all language backgrounds to adjust to the academic and linguistic demands of higher education, promoting equal access to opportunities for educational growth, professional advancement and ultimately social mobility. ♦
