Teaching in English in Hong Kong: Linguistic Imperialism?

by Christina Stouder

Last month’s edition of the Chinese University Student Press (中大學生報) ran a fascinating article by a student who boldly critiques CUHK for encouraging an increasing percentage of courses to be taught in English as the medium of instruction (MOI). The student challenges the dominance of English in academia and argues that the university is selling out to the temptation of creating globally competitive graduates while the development of critical thinking skills and local identity go by the wayside. She raises questions about the scholarly writing (is it only valuable if it’s written in English? Is that because we acquiesce to the status quo?), the development of critical thinking skills (and how the university demonstrates a lack thereof), and the global education market (is it a higher priority to appeal to international students than to serve local students and require outsiders to learn Chinese?) *Fittingly, the article is only available in Chinese traditional characters (*excuse the dangling particle).

The student’s concerns reflect how policy and identity meet in the classroom. By extension, it serves as a reminder of the fine line we toe as EFL teachers: are we agents of “linguistic imperialism” or of empowerment? More likely, I would think that we occupy a space on a cline between the two extremes. The article reminded me of a couple of the following resources that you might want to check out:

1. Peter Yongqi Gu’s article (see attached, GU 2006) about the actual language education policy in Hong Kong and what the Ministry of Education in the Mainland should learn from it. Understanding these policies better might help you make more sense of where we fit in the scheme of things, and it definitely clarifies some of the CUHK student’s arguments. If you would like any other articles related to language policy in China/HK or on linguistic imperialism, just let me know, and I’ll send them your way!
2. A brief commentary by Julian Edge about some curricular implications of teaching EFL in light of the notion of linguistic imperialism: http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/intlpolitics_julian.htm
3. Chinese University Student Press article (see attached, CUHK student’s critique). Note the character pun in the title: 中大！學咩人用英文呀! (something like “Chinese U, using English like the Westerners,” but instead of the character 洋 in Westerner (洋人), the student used a similar character 咩, which is the onomatopoeia for a sheep’s baa)