Medium-of-Instruction Debate I: Mother Tongue Education and the Dual MoI Streaming Policy (1998–)

0Citations
Citations of this article
5Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

In this chapter, we will examine the divergent social forces and competing ideological premises embodied in a few policy documents, notably the Llewellyn Report (Llewellyn SJ, Hancock G, Kirst M, Roeloffs KA, Perspective on education in Hong Kong: Report by a visiting panel. Government Printer, Hong Kong. Retrieved 28 May 2015, from http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/about-edb/publications-stat/major-reports/perspe_e.pdf, 1982) and the Education Commission Report No. 4 (ECR4, The curriculum and behavioural problems in schools. Government Printer, Hong Kong. Retrieved 27 May 2015, from http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/about-edb/publications-stat/major-reports/ecr4_e.pdf, 1990), the latter being instrumental in paving the way for the implementation of the dual MoI streaming policy from September 1998, whereby primary-school leavers (around age 12) are allocated to Chinese-medium or English-medium secondary schools. Drawing on a number of critical studies in the literature, we will give a critical appraisal of the educational merits of the streaming proposal in ECR4 by scrutinizing its questionable ideological premises. It will be argued that, as a justification of the streaming proposal, the scapegoating and stigmatization of ‘mixed code’ is ill-advised and unfounded. The monolingual classroom language ideology is outdated. To enhance the quality of classroom teaching and learning, there is a need for more rigorous classroom-based research on pedagogically sound and productive translanguaging practices, with a view to facilitating the effective teaching and learning of content subjects. A promising way forward is to investigate how and under what circumstances students’ L1 may be turned strategically into a useful pedagogical resource in the hands of properly trained plurilingual teachers.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Li, D. C. S. (2017). Medium-of-Instruction Debate I: Mother Tongue Education and the Dual MoI Streaming Policy (1998–). In Multilingual Education (Vol. 19, pp. 145–178). Springer Science and Business Media B.V. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44195-5_5

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free