5-
teaching in Chinese and English in junior secondary forms, the provision
in schools of wire-free induction loop systems with individual headsets
(in order to provide pupils with good models of English pronunciation and
usage) and the introduction of a new subject, language and communication,
in the sixth-form curriculum in order to strengthen communication skills
in both languages. The present English curriculum is already being
extensively revised to give pupils more opportunity to use the language
purposefully as a tool of communication.
7.6
at least
The key issue of which language to use as the principal medium
of instruction in secondary schools is a highly controversial one, at
present generating more heat than light. Many educators believe that the
extensive use of English as the medium both damages a child's mental and
intellectual development and inhibits the development of any real quality
in teaching. Others hold the equally strong belief that Hong Kong's role
in the world makes an English-medium education indispensable
for the majority of pupils progressing to senior secondary education - and
that given such circumstances as the present limited availability of
textbooks of an acceptable standard, for example, the use of English in
fact safeguards rather than inhibits quality. As mentioned earlier, there
is no doubt that at present most parents prefer an English-medium education
for their children but principally for economic rather than educational
reasons; this factor has to be taken fully into account.
7.7
The government believes that before contemplating possible changes
in current language policy (by which schools are free to choose whichever
medium of instruction they consider their pupils can cope with) the
Education Department should undertake a programme of research in the
language of instruction to ascertain the effects of the language on the
educational attainment of pupils of different ability, to assess the
proportions of students for whom the medium could be exclusively English