The evolution of the English-language speech community in Hong Kong

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Evans
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
English Language ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
The Press ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
Government Records ◽  
The 1960S

This article traces the evolution of the English-language speech community in Hong Kong since the early 1840s. Inspired by Schneider’s (2007) innovative “Dynamic Model”, the article examines textual and statistical data derived from a range of hitherto unexploited archival sources, including a historical corpus of English-language newspapers, confidential Colonial Office correspondence, and government records. Changes in the size and composition of the English-language speech community are tracked through a diachronic analysis of government censuses, school enrolments, lists of jurors, and letters to the press. The results of this analysis support Schneider’s contention that the 1960s marked an important turning point in Hong Kong’s linguistic history in that it presaged a substantial, education-driven increase in the numbers and proportion of English users in the territory. Despite the significant expansion of the English-using community in the past four decades, the dominant theme of public discourse about English has been that of “declining standards”. While the existence of a “complaint tradition” accords with the predictions of the Dynamic Model, it is perhaps not widely known that this tradition is a long-standing one. The present article traces this tradition back to the era of the Opium Wars.

scholarly journals English Speakers in Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
New Variety ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Hong Kong English

This paper argues it is no longer possible to refer to Hong Kong English speakers en masse as EFL speakers, nor can we say they speak a fully formed new variety of English called Hong Kong English (HKE). Taking into account the language(s) used for school, for work, for entertainment, and for socializing, we can see that Hong Kong’s speech community is extremely heterogeneous, both regarding levels of English and degrees of English usage. A small but growing number of Hongkongers now report that they speak English as a native language. Hongkongers with white collar jobs have been found to write more English than Chinese while at work, making it reasonable to argue that they write English as a second language (ESL). Many Hongkongers seek out English-speaking social networks and choose to watch and listen to English-medium forms of entertainment, which means their English-speaking experience is very ESL-like. However, in addition to these variations, there are great differences in English speaking and writing abilities that correlate largely with socioeconomic status. Adding to this lack of homogeneity among English speakers is the fact that extremely few Hongkongers speak English among themselves outside of specific work or school contexts. This means that HKE is not yet a new variety of English, and will have a difficult time becoming one unless the linguistic habits of Hongkongers change. English language education should take all these individual differences into account, including potentially wide differences in the speaking, listening, reading and writing abilities among individuals themselves.

scholarly journals Rhetoric and Communication

Communication ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Pfau
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
English Language ◽  
Rhetorical Criticism ◽  
Rhetorical Theory ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Rhetorical Studies ◽  
Theory And Criticism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Greek Rhetoric

The term “rhetoric” (rhetorike) was coined by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and systematically elaborated upon by his successor Aristotle. On the basis of these foundational texts in particular, the term has been borrowed, abused, adapted, and transmuted by every culture from the ancient Romans onward to contemporary rhetorical studies and communication scholars. This bibliography conceives of rhetoric as a “metadiscourse,” or a language about language, one that has been used at various times, places, and circumstances in order to enable the production and interpretation of discourse. The Historiography of Rhetoric recognizes that “rhetoric” is a term that is simultaneously enriched, and burdened, by its long history of over two millennia, and the fact that it refers sometimes to practices of language and speech, and sometimes to theories about such practices. On Sophistic and Greek Rhetoric examines the social, political, and intellectual context in which the term rhetoric emerged and was invented. Foundational Primary Texts in Greek and Roman Rhetoric provides a cursory summary of the ancient Greek and Roman texts that have served as the foundation for rhetoric as a metadiscourse. Since the focus of this bibliography is rhetoric and communication, Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment Rhetorics provides the thinnest coverage, with an emphasis on some of the earliest texts on rhetoric in the English language. The coverage of the most recent century is itself divided into several sections. 20th Century Rhetoric in Philosophy, Composition, and English reviews some of the major figures outside of communication that helped to give shape to rhetorical studies’ emergence and development within the communications discipline. The next sections (Rhetorical Theory and Criticism from 1914 to the 1960s, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism in the 1970s and 1980s, and Rhetorical Theory and Criticism from the 1990s to the Present) trace some major developments in the fields of rhetorical theory and criticism from 1914 to the present. The distinction between rhetorical criticism, concerning the interpretation of rhetorical texts, and rhetorical theory, pertaining to theories about rhetoric, is not hard and fast insofar as most studies contain critical as well as theoretical aspects; but it will suffice for these purposes. Subsequent sections are organized around some of the emergent subfields and emphases that help to organize scholarship in rhetoric and communication studies (e.g., Rhetoric and Public Discourse, History of Rhetoric, Argumentation, Rhetoric of Inquiry, and Rhetorics of Resistance: Ideological Criticism and Critical Rhetoric). These categorizations may be somewhat imprecise, but will suffice for the purposes and constraints of this bibliographic project.

The Liberalizers: Justifying Free-Market Finance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louçã Francisco ◽  
Ash Michael
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Economic Regulation ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
The Us ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Second World ◽  
The New Deal

Chapter 5 traces how free market ideology displaced the apparent consensus on economic regulation that emerged from the Depression, the New Deal, and the Second World War. Viewed as cranks within economics through the 1960s, Milton Friedman and his supporters built an apparatus of ideas, publications, students, think tanks, and rich supporters, establishing outposts in Latin America and the UK. When developed economies faltered in the 1970s, Friedman’s neoliberal doctrine was ready. With citizens, consumers, and workers feeling worked over by monopolies, inflation, unemployment, and taxes, these strange bedfellows elected Reagan in the US and Thatcher in the UK and rolled to power in academia and in public discourse with a doctrine of privatization, liberalization, and deregulation. Friedman, Eugene Fama, and James Buchanan whose radical free market views triumphed at the end of the 1970s are profiled. A technical appendix, “Skeptics and Critics vs. True Believers” explores the economic debates.

Engaging Exam-Oriented Students in Communicative Language Teaching by ‘Packaging’ Learning English Through Songs as Exam Practice

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822097854
Author(s):  
Kevin Wai-Ho Yung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Teachers And Students

Literature has long been used as a tool for language teaching and learning. In the New Academic Structure in Hong Kong, it has become an important element in the senior secondary English language curriculum to promote communicative language teaching (CLT) with a process-oriented approach. However, as in many other English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts where high-stakes testing prevails, Hong Kong students are highly exam-oriented and expect teachers to teach to the test. Because there is no direct assessment on literature in the English language curriculum, many teachers find it challenging to balance CLT through literature and exam preparation. To address this issue, this article describes an innovation of teaching ESL through songs by ‘packaging’ it as exam practice to engage exam-oriented students in CLT. A series of activities derived from the song Seasons in the Sun was implemented in the ESL classrooms in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Based on the author’s observations and reflections informed by teachers’ and students’ comments, the students were first motivated, at least instrumentally, by the relevance of the activities to the listening paper in the public exam when they saw the similarities between the classroom tasks and past exam questions. Once the students felt motivated, they were more easily engaged in a variety of CLT activities, which encouraged the use of English for authentic and meaningful communication. This article offers pedagogical implications for ESL/EFL teachers to implement CLT through literature in exam-oriented contexts.

English language schooling, linguistic realities, and the native speaker of English in Hong Kong

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Government School ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.

Corpus-Based Vocabulary Analysis of English Podcasts

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822097931
Author(s):  
Ulugbek Nurmukhamedov ◽  
Shoaziz Sharakhimov
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Word Families ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Ted Talks

In addition to movies, television programs, and TED Talks presentations, podcasts are an increasingly popular form of media that promotes authentic public discourse for diverse audiences, including university professors and students. However, English language teachers in the English as a second language/English as a foreign language contexts might wonder: “How do I know that my students can handle the vocabulary demands of podcasts?” To answer that question, we have analyzed a 1,137,163-word corpus comprising transcripts from 170 podcast episodes derived from the following popular podcasts: Freakonomics; Fresh Air; Invisibilia; Hidden Brain; How I Built This; Radiolab; TED Radio Hour; This American Life; and Today Explained. The results showed that knowledge about the most frequent 3000 word families plus proper nouns (PN), marginal words (MW), transparent compounds (TC), and acronyms (AC) provided 96.75% coverage, and knowledge about the most frequent 5000 word families, including PN, MW, TC, and AC provided 98.26% coverage. The analysis also showed that there is some variation in coverage among podcast types. The pedagogical implications for teaching and learning vocabulary via podcasts are discussed.

Literate Design in the Discourses of Revolution, Reform, and Transition

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Scollon ◽  
Suzanne Wong Sgollon
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
The Public

In contemporary China, including Hong Kong, literate design from the choice of writing system or romanization to presentational formats articulates an inter-discursivity among three major discourses: the language reforms of the post-Liberation revolutionary discourse, the Dengist reform discourse, and the discourse of the transition of sovereignty of Hong Kong from Britain to China. Thus literate design represents the polyvocality of utterance in the public discourse of signs, announcements, and advertisements, symbolizing the new wine of reform by placing it in the old bottle of the symbols of the revolutionary discourse. There is also a smaller contrasting trend of re-symbolizing the revolutionary discourse with the designs of the reform discourse.

scholarly journals English Language Teacher Education: Notes on The Past And Future

Linguaculture ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Cook
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Contemporary Context

Abstract The first part of this paper considers approaches to teacher education for EFL developed during the 1960s-1990s, drawing upon two sources: the taxonomy of three approaches proposed by Wallace (1991) and personal reminiscence. It discusses each of Wallace's approaches in turn: craft, 'applied science', and reflective practice.The second part considers whether these approaches are adequate models for teacher education now. I suggest that while they are still relevant, they are also too inward looking for contemporary needs.They need to be supplemented with a more outward looking approach, in which teachers are prepared to engage with four aspects of the contemporary context: new communication technologies, the new global linguistic landscape, the relationship between English and learners' own languages, and the rival political views of English language learning as promoting either a global neoliberal agenda or a global civil society.

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