Language Culture and Curriculum
Editor and Book Reviews Editor: Eoghan Mac Aogain (St Patrick's College)
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Volume: 12 Number: 3 Page: 280–284
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Motivation to Learn English in Hong Kong
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Eva Fung-kuen Lai
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The paper compares pre- and post-1997 attitudes to the learning of English in Hong Kong.It is based on surveys conducted in 1980, 1992, 1995 and 1998, and also on newspaper reports. The data confirm the
strong instrumental, career-related motives of the learners, which has been previously reported not only for Chinese learners but for Asian learners generally. Although the recent data show a strong movement
among both parents and teachers to preserve English-medium education, as an essential means of achieving English proficiency, the realities of economic and demographic integration with China make it likely
that English in Hong Kong in the years ahead will increasingly take on the features of a foreign rather than a second language, both in education and in everyday life.
© Multilingual Matters 1999
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