CRITICAL REVIEW OF A JOURNAL ARTICLE

Source

Wang, L., & Kirkpatrick, A. 2015, ‘Trilingual Education in Hong Kong primary schools: an
overview. Multilingual Education, 5:3, pp.100-116.

1.0 Introduction

This review critically analyses the journal article ‘Trilingual Education in Hong Kong primary
schools: an overview, official journal of the Multilingual Education volume V published in
2015. The review will first summarise the article. Secondly, it will briefly analyse the strength
and weaknesses of the methodology in particular. Next, the paper will discuss on the key
findings and research implications of the article reviewed. Lastly, this critical review will
conclude on how the findings helps an existing ESL teacher.

2.0 Article summary

Adoption of   trilingual language policies by Hong Kong primary schools is discussed

in this article. To find out how trilingual education is implemented in 155 Hong Kong primary
schools, researchers conducted a survey. The discussion commenced with a review of the
languages spoken in Hong Kong, including their official and unofficial status, as well as a
brief explanation of the island's many types of schools. The reader was given a framework in
which they might place themselves by providing such an insight into Hong Kong's educational
system, allowing them to be aware of the alternatives available to Hong Kong language
learners in their language learning process. Aside from that, it gave readers the opportunity to
immerse themselves in the situation and make a better educated judgement. On the other side,
the explanations on how the schools were run, by whom, and the day-to-day operations of the
school were rather extensive, since they went into great detail on where and how financing
was gathered, as well as how student registration was handled.

Next, the topic in the paper centered on Hong Kong's language regulations and how the
government finally enacted the "biliterate and trilingual" education policy, which required
students to be able to read and speak at least two languages. The facts were supported by the
statistics which showed the trilingual education implementation, as well as the efficiency of
trilingual education models, vary greatly from school to school. These findings are thought to
be beneficial to our understanding of trilingual learning. Furthermore, most individual
elementary schools have established their own rules as a result of insufficient government
directives, according to this study. The ultimate purpose of such a policy was to ensure Hong
Kong's ability to maintain relations with both Mainland China and the rest of the world.

The developments occurred over a long period of time, during which the Hong Kong
government established a number of English Medium Instruction (EMI) schools in an attempt
to strengthen its grasp of the English language. A considerable number of EMI schools were
transformed to Chinese Medium Instruction (CMI) schools during the return of power to
Mainland China. This discussion was able to give readers an understanding of how and why
these regulations were implemented, as well as the goals that the Hong Kong government
hoped to achieve by doing so. One of the highlights of the article is that the authors described
Hong Kong's ethnic makeup in order to show readers that, as a small island, Hong Kong is
home to a diverse range of ethnic groups and races, making it vulnerable to absorption from
other cultures as it weaves its way through the city's rich past. This was also done to assure the
reader that the study's findings would not be skewed by the preexisting concept that Hong
Kong is a monoethnic society.

3.0 Methodology

Survey method was used to gather data from all the respondents. This type of research allows
for a variety of methods to recruit participants, collect data, and utilize various methods of
instrumentation (Check & Schutt, 2012,). The survey contained several sections to be
answered by the school administrators. which was administered to all 474 primary schools in
Hong Kong. 155 out of 474 schools or 32.7%, of schools responded which falls under lower
response category.

3.1 Strengths
The use of survey method had its own set of strengths. Firstly, Questions used in
the survey were generally a set of predetermined questions, mainly aimed at extracting specific
data from a particular group of people regarding their preferences, opinions, behavior, or factual
information, depending on survey purpose where the types of schools, purpose of the article and
the number of participants were stated. Survey research is also a dependable way of
investigation. That's because surveys are standardised in the sense that participants are asked
the same questions, phrased in the same way. Qualitative interviewing, for example, does not
provide the same level of consistency as a quantitative survey. This isn't to argue that all polls
are trustworthy. An incorrectly stated question might lead to responders misinterpreting its
meaning, lowering the question's dependability. One virtue of research methodology is its
ability to deliver accurate results, assuming well-designed questions and questionnaires.
Conducting surveys is a brilliant way where it’s a low-cost method and retrieve
data in a short period of time where the researchers need not go out to interview the school
administrators one-by-one to obtain the data required (Bartell & Spyridakis, 2012; Denissen et
al., 2010; Denscombe, 2009; Gunter et al., 2002; Wang & Doong, 2010). This is particularly
relevant for marginalized, geographically dispersed, hard-to-access, or “socially distant groups
Researcher can start the survey, able to pause the survey and restart the survey whenever he
wants. Instead, they only had to produce and distribute the survey questions to the schools
where the survey uses probability sampling technique. The qualitative method primarily does
not provide the same level of consistency as a quantitative survey. Therefore, the data collected
throughout Hong Kong are reliable as every educational institution receives the same questions.
Because most surveys do not expose participants to potentially invasive techniques
or withhold treatment, they may be considered more ethical. Participants in a study will only be
exposed to events that occur in the real world and would have occurred anyway, and the
researcher will not be aware of the descriptive data collected throughout Hong Kong.
Furthermore, employing a survey as a method allows participants to feel more at ease and
autonomous, as well as fewer inhibitions to participate, because they know their contributions
will be kept private and that they can finish the survey secretly (McDermott & Roen,
2012; Willis, 2011). 

3.2 Weaknesses

Survey methods also have downsides, such as questions about methodological

quality and equivalency, participant access issues, and technical limitations. There are several
reasons to examine the survey response rate. It is critical to inform the readers about the study
methodology employed. The phases of the data collection technique were not specified in the
research methodology part of the empirical study, which was noted. Aside from that, the length
of time it took to collect data was not mentioned, making it difficult for readers to relate to the
data collection process.
One of the approaches and elements specified in the study questions should be
more geared toward analysing relationship growth and its characteristics rather than
determining the causal factors of creations, therefore the research should ideally be more
qualitative in nature (Alessi & Martin, 2010). Because most questionnaire items are
standardised, using the survey approach to ask anything less than very broad themes that a large
section of the population would grasp is often challenging. The information gathered from
Hong Kong schools, for example, was confined to closed-ended inquiries with multiple choice
questions based on answer alternatives. Bias arises when the respondent is influenced by the
order of your answer options to choose a specific answer or a mix of answers, either by
selecting one of the first alternatives offered or by selecting an answer based on the order of
your answer options. This ordinarily happens since they agree with the primary choice they
examined, or since they're surging through the study and always select one of the primary
choices, which is more memorable to the respondent as they select a reply for the last
mentioned, coming about in insufficient data to further validate the information.
As a result, the follow-up research should focus on gathering complex responses in
order to fully understand the situation. It could have been caused by the survey's large number
of questions, which made school officials believe that filling it out would be inconvenient and
time consuming at a time when they should be concentrating on more important tasks. As
Quentin Ainsworth (2021) points out, it's important not to ask too many questions and to be
direct, as this will reduce the response rate, as was the case with this survey. Furthermore,
school administrators may have been concerned that by responding to the survey's questions,
they would be accused of disclosing secret information to Education Bureau inspectors. To ease
this anxiety, the researchers may insert a confidentiality clause in the survey to alleviate school
administrators' fears about how the poll's data would be used, ensuring that they submit honest
data without fear of penalty.
Because the information the researchers wanted was so broad and covered so many
topics, reducing the number of questions while still getting data that was rich enough for further
discussion would have been difficult due to the limited opportunities to ask probing questions
or clarify information. While surveys are sometimes less expensive than interviews, they are
useless if they are not conducted properly. However, the researchers should have informed the
study participants that they would be getting the survey ahead of time so that they could think
about their replies and reply using resources at home or at work.
4.0 Key Findings and Implications

4.1 The Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) schools are predominately EMI schools

The survey confirms that Cantonese is extensively utilized as a medium of instruction in Hong
Kong primary schools, as a high majority of the schools investigated are CMI schools. The
remaining of the percentage belongs to DSS schools, which have considerable leeway in
determining the quality of entering students. DSS schools also have the power to determine the
quantity of tuition fees charged per admission.

4.2 Code switching in Hong Kong primary schools

Educators of Chinese (14.84 percent) were more likely to code-switch between Cantonese and
Putonghua, whereas 34.19 percent of English teachers did the same. In lower schools, 4.52
percent of instructors utilized code-switching between Putonghua and Cantonese. It was also
discovered that a substantial percentage of the schools utilized almost entirely Putonghua to
teach the topic, as well as English for English, and that an average of 55% of the schools used
almost entirely Cantonese to teach the subject.

4.3 Language subjects dominate school curriculum

The Hong Kong curriculum is designed to help pupils reach their greatest potential. Linguistic
themes, on the other hand, are significantly essential for placement in secondary education and
university admission in Hong Kong. In the 155 schools examined, Chinese language and
English language classes are the most popular. This data reveals a clear lean in the curriculum
toward languages, with language teaching accounting for more than half of the main timetable.

4.4 The surveyed school graduates' proficiency level in the three languages

The analysis of the results indicated large differences in the levels of competence among
graduates from different institutions. Around half of the institutions that responded said they
were confident in their graduates' capacity to converse in Cantonese and Putonghua, and that
their graduates performed somewhat above average for Hong Kong primary schools.
Furthermore, the data shows that almost half of the schools that responded have great trust in
their graduates' capacity to communicate in written Chinese. One-third, on the other hand,
believes their graduates are linguistically deficient. Graduates of aided schools and
government institutions, on the other hand, are believed to speak and write English less
fluently. Despite this, around 7% of aided schools think that their graduates' English abilities
are far below average. Second, roughly 25% of aided schools believe their graduates have
much lower written and spoken English abilities than the other 75% of government schools.

4.5 Collaboration between different subject teachers using different media of

instruction

Collaboration in this study represents collaboration between teachers of the same MoI and
their aim to aid students facing difficulties. Language subjects were also found to be
incorporated into other subjects such as Mathematics to encourage students to practice more at
home, specifically focusing on English while Chinese and Putonghua teachers focused on
planning meetings together to support their common goal which would make certain that
students achieve similar grades across the languages. Cantonese as MoI teachers placed more
emphasis on cross-curricular elements.

4.6 Difficulties in the implementation of trilingual education encountered by the surveyed

schools
The government's own language proficiency requirements state that in-service and new
English and Putonghua teachers must meet certain basic requirements to be able to teach the
language. This could be the cause of the government's own language proficiency requirements,
which state that in-service and new English and Putonghua teachers must meet certain basic
requirements to be able to teach the language. Despite the demands placed on language
instructors, just 7.74 percent of schools reported "low motivation" as a challenge, with pupils'
poor English proficiency coming in second. According to the researchers, this suggested that
the school management was blaming the students' lack of desire and low language competency
for the failure to execute the language regulations. It's important to note that this problem only
affected government and aided institutions.

4.7 Relationship between the origin of students and the MoIs chosen by the surveyed
schools

The relevance of mother tongue in learning is discussed in the survey because the language
helps students connect information to their surroundings. The survey's findings indicate that
multiracial admissions in schools catalyze trilingual learning. Because they converse more in
their native tongue, the majority of pupils in schools contribute to trilingual education. As a
result, in Hong Kong, where Cantonese, English, and Putonghua are used as MoIs, schools
with fewer non-Chinese ethnics must integrate their mother languages as the MoI. According
to the results of the study, there is no obvious link between students' origins and the MoIs
chosen by the survey institutions.

5.0 Own conclusion on how the findings helps an existing ESL teacher

Useful practices for current ESL teachers in Malaysia can be derived from the article,
particularly from the findings. To begin with, it will teach Malaysian teachers in becoming
reflective practitioners. Reflective teachers monitor, analyse, and revise their own teaching
techniques using observational, empirical, and analytical skills (Irvine, 1990). This article
explained in detail about the languages spoken in Hong Kong and their official and unofficial
status in the country where it gets the readers to give an impression that their cultures and the
languages spoken do matters. As teachers over here grow more aware of their own cultural
perspective, they gain insight into the cultural assumptions that support their expectations,
beliefs, and behaviour.
Reading this article demonstrated how scaffolding and growing teachers' intercultural
knowledge, as well as integrating this new information to their educational settings through
teacher research, may be effective methods for improving in-service teachers' pedagogical
understandings. For instance, in this article, some subject teachers in Hong Kong schools
collaborated to conduct activities and met on a regular basis to organise their lessons together.
Overall, in this survey it has favourable attitudes on code switching in the classroom.
David and Lim (2012) also reaffirmed that code-switching and the use of Malaysian English as
a variety is a widespread practice by Malaysians whether at home, with friends, at school or at
the workplace. When it comes to teachers in Malaysia, they are generally aware of code
switching's pedagogical roles and how it might be used to meet the demands of the language
classroom and learners' expectations. These contrasting views and opinions regarding code
flipping may have an impact on how it is implemented in the classroom. As a result, the
findings of this study may serve as a catalyst for current ESL teachers to investigate and
evaluate their own and students' code-switching habits in order to gain a better knowledge of
the role of code switching in second language learning. This will allow teachers to build tactics
and procedures that are appropriate for kids' learning requirements and linguistic abilities. It's
also crucial for teachers to figure out what students expect from language in the ESL
classroom and to gain feedback from them. Students may take a more active role in the
classroom if they were involved in the decision-making process about the usage of language
during lessons.
 Effective cross-cultural communication skills used in this article by the Hong Kong
teachers assist Malaysian instructors in fostering positive interpersonal interactions in the
classroom. In the context of Malaysia's multicultural education system, elements across the
curriculum focused on recognising principles suited for national unity and well-being. These
hidden messages align with the National Education Philosophy, ensuring that students are
well-balanced in terms of physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual development. When
people of different races come together to exercise cooperation and collaboration, patriotism
plays a role. When traditional delicacies of other races are exhibited, patriotism is reinforced
by spiritual balance, indicating concern for and acceptance of diverse cultures in Malaysia.
Through this article, it can be concluded that if a country acknowledges, accepts, and
celebrates the languages of its people, and views linguistic and cultural diversity as a resource
rather than as a problem, citizens of all ethnicities and cultures will naturally incline towards
patriotism and nationhood as well as trilingualism can be practiced anywhere without any
hassles.

6.0 Conclusion

There are several parallels between Hong Kong and Malaysia, and many lessons from
this article can be learnt and applied to help Malaysian learners improve their language
learning abilities. The implication to ESL teachers is thus made clear that they should be
assisted in acquiring the knowledge to facilitate teaching the multicultural student population.
Teaching methodology courses not only can it be done in the English language classroom or
other language classrooms but also in content area classes in realizing the Malaysian’s
missions of internationalization and integration in the interest of academic excellence and
world peace.
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