147 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
L. Wang, A. Kirkpatrick, Trilingual Education in Hong Kong Primary Schools,
Multilingual Education 33, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11081-9_8
Chapter 8
Case Study 3: School C
8.1 School Information
Located in Kowloon, School C is a boys’ school. It has a long history, being estab-
lished in 1930. The language policy in the school has changed several times through-
out the years. Prior to the 1970s, School C was an Anglo-Chinese School. In 1970,
as with many schools in Hong Kong, it offered both morning and afternoon sessions
to different sets of pupils. English was used as the MoI in the A.M. Session while
Chinese was used in the P.M. Session. The curriculum for both sessions was unified
in 1972, with Chinese as the medium of instruction. In September 2008, Putonghua
became the MoI for the Chinese Language subject for P2, gradually becoming the
MoI for P2. Cantonese remained the MoI of P1. In 2014, there was a further change
with Putonghua becoming the MoI for the Chinese Language subject for P1–P4,
and Cantonese returning as the MoI for P5–P6.
The results of our survey showed that the students in School C were 100% local
Hongkongers. Cantonese was the MoI for the teaching of the Chinese Language
subject for P1, while Putonghua was used for P2–P6 (the survey was conducted
before the change noted above was implemented). Teachers have the freedom to
switch between the two languages in class. For the English subject, almost 100%
English was used as the MoI and almost 100% Putonghua was used as the MoI in
the Putonghua subject. As for other subjects (Mathematics, General Studies, Visual
Arts, Music, Physical Education and Information Technology), Cantonese was used
as the MoI. The survey also indicated that finding suitably qualified teaching staff
was the worst problem encountered during the implementation of trilingual educa-
tion in School C.
We collected data in the school for the case study from September to November
2014, which is when the language policy regarding the use of the MoI in the Chinese
Language subject changed: Putonghua was now used for P1–P4, while Cantonese
was used for P5–P6. The MoI for English, and other subjects remained unchanged
as shown in Table 8.1.