Language Policy of Hong Kong

Journal ofTaiwan Nom祖IUniversity Humanities & Social Sciences 2004,49(1),53-74

Language policy ofHong Kong: Its impact on language

education and language use in post-handover Hong Kong

Anita

Y.

K. Poon

Department of Education Studies Hong Kong Baptist University

The language situation in Hong Kong is knowingly complex. Language policy has always been an unresolved thomy issue. In this paper 1 will first provide an overview of Hong Kong's language policy in the pre-handover period. Then 1 will examine the language policy since the handover in 1997. 1 will also look at the impact of the latest language policy on language education and language use in Hong Kong. The newly published language education review report entitled

‘

Action plan to raise language standards in Hong Kong' (SCOLAR, 2003) will be reviewed.

Defining language policy

The term 'language policy' is at times interchangeably used with other terms such as 'language planning' and 'language-in司 education

policy' (Baldauf, 1990, 1994; Cooper, 1989; Kaplan

,

1990; Rubin

,

1984). Poon (2000a) made an attempt to clarify the murky conceptual terrain of the language planning field by proposing a Model of Hierarchical Order of Language Planning and Language Policy. I 'Language planning' and

'language policy' are "two different yet related concepts"

,

which "share some common characteristics" (Poon

,

2000a

,

p.119). They are both top down, "involving deliberate and organized efforts to solve language problems, which very often have a social, political and/or economic orientation" (p.116). The major difference between these two constructs is that language planning is "a

macrosociological activity ... at a governmental and national level" only whereas language policy can be "either a macro- or microsociological activity ... at a governmental and national level or at an institutional level" (pp.116-117). That means language planning must be government-led

,

and language policy is not necessarily so. Language planning deals with status planning and corpus planning2 while language policy deals with corpus planning and acquisition planning.3

Within the framework of Hierarchical Order of Language Planning and Language Policy

,

language planning, which undertakes the same processes of identification of problems

,

analysis

,

policy setting and predicted outcomes as language policy, assumes a higher order than language policy in the policy area of ,Ianguage. Specific language

;F叫叫s， s叫O∞on冶圳's (2ρ20枷

Acωc∞O叮rd副m呵1喀g tωo Klos臼s (叭1969仍)， 'status plannin皂， focuses on the standing of a language "alongside other languages or vis-à-vis a national government" whereas 'co巾usplanning' is concerned with "the nature of the language itself" (p. 81), i.e. the structure and fonn of a language

3 'Acquisition planning' refers to the planning of acquisition of a language. The issues of medium of instruction, bilingual education,