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Suri Chan Tin-wing is studying English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
But the 19-year-old is struggling with the vocabulary in her literature classes.
“It just takes me a lot more time to truly grasp a piece of writing,” the student said.
Chan graduated from Yan Chai Hospital Law Chan Chor Si College in Kowloon Bay. At her secondary school, English was not the medium of instruction (EMI). This has made her feel worried about her English as a university student.
When she had to write a short story, Chan thought she did not have the right words to make it interesting.
“I felt hesitant the moment I started writing,” Chan said.
“I questioned whether my plot would be as well-written or creative as those of students from EMI schools. I thought my writing ... lagged behind [theirs].”
A change in policy
Hong Kong has 114 EMI government and subsidised schools. The other 270 public secondary schools use Chinese as the medium of instruction (CMI) or use English to teach certain subjects.
Christine Choi Yuk-lin is the city’s secretary for education. Earlier this month, she said she was considering making it easier for schools to get permission to use English as their medium of instruction.
Ansley Lee Kwan-ting has been teaching English for 15 years. She works at a CMI school. She supports the plan to have more EMI schools.
She said Hong Kong could attract more global talent by improving the city’s English education.
“Now, you have so many overseas professionals coming to Hong Kong to study,” she said.
“If you don’t strengthen English education, how will the children of mainland Chinese families ... catch up in English in Hong Kong?”
But Lee said teachers who were educated in CMI schools might struggle to instruct students in English.
“Despite studying in English for four years at university, the problem is that many teachers still lack the confidence to teach their own subjects in English,” she said.
“Teachers who came from CMI schools are actually quite far behind.”
Confidence for more students
Chan wished she studied literature and history in English during secondary school.
“They never strictly required or pushed us to read the classics back in secondary school,” she said. “We mostly stuck to very basic English books.”
She said that even in English class, teachers at her school used Cantonese so pupils could keep up. The only other subjects taught in English were the science classes.
Chan was the only one of her classmates to get a level 5 in the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) English exam.
“Even though I feel my English proficiency might be slightly better than my former classmates, being at university is different,” she said.
Chan agreed that more secondary schools should use English as the medium of instruction. She thinks this will better prepare students for university.
But she said the change should be slow to avoid affecting pupils with weaker English skills.
“Many of my friends didn’t expect English at university to be this challenging ... They are struggling in their first year, and even high-achieving students see English as their weakness,” she said.
“I noticed that CMI students often struggle with academic writing or reading journal articles at university.”
She added: “If more [secondary school] subjects were taught in English, students would feel more confident.”
