Electronic Chinese learning materials for ethnic minority students

Abstract

The Chinese proficiency level of over 60 % of Ethnic Minority (EM) students in Hong Kong aged between 12 and 23 is not on a par with their local counterparts. Between March and July 2014, City University and Hong Kong Christian Service surveyed 378 EM students and asked them to rate their own Chinese competence, their experience and evaluation of how Chinese language education would impact on their career and education opportunities. Most respondents felt that although the Education Bureau had introduced some measures to help them in recent years, these measures failed to significantly boost their written and spoken competencies. The survey also interviewed 107 EM job seekers, 60 per cent of whom were unable to read or write Chinese. Not only did they fail to respond and send timely applications because they could not understand Chinese recruitment advertisements, but also there was a shortage of positions for them as they were severely impeded by their poor language skills in Chinese. A thematic report on the education of EM students in 2011 indicated that the number of EM secondary school graduates who were able to proceed to tertiary education showed a low figure of 0.6 % as compared with their Chinese counterparts of 18 %. This paradoxical situation is caused by the fact that universities prescribe at least a Level 3 pass for the Chinese Language subject in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) as an entrance requirement which consequently hampers these students from moving upwards in education, and to a larger extent, in the social hierarchy. After conducting a series of pilot studies, our research team has established that the set of electronic teaching and learning materials we have designed are suitable and effective for Chinese as Second Language (CSL) learners to improve their writing and speaking skills.