New Horizons in Education

Abstract

Background: Since 2000 Hong Kong government has pursued a new policy of Language Proficiency Requirement (LPR) and conducted Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (LPAT). under witch all English/Putonghua teachers holding a permanent post in a public-sector schools or a local private primary/secondary day schools offering the full curriculum will not be allowed to teach English or Putonghua if he or she had not met the required language proficiency level by specific deadlines. This policy triggered off a heated debate from all sides of education circles in Hong Kong.

Aims: This study aims to collect the general opinions and attitudes of Putonghua teachers towards this new government’s policy two year after the policy had been put into practice.

Sample: Questionnaires were sent to 400 secondary schools and total of 177 questionnaires filled in by secondary school Putonghua subject chair teachers were collected.

Method: Questionnaire survey was conducted and the written responses received from the respondents were tabulated.

Results: This study found that the secondary school Putonghua teachers generally disliked the new policy of LPR which had been strongly carried out by the government, although the new policy was accepted as a necessary step for Putonghua teachers’ professional development.

Conclusion: To make the new policy favorably received by language teachers, the government needs to do something substantially to lessen the burden of affected teachers, because LPR, as well as LPAT, has actually become an additional burden upon language teachers, who has been already under heavy workloads.

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