New Horizons

Abstract

The criteria for judging the acceptability of local dialectal words in written Chinese has recently become topic of discussion in the context of Chinese Language education. This survey studied the attitudes of secondary school teachers of Chinese Language towards the usage of local dialectal words in pupils' essays. 380 teachers were asked to respond to 238 dialectal words. The findings indicate that local Chinese Language teachers are in general open-minded about the use of dialectal words and have flexible attitudes towards such usage. However, different degrees of acceptance were recorded of different categories of words. The situation is one of confusion. This paper suggests that an understanding of the differences in word use between Cantonese (as spoken in Hong Kong) and Putonghua be developed in teachers and students in Hong Kong. Works of local author, and dialectal words which have found their way into the local written language should be compiled and organized for further study on language use.

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