Local Chinese make better English teachers than native English speakers, an English chair professor claims

(本港某大学英語系教授倡議由本地人[non-native English speakers]教小孩和學生英語比只懂英語的外國人教更有效)




[Professor says multilingual teachers who grew up speaking Cantonese provide a better model for Hong Kong children than native English speakers]

English should be taught in Hong Kong by multilingual teachers, not native English speakers, according to a Hong Kong education professor who is organising an international conference on English as a lingua franca, being held in the city.

"It's a revolutionary shift that we're arguing for, and it's that the multilingual way becomes the linguistic model for teaching kids English here, not that of a native English speaker," says Andy Kirkpatrick, chair professor of English as a professional language at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Most English speakers in Hong Kong now are multilingual "and therefore the benchmark for children should come from successful multilinguals".

Kirkpatrick chairs the organising committee for the fourth International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca, to be held in Hong Kong - the first outside Europe. The conference was established to compare and contrast the development and roles of English as a lingua franca within Europe and Asia. More than 200 academics and policymakers from 36 countries are attending the event at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in Tai Po.

One of the most important ideas under discussion is that multilingual language teachers should be the ones teaching local children English.

Nearly 90 per cent of English teachers in Hong Kong schools are native speakers of Cantonese who have learnt English. They have traditionally been criticised as deficient in their use of English compared to native speakers, but Kirkpatrick argues that they provide the right model for English teaching in Hong Kong because they have the same linguistic background as local children.

"Instead of a discourse of complaint [about the standard of English], there should be a discourse of self-confidence," he said. "What we're trying to promote is that multilinguals start feeling proud about being multilingual, rather than being embarrassed that they are not as good as native English speakers."

Kirkpatrick wants to see Hong Kong children learn to speak English in a way that is easily understood anywhere in the world, rather than worrying about perfect pronunciation. He said it was important to be understood internationally, not to sound like a native English speaker.

"There are so many multilingual professionals in this part of the world that are highly successful in the international community, and it's they who can provide the linguistic models for their students," he said.

（This article was published in the SCMP on May 27）