Bulletin Summer 1979

Symposium on Language and Education in Hong Kong The Department of Chinese Language and Literature, the Department of English and the School of Education of the University, in collaboration with the Language Centre of the University of Hong Kong, held a symposium on "Language and Education in Hong Kong" on 26th and 27th May. The aim of the symposium was to study objectively and by means of research in academic theories, the problems of language education in Hong Kong today, and to suggest possible ways of raising the standard of Chinese and English teaching in local primary and secondary schools. Talks on Speical Topics "Language education policy" ， Professor R. Lord, Language Centre, University of Hong Kong “Intelligence ， language background, and exposure time in the development of bilingual competence among secondary school students", Dr. P. K. Siu ， School of Education “First language and second language", Professor D. C. Lau, Department of Chinese Language and Literature “Classical Chinese in the Chinese language curriculum for the secondary school", Professor M. Ma, Department of Chinese, University of Hong Kong "English as a foreign language at primary level: the search for content ”， Mr. R. K. Tongue, English Language Adviser, Education Department Group Discussions Apart from these talks, four rounds of group discussions were held to study a number of important issues. Topics for discussion include: (in the area of medium of instruction) the relationship between the medium of instruction, language learning and the study of other subjects; the social, economic and developmental considerations in the selection of an instructional medium; (in the teaching of Chinese) objectives, teaching materials and existing problems in teaching; (in the teaching of English) the functional approach, which is the latest development in education 14