The Hong Kong Culture of Learning: Its Origins and Effects

This book presents an overarching perspective on the teaching and learning situation in Hong Kong, a territory sandwiched between Chinese and Western influences. It reviews conceptions of culture and the growing significance of culture for language teaching and learning (Chapter one), examines the literature concerning the Chinese and British cultures of learning (Chapter two) and presents the Hong Kong educational context itself (Chapter three). The multi-method research methodology is consequently presented and justified (Chapter four) and the salient features of the Hong Kong culture of learning, their likely cultural origins and their effects on curricular reforms, language teaching reforms and classroom practice duly researched (Chapter five). The resulting data permit a conceptualisation of the Hong Kong culture of learning that largely explains why government sponsored reforms tend to remain formally adopted rather than practically implemented and why culturally more familiar, traditional language teaching methodologies often persist (Chapter six).