This article presents the findings of a corpus-based study of the use of English vis-à-vis Cantonese and Putonghua in Hong Kong's Legislative Council in the past four decades. The objective of the study was to track the changing fortunes of the three languages in a key government institution during a period of unprecedented political, economic and…

During the last two decades of colonial rule, a wide gulf existed between policy and practice in Hong Kong's English-medium secondary schools: while English was the medium of textbooks, assignments and examinations, Cantonese and Cantonese-English mixed code were the dominant media of classroom communication. Although mixed-mode instruction was…

Examines a crucial episode in the history of language policy in British colonial education: the orientalist-Anglicist controversy of the 1830s over the content and medium of government education in India. Reassesses Macaulay's influence on British language policy and looks at short-term and long-term consequences of Macaulay's scheme in India and…