Constructing Bilingual Norms for Bilingual Program Assessment : A Study of Bilingual Writing Performance of Cantonese-Speaking Students in Hong Kong (China) and Anglophone Students in Montréal (Canada)

The author provides a linguistically-adequate description of the writing performance in L1 and L2 of students in Hong Kong and Montreal. The differences between the writing performance in L1 and L2 of students in Hong Kong and Montreal are also studied using covariance measures. The major statistical method used is UNIANOVA (SPSS). The intention of the study is to help ascertain the standards of L1 and L2 that are normally achieved at Secondary Three in bilingual programmes in these two cities. 35 Cantonese-speaking students of Secondary Three studying in an Anglo-Chinese secondary school in Hong Kong (H3 students), and 20 Anglophone students of Grade 8 studying in a late French immersion programme offered in an English school in an English-speaking area in Montreal (M3 students) are selected for the study. The subjects have three years of school experience learning in L2. Two instruments are used to facilitate the study of the subjects' writing performance with a cross-lingual perspective. The first is a Macro Index Schema that takes each piece of the sampled writings as a unit and evaluates their quality in a holistic fashion on a six-point scale. The second is a Micro Index Schema which is used to assess the sampled writing along four dimensions: they are intra-sentential accuracy, inter-sentential cohesiveness, textual coherence and presentational skills. The results of the Macro and Micro scorings have shown that the bilingual writing performances of the subjects of Hong Kong and Montreal are comparable. H3 and M3 subjects are able to perform the assigned formal tasks both in their respective L1 and L2 to clearly communicate the ideas and to present them in appropriate formats. It also shows that the L2 written skills of the Hong Kong subjects are comparable to their counterparts in Montreal who learn in similar bilingual programmes and also have few opportunities to use L2 outside schools. This study is one of the earliest attempts to asses the Chinese and English standards of Hong Kong students without using a monolingual frame of reference. The linguistic outcomes of the Hong Kong bilingual subjects are compared to subjects educated in programmes where bilingualism is practiced and give top priority. This understanding of the level of L1 and L2 proficiency that students from schools situated in a largely monolingual (L1) environment and employ L2 as a medium of instruction would normally achieve helps us to formulate practical pedagogy and realistic expectations for language teaching and learning.

Master's Thesis

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong, China

2000

vii-106-xxxix-44 p.

en