First year pre-service teachers' perceptions of teaching and learning Chinese in primary schooling in Hong Kong

How Chinese language proficiency can be enhanced is a key concern in the Hong Kong community. Education Commission Report No. 6 (1995) suggests that teacher education institutions should give more attention to language awareness and language skills in initial training programs. Before teacher educators work out an ideal program for initial training of Chinese language teachers, research findings in TESOL might have shed light on the direction of developing such a program. Freeman (1989) sees language teaching as ‘a decision-making process based on four constituents: knowledge, skills, attitude, and awareness’. Almarza (1996), Bailey & Nunan (1996), Richardson (1996), Grossman (1990, 1991a), Barnes (1989) and Claxton (1985) etc. all observe that student teachers’ beliefs and past experience show great impact on the effectiveness of their learning to teach. In the light of these past studies, this paper intends to investigate first year pre-service teachers’ perceptions of teaching and learning Chinese in primary schooling. It is hoped that findings in this survey can serve as a reference for the development of Chinese language teacher education especially in the Hong Kong context. Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.