A Cross-cultural Study of English Language Teaching in Secondary Schools in Hong Kong and Mainland China

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-430-3_27How to use a DOI?

Keywords

English language teaching; sociolinguistics; intercultural communication; comparative study

Abstract

Though Mainland China and Hong Kong share a deep cultural connection, they exhibit different educational philosophies and practices in the field of English language instruction. Both regions have accumulated rich experiences in English education and developed distinct educational material systems, making comparative research on English teaching in these areas particularly important. This study explores the cultural implications of junior high school English education in both Mainland China and Hong Kong from five dimensions: mother tongue culture, target language culture, international culture, contrastive culture, and other cultures. These dimensions are further divided into two main categories: knowledge culture and communication culture, analyzing the emphasis placed in each category by the two regions. The findings show that English teaching in Mainland China focuses more on cultivating students’ fundamental language skills while emphasizing the enhancement of cultural awareness, particularly in terms of emotional attitudes and cultural identity. In Mainland China’s textbooks and teaching practices, the cultivation of patriotism and national self-confidence holds significant importance. In contrast, English education in Hong Kong places greater emphasis on the holistic development of students and lifelong learning, prioritizing the shaping of attitudes and values. The teaching methodologies in Hong Kong are more diversified, focusing on nurturing students’ international perspective and intercultural communication skills. While both regions adopt a multi-dimensional hierarchical teaching approach, Mainland China tends to enhance students’ national identity through cultural awareness, whereas Hong Kong is more concerned with the development of global competence and the diversification of values. This difference reflects the varying educational goals and cultural orientations of the two regions.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yanying Yao
AU  - Yan Yin
AU  - Jiang Teng
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/06/22
TI  - A Cross-cultural Study of English Language Teaching in Secondary Schools in Hong Kong and Mainland China
BT  - Proceedings of the  2025 3rd International Conference on Language, Innovative Education and Cultural Communication (CLEC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 219
EP  - 225
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-430-3_27
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-430-3_27
ID  - Yao2025
ER  -