TEACHING English to children too early could be a waste of time and turn them off later language learning, according to a government education official.
The Institute of Language in Education director, Dr John Clark, said forcing young children to learn English without an element of fun had resulted in ''children being demotivated and actively turned against English in their first few years of school''.
Young students were bombarded by Cantonese when they returned home and English lessons were ''torn out like a frail seed''.
He said the best English teachers should be given to students aged eight and older who could ''learn deliberately rather than for fun''.
There was ''not much point'' trying to give lasting English skills to children before this age.
Students and teachers learned languages best in an immersion situation when they were surrounded by one language, but this was incompatible with the students' environment in Hongkong.
But Dr Clark stressed that English and Chinese were both important in the local environment.