An increasing number of students are taking up language courses to spice up their resumes, as proficiency in languages has become a significant aspect of career development.
Local universities have seen a rise in applicants interested in language studies. The department of linguistics and modern languages at Chinese University (CUHK) admitted 3,000 students for its 150 classes offered in 2008. 'The numbers of applications to our postgraduate programmes in linguistics have been on the rise, both for the taught MA programmes and the research degree programmes,' says Professor Thomas Lee Hun-tak, the department's postgraduate programmes co-ordinator.
Established in 2004, the department offers major and minor undergraduate programmes along with masters of arts (MA), masters of philosophy (MPhil) and doctor of philosophy (PhD) in linguistics and other areas of focus such as Japanese language and linguistics, and Chinese linguistics.
'Our BA and MA programmes in linguistics are recognised as relevant degrees for English teachers by the Education Bureau,' Lee says. 'Graduates of the two programmes are exempted from the English Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers upon completion of relevant teacher training.'
The linguistics programmes allow students to develop a deeper understanding in theoretical and applied linguistics, such as phonetics, phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, language acquisition, sign language, psycholinguistics, language pedagogy, clinical linguistics and linguistic applications.
The department also offers undergraduate courses on languages, including French, German, Hong Kong sign language, Italian, Korean, Spanish and Thai, and courses on their literatures and cultures. It also offers minor programmes in French, German and Spanish. The increase in co-operation with the mainland has led to a surge in the demand for professionally-trained Putonghua teachers.
'Of the recent batch of our MA graduates, who specialise in Chinese linguistics and language acquisition, almost half of them found local jobs as Mandarin-language teachers,' Lee says. 'Others have gone for jobs in communication and media as well as research positions related to the study of Mandarin.'