LettersWhy Chinese kids in Hong Kong struggle with English: it comes down to the basics

As expected, performances in receptive skills (listening and reading) were better than productive skills (speaking and writing). A lack of students felt the need to use English in daily life, for casual and informal communication in postcolonial Hong Kong, is again perceived as a core reason for the phenomenon.

Between the two skills local pupils are weak at, writing performance remains paramount for admission considerations in overseas universities. Both lexical density and grammatical intricacy are areas that most Cantonese-speaking students struggle with. Language teachers also understand that unsatisfactory performance in writing is largely due to the negative transfer of the mother tongue.

Speaking, pronunciation in particular, is also heavily influenced by the native language. Cantonese speakers tend to find it difficult to learn and master standard English pronunciation because of the contrasts in phonemes, syllable structure, tones, and rhythmic patterns in the two languages.

Inaccuracies in pronouncing short and long vowels, diphthongs, voiced and unvoiced consonants, and consonant clusters are almost inevitable for many local learners.