Activity 1 Compare Articles (Unit 1)

Article 1 Article 2
(A) This essay investigates the perceived problem of Hong
(1) How often do PolyU students use English outside Kong students’ lack of English use outside university. The
the classroom? Because many data reported below were derived from a questionnaire
people think PolyU students don’t use English survey of a substantial sample of first-year undergraduates
much outside of class, I wanted from eight departments at the Hong Kong Polytechnic
to find out the answer to this question so I University.
decided to do a survey. I worked out
a questionnaire and then handed it out to lots of
students from eight 5 departments. The students (B) The survey was conducted between 12 and 23 April
filled in the questionnaire and then gave it back 2021. The subjects completed the questionnaire during their
to me. I did the survey in April 2021. A total of English for University Studies classes under the supervision
707 students took part in the survey, which is a of a research assistant. A total of 1,283 questionnaires were
really huge sample. In fact, this is the biggest
distributed and 707 correctly completed copies were
survey of its kind ever done in Hong Kong which
returned and subsequently analysed. The questionnaire
is terrific! And when I got the questionnaires
back, I looked closely at the data and put it into
required the respondents to indicate the frequency with
a number of figures. which they speak, listen, read and write in English outside
the formal setting of the English-medium classroom.

Note down the style problems you found in the box below. For each problem you identify, write an appropriate solution.

Problem (inappropriate language) Solution (appropriate language)

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

5. 5.

6. 6.

7. 7.

8. 8.

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(2) The first area I’d like to look at is speaking in (C) The first section of the questionnaire asked the subjects
English. Basically, what I wanted to know was to indicate on a six-point scale how often they speak in
how often students speak English outside the
English in a range of non-academic situations. On the
classroom. The questionnaire asked the
students to say how often they use English evidence of the findings presented in Figure 1, it would
when they talk to friends, parents etc. When appear that tertiary students in Hong Kong generally have
they filled in the questionnaire, the students had little need to speak in English outside the classroom.
to circle a number from 1 (never) to 6 (very
often). If they circled the numbers 1-3, it means
that they don’t use English very much. If they (D) The evidence suggests that undergraduates rarely
circled the numbers 4-6, it means that they use
communicate with their parents or grandparents in English.
English fairly often. As you can see, I’ve put all
This finding is perhaps not surprising as census data indicate
the data about speaking in English in Figure 1.
that the overwhelming majority of people in Hong Kong
(3) Let’s now talk about the data in Figure 1. speak Cantonese [1]. In the intimate family domain, young
First and foremost, it’s crystal clear that students people understandably have little need or desire to speak
don’t have many opportunities to speak English English, apart from special circumstances such as preparing
outside the classroom. You can tell this because for English language examinations.
all the means are under 3.00. Clearly, PolyU
students don’t have any need to speak to
parents etc. in English. This is undoubtedly (E) The results indicate that the situation in which tertiary
because their family members are Cantonese students use English least is in interactions with their
speakers. Obviously, there’s no point in grandparents. When interpreting this finding, it is worth
speaking English when everyone can speak noting that recent surveys have revealed that English is less
Cantonese. As you can see, PolyU students
never speak to their grandparents in English. widely known among Hong Kong people in their sixties and
This is not surprising because, as we all know, seventies than among those in the 40-60 and 20-40 age
old people in Hong Kong can’t speak English. groups [2]. This largely stems from the fact that the
That’s because the education system wasn’t provision of English-medium secondary education was
very good in the past. But, you can see that limited in the 1940s and 1950s [3]. The majority of citizens
there are a few situations (overseas holidays
and so on) where students do get a golden in the 60-70 age group are likely to have received only a
opportunity to use their English, even though Chinese-medium primary education [4].
this is not really very often. In a nutshell, then,
the data in Figure 1 prove that PolyU students
don’t speak English much outside the
classroom.
Problem (inappropriate language) Solution (appropriate language)
9. 9.

10. 10.

11. 11.

12. 12.

13. 13.

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