Abstract
In the context of the educational reforms that began at the turn of the century, Hong Kong’s New Senior Secondary (NSS) English language curriculum was launched in 2009. An important aim of the curriculum reforms is to make teaching and learning more relevant to students’ everyday lives through more student-centred approaches to pedagogy. In the context of English language teaching and learning, the reforms also involve an emphasis on ‘cultural enrichment’ and ‘personal involvement’, in addition to ‘language enrichment’. The main feature that supports these aims is an innovative emphasis on language arts and the introduction of four language arts electives, including one entitled Learning English through Popular Culture. Based on analysis of curriculum documents and resources and student surveys conducted before and after the first round of implementation of the 3-year curriculum, this chapter discusses the role that popular culture now plays in senior secondary English language teaching (ELT). While arguing that the inclusion of popular culture in the NSS English curriculum is largely a positive move, it identifies significant unresolved issues in the implementation of the curriculum, which may limit the degree to which it succeeds in achieving its goals of cultural enrichment and making English language teaching more relevant to students’ lives.
The research on which this chapter is based was conducted at the Centre for Popular Culture and Education at The Hong Kong Institute of Education. The authors would like to thank Nikita Chan, Dani Wang, Kathy Wong and Cassy Yeung for their contributions to this research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
EMI schools must have at least 85 % of their Secondary 1 (Year 7) intake being able to learn through English. In EMI schools, all subjects are taught in English; hence, students in EMI schools have adequate exposure to authentic English and their English standard is comparatively higher than those in Chinese medium (CMI) schools.
References
Alvermann, D., Moon, J., & Hagood, M. (1999). Popular culture in the classroom: Teaching and researching critical media literacy. Newark: International Reading Association.
Alvermann, D. E., Xu, S. H., & Carpenter, M. (2003). Children’s everyday literacies: Intersections of popular culture and language arts instruction. Language Arts, 81(2), 145–154.
Benson, P., & Chik, A. (Eds.). (2014). Popular culture, pedagogy and teacher education: International perspectives. London: Routledge.
Buckingham, D. (Ed.). (1998). Teaching popular culture: Beyond radical pedagogy. London: University College London Press.
Buckingham, D. (2003). Media education: Literacy, learning and contemporary culture. Oxford: Polity Press.
Buckingham, D. (2014). The (re-)making of media educators: Teacher identities in changing times. In P. Benson & A. Chik (Eds.), Popular culture, pedagogy and teacher education: International perspectives (pp. 125–137). London: Routledge.
Chik, A. (2011). Video gaming and social networking as professional development: English teachers’ perception, attitudes and experience. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 6(2), 154–166.
Chu, B. (2009). Learning English through popular culture (Longman elect new senior secondary). Hong Kong: Pearson Education Asia.
Cramer, R. L. (2004). The language arts: A balanced approach to teaching reading, writing, listening, talking, and thinking. Boston: Pearson.
Curriculum Development Council [CDC]. (2000). Learning to Learn: The way forward in curriculum development. Hong Kong: Government Printer.
Curriculum Development Council and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority [CDC/HKEAA]. (2007). English language curriculum and assessment guide (secondary 4–6). Hong Kong: Education and Manpower Bureau.
Curriculum Development Institute [CDI]. (2007). Suggested schemes of work for the elective part of the three-year senior secondary English language curriculum (secondary 4–6). Hong Kong: Curriculum Development Institute, English Language Education Section.
Curriculum Development Institute [CDI]. (2009). Learning English through popular culture (secondary 4–6): A resource package. Hong Kong: Curriculum Development Institute, English Language Education Section.
Evans, J. (Ed.). (2005). Literacy moves on: Using popular culture, new technologies and critical literacy in the elementary classroom. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Johnson, S. (2006). Everything bad is good for you: How today’s popular culture is actually making us smarter. New York: Penguin.
Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lambirth, A. (2003). They get enough of that at home: Understanding aversion to popular culture in schools. Reading, Literacy and Language, 37(1), 9–14.
Lin, A., & Cheung, T. (2014). Designing an engaging English language arts curriculum for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students: Capitalizing on popular cultural resources. In P. Benson & A. Chik (Eds.), Popular culture, pedagogy and teacher education: International perspectives (pp. 138–150). London: Routledge.
Marsh, J. (2006). Popular culture in the literacy curriculum: A Bourdieuan analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(2), 160–174.
Marsh, J., & Millard, E. (2000). Literacy and popular culture: Using Children’s culture in the classroom. London: Paul Chapman.
Murphey, T. (1992). Music and song. ELT resources. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Poon, A. K. Y., & Wong, Y. C. (2008). Policy changes and impact of the education reform in Hong Kong. Journal of National Taiwan Normal University: Education, 53(3), 47–65.
Risager, K. (2006). Language and culture: Global flows and local complexity. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
White, C., & Walker, T. (2008). Tooning in: Essays on popular culture and education. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Wong, N. Y. B. (2009). Learning English through popular culture (The elective series). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Benson, P., Patkin, J. (2014). Innovation in Hong Kong’s New Senior Secondary English Language Curriculum: Learning English Through Popular Culture. In: Coniam, D. (eds) English Language Education and Assessment. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-071-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-071-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-287-070-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-287-071-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)