An investigation of the English language skills used by new entrants in banks in Hong Kong

Abstract

This research note reports on a study to investigate what English language skills are used by new graduate employees in their daily work in various departments in four banks in Hong Kong. Through interviews with 16 new bank employees across these four banks and the use of questionnaires, my aim was to determine what proportion of their daily communicative tasks is carried out in Cantonese and in English, and which English language skills are used more frequently. An attempt is also made to determine the extent of and reason for these employees’ difficulty in using English to carry out their various tasks, and what kind of interest they have in undergoing English language training courses. The study draws several preliminary conclusions about the language divide between spoken and written discourse in banks in Hong Kong with Cantonese used in spoken discourse and English used in written discourse, and the need for larger numbers of bank employees who are fluent in both languages so as to achieve maximum productivity.