Teaching and Assessing EIL Vocabulary in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong is one of the ‘outer circle’ regions in Kachru’s (The other tongue: English across cultures. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1982) three-concentric-circle model. It is also a bi-literate (Chinese and English) and trilingual (Cantonese, Putonghua, and English) region where English is one of the official languages. English is regarded as an international language in Hong Kong, based on McKay’s (Teaching English as an international language: Rethinking goals and approaches. Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York, p 5, 2002) definition that EIL is ‘a language of wider communication both among individuals from different countries and between individuals from one country’. Teaching and assessing English vocabulary in such a context requires teachers and learners to be aware of the global and local ‘cultural conceptualizations’ (Sharifian 2011) involved in the English word formation processes and lexical relations. Tomlinson (Which test of which English and why? In: Kirkpatrick A (ed) The Routledge handbook of world Englishes. Routledge, London/New York, p 610, 2010) proposes learner-centred criteria, including both ‘universal criteria’ and ‘local criteria’ in English teaching and assessment. Kirkpatrick (World Englishes: Implications for international communication and English language teaching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 195, 2007) summarizes a set of ‘requirements for ELT teachers’ who wish to work in outer and expanding circle countries. These recent developments in ELT have implications for vocabulary teaching and assessment in Hong Kong.