Chinese heritage language teaching for return migrants inHong Kong

Abstract

Over the last decade, a significant number of overseas Chinese including Hong Kong emigrants have returned to Hong Kong. Many returnees, especially those who learnt Chinese as a heritage language, often encounter various language difficulties upon their return mainly due to their incompletely acquired version of the Chinese language. However, there is little research on the Chinese language learning and teaching for this special community, which is inherently different from native Chinese learners or second-language learners. This work explores various pioneering ways to develop returnees’ greater fluency in the Chinese language and especially to improve their practical literacy skills. We intend to evaluate and further develop their awareness of the orthographic principles operating in Chinese characters. We believe that this is a key step to help Chinese returnees quickly integrate themselves to the local society.