Shadow education received by senior secondary students in Hong Kong: learning experiences and perceptions of the effectiveness of English private tutoring

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate how learners perceived the effectiveness of shadow education through their English learning experiences. The study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as the analytical framework. It focused on the English learning experiences of Secondary Six (Grade 12) students who participated in English private tutoring (EPT) in a large-scale tutorial company in Hong Kong. Eighteen participants were selected for a year-long in-depth study, in which each of them submitted three pieces of reflective writing and was interviewed individually six times throughout the year. The findings showed that the participants evaluated EPT positively in general, although they felt that they were only able to use limited skills learnt in EPT in the public examination and EPT might not be effective in increasing their English proficiency. Among the 18 participants, only one was able to meet her target grade in the public examination, but most of them still considered EPT worth the time and money they spent. The participants’ positive evaluation of EPT can be explained by the fact that while EPT might not be able to fulfill their academic targets, it was effective in making them “feel” secure and prepared to take the public examination. They also tended to attribute academic success to their tutors but failures to themselves. These suggest that learners might perceive the effectiveness of EPT as whether it could fulfill their psychological needs during the learning process rather than its actual effectiveness to meet their target results.