LANG A331

Unit 9
Revision and research

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Course team Developer: Professor Kingsley Bolton, Consultant, Stockholm University (revised 2006) Dr Rex Sharman, OUHK Dr Han Yang, OUHK Ms Emily Poon, OUHK

Designer: Coordinator: Member:

External Course Assessor Dr Agnes Lam, University of Hong Kong Production ETPU Publishing Team

Copyright The Open University of Hong Kong, 2008. Revised 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the President, The Open University of Hong Kong. Sale of this material is prohibited. The Open University of Hong Kong 30 Good Shepherd Street Ho Man Tin, Kowloon Hong Kong

Contents
Introduction Course revision revising key concepts
Unit 1 Language and society in Hong Kong Unit 2 Introduction to Asian sociolinguistics Unit 3 The sociolinguistics of Chinese in Hong Kong Unit 4 The sociolinguistics of English in Hong Kong Unit 5 Code-switching and code-mixing Unit 6 Language variation Unit 7 Language and gender Unit 8 Language policies and language planning

1 2
3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5

What is sociolinguistic research? A basic model of sociolinguistic research Applying the research model to Hong Kong Guidelines for your own research project Carrying out your research plan

7 9 12 15 17

Report plan: an outline of the structure of the research project report17 Final comments 18

Feedback on activities Appendix 9.1

19 24

Unit 9

Introduction
In this unit, we attempt to achieve two broad aims: First, we look back at the earlier units of the course in order to refresh your memory about the scope and contents of the course and to revise a number of the key concepts in sociolinguistics that this course has presented to you. Second, we move forward by preparing you for the final important assignment in the course which will involve you designing and carrying out your own sociolinguistics project on an aspect of language and society in Hong Kong. In short, this unit: revises a range of concepts in sociolinguistics; revises a number of key language issues in the Hong Kong context; discusses a number of important principles relating to carrying out sociolinguistic research; and helps you to begin planning your own sociolinguistic project.

LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

Course revision revising key concepts

The word revise in English means to look again or repeatedly at [ ] something (Oxford English Dictionary), and is said to be derived from the French and Latin words for look again. In the first section of this unit, we shall indeed be looking again at what we have covered so far in the course, and we shall be doing so for at least two important reasons. The first reason is broadly pedagogical. It makes good sense, from a learning perspective, if we take a short pause at this point to think over a number of the key issues that the course has covered so far. LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong has set out to teach you about sociolinguistics (the study of language and society), and, at the same time, to give you a new way of looking at language in your own society, Hong Kong. In order to do this, this course has introduced to you a range of new concepts, as well as a new vocabulary, for thinking about such questions, and for talking and writing about these issues from a systematic and descriptive perspective. Now, many people in society may have ideas about language, or opinions about language issues, but relatively few people get the chance to study language and society systematically, and to gain an appreciation of how the study of sociolinguistics can broaden our understanding. The second reason is specifically instructional, which is to say that in this unit it is necessary for you consider the whole range of course materials covered so far in order to assist you in deciding which type of project you would like to carry out in order to complete this course. So far we have considered a wide variety of topics, including multilingualism, Chinese and English in the HKSAR, code-switching, language and gender, language planning, etc. Now is the chance for you to consider which of these issues strikes you as most interesting and appeals to you most as a possible topic for your own small-scale research project. Lets start by taking a look back at each of the units that weve covered in the course so far, and considering the kind of activities presented in each unit as well as the major concepts and ideas.

Activity 9.1
Read this review actively: dont just skim it. Ask yourself two questions as you read each unit summary: 1 2 Can I remember and understand all the key concepts? Is there a topic in this unit that I would like to pursue further in my own research project?

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If your answer to Question 1 is No, then either take the time to revise the concepts now, or at least make a note of such concepts so that you know you need to pay special attention to these when revising for your exam.

Unit 1 Language and society in Hong Kong

In this unit, you were asked to follow a set of activities that required you to think about the use of language and languages in your daily life. These included activities on varieties of written and spoken language; the discussion of the multiple meanings of the term language; considering the differences between languages and dialects; readings on the dialects of China and Hong Kong; and an activity which involved you in considering the diversity of your own linguistic repertoire. Key concepts in this unit include: language versus dialect, regional dialect, dialect continuum, dialect continua, dialect families, dialectology, language varieties, autonomy versus heteronomy, standard languages, mutual intelligibility, lingua franca, codification, vernacular languages, speech versus writing, speech community, bilingualism, multilingualism versus monolingualism, speech norms, language shift, language loss, dialect levelling, language and identity, diglossia, standard written Chinese, written Cantonese, code-mixing, linguistic repertoires, multiculturalism, minority languages, minority speech communities, and linguistic diversity.

Unit 2 Introduction to Asian sociolinguistics

This unit provided a number of activities related to the study of language and society, and the consideration of the scope of sociolinguistics internationally, in Asia, and in Hong Kong. Activities in this unit included those illustrating the use of language in particular social contexts, as well as a number of reading activities concerned with sociolinguistics of Asia. Later activities involved testing your own reactions to contemporary sociolinguistic issues in Hong Kong. Key concepts in this unit include: definitions of sociolinguistics, macrosociolinguistics versus microsociolinguistics, Asian sociolinguistics, Asian language families, official languages, national languages, the status and functions of languages, nationism versus nationalism, the status and functions of languages, national language policy, and sociolinguistic terminology.

LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

Unit 3 The sociolinguistics of Chinese in Hong Kong

This unit focused on the defining characteristics of Hong Kong Cantonese, the relationship between Putonghua and Cantonese, language attitudes, and varieties of written Chinese in Hong Kong. In addition to reading activities, you were required to watch a series of video interviews with recent immigrants from mainland China in order to test your reactions to varieties of Chinese and varieties of Cantonese. Reading activities focused on the description of dialects in mainland China, and the use of languages in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Finally, this unit also contained a reading activity which required you to consider the distinctive features of written Cantonese in the HKSAR. Key concepts in this unit include: varieties of Chinese, Guangzhou Cantonese versus Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese-Putonghua codeswitching, national language policy, Yue, Min and other Chinese dialects in Hong Kong, dialect levelling, Cantonese dialects, Yale romanization, Hong Kong accent, standard language versus dialects, modern standard Chinese, standard written Chinese, spoken language versus book language (in Hong Kong), simplified versus full Chinese characters, and written Cantonese.

Unit 4 The sociolinguistics of English in Hong Kong

This unit mainly used reading activities in order to survey the contemporary status and functions of English in Hong Kong society. Such readings dealt with the history of English in Hong Kong, the official status of English in the HKSAR, the spread of bilingualism and multilingualism, and English in the personal domain. Other readings dealt with the description and analysis of Hong Kong English, and the use of the language by local novelists and poets. Key concepts in this unit include: English versus Englishes, world Englishes, attitudes to English, the status and functions of English in government, law, education, and the media, Hong Kong English, and Hong Kong literature in English.

Unit 5 Code-switching and code-mixing

This unit focused on the linguistic characteristics of English in contact with Hong Kong Cantonese. Activities included listening to and describing examples of code-switching on the radio and in everyday life, the grammatical classification of code-switched linguistic items and the description of code-switching of such written sources as Hong Kong Chinese newspapers. At the end of this unit, you were asked to consider the attitudes of Hong Kong people to this linguistic phenomenon.

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Key concepts in this unit include: code-switching versus code-mixing, inter-sentential versus intra-sentential code-switching, lexical borrowing, style-shifting, principle of economy, acronyms, linguistic versus sociolinguistic motivations for code-switching, language purism, metaphorical code-switching, code-switching and multiculturalism, and mixed code and Hong Kong Chinese identity.

Unit 6 Language variation

In this unit, activities involved watching a number of video extracts that were taken from a televised campaign to promote correct Cantonese in the mid-nineteen nineties. In addition to various activities related to the videos, you were also asked to read extensively on the theories and research of William Labov, the American sociolinguist, and to consider a Labovian approach to variation in Hong Kong Cantonese. Finally, you were asked to consider the arguments of prescriptive linguists versus descriptive linguists on the issue of correct Cantonese pronunciation. Key concepts in this unit include: linguistic variation, prescriptivism versus descriptivism, good versus bad language, variation versus variety, grammatical, lexical, phonological variation, standard versus nonstandard varieties, the Queens English, standard English, the correct Cantonese campaign, regional dialects, social dialects, the social stratification of speech, styles of speech, Labovian methodology, the importance of the vernacular, and prestige forms versus non-prestige forms.

Unit 7 Language and gender

In this unit, you participated in a number of activities that focussed on sexism in language, male and female patterns of speaking, language and socialisation, gender stereotypes, and language and gender in the Chinese context. These activities included viewing videos, analysing differences in male and female speech, participating in a questionnaire survey, reading articles, and analysing the language of a Hong Kong beauty contest. Key concepts in this unit include: language and gender, gender stereotypes, gender roles, sexist versus non-sexist language, male versus female speech styles, language socialization, critical discourse analysis, symbolic violence against women, and non-sexist and non-discriminatory language.

Unit 8 Language policies and language planning

For this topic, you were required to read a wide range of articles and texts, including excerpts of policy documents, government webpages, transcribed dialogues and interviews, and newspaper and magazine

LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

articles. In addition, you were asked to reflect on your own experiences of language policies in various domains. Key concepts in this unit include: language policies versus language planning, language planning in China versus language planning in Hong Kong, the Official Languages Division, language in the legal domain, legal drafting, mother tongue education, and multilingual education. Throughout this course, you have considered and come to understand a wide range of basic concepts in sociolinguistic research. You have also read a substantial number of academic papers in connection with a wide range of issues related to the study of language and society in Hong Kong. We have just looked back to revise the units studied in this course so far. You should now look forward at how you might apply the knowledge and insights gained from these earlier units of study when designing and conducting your own small-scale research project on an aspect of sociolinguistics that interests you. First, lets start by considering one very basic question.

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What is sociolinguistic research?

It is perhaps clear to you at this point that sociolinguistics, as a branch of language study, is rather different from other types of linguistics. In other areas of linguistics and language study, the work of many linguists is highly specialized and is typically concerned with the highly detailed study of particular aspects of language. For example, grammarians are concerned mainly with the study of English sentences, often in isolation from their actual use in social contexts. Phoneticians are concerned with language sounds, and the sound systems of particular languages. Lexicographers are concerned with constructing dictionaries of words, and how word meanings may best be explained. What is common to many such linguists, then, is that the object of study, language, is typically lifted out of the social context (real life, if you like). They then study language as a system in itself, separated from the often messy issues that surround its use in actual societies, or the messy variations that occur in actual language use. Sociolinguistics is very different. Sociolinguists set out to explain language with direct reference to all the various social factors that impinge on language use in real-life societies, such as social class, gender, age, multilingualism and languages in contact, among others. Instead of regarding messy variations in language as being irrelevant or as being a distraction from the language system, the study of linguistic variation is seen as central to sociolinguistic research. Thus far in the course, you have already acquired a great deal of knowledge about the application of sociolinguistic research to the study of language and society in Hong Kong. If we now take a little time to step back and consider the scope of your studies, and the scope of language and society as an academic subject, it may be helpful to think of sociolinguistics as a three-level academic enterprise. This involves, first, a specific and unique approach to the study of language, at the level of theory; and, second, a special terminology (or metalanguage) used for discussing the key technical concepts in the field. Third, this also involves a specific type of methodology that sets it apart from other branches of language study. This is illustrated in Figure 9.1.
Approach an intellectual approach to the study of language and society; based on theories relating to the study of linguistic variation, and the influence of social factors on language use

Terminology a terminology, or metalanguage, used to discuss ideas and practices in sociolinguistics Methodology a methodology, or sets of methodologies, for researching and describing the interaction of language and society
Figure 9.1 The scope of sociolinguistics

LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

So far, in various ways throughout the course, you have been given training in the first two elements of sociolinguistics, i.e., approach and terminology. Throughout the course, you have encountered a substantial number of sociolinguistic theories, and you have also become rather familiar with the special terminology that is used in this field. You have gained exposure to the kinds of methodologies that are used by practicing sociolinguists. However, you have not until now been given specific training in how to apply the concept of methodology to the understanding of sociolinguistic research or to the actual task of preparing and carrying out your own sociolinguistic research project. In the following sections of this unit, we shall attempt to give you training in both these aspects of sociolinguistics.

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A basic model of sociolinguistic research

The outstanding characteristic of most sociolinguistic research, as you may have gathered by now, is that it is based on the collection and analysis of sociolinguistic data, in one form or another. Sociolinguistic data generally come in two basic forms: data about language; and language data.

Data in the first sense, i.e. data about language, may take a variety of forms, e.g., government reports, language surveys, censuses, newspaper reports, and language attitude studies, among other things. A typical feature of this type of data is that the focus is very much on information about language, rather than the collection of examples of actuallyoccurring language. Data in the second sense, i.e., language data, involves the collection of examples of language, in either spoken or written form. Examples of spoken language data typically involve the tape recording and transcription of natural spoken communication in some way. This may involve structured interviews of the Labovian type (see Unit 6), or it might involve recordings taken from the mass media, such as radio and television (see Unit 5). Examples of written data are newspaper articles or the language of advertisements. The first kind of data collection is often used when dealing with the large-scale description of language use in multilingual societies, socalled macrosociolinguistic research. The second kind of data collection is typically used when the focus is on the detailed description and analysis of linguistic variation, so-called microsociolinguistic research. What is common to both types of study, however, is the importance of data collection and analysis. Whereas other branches of linguistics, e.g., the study of grammar, may take examples out of earlier textbooks, or simply come from the mind of the grammarian himself/herself (through introspection), a test of good sociolinguistic data is that in a direct sense it has been collected from the real world. But merely collecting data, without a careful consideration of other aspects of research, is not particularly helpful. In other words, it is simply not enough to go out and make recordings or collect information about a particular language without thinking very carefully about the essential research questions or research issues that are most important in a study. The first step to any research project is actually thinking about what exactly it is one wishes to investigate. There is little point in investigating a particular issue, if we already know the answer.

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LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

For example, if a researcher was to state that his/her research issue was: To investigate whether or not the use of Cantonese has increased in the Legislative Council of the HKSAR government after 1997

This would not be a worthwhile research issue as formulated here. Why? Well, simply because we already know what the answer to that question is. Through watching television, and reading the newspapers, we already know that there has been a great increase in the frequency of use of Cantonese since the 1997 change in the HKSAR government. Today, spoken English is used far less frequently in the Legco Chamber. With a little thought, however, we might come up with other interesting research questions We could speculate about what patterns of spoken and written communication exist in Legco, and consequently formulate one or several research questions such as: Is code-mixing ever used in the Legislative Council Chamber? Is such code-mixing mainly associated with certain topics, e.g business, technical and scientific discussions, or does it occur in many different types of discussion?

Once you are able to decide on your research issues (well say more about this later), and to formulate these precisely in written form, you can then decide what type of methodology you will use to collect the appropriate data for your study. The main method that sociolinguists adopt is called an empirical research methodology. This is a methodology that is also widely used in the natural sciences and social sciences. Broadly speaking, this type of research methodology begins by formulating research issues (or hypotheses) about certain research questions, and then testing such issues either through experiments of some kind, or through the collection of relevant information or data. The type of data that you collect will depend on the nature of your research issues, and the characteristics of the research issues and data will in turn influence the shape of your final research report. For example, if you are involved in exploring research issues and collecting data about language, e.g., language survey data, this will involve you presenting your results in the form of tables or charts. Alternatively, if you are involved in testing issues about actual language and collecting language data in the form of tape-recordings, this will usually necessitate the transcription of language data into a written form of some kind. The question will later arise as to how to best present this data. In most instances, it would be highly impractical to include a large amount of transcription or other texts into the body of your research report. Therefore, you will usually find it preferable to put transcribed spoken data into the Appendix to your report, and then quote where appropriate in the body of your report. Similarly, if you are working on the analysis of newspaper texts, you will also include these in an appendix.

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Finally, having collected and presented your research data, you also need to present an analysis of this data, and to comment on the relevance of your findings to your initial research questions. It is also desirable that you comment on the wider relevance of your research project to the study of language and society in Hong Kong. To summarize, a typical research project of this kind will involve four basic stages. These are illustrated for you in Figure 9.2.
Step 1 Stating the problem What are the precise research issues? State and justify these research issues as clearly as possible in a written form.

Step 2 Collecting the data What methodology will you use? How is the data collected? What type of data is collected? Presenting the data

Step 3

How will you present your data? How will this be organized? (In the text, in an appendix, with charts, tables?) Analysis and commentary

Step 4

How do you analyse your data? How do your results relate to your research issues? In what ways does your project relate to some of the main ideas and concepts that have been discussed in course LANG A331? In what ways does your project provide insight into the study of language and society in Hong Kong?
A model of sociolinguistic research for Hong Kong

Figure 9.2

Dont be too anxious about this. We are only expecting you to carry out a small-scale project.

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LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

Applying the research model to Hong Kong

The above model of sociolinguistic research in Hong Kong may seem quite easy to understand, although actually understanding such a model, and applying the model in carrying out ones own research project are of course two very different things. Once you start trying to carry out your own research project, you are likely to run into difficulties of many kinds. These may be difficulties relating to getting hold of relevant information; finding good written data; gaining permission from individuals you may wish to tape-record; or simply finding a good tape-recorder that doesnt break down and that allows you to make recordings of a sufficiently high quality to be clearly heard and transcribed. Nevertheless, the model of research set out above can serve you well in many aspects of language study, particularly in the field of language and society. In order to deepen your understanding of the effectiveness of such a model, we will now proceed to an activity which will apply this model to the critical reading of articles about the language situation in Hong Kong. In this next activity, you are required to read three recent articles about the sociolinguistics of Hong Kong, and apply the model of sociolinguistic research in Figure 9.2 to the analysis of these readings. The three readings that you are asked to consider are listed below.

Reading 9.1 (OUHK E-Library)

Bray, M and Koo, R (2004) Postcolonial patterns and paradoxes: Language and education in Hong Kong and Macao, Comparative Education, 40(2): 21539. This article is available in the OUHK E-Library E-Reserve. (See the Course Guide section E-Library E-Reserve readings for more information.)

Reading (Reader)
Chapter 18: Lai, M L (2005) Language attitudes of the first postcolonial generation in Hong Kong secondary schools, 36388.

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Reading 9.2 (OUHK E-Library)

Wong, A D (2005) The reappropriation of tongzhi, Language in Society, 34: 76393. This article is available in the OUHK E-Library E-Reserve. (See the Course Guide section E-Library E-Reserve readings for more information.)

For each of these three articles, apply the model in Figure 9.2 by listing or by answering the questions relating to the four step model of research. Thus for all of the articles, you need answers to the four questions in Activity 9.2.

Activity 9.2
Answer the following four critical questions for each of the three papers (Bray and Koo; Lai; and Wong). 1 2 3 4 What are the precise research issues? (Stating the problem) What methodology is used by the researcher(s)? (Collecting the data) How are the data presented by the researcher(s)? (Presenting the data) How are the data analysed, and what commentary is there? (Analysis and commentary)

After you have read all three papers, go on to answer this additional question: 5 What type of data do each of the authors present: a b data about language; and/or language data (i.e., texts or transcriptions of recordings or interviews).

Check your answers for Activity 9.2 against the feedback at the end of this unit. Then read the commentary on the activity, below.

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LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

Commentary on Activity 9.2 Three important points come out of Activity 9.2 and the feedback to the activity: 1 The model of research presented to you here can provide a very useful way of reading papers about language and society in Hong Kong. You should not assume that, just because a study is published in a book or a journal, the study has necessarily involved the collection of original data and original research. It is very useful if not essential to be able to distinguish between primary (original) research and secondary (not original) research, when reading articles on sociolinguistics.

We shall now go on to give you specific guidelines for designing and carrying out your own research project on language and society in Hong Kong.

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Guidelines for your own research project

The small-scale research project that you will soon carry out is an important part of the course for a number of reasons. In a real sense it represents the culmination of your studies in the LANG A331 course, as it gives you a chance to put into practice many of the ideas and methodologies that you have read about and studied throughout the course. We would like you to collect your own data and carry out original research, even if this is only done on a small scale. The great importance of this project is reflected in the marking scheme. The project is equivalent to two normal TMAs, and will therefore count for 20% of the assessment marks. For this project, you are required to plan, conduct and report on a research project of your own. The results of the project should be presented in a written research report approximately 2,5003,000 words in length. The report should be written like an extended essay, but, unlike many other essays, should contain subsections with clear headings, such as Introduction and Methodology. More guidance on the format of the report is given below. Although this is an important project, please dont feel intimidated by it. We are not expecting you to produce a fully-fledged research paper. We would also like you to enjoy the process. This project is small-scale, and you should follow up anything that interests you. You need not collect a vast amount of data. You also need not tape and transcribe a lot of interviews (although if you want to do that, we would certainly encourage you). Data might be obtained from recordings of radio or television programmes (youre allowed to do this if its exclusively for your own use), newspapers, government reports and advertisements. Before you begin that process, however, it is important to plan your project systematically. For this purpose, we strongly suggest that you follow the four steps below.

Choosing a research topic

The formulation of the research question is usually a very important part of this process; but this time we have done it for you. In your Assignment File, we have provided three research questions from which you are to choose your project topic. We hope that everyone will be interested in at least one of these questions. However, if you have another question you would particularly like to research, feel free to talk to your tutor about it. It may be possible for you to work on that question instead, although you will appreciate that your topic would have to be of an equivalent level and scope to the questions we have set. You will very often need to look back at your research question in order to maintain the focus of your research throughout all subsequent steps of the project. Having done this to the best of your ability, you can then move on to consider the most appropriate methodology for your project (i.e., Step 2).

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LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

Collecting the data

As mentioned above, the methodology you adopt will depend very much on the nature of your research issues. For example, if you were studying phonological variation in Cantonese using a Labovian methodology, your research data would definitely be spoken language data. This would probably be tape-recorded and transcribed, but in order to collect good tape-recorded data you would need to organise your tape-recording in a careful and systematic fashion, probably through a structured interview of some kind. Alternatively, if you were studying code-switching in TV advertisements, it is very probable that you would be collecting both language data and data about language. Relevant language data might then be transcribed versions of spoken and written messages of various kinds in the TV advertisements, while data about language might involve a study of the frequency and types of code-switching over a certain period of time. As you are collecting the data, you should also make notes as you proceed about when, where and how the data are collected. All this is very useful information and can be included into your final research report. In the planning stage, you may also consider the way in which you intend to present your data (Step 3), although you will no doubt modify your ideas about this after you have completed your research.

Presenting the data

Here the basic consideration is how the data and your findings will be presented in your final report. Will you use charts and tables of various kinds? Will you present the data discursively, i.e., usually in excerpted fashion throughout the relevant sections of the report? Will you have an appendix to your report, where longer transcriptions, texts, or other materials can be placed? The final step will be that of analysis and commentary, and although the writing of this will obviously depend entirely on your results, it is nevertheless worth being aware at an early stage of the necessary purpose and shape of the analysis and commentary section (Step 4).

Analysis and commentary

One primary purpose of this section is to remind yourself and your readers of your initial research questions, and then to return to these questions to see to what extent they have been answered by your research. One point to note is that because linguistics is a fuzzy science at best, very few sociolinguists ever make blunt statements about having clearly proved a particular hypothesis. Instead, they are much more likely to make statements to the effect that their results suggest or indicate certain inferences or conclusions. And they may also take note of any shortcomings or limitations on their research. At the same time, however, it is also worth making at least some cautious generalisations about the relevance of your project to: (a) the study of sociolinguistics generally; and (b) the study of language and society in Hong Kong.

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Carrying out your research plan

One practical way of carrying out your research plan is to think carefully about the four-step plan above, and then to fill in the project plan provided at the end of this unit as concisely and accurately as possible. You should then send the completed plan to your tutor, and wait for her or his feedback before proceeding. Once you have received the feedback, you should amend your written plan (and your thinking) accordingly. Then, you simply proceed according to your plan! This may appear difficult at first, but once you get started, you should be able to amend your plan as you move along. Dont worry too much if your project diverts a little from the original plan. Just comfort yourself with the thought that youre getting first-hand experience of really doing sociolinguistics, the way its supposed to be done! After youve collected all your data out there in the real world, youll have to sit down, sort out your thoughts, and think about your data presentation and analysis. Then you will have to start writing up your research report. We hope that the following report plan will be helpful. Note that the only addition is a section requiring a short literature review. In this section, you might include reference to the relevant units of course LANG A331, or summaries of or quotations from any relevant articles you may have read on the your topic. Otherwise, you should follow the normal academic writing conventions for an academic essay, include a list of references at the end, and an appendix or appendices if necessary.

Report plan: an outline of the structure of the research project report

1 Introduction

A statement of the research issues, summarizing the background to the study, the aims of the study, and the justification of your investigation of this particular issue or set of issues.

Review of the literature

A review of the literature, e.g., course units, academic articles, newspaper reports, etc., concerning the area you have chosen to investigate. This should be selective and concise.

Methodology

A description of the methodology used to collect research data. What approach was used? When and where was the data collected? How was the data selected? How was it collected (e.g., by observation, taperecordings, interviews, questionnaires, texts)?

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LANG A331 Language and Society in Hong Kong

Data presentation and analysis

The presentation of data in a systematic form. How is the data analysed? How systematic is the analysis?

Commentary

How do the results of data collection relate to your initial research questions? How has your research extended knowledge of these issues? What kinds of issues/arguments are important in this context? How do your findings relate to the LANG A331 course, and to language and society in Hong Kong?

6 7

References Appendix (if needed)

Final comments
You may find the research project quite challenging or even perhaps rather daunting, but do not despair. Remember that your tutors are there to help you, so if you do get stuck, seek their help, and get their advice. Our wish is that you not only find this part of the course challenging, but enjoyable as well. Good data-hunting, and good researching!

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Feedback on activities
Activity 9.2
Bray and Koo (2004) 1 What are the precise research issues? (Stating the problem) Bray and Koos research issues are stated on the first part of the article, where they indicate that their article is concerned with two broad issues, which are, first, the comparison of patterns [of language and education] in Hong Kong and Macao and, second, the comparison of patterns in the two territories as a pair with other parts of the world (p. 215). 2 What methodology is used by the researchers? (Collecting the data) The authors do not present a clear statement of their methodology, but we can understand from reading this paper that their methodology is actually based on carrying out secondary research, which is to say that they have read already published research (educational, sociological, political and linguistic) and present their own summary and interpretation of this. Thus, the authors are not presenting original research in this article, although Bray does refer to some of his own previously published research. 3 How is the data presented by the researchers? (Presenting the data) The data throughout this paper is data about language rather than language data. Bray and Koo sometimes present data in table form, and sometimes discuss data through the use of quotations. Most of the data presented in this paper have not, however, been collected by the authors themselves, but are taken from other sources. The data in this paper are presented discursively, within the two major subsections of the paper dealing with Education in Hong Kong and Macao and Language and education in Hong Kong and Macao. 4 How is the data analysed, and what commentary is there? (Analysis and commentary) Just as Bray and Koos data is presented discursively (i.e., through discussions in the text), their analysis is similarly discursive. Most of their commentary is found in the final section of the text, i.e. Conclusions (pp. 2336). Here, the thrust of their argument is that a number of paradoxes (contradictory truths) are visible in the recent history of language and education in Hong Kong and Macau. These include (i) the fact that the colonial government before 1997 was in favour of increased Chinese-medium education but felt unable to act because of public opinion (while the post-colonial government promoted Chinese despite public opinion); (ii) that in Macao the status of the colonial language, Portuguese, was raised by the official guarantee of retaining the language for 50 years after 1999; (iii) that, despite this, the role of English is growing in Macao; and (iv) that in Hong Kong, although the post-1997 HKSAR government promoted

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Chinese-medium education, it also put substantial resources into the Native-speaking English Teacher (NET) scheme for English. Some comments suggest themselves here. First, it should be clear by now that Bray and Koo actually include no original data of their own in this paper. Second, this article is not a good model for the type of study you should aim at doing in your research project, because, as we have emphasized we would like you to collect and analyse some original data, and not (like Bray and Koo) produce a study based on secondary sources. Finally, for you, the student, this exercise should teach you to read carefully and to differentiate between papers and chapters in books that are based on original research, and those that are not. The next two papers, Lai (2005) and Wong (2005) are both based on original research, so lets turn to these next. Lai (2005) 1 What are the precise research issues? (Stating the problem) The broad research issues are found in the abstract (p. 363) and in the introduction, where it is stated that the study aims to find out the attitudes of this particular group of students (the first group of students that started secondary education in 1998, the year after the establishment of the HKSAR) toward Cantonese, Putonghua, and English in the new sociopolitical context of Hong Kong (p. 365). 2 What methodology is used by the researcher? (Collecting the data) Lais methodology is described on pages 36770. Her methodology was mainly based on a survey of 1,048 secondary students using a questionnaire designed to gain responses to questions about language attitudes (the questionnaire is included as an appendix, on pages 382 86). The survey research was also supplemented by the use of a matched guise test and interviews with certain focus groups. In broad terms, her methodology is largely quantitative (relying on numerical and statistical data) supplemented by some qualitative analysis. 3 How is the data presented by the researcher? (Presenting the data) Again, the data throughout this paper is data about language rather than language data, but (unlike Bray and Koo) Lai does carry out original research and does collect original data. Much of her data is in the form of survey data, and the results of the survey are set out on pages 37076, followed by a Summary of findings, pages 37678. In the first part of the results section, Lai discusses the responses to a number of key questions in her attitudes questionnaire, relating these results to the two types of motivation she considers important, i.e. instrumental and integrative motivation. In her Summary of findings, Lai notes that, overall, her results for both Cantonese and English are largely positive in integrative orientation but less so for Putonghua (p. 376). Surprisingly, too, Putonghua was ranked lower than both English and Cantonese when it came to instrumental motivation. In the summary section, Lai also provides some information about the matched guise test she used. In this,

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Cantonese was rated highest for solidarity, and English highest for power traits (pp. 3778). 4 How is the data analysed, and what commentary is there? (Analysis and commentary) The data are mainly analysed in the Results section (pp. 3708). This analysis is partly numerical and statistical, but partly discursive, as Lai complements her presentation statistical results with a discussion of the meaning or implications of these figures. In brief, she first presents her data in the form of numbers and statistics, but explains these in words (discursively) as she presents her results. The presentation of results in the Results section is followed by her commentary in the Discussion section (pp. 37882), although in this section, Lai seems less concerned about discussing the findings she has already presented than in introducing some new results. Here two new results stand out: (i) the finding that English is now a marker of Hong Kong identity (p. 379); and (ii) that her respondents only reported a weak identification with the China mainland (with just 14% claiming their identity to be Chinese). Finally, in the Conclusion section, Lai argues that more should be done to promote Putonghua in schools and in the community. Lais study uses the classic approach to sociolinguistic research. She is conducting original research where she formulates rather clear research issues, adopts an appropriate methodology, presents her results in a systematic fashion, and comments on these results. All in all, this provides a good example of how the classic sociolinguistic research plan can be put into practice. However, when you come to do your project, try not to be too ambitious. Lais research took place at the PhD level, and her work took a number of years to finish. You are not expected to do anything on this scale, but you should rather aim at completing a miniresearch project on a very limited scale, while structuring your project according to some of the principles that we have taught you here. Wong (2005) 1 What are the precise research issues? (Stating the problem) There are two main research issues stated on pages 76566. These issue are made clear when the author states that (i) this study examines the struggle over the meaning of tongzhi; and when he adds that (ii) this study aims to contribute to research on meaning contestation by demonstrating how parody serves as an important strategy in struggles to control the meaning of words. Wong then proceeds to outline a number of related arguments concerning the way in which the word tongzhi may be used in a negative fashion about homosexual members of the community. 2 What methodology is used by the researcher? (Collecting the data) Although Wong does not have an explicit Methodology section in this article, we can discover what methodology he used by scanning the article. First, in the introduction, he informs us that his data for this study was drawn from 126 articles about lesbians, gay men and

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other sexual minorities published in the Oriental Daily News (ODN) between November 1998 and December 2000, which were identified in the local, international, and mainland/Taiwan sections of the ODN during this period. From his later discussion of the data, it becomes clear that Wong has adopted a qualitative approach (in clear contrast to Lai 2005 above), which relies on a critical analysis of newspaper texts (often referred to as discourse analysis). However, in addition to data about language of various kinds (a history of the term tongzhi, discussions of other terminology, etc.), Wong also presents real language data in this article, where he quotes phrases and longer passages from the newspaper texts, as on pages 773, 776, 777, 779 and so on. 3 How is the data presented by the researcher? (Presenting the data) The data are mainly presented in the section Journalists about the reappropriation of tongzhi which comprises 14 pages (pp. 77185). Here the data is presented both discursively and through the use of tables, such as in Tables 1-2, which present numerical results relating to the choice of particular words, or as in Table 3 which sets out examples of various headlines relating to gay people in the ODN. Although Wong does use tables and some statistics, his data are mainly presented in the form of quotations from the newspaper, either embedded in his text, with shorter quotes or set out as numbered quotations, as in examples (5)(14). 4 How is the data analysed, and what commentary is there? (Analysis and commentary) The analysis is mainly discursive, with the researcher commenting on aspects of the newspaper reports and the use of the term tongzhi in the ODN throughout the long Results section (pp. 77185). His analysis begins with a content analysis of his data, and then proceeds to the discussion of a range of linguistic topics, including headlines, textual analysis, quotation marks, direct quotation, and colorful language. Commentary is present throughout the Results section but also occurs in the Conclusion section (pp. 78587), where Wong summarises his arguments, noting that two distinct groups, i.e. the gay community and sensationalist reporters, are currently struggling to control the meaning of this term in the Hong Kong context, the first group endeavouring to give the word a positive meaning, the other, including ODN journalists, using the term in a negative (derogatory) sense. In contrast to Lai, Wong uses a qualitative approach, which relies on discourse analysis (or text analysis) at the core of its methodology. This is a perfectly good approach to carrying out the kind of analysis that Wong is interested in. One possible criticism of Wongs article is that it lacked a separate section on methodology (which one would expect in the classic research model) and that relatively little was said about the framework for discourse analysis that he used. Nevertheless, despite this, his article is of high quality, and was published by Language in Society, possibly the most prestigious journal in sociolinguistics. One very

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positive feature of the article is that it presents excerpts of real language data rather skilfully throughout, combining the presentation of authentic language with the careful analysis of the data as newspaper text. Questions on all three papers 5 What type of data do each of the authors present: a b data about language; and/or language data (i.e., texts or transcriptions of recordings or interviews).

The data presented by Bray and Koo (2004) on language and education in Hong Kong and Macao relies very much on secondary data drawn from earlier studies, government information, or research carried out by other people. The study by Lai (2005) reports on empirical research on language attitudes, in the form of responses to language attitude questionnaires, but does not include primary language data as such. In the third study, Wong (2005) uses primary language data from newspaper texts for his research, although he supplements this with a discussion of the research literature and relevant sociological information.

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Appendix 9.1
Research plan worksheet
(The purpose of this worksheet is to focus your thinking on what you have to do in the next few weeks.)

Stating the problem

What are the precise research issues that you are carrying out research on? Please specify as precisely as possible.

Collecting the data

What methodology are you using? How are you collecting data? What type of data are you collecting?

Presentation of the data

How do you intend to present your data? How is this organised (e.g., charts, tables, or through extensive discussions, etc.)?

Analysis/commentary

How do you intend to analyse your data? How will the results of your research (do you think) relate to your research issues? In what ways will your project provide insight into the sociolinguistic situation in Hong Kong? What links are there between your project and sociolinguistics as a field of study?