The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Education Bachelor of Education (Liberal Studies) Class of 2016 Dissertation The causes of shadow education in

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1 Title The causes of shadow education in English language for secondary school students Author(s) Man, Chi-kiu; 萬智喬 Citation Man, C. [ 萬智喬 ]. (2016). The causes of shadow education in English language for secondary school students. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Issued Date 2016 URL Rights This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.; The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.

2 The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Education Bachelor of Education (Liberal Studies) Class of 2016 Dissertation The causes of shadow education in English language for secondary school students Supervisor: Dr. Cheung Chi Kim Student Name: Man Chi Kiu UID: Date of Submission:

3 2 Declaration I hereby declare that this dissertation represents my own work and that it was not submitted to the University of Hong Kong or any other institution in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications previously. Man Chi Kiu May 2016

4 3 Acknowledgements I would like to express my earnest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Cheung Chi Kim, for his impeccable guidance throughout the whole journey of my research. His inspirational advice has facilitated me to proliferate my thought and to steer my indepth understanding of the research topic. I would also like to thank the principal, my mentor, and those students who took part in this research of my teaching practicum school. Without their wholehearted support, I could not have completed this dissertation fruitfully.

5 4 Abstract Private supplementary tutoring, which is also called shadow education, has become an indispensable component of the education system in Hong Kong owing to its popularity and incessant development in recent decades. Compared with the shadow education of other subjects, the participation rate in English tutoring among senior secondary students who need to face the public examination at the end of their secondary studies has been particularly high in the territory. Though researches on private supplementary tutoring has been conducted for decades, researches on the major causes that facilitates a myriad of students to receive English tutoring in Hong Kong are rather limited. In light of this, this research aims to fill part of the research gap through focusing on the English tutoring of senior secondary students in large-scaled tutorial companies in Hong Kong. Qualitative research methods were adopted to figure out major causes, which facilitate those English tutees who are studying in band one schools to receive English tutoring. The research also displays how the perceived discrepancies between the English teaching in mainstream school and English tutoring from the perspective of students themselves has contributed to their participation of the tutoring, which would deserve further attention from educationalists and educational practitioners.

6 5 Table of Content Items Page(s) Title page Declaration Acknowledgements Abstract Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Page 1.1 Myth of receiving private supplementary tutoring Essentiality of studying the issue of English tutoring Rationales of this dissertation Objectives of this research 11 Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Definition and Conceptualization Shadow Education in Hong Kong Overview The changes of the proximate causes 15 of receiving shadow education English Tutoring in Hong Kong Causes of receiving English Tutoring Differentiated demand-related causes Individual level Family Level School level Social level Supply-related causes 31

7 6 Chapter 3: Research Methodology 3.1 Research question Scope of investigation Process of data collection Rationales of employing qualitative methods Semi-structure interview 36 Chapter 4: Presentation of Research Findings 4.1. Individual Level: Causes of 37 initiating Star-English tutoring 4.2 Individual Level: Causes 40 of choosing Star-English tutor 4.3 Family Level School Level together with corresponding supply of English tutoring Quality of teaching materials Tendency to constant drilling versus 45 Tendency to teaching examination skills Differences in the English teaching 46 of different papers 4.5 Social Level 60 Chapter 5: Discussion and Analysis of Research Findings 5.1 Social Influences on English tutoring Perceptions of constant drilling Dearth of Intrinsic Motivation in school environment Application of L2 Motivational Self-System to 75 senior secondary English tutees

8 7 Chapter 6: Conclusion 6.1 The popularity of English Tutoring Research limitations Recommendations for further investigation 80 Reference Appendix Appendix A: Principal Consent Form Appendix B: Pre-interview Questionnaire Appendix C: Interview Questions Appendix D: Interview Transcript of Kelvin (Chinese Version) Appendix E: Interview Transcript of Johnny (Chinese Version) Appendix F: Interview Transcript of Hayley (Chinese Version) Appendix G: Interview Transcript of Tony (Chinese Version) Appendix H: Interview Transcript of Ida (Chinese Version) Appendix I: Interview Transcript of Harry (Chinese Version) Appendix J: Interview Transcript of Lily (Chinese Version) Appendix K: Interview Transcript of Wallace (Chinese Version)

9 8 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Myth of receiving private supplementary tutoring On a day near the Chinese Lunar New Year, I participated in a family gathering at a Chinese restaurant. When everyone arrived, my relatives and I mutually updated our lives with one another. Having heard that I am serving as a private English tutor with considerable monthly income, my cousin, who had never received any mass tutoring before, asked whether I wanted to become a full-time tutor after my graduation. I replied it depended on the situation the following months. A minute later, one of my uncle who is a businessman and whose son studied at an international school, wondered how some star tutors could earn over million(s) of dollars per year and attracted a multitude of secondary school students to enroll their courses. The cousin owed this to the fascination of mass tutoring: the tutorial classes are like talk shows and star tutors act as if popular actors/actresses in their lessons. I received much mass tutoring during my secondary schooling, especially English tutoring. While it was quite interesting to listen to such kind of comments by these bystanders, the above-mentioned cause does not reflect my case and have overgeneralized the phenomenon. For instance, shouldn t the learning need of the students have contributed to the prevalence of private tutoring? This experience has become part of the motivation for me to probe into the fully-fledged picture of what have facilitated students to sacrifice their spare time to receive mass tutorial courses.

10 9 1.2 Essentiality of studying the issue of English tutoring As a local student who had taken English education in Hong Kong for more than a decade and as a candidate who had previously surmounted local English public examinations, I am fond of looking into the English tutoring in the local context. My different roles that have driven me to conduct this research are as follows. As a former English tutee My English standard had long been unsatisfactory during my primary schooling. I managed to pass or even failed in English examinations. The twisting point has been in secondary three: as a number of secondary school students in Hong Kong, despite paying a large amount of money, I started to take English tutoring at a large-scale tutorial company since I yearned for getting a more favorable condition for choosing the subjects I wanted to study during secondary four-five. Since then, my motivation of learning English has been aroused and my proficiency in English has improved a lot. No matter how over-dependent on English tutoring I was and no matter how respectable my English teachers are, I would partly owe my participation to my laziness in childhood.

11 10 As a former group-based tutor at a non-governmental organization I had served as a tutor of small group tutoring at the Y.M.C.A. of Hong Kong for around three years. The tutees there were all South Asian primary school students. My major responsibility was to help them to solve their difficulties in doing homework and offering them with supplementary exercises. An interesting observation was: no matter how fluent the majority of these students spoken English has been, in general, they did not have high accuracy on grammar. Though they are not the target population of this research, such a situation might be because of the pedagogical trend of English language has been shifting from emphasizing grammar knowledge to communication. Whether senior secondary English teachers have also overlooked grammatical knowledge and whether it is a cause of English tutoring deserves further investigation. As a current one-to-one English tutor Since the commencement of my undergraduate studies, I have been offering English tutoring to primary and secondary students. It is apparent that the demands for private English tutors are quite large in the market. As long as the tutors are capable of bolstering the English learning, many parents are willing to spend large amounts of money to hire them. Through providing regular tutoring services, diligent tutors can earn a living, cover the annual tuition fee of university and attain quite a more desirable standard of living. This ongoing experience has also facilitated me to get a more in-depth insight on behind English tutoring.

12 Rationales of this dissertation In relation to the prevalence of the English tutoring in Hong Kong, it is believed that students learning orientation of English has been shifting from the school context to shadow education. Also, while students from lower banding school tend to receive English tutoring for remedial purpose, the main purpose(s) of students from higher banding schools to do so was not illustrated by current literatures clearly. Consequently, it is paramount to identify the causes of receiving English tutoring by senior seoncdary students in band one school, to find out how students participation would be affected by the English education in the system of formal education and to provide some insights on what English teachers of mainstream schools can respond for the betterment of English education in Hong Kong. 1.4 Objectives of this research Although causes of receiving shadow education in Hong Kong has been investigated by some scholars (Kwok,2001; Tung, 2013), those major causes that have driven senior secondary students to receiving English tutoring are not explicitly identified and carefully investigated. In light of this, this dissertation is written from the perspective of the English tutees concerned with the objectives as follows:

13 12 (1) To fill part of the research gap by identifying the decisive causes that have facilitated students of senior secondary schooling to receive Star-English tutoring. (2) To look into whether there are perceived limitations of English teaching in the mainstream schools, which have led to the high popularity of the English, tutoring in Hong Kong.

14 13 Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Definition and Conceptualization In Hong Kong, private supplementary tutoring has greatly augmented in both intensity and scope since the mid-1990s (Kwok, 2009). Not only is it parallel to mainstream education system, but is increasingly evident in a broad range of settings as well (Bray, 2009). Its enrollment rates in Hong Kong were particularly higher than many other societies (Bray, 2014). Bray (1999, 2009) also call private supplementary tutoring as shadow education system since it mimics regular schooling: the shape and size of the tutoring shift with those of mainstream system. This dissertation complies with the definition of shadow education by Bray (1999, p. 20) and Lee & Lee (2009, p.901), which divided it into three components. The first is about supplementation- tutoring in subjects taught in regular schooling beyond the standard duties of the school and for assisting students to attain better academic performance. Another consideration is being private-the tutoring offered in exchange for a fee. Tutors (and the companies that employ the tutors) committed it for financial gain. Along with them goes academic subjects taught in day schools. Throughout this dissertation, the terms shadow education, tutorial courses and private tutoring mean those tutoring sticking to the aforementioned definition. Since this dissertation focuses the private tutoring of English language, English tutoring is used to depict the shadow education of English language that complies with this definition.

15 Shadow Education in Hong Kong Overview In Hong Kong, large-group tutoring conducted in large-scale tutorial centers with at least one branch (Yung, 2011) are mainly domestic while operating as chain stores. From 2005/06 to 2009/10, the number of such chain outlets skyrocketed from 38 to 106 (Modern Education Group, 2011, p.93), which claimed 54% of total secondary tutoring capacity, with over half of this capacity offered by six companies. In 2011, one of which became publicly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. With the schools in the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) and run by the English Schools Foundation (ESF) excluded, there exist three bandings in secondary schools of Hong Kong, namely, Band One, Band Two and Band Three, which admit students of the highest achievers, middle achievers and the lowest achievers respectively. In aided schools, while the percentages of students receiving shadow education was 56.1% in 2012, 74.2% students in Band 1 schools received shadow education (Bray, Zhan, Lykins, Wang& Kwo, 2014). They also concluded that it is more probably for students in higher achievement schools to take shadow education: compared to students in a Band 3 school, the likelihood for a student in a Band 1 school to take shadow education was 120.9% higher. Addressing gender difference, they also concluded that female students in Hong Kong is prone to work harder or target academic achievement more strongly, which is revealed by both their higher participation rate (65.6%) than that of males (56.8%) and their higher expenditure on shadow education.

16 The changes of the proximate causes of receiving shadow education The relative significance of proximate causes that drove students to receive shadow education has been in dynamics. The summary of the findings of Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) in 1996, 2010 and 2013 outlined in the following table (Table 2.1): Table 2.1: Proximate causes of receiving shadow education in 1996, 2009 and 2012 Years Causes Look for academic enhancement owing to poor 70.7% 57.5% 37.8% academic results Keep and further improve good academic results N/A* 17.3% 25.1% Tackle public examination 8.0% 8.7% 18.8% Parents Advice 2.3% 3.8% 9.5% Lack of assistance from other sources 1.2% 1.8% 4.6% Could not understand what school teachers 13.8% N/A* N/A* taught Peer Influences 0.6% 0.3% 0.4% Other Causes 3.4% % Total 100% 100% 100% *N/A: Not Applicable

17 16 Several observations can be found from these statistics. First, although students who hoped to look for academic enhancement owing to poor academic results dropped from 70.7% in 1996 to 37.8% in 2012, it was still the most dominant proximate cause of the participation. Another consideration is the steady rise in the percentage of students who hope to keep or further improve their good academic results increased from 2009 (17.3%) to 2012 (25.1%). This may reflect that shadow education has become increasingly popular not only among the students of lower banding schools but also among students of higher banding schools. This may also indicate that lower achievers within band one schools want to perform better by receiving tutorial classes. Moreover, the percentage of tacking public examination increased sharply from 8% in 1996 to 18.8% in This may indicate students increasing emphasis on examination system, especially the public one, in the local education system. Also, Zhan, Bray, Wang,Lykins & Kwo (2013,p.502) invited secondary six students to select all proximate causes of receiving shadow education pertinent to themselves. The results are displayed as follows (Table 2.2):

18 17 Table 2.2: Proximate causes of receiving shadow Percentage education (%) (Secondary six students) in 2013 To improve examination performance 92.1% To learn school subjects better 78.6% Peer influence 27.0% Parents decision 11.9% Teachers advice 9.1% Being attracted by advertisements 2.3% Others causes 5.9% Number of students 472 Source: p.502 Table 6 With reference to the above table, the most dominant cause that drove students to receive private tutoring is for the ennoblement of examination performance, with around 92%, followed by learning school subjects better (78.6%). It is worth mentioning that advertisements played a minor role at the time. By comparing the above-mentioned results in 2012 and in 2013, it is observed that many students may believe that enhancing examination performance is becoming increasing important in students participation in shadow education.

19 English Tutoring in Hong Kong English, which is prime in an internationalized society, is one of the official languages in Hong Kong. Typically, it had the greatest demand among all subjects in shadow education (Bray & Kwok 2003). According to Bray et.al.(2014),65.2% of secondary school students took English tutoring, in which 58.5% and 72.4% of secondary three and six students received it respectively. Luk (2003) attributed this to that English was a compulsory school subject, a medium of instruction for other subjects in some secondary schools and in most local universities. Since meaningful opportunities for English communication with native English speakers are not sufficient. English is learnt mainly for its practical value and advantages in Hong Kong. 2.3 Causes of receiving English tutoring The key factor of high participation rate of shadow education is inconclusive. While Bray & Kwok (2003) regarded it as the superiority in quality of shadow education sector, Bray & Lukin (2012) deemed it as the awareness that investment in education can result in strong returns from great results of examinations and the promotion into high-status universities. The following illustrates the plausible causes of receiving English tutoring from the two main categories: demand-related causes and supply-related causes.

20 Differentiated demand-related causes James (1993) divided the demand of shadow education into excess demand and differentiated demand. The latter is applicable to Hong Kong where tutees of startutoring centers have safeguarded places in public schools. Further analysis is illustrated in forms of the hierarchical levels as follows: Individual level While Students commonly seek English tutoring either for remedial or for enrichment purposes. In Hong Kong, owing to the motivation to earn good grades in school and to prepare for the university entrance examination, private tutoring is likely to be chosen (Lee, Park & Lee 2009). Bray & Kwok (2003) concluded that students in higher band schools were more likely to receive shadow education. Within these schools, the higher self-reported academic results were, the less shadow education was received. Maslow s classic hierarchy of needs (1943) (Figure 2.1), which includes five layers, has been applied by some scholars to analyze how psychological factors contribute to the prevalence of shadow education. Yung (2011) applied it to the context of students who learn English in Hong Kong. He also stipulated that the layer(s) that an English learner belong to might depend on their attitudes and reasons for learning English. Regarding the physiological need at the bottom, English tutees may want to earn money to meet fundamental physical requirements. With regard to

21 20 safety, they may hope to build economic security and living conditions. To meet belonging-love need, they may desire a better livelihood with their beloved. Regarding self-esteem, they may aim for recognition through entering a university. Finally, in regard to self-actualization, which means self-development and realization to the full potential (Lucas,2010; Maslow,1943), they may desire to pursue English knowledge. Figure 2.1: Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow,1943)

22 21 Chan & Bray (2014) modified this pyramid to analyze why many students participate in shadow education in Hong Kong. Their findings are also applicable to English tutoring. According to their description, the lowest level becomes basic educational needs: students have a perception of threshold needs in relation to quality and content of teaching which are not fully met by their regular teachers. Since it is the anxiety over academic results that leads many students to sign up for shadow education. (Byun, 2014; Dawson, 2010; Zhan, Bray, Wang, Lykins, & Kwo, 2013), students safety need can be fulfilled by both the alleviation of their examination disquietude and the provision of mock examinations by tutors. Regarding social needs, students may receive great satisfaction from both the medium of connection with the star-tutors, for example, Facebook and and the support of peers receiving tutorial course(s) together. Students self-esteem needs might be fulfilled by students feeling of superiority as a result of enrolling in tutors courses in a sense that they feel they are acquiring special knowledge not mentioned by school teachers. Turning to self-actualization, some self-perceived high achievers might look for more challenging supplementary information and practice and strict marking from startutors. From the perspective of psycholinguistics, Yung (2011) applied L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2009) to English tutoring practice in Hong Kong (Figure 2). The system includes three components, namely, ideal L2 Self, ought-to L2 Self and L2 learning experience. While the ideal self has a promotion focus such as attaining brilliant English results or being a proficient English speaker, the ought-to self has a prevention state such as avoiding the fear of attaining poor English results. Yung

23 22 found that most senior secondary students made the decision of participating in English tutoring themselves. Although students could be shaped into ideal L2 selves and ought-to L2 selves simultaneously, given the fact that learning examination skills may always be perceived to be much more crucial than enhancing English proficiency, students could generally find ideal L2 selves within the dominating ought-to L2 selves. Figure 2.2: Schematic representation of the L2 Motivational Self System under Hong Kong shadow education (Yung, 2011)

24 23 Yung also advocated that most senior secondary students participate in English star-tutoring out of their free will. As most of them deemed English solely as a subject of examination to pass for admission to university, the pressure drove many of them from the fear of lagging behind in preparing for English examination. A perception of insufficient teaching of English teachers has often been a principal cause driving them to seek English tutoring, which could equip them with something extra. The personal emphasis on both career prospect and communication as a lingua franca have facilitated their participation as well Family Level Smaller Family Size and Increased Wealth Ample household resources accompanied with the aspiration for a smaller number of children can account for the rapid expansion of shadow education. For one thing, with the positive correlation between family income and the probability of receiving shadow education (Bray et. al., 2014), greater amounts and better quality of shadow education has been afforded by well off families conceivably (Kenayathulla, 2012). Since parents of higher incomes tend to have fewer children, this might also reflect the power of socio-economic status on the expenditures; for another, the effect of family size has been revealed on the tutoring expenditures per head (Dang & Rogers, 2009; de Castro & de Guzman, 2010; Liu, 2012). With the demographic shift towards nuclear families, which have at most two children, in recent decades, parents

25 24 nowadays can afford the tuition fee of shadow education more easily. Due to the concentration of financial resources, single-child students spent more on shadow education than students with two siblings (Bray et.al.,2014). Shadow education is always within the financial reach even for many non-nuclear families. Since it appears to be a necessity to academic achievement, many households somehow look for ways to safeguard it. Parental mentality The mentality of some parents who consider shadow education as a way to equip their children with an edge might also contribute to its high participation rate. In China, some parents were described as Tiger Mothers who have the emotional and physical demands of the high hopes and expectations for their children. In Canada, many parents invest in tutoring as part of intensive parenting (Davies,2004): hiring tutors might be a means to place a great premium on education, to value a cognitively stimulating environment for their children, which emphasizes a careful plan of structured activities. Some parents also feel that the tutoring centers are more clientoriented than the schools, which can stretch their children s learning to domains not covered by mainstream schooling. This research will investigate how the mentality of the parents of English tutees has affected their participation in English tutoring. Also, when considering whether to join tutorial course(s), informal rate-ofreturn analyses has commonly been undertaken by households. Many parents found the duration of staying in education system and the quality of that education positively correlated to children's prospects for lifetime income and standard of living. Also, that

26 25 education is an extraordinary investment which generates high rates of return since more highly educated people in the society generally have higher incomes (Bray, 2006). Accordingly, parents may resort to English tutoring which seems to help their children attain higher economic status in the future. Another consideration is that the educational backgrounds of parents might affect the demand for English tutoring although the relative influence of mothers and fathers varies among different places. In Hong Kong, the degree of receiving shadow education is related to mother s educational level (Bray et.al, 2014). Compared to students whose mothers finished Bachelor degree, the probability of a student receiving shadow education was 45.0% lower when the mother had a postgraduate degree. Two explanations are possible for this pattern: first, many mothers with postgraduate education may believe that shadow education is not that commensurate for their own children. In addition, decisions to receive shadow education might not be merely financial. Similar situation happens in Taiwan where parents education level is an important factor and mother's education may be more influential than that of fathers ; In spite of this development, when it comes to the demand for shadow education in South Korea, Park & Sang (2013) found that higher status of the father exerted greater influence than that of mothers. Academic assistance Another consideration is the academic assistance from family members. Bray et.al. (2014) stipulated that 32.6% students admitted having received such an assistance. Many students who received family assistance had shadow education of

27 26 more than one types and for more than one subjects. Turning to English tutees, they might have gained assistance from family member(s) for English language while gaining further English tutoring from star-tutors. Another possibility is that they have gained the assistance from another subject while receiving English tutoring. These might imply that English tutoring may offer students with the certain academic assistance that cannot be provided by family members. Its uniqueness of teaching has led to its prevalence School level Attitude(s) of English teacher towards English tutoring In Hong Kong, teachers encouragement or discouragement of seeking private tutoring would affect their students participation (Bray et.al.2014). On one hand, some English teachers applaud English tutoring since they wanted their students to undertake remedial work with English tutors rather than from themselves. It would also help them reinforce parts of the curriculum and offer individual attention. (South China Morning Post (2010) reported that some teachers even told parents to send their children to private tutorials to avoid lagging behind classmates. On the other hand, some English teachers might express resentment to English tutoring due to a perception that it may place overwhelming burdens on students and would result in dissonance with schooling in learning methods and the content of curriculum.

28 27 Students' perceptions on English teaching Moreover, the perceived low teaching quality of schools with ineffective teaching practices in classroom teaching might be another cause of the high participation rates (Bray et.al,2014), which is arguably the main factor stimulating the demand for shadow education in South Korea and Taiwan (Kim and Shin 2009; Kim and Lee 2010). A student in Bangladesh also moaned that there would not be any need to take English tutoring if English were taught properly at school (Hamidl &Roland and Asaduzzaman,2009). As a result of this, English tutoring in Hong Kong would be a means to compensate such perceived insufficiency in school.

29 Social level Transition point in education system The expansion of higher education has also increased the demand of shadow education in Hong Kong. In the education system of Hong Kong, the main push-out phase is at the end of senior secondary education. Having completed the six years of secondary schooling, students are channeled into: (1) An undergraduate program of four years in statutory universities; (2) An undergraduate program of four years in statutory institutes; (3) An associate degree program/undergraduate program in approved post- secondary colleges; (4) A pre-vocational program in vocational Training Council member institutions; or (5) A program in general institutes The social pressure that the younger generation is required to attain higher qualifications has also contributed to the prevalence of shadow education. Having faced several economic restructurings, Hong Kong has become a knowledge-based economy of which academic qualification become important to one's economic advance. Bray et.al. (2014) believed that credentialism has boosted the desire of investing resources to get better results or excel in the public examination and therefore get better future roles in the wider economic order. This desire may act as a

30 29 response to a labor market that rewards higher levels of education (Dawson, 2010). Accordingly, it is understandable that shadow education was taken by 71.8% of secondary six students in 2012 (Bray et.al.,2014) since they, especially those are studying in band one schools, might have high expectations to enroll in prestigious universities and English tutoring was perceived to be efficient in enhancing their competitiveness in university entrance. In addition, the significance of English Language to senior secondary students for entering universities has largely determined the popularity of English tutoring in Hong Kong (Kwok, 2001). Secondary six school-leavers need to get higher grades in HKDSE to continue their tertiary studies as merely passing the minimum academic requirements of English language (Level 3) cannot guarantee their further studies under severe competition among HKDSE candidates. With high stratification of tertiary institutions and programs in which some offers much greater rewards and the credential inflation in recent decades, the demand of English tutoring is probably to be kept fierce. Kwo & Bray (2011) remarked conspicuous difference of post-secondary opportunities for different generations. In the 1980s, the gate of entering higher education was narrow. Local places were available for only around four percent of an age cohort and local university education served only two percent of the age group ; nowadays, not only has higher education expanded to serve sixty percent of a cohort, but local universities serve nineteen percent of the population as well. People's attention tends to shifted from whether students could get the ticket for entering local universities to which (local) universities students be promoted into. Accordingly,

31 30 many families regarded higher education as within reach and might seek the more desirable parts of the system with the assistance of English tutoring. Governmental attitude Governmental indifference has also fueled the rise of English tutoring. While the Education Bureau has enacted regulations on tutorial centers and published a guide to parents on the way to selecting tutorial service, the government has been pretending that the sector does not exist. This issue has long been overlooked in official documents (see A senior government official of Hong Kong even stipulated that tutoring is not necessary since our educational provision is already sufficient. (Kwo & Bray, 2011). Accordingly, lacking suitable regulation may have fostered the proliferation of the industry. Scholastic-obsessed culture Another consideration is that Hong Kong has strongly influenced by the Confucian heritage culture (Watkins & Biggs, 2001). Instead of accepting current circumstances and inborn competences, Confucian-style work ethic stresses the significance of diligence, meritocracy and effort for self-improvement. Foondun (2002) arguably remarked that this made shadow education particularly prevalent in East Asia, including Hong Kong.

32 Supply-related causes Turning to the diversity of supply in English tutoring, there are numerous ways in which the Star-English tutoring are perceived to be more appealing than English teaching in mainstream schools or other formers of English tutoring. Besides the evident market orientation in the names of these centers, for example, King s Glory and Modern, many star tutoring centers employed flashy English tutors. They would not only boost their enchantment by wearing trendy clothes and using appealing vocabulary but also would display their higher education qualifications and showed off their millionaire status. Yung (2011) also summarized how star tutors attracted students. Firstly, besides exhibiting own professional images, some tutors uses their own preeminent students as peer role models. They would publicize students' writings and advertise brilliant examination results of former students who are always awarded with cash prizes. Also, they employ marketing strategies, namely, advertisements and gifts, free talks, promotion of past students brilliant results, high reputation and leaving positive comments for themselves on online forums. Also, many tutors provided both live classes and video classes. The latter were especially preferred by English tutees who were shy. Moreover, English tutors would display enormous passion in teaching English, which made students feel the significance of English examinations. During the classes, the tutors would use different means to ensure themselves to stand out, including using past examination papers as reference to look for trends and highlight must-read words, teaching exclusive skills and providing inclass training. Desirable learning atmosphere was created by mentioning cracking jokes. With limited class time, out of -class teaching online has been employed by

33 32 some tutors. In this sense, supply is not just a response to demand supply creates demand (Bray& Lykins,2012, p.31) on the ground that what English tutors offer may have attracted more potential English tutees. With the increasing number of English tutors and tutees, more students would consider resorting to English tutoring for not being at a competitive disadvantage.

34 33 Chapter 3: Research Methodology This chapter illustrates the methodologies employed in this research. The research question is presented first, followed by scope of investigation. Next, the process of data collection is discussed. Eventually, the rationales of choosing qualitative research methods are justified. 3.1 Research question While the major causes for students from lower banding to receive English tutoring would be mainly for catching up with the English teaching in their mainstream school, the major causes of the participation in the tutoring for students from high banding schools deserve further investigation. In light of this, the research question is proposed as follows: (1) What are the major causes of receiving English tutoring among local senior secondary school students in band one schools? In this research questions, the major causes were investigated from two aspects: (a) Differentiated demand-related Cause(s) (b) Supply-related Cause(s)

35 Scope of investigation The target population of this research is those students who are studying secondary five in local band one secondary schools while receiving Star- English tutoring. The data analyzed and delved were collected from the students of my teaching-practicum school. Compared to interviewing post-secondary students and those current secondary school students who received English tutoring before, this practice provides much higher synchronicity. 3.3 Process of data collection Purposive sampling was adopted in this research. Eight current secondary five students who are receiving Star-English tutoring were invited to participate in this research. There are five male participants and three female participants. Each participant was administered with a pre-interview questionnaire (Appendix B) to complete before their individual interviews, which aims to better understand the background of each interviewees and therefore streamline the progress of the subsequent interviews (the interview questions are shown in Appendix C). To ensure confidentiality, pseudonyms of participants are employed throughout this dissertation when referring what each of them put forward.

36 Rationales of employing qualitative methods In Hong Kong, most studies on shadow education in the 1990s (Lee, 1996) were conducted quantitatively, which depicted reasons for seeking or not seeking shadow education. Not only did they lack detailed social and educational analysis for those descriptive patterns and variations, but did not encompass theoretical and conceptual issues about the demand for shadow education as well (Kwok, 2001). Bray (2009) also found the statistics of relevant quantitative researches of shadow education not robust enough. Specifically, it is quite reluctant to clearly identify the causes that facilitate students to receive English tutoring merely through the parameter(s) given in a questionnaire. For instance, a student might receive the tutoring since her classmates invite her to do so, which is easily regarded as peer influence. Nevertheless, her classmates may reprimand their English teacher for low teaching quality so the classmates encourage her to take English tutoring together. In this respect, the deep-rooted cause would be the unsatisfactory quality of English teaching at school. Accordingly, it would be more suitable to collect and analyze data qualitatively and get an in-depth insight on the causes of the participation. As a result of this, a qualitative approach, which can focus on personal experiences (McMillan & Wergin, 2010) of English tutoring, was adopted. Qualitative research methods involve an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter, meaning that this would enable the researcher to study data and information in their natural settings and to make sense of the phenomena in terms of the meanings the targeted participants (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). Adopting this

37 36 approach is more effective in collecting data and building a framework for analyzing non-numerical data, especially the conversation during the interviews Semi-structure interview Semi-structured in-depth interviews were held from March to April in 2016 within my teaching practicum school. Before the interviews, interviewees were told the purposes of the interview, with brief explanations of the areas to be covered in the interview. Each interview lasted for around half an hour and conducted in a classroom without the third party to ensure confidentiality. Semi-structured interviews are appropriate where depth of meaning is vital and the research is primarily focused in gaining understanding (Newton, 2010). This allows each interviewee to air their opinions, experiences and feelings freely. During each interview, participants were also encouraged to further elaborate and explain clearly the details from time to time. To ensure accurate expression of ideas, these interviews were conducted in Cantonese, the mother tongue of both the interviewer and the interviewee. Since follow-up questions will be asked according to the responses of interviewees, the duration of each interview and the number of questions was different among the interviews. In addition, since interviewing is a kind of social interaction (Fontana&Frey, 2005) and all the participants were taught by me during my teaching practicum and I was the interviewer of the interviews conducted, favorable rapport between the interviewees as students and me as a student-teacher could also increase the reliability of data. All interviews were audio-recorded to avert the distractions of both the interviewer and the interviewees due to the taking of notes of the interviewer. Chinese (Cantonese) transcriptions for each interview have also been completed for analysis.

38 37 Chapter 4: Presentation of Research Findings This chapter displays the findings of the collected data drawn from (a) preinterview questionnaires and (b) the semi-structured interviews conducted with eight participants of the targeted school. It illustrates major causes and possible patterns of receiving English tutoring, which illustrate the demand of English tutoring from individual level, family level, school level and social level respectively. Since the participants responses about the supply-related causes of English tutoring are highly related to their perceived inadequacies of English teaching in their mainstream school, the relationships between (a) the demand of English tutoring from school level and (b) the corresponding supply of English tutoring are displayed together. 4.1 Individual Level: Causes of initiating Star-English tutoring The data concerning the causes that facilitate students to start Star-English tutoring were collected by asking the first question in each interview with all the eight participants. It is What happened at the time that made you start to join English tutorial course(s)? It is found that there are three major causes that drove the interviewees to start the English tutoring. Half of the interviewees described that their desire for improving unsatisfactory examination result of English language has driven their participation in English tutoring.

39 38 According to Ida: I only got level three in previous English examinations. My uncle wanted me to join a tutorial course of the subject that my performance is unsatisfactory and he is willing to pay for that. As a result of this, I signed up an English tutorial course to see whether I could progress in English. According to Johnny: Since my English was not so good and I wanted to improve a grade, I tried this large-scale English tutorial course. According to Tony: My school did not offer 5* and 5** at that time. Since I got level three in previous English examination, my performance was below average in my school. Therefore, I was quite worried that I would get level two in DSE, which made me quite worried. According to Hayley: I started my tutoring because I got around level two in the final examination of English in secondary three. Language is quite important if I want to enter a university. Therefore, I joined an English tutorial course. Harry and Kelvin identified that they had joined one-to-one English tutoring before and its ineffectiveness has facilitated them to commence the Star-English tutoring.

40 39 Excerpt from Kelvin: Since my English was not so strong, I tried one-to-one tutoring that emphasized much on Grammar I prefer the English tutoring of startutor which would aim at DSE in a more in-depth sense. Excerpt from Harry: My former one-to-one English tutor liked reading books with me and that tutor mainly explained the concerning vocabularies...the star-tutor of English tutoring would explain how to tackle questions of past papers, which is more apt to examination. Furthermore, Wallace and Johnny reported that they succumbed to the decisions of their mothers who wanted them to receive English tutoring. Nonetheless, they were not particularly unwilling to take part in the English tutoring as they realized that they would benefit from it. According to Johnny: In secondary four, I performed badly in English. My mother knew this on the parent day. After that, she said repeatedly on something like Look! You have such an academic result while you still like playing! This made me so annoyed. I followed her wills and tried the English tutoring. According to Wallace: My mother heard that her colleague s children had better academic results after joining a mass tutorial course. She urged me to join a course like that and I did so out of fulfilling her will.

41 Individual Level: Causes of choosing Star-English tutors The data concerning the major causes of choosing English tutors were collected through asking the interview question Why do you choose the current English tutor(s)? in each interview. Together with other factors, it is found that five interviewees chose their current English tutors because of the recommendations from others. Four of them reported that peers recommendation influenced much on their choices. According to Kelvin: My friends also joined the tutorial course of my tutor. They asked me to try it so I tried it... My tutor has many five** former students and his great fame also made me try his course. According to Tony:My friend felt very well after taking my tutors course for a year. He regretted not to take the courses before. Therefore, I tried to join the tutor s course. According to Harry: Besides my friend s recommendation, I trusted more on this tutorial school since the queues outside their centers were obviously longer. It seems to be more professional. tutor. Besides peers recommendation, Lily revered the teaching style of her English

42 41 Excerpt from Lily: My schoolmate told me that he progressed greatly in English after joining my tutor's course for a year. I found this appealing. Since there was also a discount for new students like me, I joined my tutor s course with him...the teaching style of my English tutor is vivid, interesting and always related to dailylife...my family has long been instilling me that learning English is not just for academic uses but also for fluent conversation and it is easy to apply what she teaches to different situations. Also, Ida chose her tutor chose due to the recommendation of her aunt. According to Ida: My aunt, who teaches English at another secondary school, said my English tutor was reputable and what he teaches was quite rewarding. Therefore, I chose him. Furthermore, Hayley, Wallace and Johnny noted that they had no much idea about star English tutors when choosing their English tutors. According to Hayley: In the beginning, I did not have much understanding on each English tutor. I searched for the comments on the internet. Some people commented that the lessons of my tutor were quite relaxing...this is more suitable to me and therefore I chose her. According to Johnny: Since my tutor had the most posters at that time and I did not try other tutors before. I had to find a tutor to try and therefore I chose him.

43 42 According to Wallace: I did not ask anyone and had no idea on which English tutor is better in the beginning. Since the timeslot of my tutor s course was not too early or too late and the tutorial center is not quite far away from my home, I chose to sign up my tutor s course. 4.3 Family Level The approving attitude of parents towards English tutoring together with financial support matters much to students participation in English tutoring. All interviewees emphasized that their elder generation, especially parents, pay for their tuition fee of English tutoring. Almost all interviewees reported that their mothers showed more attention on their English tutoring than their fathers. Instead of coercing them to keep receiving the tutoring, the majority of parents tend to express their concerns about the learning situations of them, for example, whether the English tutees could find the English tutoring too difficult to catch up with and whether their children need to try another English tutor. A few interviewees received academic assistance of English language from their parents when they studied at primary schools. Since most interviewees parents have only completed their secondary schoolings, they may be incapable of offering such an assistance and English tutoring becomes a feasible way to enhance the English proficiency of their children. The following shows the excerpts of Tony and Johnny:

44 43 Excerpt from Tony: I asked for my father's help when doing grammar exercises of my primary school... Yet, with the increased difficulty in secondary level...i need to rely on the help from English tutors. Therefore, my parents gave me money to do so. Excerpt from Johnny: When I studied primary school, my mother always helped me to prepare for my vocabulary dictations she has not really understood the content of English books since I was secondary one. In addition, since I was so busy, I did not want her to teach me anymore. English tutoring is more convenient then. 4.4 School Level together with corresponding supply of English tutoring When asked with the following two questions, all interviewees unanimously expressed (a) their perceived inadequacies of English teaching in school and (b) how English tutoring can help them correspondingly, which are illustrated in the following parts. (1) Are there any difference(s) in English teaching styles of your English teacher(s) in day school and English tutor(s)? If the answer of is Yes, how does their difference in styles affect your participation in English tutoring? (2) According to your answer in the pre-interview questionnaire, teaching examination skills is an important factor that has made you keep participating in English tutorial course(s). Could you briefly explain how your English tutor(s) teach the skills?

45 Quality of teaching materials The targeted school requires all secondary five students to purchase a published English textbook with exercises that mimic the formats of (1) Paper One: Reading and (2) Paper Three: Listening and Listening and Integrated Skills in the HKDSE examination. Five interviewees considered that the quality of school s teaching materials is low, which has driven them to receive English tutoring. While Johnny and Tony found the teaching materials too easy, which discourages their English learning; they found the teaching materials of English tutoring more examination -oriented and of higher difficulty: Excerpt from Johnny: The guideline(s) of school s textbook is not quite clear. At the beginning of each integrated writing exercise, there is only a small bracket as reminders...the most appealing area of my tutor s teaching materials is that they always display with points to note and are more difficult. Excerpt from Tony: The quality of the published textbook my school uses is quite poor...i would complete any assignment from it less seriously the teaching materials of my English tutor are more reliable and unique...many former students of him also recognized his materials. I can benefit more from them. Furthermore, Hayley and Lily found teaching materials of their school too obsolete and they appreciated the materials of their English tutors. The following excerpt from Lily displays the shared idea of them:

46 45 Excerpt from Lily: My tutor has hired some retired teachers and foreigners to formulate her teaching materials...she always distributes us with many self-made teaching materials such as the latest English newspaper cuttings...the publishing year of school s teaching materials might be years ago, which makes us know more about such updated news... the questions of HKEAA are always about these updated social issues. Since my school rarely mentions them, this may bring us with a disadvantage Tendency to constant drilling versus Tendency to teaching examination skills It is interesting to find that both English teachers and English tutors are examination-oriented in their teaching. Nonetheless, almost all interviewees raised concerns about the pedagogies adopted by their English teachers. While constant drilling is the key tactic of the teachers to make their students familiar with the formats of HKDSE examination, all interviewees except Kelvin explicitly noted that they appreciated those examination skills learnt from English tutoring. According to Ida: My English teacher would teach grammar in a general sense and rarely teaches skills According to Johnny: My tutor would assume that we have acquired something at school and teach advanced skills

47 46 According to Harry: Since star-tutors usually teach with a series of skills with specific names...it is easier for me who likes Mathematics to acquire. According to Hayley: I would not have upgraded from level two to level four if I had not relied on the skills my tutor taught and not done her exercises. her: The following excerpt from Lily displays the shared idea of Tony, Wallace and Excerpt from Lily: Her teaching is too theoretical...english tutoring is more practical since it really aims at skills of different papers in a very detailed manner Differences in the English teaching of different papers In the English language examination of the HKDSE, candidates are tested with four papers, namely, (1) Paper 1: Reading, (2) Paper 2: Writing, (3) Paper 3: Listening and Integrated Skills and (4) Paper 4 Speaking. Based on the findings from the interviews, Table 4.1 illustrates the paper(s) that each interviewee found English tutoring more useful than English teaching at school. All of them also found the teaching of paper one and paper two by their English tutors conceivably more appealing than that of their English teachers; Half of interviewees reported that their English tutors teaches paper three in a better manner; on the other hand, only two interviewees found the teaching of paper four in English tutoring more favorable.

48 47 Name of Interviewee Table 4.1: Paper(s) that each interviewee finds English tutoring more useful than English teaching at school Paper 1: Paper Paper 3: Paper 4: Reading 2: Listening and Integrated Speaking Writing Skills Tony * ** * Ida * * * Johnny * * Harry * * Wallace * * Lily * * * * Kelvin * * Hayley * * * * Total Number ** The paper that the students found English tutoring especially more useful than English teaching at the day school *The paper that the students found that English tutoring useful than English teaching at the day school The following parts further illustrate how perceive inadequacies of English teaching of different papers in school are supplemented by English tutoring.

49 48 Paper 1: Reading According to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (2014), the framework of Paper 1 and Paper 3 are the same: both papers are composed of three parts, namely, Part A, Part B1 and Part B2. All candidates are required complete Part A, followed by choosing either Part B1 (which is designed to be the easier section) or Part B2 (which is designed to be the most difficult section). Candidates who attempted Part A and B2 can attain the full range of levels while Level 4 is the highest level attainable for candidates who attempted Part A and B1. To boost students reading competence, English tutors usually teach by years of past examination papers. Also, while the English teachers would assign students to do the whole reading exercises of the published textbook and check answers afterwards. They would explain a few questions commonly mistaken by students during English lessons. English tutors usually teach paper one by classifying questions of past public examinations into different question types and teaching skills specific to each question type. Kelvin, Tony, Ida, Kelvin, Hayley and Ida explicitly mentioned how their tutors teach in this paper: According to Tony: My English tutor would teach reading questions based on different types, for example, True, False, Not Given and matching synonyms.

50 49 According to Ida: To deal with a question which asks for a reason, we can go through the passage and search for sentences with positive and negative meanings or similar wordings between the reading passage and the question. Kelvin and Hayley explained that their tutor teach how to answer reading questions according to word s part of speech. The following quotation from Hayley displays the shared idea of them: According to Hayley: My English tutor taught how to choose in multiple choices by elimination and how changes in part of speech can help answer some questions. Johnny and Harry mentioned how their reading speeds have become faster after receiving English tutoring: Excerpt from Johnny: My English tutor taught us we should read the first and the last sentences of each paragraph... or repetitive wordings for emphasis. I can read more swiftly now. Harry further mentioned how his English tutor explained the pattern of questions in Paper 1:

51 50 Excerpt from Harry: There is a sequence of answering reading questions If the answer of question four is in paragraph five, that of question three will not be in paragraph seven I can narrow down the scope of reading instead of searching for answers aimlessly. Lily noted how the different difficulty of reading exercises and advice of English teachers has made English tutoring more reliable. Excerpt from Lily: The difficulty of those Part B2 reading exercises in school does not comply with that of DSE...my English teacher seems to teach for remedial purposes and would even tell the class to choose Part B1... this was a little bit weird since teachers should make students strengthen themselves.... My English tutor would assign reading exercises according to students standard. For those lowerachievers of English, they can get part B1 exercise. This is flexible enough. Paper 2: Writing According to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (2014), there are two parts in Paper 2: Writing. Part A is a short guided writing task; Part B is composed of eight questions based on the modules in the Elective Part of the three-year senior secondary English Language curriculum (S4-6). Candidates are required to choose a question and write about 400 words.

52 51 Teaching of Paper 2: Writing To train students writing competence, the English teachers are accustomed to assigning students to prepare for a writing question at home and to compose an essay in a double lesson. The topics of writing questions are always related to those of the published textbook. They rarely offer writing homework. Johnny and Hayley shared how the perceived inadequacies of this practice: According to Johnny: This might be a bit in a hurry and we may be unable to think deeply enough. According to Hayley: Sometimes, I thought there was no way to begin these in-class compositions. On the other hand, Hayley, Johnny and Ida explained how their English tutors teach different writing strategies in a detailed manner. Excerpt from Hayley: My English tutor would offer sample essays to us and advise us to extract some details from the essays to enrich the content of our own essays... This could make marker feel that I have better English foundation and therefore offer higher marks...since I have acquired much more information and skills, I am more confident to face English examinations.

53 52 Excerpt from Johnny: Sometimes, I might come up with a cause of a problem. I would miss something important if some keywords had not appeared in the question. My tutor would explain contents and required format. He would teach us, for example, what causes and solutions of a problem are, go deep into it and teach us how to answer it in a better way. If I did not answer, my content marks would be deducted. Excerpt from Ida: My teacher would not talk specifically about how to write different genres However, my English tutor would explain how to get higher marks by applying different writing skills, suitable content and correct formats through past paper questions. Hayley and Harry said that their tutors provided canned sentences of writing. The following excerpt from Harry illustrates the shared idea of them: Excerpt from Harry: My English tutor would explain how to deal with a writing question by writing mind-map. He also offers canned sentences for recitation that I can apply after recitation teacher: Lily also doubted the quality of sample essays distributed by her English

54 53 Excerpt from Lily: My English teacher would analyze how bad that writing scripts that got level one or two are. This is not beneficial since we should read some good essays instead. My tutor would offer us with excellent writing scripts and analyze how good they are. Johnny further explained how he makes use of sample essays offer by his tutor: According to Johnny: My English tutor offers us with both writing exercises and sample essays...he usually requires us to focus on idea generation or composing one to two content paragraphs. Then, I can compare our essays with samples; notice how much the difference is and how much I can improve. Feedback of writing exercises From the interviews, it is also found that the comments of writings that English teachers offer are perceived to be too brief and are mainly related to grammatical mistakes or erroneous use of vocabularies. Harry is a typical interviewee who raised such a concern: According to Harry: My teacher would only comment on whether a composition has digressed or whether the application of some vocabularies is not accurate enough well. Yet, she did not offer correct examples concretely.

55 54 Lily predicted the cause of such an inadequacy and explained how her tutors did differently: Excerpt from Lily: My English teacher would be too occupied since she needs to mark all the essays on her own and to deal with much school administration work...she would only offer a few comments. My English tutor has a large team to help her mark the essays and therefore I can get many comments about grammar and content. English tutors are capable of scrutinizing how their tutees can polish up their writing capacities and providing constructive comments of both content and grammar in a more detailed and personalized manner. English tutors are capable of scrutinizing how their tutees can improve their writing capacities and providing constructive comments of both content and grammar in a more detailed and personalized manner. Hayley described her worry on the lack of constructive feedback from her English teacher and the corresponding services of English tutoring: Excerpt from Hayley: I have no idea whether I wrote rightly. If I make any mistakes that I am not aware of, I will write something wrong again and get no mark in examination...my English tutor would highlight what areas I wrote wrongly and comment on how I can improve myself..i find her marking criteria sticking closer to that of DSE.

56 55 exercises: Wallace also commented the different efficiencies of correcting writing According to Wallace: Whenever our English teacher has collected our writing exercises, she would give them back to us after a while; whenever I submit an essay to my tutor, I can get it back next lesson. Acquiring vocabularies useful to English examination While Kelvin explained why examination skills are not that weighty to him, he mentioned how significant learning vocabularies from English tutoring is. Excerpt from Kelvin: Whenever you understand the meaning of passages, you have no need to apply so many examination skills. What I mainly want to enhance is my vocabulary power My English tutor teaches so many vocabularies and sentence patterns. All these are helpful to different papers. There are two ways that the English teachers adopt to enhance students English vocabulary power, namely, doing English newspaper cuttings and taking down vocabularies into vocabulary books. Nonetheless, five interviewees reported that English tutoring could better enable them to acquire vocabularies useful to examinations in a detailed manner, especially to Paper 2: Writing.

57 56 Excerpt from Johnny: At the beginning of each lesson, my English tutor conducts Vocabulary Dictation that teaches five difficult vocabularies or collocations... this can remind us of vocabularies or let us learn some new words...although I cannot apply all of them, this practice is quite practical to writing. Excerpt from Hayley: My tutor would evaluate which vocabularies markers would appreciate. I am more confident to remember these vocabularies then. Excerpt from Wallace: I complete those vocabulary books only out of homework submission s purpose. My English tutor would explain what content of his sample essays we can apply to our own writings and explain useful vocabularies. Harry and Tony added that they would apply vocabularies their tutors taught to in-class writing exercises: Excerpt from Harry: Those vocabularies in newspaper cuttings are always quite weird when I did a cutting about committing suicide, those vocabularies were too professional My English tutor would explain a passage thoroughly and highlight vocabularies that are apt and related to daily life. I would apply vocabularies that he taught to compositions at school instead.

58 57 Excerpt from Tony: My English teacher would ask us to take down some vocabularies into a vocabulary book. Yet, I would not revise the book since it is only for homework submission. Since my English tutor would pick up vocabularies commonly found in public examination, I would apply those vocabularies that are simple, easily understood and practical enough to my compositions instead... This made me more assured and my writing ability has improved much. Paper 3: Listening and Integrated Skills There are two parts in Paper 3, namely, Listening (Part A) and Integrated Skills (Part B). All interviewees believed that the teachings of Part A; Listening between their English teachers and English tutors are quite similar: doing listening questions followed by answer checking. Their key difference between them is similar to the teaching of Paper 1: Reading: The English tutors would classify the questions into different types and teach the skills specific to each question type. Nonetheless, four of them reported that their English tutors better teaches Part B: integrated skills in two main aspects. The first area is that English tutoring provides wider coverage of formats. As mentioned by Tony: Excerpt from Tony: My teacher would briefly mention those formats in the textbook...my English tutor would explain how to distinguish and apply different format such as letter and memo This is all-round. Johnny further explained how such a difference has made English tutoring appealing:

59 58 Excerpt from Johnny: In school, exercises of integrated writing are not quite clear-cut...there is only a small bracket beside the answer sheet as a reminder. My English tutor would explain more about those important areas for getting marks...this makes us acquire skills more easily. Besides writing formats, Ida and Lily remarked that their English tutors taught them how to select suitable information form data file. The following excerpt from Lily displays their shared idea: Excerpt from Lily: My English teacher claimed that practice with concentration makes perfect. In integrated writings, she would ask us to check how many points we took on our own and she would check them again. I found this practice not helpful My English tutor would teach us which pages of data file tasks are related to which task and explain how to get integrated writings well-done specifically. Paper 4: Speaking According to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (2014), there are two parts in Paper 4: Speaking. The first part is Group Interaction and the second part is Individual Response. Different from other papers, only Lily and Hayley clarified that they appreciated the teaching of speaking in English tutoring more than that in school. The following excerpt from Hayley displays their shared idea:

60 59 Excerpt from Hayley: Our English teacher would divide us into groups of fours for group discussions. We conduct these discussions without any comments from her afterwards...my English tutor would arrange some oral practices for us. She also hires some foreigners and we can listen to their recordings on the tutor s website. The rest of the interviewees pointed out that their English tutors mainly teaches a series of ways to responses in different scenarios of the examination theoretically while those speaking practices during English lessons in school not only are more practical and authentic but also allow them to be situated in an English speaking environment. Tony is typical interviewee who raised this concern: Excerpt from Tony: In speaking, my English teacher teaches better instead. She would invite some classmates to conduct group discussion and individual response in front of the whole class... However, my English tutor merely teaches the strategies concerned. I think this is so so since he would just teach ways of response, for example, we must recap what the previous candidate had talked about. Because of this, it is believed that the training of Paper 4: Speaking may not be a major cause that drove the majority of senior secondary English tutees to receive English tutoring.

61 Social Level All the interviewees have resorted to English tutoring so that they can sustain their English standards or even attain higher levels of English language in the HKDSE examination. This can enhance their chances of (1) entering local UGC-funded undergraduate programmes and (2) getting a career path that they hope in the future. All these can be attributed to peer competition in public examination and in the future labor market, which urges students to devote themselves to learning English through English tutoring. According to Johnny: Although I have no idea on which programme I should study at a university, the level of English language is important since some undergraduate programmes multiply candidates' English grade. According to Kelvin: My current English grade school is level three. The average marks of entering the undergraduate programme I like was around twentyfive. That means I need to get level five or above in English language. Lily and Tony explicitly described that upgrading English level is decisive to their entrance into undergraduate programmes desirable to themselves. According to Lily: I want to study PERM at the Hong Kong Baptist University and its average entering marks was twenty-one. Since my latest estimated English grade is level three, I will have higher chance to get into this programme if I get level four or five in English Language.

62 61 According to Tony: The best five of my favorite programme was twenty-five marks. Therefore, I need to get level five in each subject. My academic results of Chinese and an elective subject are not quite good. If I only get level four in English language, my chance of getting into a university will be quite elusive. If I join English tutoring, I would be able to achieve my goal. Besides getting a desirable English grade for admission into a university, Tony, Hayley, and Ida also believed that English tutoring would be helpful to their undergraduate studies. According to Tony: If I did not receive English tutoring and lacked English foundation, I would be unable to meet the English requirements of any university. The following quotation from Ida displays the shared idea of Ida and Hayley: According to Ida: Since I need to study through English in my undergraduate studies, English tutoring can enhance my expression ability. This is especially vital when I need to write papers. Furthermore, Tony mentioned how English tutoring can do good to his future career indirectly: According to Tony:When I look for a job in the future, potential employers would judge me based on my English grade.

63 62 Kelvin and Lily explicitly describe how English tutoring can facilitate their English communication in future career: According to Kelvin: As to career, better performance in English language means speaking fluent English. English tutoring can enable me to communicate with foreigners more naturally and therefore it will be easier to reach compromises. According to Lily: Studying is for future career I want to work in sports management field in the future. Its development is better in foreign countries and it requires much interpersonal communication. If I learn English through English tutoring now, I will work more outstandingly in the future. Johnny and Ida also mentioned the sayings of their senior family members on how a brilliant English level can result in better career prospects: According to Johnny: My mother always talks about the recognition of different universities. That is, when a graduate from HKU and another graduate from Lingnan University is looking for the same job, the employer may prefer the HKU graduate. Therefore, she thinks that I have to perform well in English language to get into one of the best three universities in Hong Kong. According to Ida: My grandparents support me to receive English tutoring since they thought I could get a better job by entering a university by performing better in the DSE.

64 63 Ida, Hayley and Harry also maintained how significant the diligence emphasized by Confucianism is when it comes to achieving a better future through English tutoring: Excerpt from Harry: My mother thinks that being more diligent leads to more tutoring and more tutoring accounts for higher marks... Higher marks ensure me to enter a university and graduating from university ensure me to get a better job. The following excerpt from Hayley displays the shared idea of Ida and her: Excerpt from Hayley: Traditional Chinese values is quite influential in Hong Kong As other Asian countries, the city emphasizes much on academic results...one can get better opportunities by resting on diligence... People would label those who study poorly. I want to get better academic results than others do so that I could getter higher achievement in the eyes of others. The following tables summarize the findings of the first part of this chapter. The background information of each participant collected through pre-interview questionnaires and interviews with all participants are recorded in Table 4.2. Also, the major causes that facilitated the participants to keep receiving English tutoring are demonstrated in Table 4.3, which aims to identify the major similarities and differences of different participants. In Table 4.4, the factors that facilitated the participants to choose their own English tutors are also displayed as follows.

65 64 Table 4.2: Details of the data collected from pre-interview questionnaires and interviews with students Details of each participants History of receiving English tutoring Academic assistance of English Language Other information No. Pseudonym Sex Class When and What? Latest English grade in intraschool exam. 1 Kelvin M 5C -Junior Secondary- One-to-one and mass tutoring centers 2 Johnny M 5C -No participation before 3 Hayley F 5H -Primarysmall group -Junior Secondaryone-to-one Causes of (a) receiving English tutoring and (b) choosing English tutors 3 Causes of English tutoring Improving unsatisfactory English result -Peer as companion -Learn more vocabularies and sentence patterns Causes of choosing the tutor -Friends' recommendation -Fame of the English tutors 3 Causes of English tutoring - Succumbing to Mother's pressure -Improving unsatisfactory English result Causes of choosing the tutor -The tutor with the most posters -No idea about other tutors 4 Causes of English tutoring -Improving unsatisfactory English result -More practices -Learning examination skills Causes of choosing the tutor -Friends' recommendation - Tutor s relaxing teaching style -Comments from online forum Frequency, Monthly Expenditure 1 lesson/ week 1.66 hours/ lesson Cost: HKD $680 (1.66 hours/ week) 1 lesson/ week 1.25 hours/ lesson Cost: HKD $540 (1.25 hours/ week) 1 lesson/ week 1.25 hours/ lesson Cost: HKD $540 (1.25 hours/ week) English Tutor Family members Peers Others Yes No No No -Practices and understanding are more important than skills Yes No No No Yes No No No -Language is important to entering and studying at university

66 65 4 Tony M 5C -Junior Secondarymass tutoring center(s) 4 Causes of English tutoring - Fear of lagging behind - Higher quality of English tutors -More reliable and difficult teaching materials Causes of choosing the tutor - Peer s Recommendation - Comments of online forum 1 lesson/ week 1.25 hours/ lesson Cost: HKD $490 (1.25 hours/ week) Yes No No No Getting Level 5 in English is decisive in getting into the programme he yearns for 5 Ida F 5C -No participation before 3 Causes of English tutoring - Improvement in unsatisfactory result -Tuition fee paid by uncle rather than parents -Learning examination skills Causes of choosing the tutor -Recommendation form auntie 6 Harry M 5C -Junior Secondary 3 Causes of English tutoring - Learning more skills for getting higher marks -Further Studies Causes of choosing the tutor -Friends Recommendation -Trust in Beacon College 1 lesson/ week 1.5 hours/ lesson Cost: HKD $540 (1.5 hours/ week) 1 lesson/ week 1.25hours/ lesson Cost: HKD$580 (1.25hours/ week) Yes No No No Her participation in English tutoring is highly supported by different seniors Yes No Yes No 7 Lily F 5H -Primarysmall-group 3 Causes of English tutoring - Enhancing English language proficiency for daily life s uses -Getting Better Performance in HKDSE Causes of choosing the tutor -Friends Recommendation -Daily-life orientation of the tutor 1 lesson/ week 1.25 hours/ lesson Cost: HKD $520 (1.25 hours/ week) Yes Yes Yes No -Enhancing English language proficiency for daily life s uses and future career is more important than better performance in HKDSE

67 66 8 Wallace M 5C - Primary and Junior Secondary:oneto-one tutoring 3 Causes of English tutoring - Parental Pressure -Peer Pressure Causes of choosing the tutor - Suitable Timeslot - Tutorial center close to his home -Tony Chow pleasing to the eye -No idea about other English tutors before 1 lesson/ week 1.25 hours/ lesson Cost: HKD $435 ( 1.25hours/ week) Yes No Yes No -Mother is highly impressed by the success of her colleagues children who takes English tutoring

68 Table 4.3: A comparison of major causes of keep receiving English tutoring 67 Pseudonym Causes Own supporting view(s) on English tutoring Parental influence Peer influences Getting desirable English grade in HKDSE for (a) further studies (b) future career Better understanding of English language Unsatisfactory teaching of English teacher Kelvin Johnny Hayley Tony Ida Harry Lily Wallace Total Causes Pseudonym Inadequacies of school's teaching materials More practices Acquiring examination skills Acquiring vocabularies useful to English examinations Higher difficulty than English teaching in school Kelvin Johnny Hayley Tony Ida Harry Lily Wallace Total Tuition fee paid by uncle instead of parents : Key cause of receiving English tutoring : Cause of receiving English tutoring

69 68 Table 4.4: A comparison of factors affecting participants choices of English tutors Student No. Suitable timeslot And location Recommendations from family members Peer Recommendation Teaching content of English tutors Tutor s Advertisement(s) Teaching style of the English tutor Fame of the English tutors Lack of understanding on other English tutors in the beginning Comments of online forum Kelvin Johnny Hayley Tony Ida Harry Lily Wallace Total Number

70 69 Chapter 5: Discussion and Analysis of Research Findings 5.1 Social Influences on English tutoring To address the research question, the high popularity of English tutoring appears to manifest the social significance of English language in Hong Kong. Whilst the sovereignty of Hong Kong has been transferred to the People s Republic of China since 1997, English still plays a profound role in sustaining the prosperity of Hong Kong. In the post-colonial period, a language policy of biliteracy and trilingualism, of which English is its integral part, has been introduced. English language, which is learnt as a second language (L2), is not only a compulsory subject in secondary schools. It is also the medium of instruction (MOI) in most renowned secondary schools. Many parents would strive for excellence to ensure their children admitted by EMI (English Medium Instruction) schools which attain higher university entrance rates in general. Under such a circumstance, English tutoring, a related product of English has been launched in the market. Since English symbolizes wealth and power in Hong Kong (Nunan,2003, p.597), English tutoring seems to provide an available access to higher social status by facilitating the students to perform better in the public examination, which is seemingly critical to more desirable conditions of further studies and career prospects. Regarding further studies, the high-stakes HKDSE examination is a major determinant of post-secondary opportunities in Hong Kong. Despite the approximate 60% gross enrollment rate in tertiary (Hong Kong, Education Bureau, 2012), the sector is stratified. While all participants of the study asserted that they want to be enter UGC-funded undergraduate programmes, as reflected by their latest intra-school examination, all of them were estimated to get level 3 or level 4 in English language if they sat for the HKDSE examination for the time being. Though Yung (2015)

71 claimed that students need to pass in public examinations of English language to compete for the 70 limited university places (p.711), the required English levels of the admission into elite institutions and many prestigious programmes are usually beyond the minimum requirement (level 3). As a result of this, when some students find that the English teaching in school is not effective enough to improve themselves to the extent that can enter the programme they desire, English tutoring would be deemed as an alternative to help them achieve highest possible levels. Turning to career prospects, most Chinese students have widely-known emphasis of learning for getting a good career (Gow,Balla,Kember & Hau,1996). Since English language is more valuable than other languages in the market of linguistic commodity in the post-colonial Hong Kong (Block & Cameron, 2002), English tutoring, which could enhance student's examination performance, is crucial since it would enhance students prospective values in the labor market. There exists two implications deduced from the above-mentioned developments. With the emphasis on the open examination, examinations skills acquired through English tutoring are used to deal with examination questions exclusively. In this sense, the upholding of English as the language of global communication (Curriculum Development Council & Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, 2007, p. 2) would not have resulted in the popularity of English tutoring. Another consideration is that it is mainly extrinsic motivation - the motivation to engage in an activity as a means to an end (Pintrick & Schunk, 2002, p.245) or instrumental motivation, where English is learnt owing to its practical value and advantages (Gardner & Lambert, 1972), of the students concerned that renders them to receive Star-English tutoring. To prevent confusion, the following discussion is illustrated by extrinsic/intrinsic motivations dichotomy.

72 Perceptions of constant drilling As reflected from the interviews of this research, constant drilling of examination-oriented exercise is the key pedagogy of the English teachers of the targeted school. The English teachers would believe that the drilling could not only ensure their students to be familiar with the formats of the public examination but also nurture students with the skill of getting examination questions as accurately answered as possible within the time limit. Nonetheless, it is believed that constant practice has been unable to sufficiently fulfill the extrinsic motivation of students, which is analyzed from the three aspects as follows: Most students are motivated to learn only when the linguistic feature of comprehensible input are just a little beyond their current linguistic competence (Krashen, 1982). Because of this, the first concern is that students would be demotivated to learn English learning in school when the published textbook used in school are perceived to be of low difficulty. The second concern is about the preferred approaches of English learning. As reflected in research findings, the English teachers always assign the students to do exercises without details explanation afterwards. This practice appears to encourage the students to adopt a surface approach (Marton and Säljö, 1976a, 1976b) of learning English. In spite of this, the highly extrinsic motivation of the students would facilitate their tendency to adopt the combination of achieving approach (Bigg, 1987) together with surface approach to learn English intentionally. These students may not only attempt to make sense of their use of language but also prefer the use of strategies that facilitate their understanding in the language. The English teaching in school might not be able to respond students learning approach since such kind of students should be taught by incorporating the training of skills and strategies that facilitate students to advance in their understanding and usage of English, while helping them to build their basic competence and to meet school assessment criteria (Mak& Chik,2011,p.212). Advancing the understanding of English is quite critical to those students who aim to get level five or above. This can be

73 illustrated by the teaching of Paper 1: Reading of the HKDSE examination. According to Hong Kong 72 Examination and Assessment Authority (2014): while anyone hoping to achieve a level 5 must attempt Part B2 (p.172), particularly in Part B2, the candidates are expected to make inferences about attitudes and arguments as well as interpret figurative language (p.172). In light of this, the over-reliance of constant drilling at school may be perceived not to steer students in-depth understanding of reading passages and therefore not to help students improve themselves to higher levels effectively. The third concern is about the perceived difficulty in catching up with the pace of constant practice. As reflected by Hayley: Excerpt from Hayley: Doing exercises constantly is quite exhausting... I like listening to my tutors teaching about examinations instead of writing too much...her notes include many key points...this is more relaxing. Aspiration for learning cannot be ignited in school experience when students are confronted with the fear of being expected to learn too much within a short time. (Bray & Kwo, 2014, p.412). The more insufficient student self-perceived competence to meet the pace of English teachers, the more the fear exists. When the English teachers would be required to follow and give too much weight on fully-fledged coverage on the designated curriculum, they would not be capable of judging if and how students are adaptable to such a fast pace. Whether students are willing to cognitively engaged in the practices would also be overlooked. As a result of this, those students who are not only unable to re-solve English learning problems independly but also are concerned about own competitiveness, would invest in English tutoring which appears to provide them with seemingly effective and quick solutions to the problems. When students cannot be motivated during English lessons due to the aforementioned developments, insufficient attention, off-task attitude and passivity would emerge in the English lessons of schools. As commented by Lily:

74 73 My English teacher always needs to deal with different classroom affairs, for example, collecting homework or reproaching us for our mistakes, this would in turn shorten her teaching time...through many of my classmates want to be attentive, the other classmates may be playing something and adversely affect the classroom atmosphere. Since discipline for an expected norm of classroom behavior is a central concern of mainstream schools, the noise in school classrooms would have distracted English teachers so much. When so much time has been spent on disciplinary problems, the English teachers may need to further catch up with the syllabus and it would be more reluctant for students to follow the pace. English learning would lapse into a vicious cycle that the exacerbation of the perceived reluctance to follow the lessons. On the other hand, as the self-selected students attend, tutorial lessons with a sense of purpose (Kwo & Bray, 2014); English tutors do not usually face such problems of discipline. Due to these perceived problems, many students would find the value of such drilling in school too ambiguous and feel the lack of direct benefit. On the other hand, while whether English tutees have actual communication proficiency or a genuine interest in English language appears not to be a concern, English tutors would offer many practical examination skills, equally with resourceful lecture notes and drilling exercises. As many English tutors are also used to meticulously analyzing a few question types in each tutorial lesson, the feeling of fruitful achievement through having immediate goals to accomplish could be experienced by the English tutees more easily. Because of this, the tutors would be appreciated to tutoring takes positive actions of preparing for public examination and therefore better help sooths their examination stress. In spite of this, these practices could not be easily attained in daytime schools not only because some teachers would assert that such skills were not linguistic in nature (Kwok,2001,p.178). This situation could be concluded by the stance of Zhan et.al. (2013) that there seemed to be a perceived disconnection between the mandated forms of pedagogy and the examination skills required for university entrance. (p.504)

75 Dearth of Intrinsic Motivation in school environment Motivation is a key factor of acquiring a second language (Giles & Byrne, 1982; Schumann, 1978). While English is not ordinarily used in social encounters of local students and Hong Kong secondary school students prefer to speak Cantonese instead of English whenever possible (Luk & Lin,2007), it is believed that many senior secondary English teachers would regard the HKDSE examination as a extrinsic motivator of encouraging students to work more diligently. Ironically, it is intrinsic motivation that has positive correlation to a high level of English attainment (Lin & Detaramani, 1998; Lin., 1991). Because of this, constant drilling might have strangled many students chance of cultivating genuine interest of English through English learning in school. This can also explain part of the reason why many students seems to lack motivation to study English although they may be aware of the significance of learning English. On the other hand, some English tutors are accustomed to offering their tutees with authentic materials relevant to tutees daily-lives, especially updated newspaper cuttings, which contribute to the deeper and more rapid processing (Mishan, 2005, p. 28). They would highlight the vocabularies and sentence patterns of these authentic texts applicable to the open examination. With the fact that students are motivated to learn only when they find it crucial and meaningful to them (Biggs,1995),these tutors appears to skillfully triggers tutees intrinsic motivation together with extrinsic one, which has made their teaching more appealing than that of mainstream schools.

76 Application of L2 Motivational Self System to senior secondary English tutees After summarizing the research findings, Dörnyei s L2 Motivational Self System (2005, 2009) is applied as a theoretical framework to illustrate the system of L2 motivation under star-english tutoring of secondary students (band one) in Hong Kong as follows (Figure 5.1). Figure 5.1: Schematic representation of the L2 Motivational Self System under star-english tutoring of secondary students (band one) in Hong Kong