HKIER

摘要

N.A.

Abstract

This study investigate the effect of the medium of instruction on the academic achievement of students. The subjects were 82 Form 1 students from an aided co-educational secondary school in Hong Kong. These students were randomly assigned to form two classes of 20 boys and 21 girls each.

For five months, one class (Cantonese class) received instruction on the subject of Mathematics, Science or Social Studies in Cantonese while the other class (English class) received instruction on the same subject from the same teacher in English. Several achievement tests on each subject were given to the two classes during the experimental period and the following results were observed:-

1. There was no significant difference on the achievement between the two classes in all the four tests in the subject of Mathematics.
2. There was also no significant difference on the achievement between the two classes in all the three tests in the subject of Science.
3. The achievement of the Cantonese class was significantly better than the English class in the first test in the subject of Social Studies. The reason for such a difference was due to the significantly better performance of the Cantonese class in the items requiring reasoning ability. However, there was no significant difference between the two classes on the achievement in the latter two tests.