The five-year review on the use of spoken languages in Hong Kong

Abstract

By comparing the recent language survey with the one done five years ago, this paper aims to review and re-examine the language use in Hong Kong using a questionnaire survey. In order to describe how current social and economic factors are affecting the language use in Hong Kong, our investigation will demonstrate the changing tendency and analyze the influence of different variables on the frequency of use of the three languages, namely Cantonese, English and Putonghua. In general, the statistics show that the use of Cantonese declines slightly, while the use of the other two languages shows an opposite pattern. In terms of specific variables, it is interesting to discover that personal and social backgrounds do play a role in some occasions. With the aid of figures and tables, the article discusses the noteworthy phenomena which will be important references for educators and scholars. 本研究计划是对2009年所做的香港社会三语使用情况调查的五年回顾。2014年 的课题目标是通过问卷调查搜集数据，从使用量上考察五年来香港各种非工作和工作场合中， 粤语、英语和普通话使用情况的变化趋势，以及不同因素对这三种语言使用频率的影响。整体 研究结果显示，五年来三语呈现出了较有规律的变化，粤语使用大体呈小幅度下滑趋势；英语 和普通话的使用频率则有所上扬。若从细微处着眼，受访者的社会背景也对某些场合的语言 使用有不可小觑的作用。对于一些值得注意的现象，本文将结合图表详细说明。期望此次语 言调查可以为语言政策的反思和更新提供新的参考。