By Chura Bahadur Thapa

Chair: Mark Bray

This seminar will report on a qualitative study of the identities of 28 secondary school Nepalese students in Hong Kong schools. All participants were in English-medium classes and fluent in English, and some were also fluent in Cantonese. During the unstructured interviews and informal interactions as a form of ethnographic enquiry, participants were asked to talk about their English and Cantonese learning beliefs, their career prospects, and their English and Cantonese use inside and outside school. The participants displayed different orientations with regard to the learning of English and Cantonese, and constructed different types of identities. The seminar will include comments on government policies for minority students.

Chura Bahadur Thapa has been living in Hong Kong since 1996, and is an active member of the Nepalese community. He holds a Master’s Degree from Hong Kong Baptist University and a PGDE from the HKIEd. Before joining HKU as a research student, he was a teacher in a Chinese-medium DSS school which recruited ethnic minority students for English-medium classes.

Time: 12.45 – 14.00
Date: Friday 26 February
Venue: Runme Shaw 203

All are welcome!