Hong Kong is under threat of losing its regional competitive edge because of the deteriorating standard and knowledge of English of its workforce, says a Wall Street Institute (WSI) survey.

People in Hong Kong are less willing to read printed materials in English or interact with native speakers than their counterparts in neigbouring economies, including the mainland and Thailand.

The institute interviewed about 16,000 workers in seven Asian economies last month and found Hongkongers to be far behind their major regional rivals, Singaporeans, in English competency. The survey results, released yesterday, showed the knowledge of English among the people of Singapore was far better than that of the other six Asian economies. For the record, Hongkongers were placed second and South Koreans, third.

Most of the 4,800 Hongkongers covered in the study considered their command over English to be average and, compared to their mainland counterparts, lacked the drive to learn and speak the language.

Though half the respondents had post-secondary or tertiary-level education, only less than 5 per cent considered their knowledge of English to be "native-like". About 33 per cent believed they didn't have a problem and 42 per cent faced some problems.

But in Singapore, 21 per cent of the 2,214 respondents believed their command over the language was "native-like" and nearly half of them were confident of not having any problems with English.

Also, mainlanders and Thais show more eagerness and initiative to speak the language when it comes to interacting with native speakers.

On the other hand, only about 21 per cent of the local workforce is willing to "take every opportunity" to interact with native speakers, which is lower than the mainland (23 per cent of 1,305 people) and Thailand (30 per cent of 1,196).

Most Hongkongers said they interacted with native speakers only when it was needed and committed many mistakes during conversations. But more than half of the Singaporeans said they grab every chance and feel comfortable to interact with native speakers.

People in Hong Kong do not spend much time in reading printed English matter. While up to 70 per cent of the Thais spend between two and more than 10 hours a week reading English, only about 54 per cent of their Hong Kong counterparts did the same. In Singapore, however, more than half of the people spend more than 10 hours a week reading printed English matter.

But most of the respondents in all the seven economies considered competency in English absolutely important to compete in the global market.

WSI Chairman Peter Forsythe said the declining standard of the global language of commerce among Hongkongers has undermined the city's edge as a leading trading and financial centre in the region.

"We find the mainland and Thailand are getting closer behind Hong Kong and we see tremendous increase in driving force to learn English on the mainland... If Hong Kong needed to remain competitive as a trading port, superior English competency is an important part of it," he said.

Traditional rigid teaching styles undermine students' motivation to learn the language, Forsythe said. Local schools spend much time in grammar teaching and students feel embarrassed to speak outside classrooms.

Hence, he said, schools needed to create a favourable language environment outside the classrooms to increase students' exposure to English and motivate them to learn.

WSI Academic Director Tony Lee was surprised that mainland and Thai workers were getting closer to Hongkongers in English language proficiency. Lee attributed that to Hong Kong's focus in recent years on expanding economic links with the mainland because of which putonghua (standard spoken Chinese) seemed to have replaced English.

(HK Edition 05/06/2005 page2)