Educational Values and the English Language Curriculum in Hong Kong Secondary Schools Since 1975

English is an important language in Hong Kong, aninternational city located on the southern coast of thePeople’s Republic of China that, for over 150 years to 1997,was a British colony. This paper describes and analyseschanges in teaching methodologies in the English languagecurriculum formally proposed for Hong Kong juniorsecondary schools from 1975 to the present day, to study howthe curriculum developments reflect interrelated social,political, economic, and cultural factors of the period and theideology in educational circles that was pre-eminent at thetime. It finds that, while the rhetoric of the curriculum haschanged in accordance with shifts in socio-economicconditions, the curriculum content and pedagogicalapproaches implemented in the classrooms have proved moreconstant across time. The paper suggests some explanationsfor the resultant curricula tensions.