Graduates from Chinese-medium schools in Hong Kong often have lower competence in English and are disadvantaged in schooling and the labour market. This narrative inquiry traces the socio-academic trajectory of a CMI school graduate in local and overseas EMI higher education and relevant consequences from his lack of cultural capital.
The medium of instruction (MOI) in schools in Hong Kong has long been a dilemma (e.g. Evans, 2013). Mastered to highly varying degrees by a predominantly Chinese-speaking population, English has long functioned as a gatekeeper to social mobility (Bolton, 2008; Pennycook, 1995). Most elite students receive education at English-medium (EMI) secondary schools while others attend mixed-medium or Chinese-medium (CMI) schools. The latter groups often have lower competence in English and are disadvantaged in schooling and the labour market (Li, 2017). This study traces the socio-academic trajectory of a Hong Kong university student who graduated from a CMI school and examines how he navigated EMI university education locally and abroad. It captures how his linguistic practices and identity trajectory shaped his access to symbolic and material resources. To this end, narratives collected from interviews, diaries and other social interactions over one and a half years were analysed to understand how he represented his experiences and positioned himself in relation to local and overseas EMI education as well as English learning. His story suggests that, with their deeply entrenched linguistic habitus, students previously educated in a CMI system seem to remain the dominated group that suffers negative consequences from their initial lack of cultural capital.
