Language and Educational Language Policy in Childhood Education: Pre-primary and Primary Education

Abstract

After a twenty-year decline in the birth rate, the 2016 Macau bycensus recorded an increase in the birth rate and in the number of residents who are eligible for pre-primary and primary (PPP) education. The usual language of PPP students is predominantly Cantonese (89.47%), but this proportion represents a slight decline over the past 20 years. The overall use of Putonghua and English (as either usual or additional languages) during this same period has increased substantially for PPP students. Schools educate student in there three mediums of instruction, Chinese (CMI), English (EMI) and Portuguese (PMI) where 84.0% are enrolled in CMI schools, 14.54% are enrolled in EMI schools and 1.46% are enrolled in PMI schools. In 2016 the Macau government adopted its broadest and most sweeping reform of educational policy in ten years, and this reform specified learning outcomes in the form of basic academic achievements (BAA) for schools using CMI, EMI and PMI education, and for those teaching Chinese, English and Portuguese as so-called second languages. The language curricula suggest that the Macau government has high expectations for the learning and teaching of Chinese (both Cantonese and Putonghua) and English; expectations for the teaching and learning of Portuguese are generally lower.

6.1 Introduction

The Macau Department of Census and Statistical Service’s 2016 Population By-Census: Detailed Report opened by reporting that the substantial increase in population from the 2011 census was due to an increased number of non-resident workers and ‘a rebound in the birth rate over the past five years’ (DSEC 2017, p. 1). While the number of non-resident workers is likely to have little effect on the services provided by the Macau educational system, the rebound in the birth rate will have ramifications for years to come. Most of the scholarship on language planning and language policy in Macau focusses on the implementation of language teaching at the secondary and tertiary (i.e., higher) educational levels, but this chapter aims to provide a comprehensive view of the pre-primary and primary (PPP) levels of education in Macau. The Macau Educational Act was passed in 1991 (see DSEJ 1991) and provides for three levels of compulsory or universal education: pre-primary, primary and secondary education. This chapter will focus on the implementation of educational language policy and provisions for pre-primary and primary education in Macau.

Table 6.1 outlines the structure of pre-primary and primary education in Macau along with the ages for students in each grade. Students should turn the age listed in Table 6.1 before 31 December of the year they start that grade. Because classes normally begin in late-August, the range of ages in any particular class is 16 months (i.e., from 1 September to 31 December of the following year). This chapter will first examine the macro-sociolinguistic data reported in demographic data from the 2016 by-census report to understand the linguistic ecology of students at the pre-primary and primary levels. An examination of the various types of schools (i.e., government, subsidised and private) and the three mediums of instruction (MOI) used in Macau (i.e., Chinese, English and Portuguese) will suggest how schools respond to and reciprocally shape the linguistic ecology of PPP students. Finally, this chapter will examine language curricula and language policy as it especially pertains to pre-primary and primary education.

Table 6.1 Structure of Pre-primary and Primary (PPP) Education

6.2 Languages and Language Ecology

The recording of a ‘rebound’ in the birth rate in the 2016 by-census was a welcome sign of growth, and a sign that local schools will soon be in higher demand. For nearly twenty years the school-age population had been in decline, while the population of Macau had been growing at an average annual growth rate of 3% (see 5.2.1). Figure 6.1 graphs the decline and eventual rebound in growth in the number of children between the ages of 3–9 years old, which roughly corresponds to pre-primary and primary aged students.¹ Between 1996 and 2011 Macau lost a little more than half (50.5%) of its PPP population. While this loss is indeed dramatic, the entire population of Macau grew by 63.7% during the same period of time, intensifying the proportional loss of the PPP-aged population.

Fig. 6.1

Pre-primary- and Primary-Age Population (3–9-Year Olds) 1996–2016. Source DSEC (1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017)

These statistics, however, are from DSEC (i.e., the Statistics and Census Service) and they simply estimate what school enrolments were over the past 20 years according to the number of eligible students in the territory.² Figure 6.2 graphs the actual enrolment rates for 10 years from 2009 to 2018.

Fig. 6.2

Pre-Primary and Primary (PPP) Enrolments, 2009/2010–2018/2019 Academic Years. Source DSEJ (2019b)

The Macau census reports also illustrate how the linguistic ecology of the territory has changed since the 1999 handover and, because usual language statistics are recorded from residents age 3 and above in increments of five years (i.e., 3–4 years of age and 5–9 years of age), the data can be easily applied to represent pre-primary and primary students respectively. Table 6.2 lists the languages used by pre-primary students who are 3–4 years old, the youngest age group represented in the Macau language use census. Usual language refers to the language reportedly spoken at home and total language ability refers to the usual language plus any additional languages that the resident speaks.³ Unfortunately, the census does not record additional languages used by increments of age until 2011, therefore it is impossible to calculate the residents’ total language ability before the 2011 census and the 2016 by-census. Nevertheless, the trends over the past 20 years among 3–4-year olds are informative and are reflective of larger changes within the society.

Table 6.2 Usual Language and Total Language Ability of Pre-Primary Speakers, 1996–2016

It was noted in Chap. 5 that the proportion of Cantonese speakers in Macau society was slowly dropping and that the number of Putonghua speakers was increasing (see Fig. 5.11). This same phenomenon is observable among pre-primary students, although the rate of change is not as high as in the total population. Over the 20 years from 1996 (three years before the 1999 handover) to 2016, the proportion of 3–4-year olds using Cantonese as their usual language dropped slightly from 94.2 to 89.0%. Alternatively, the proportion of pre-primary-aged child using Putonghua grew from 0.4% in 1996 to 3.8% in 2016. The number of 3–4-year olds using Putonghua as their usual language increased by 129% to more than double during the five years between the 2011 census and the 2016 by-census. The 2011 census and the 2016 by-census suggest that the ability for pre-primary students to use Putonghua as an additional language has also been growing since the handover, as it has for the entire population. 11.2% of parents claimed that their pre-primary children could use Putonghua in 2011 and 15.4% claimed so in 2016. Use of other Chinese languages as a usual language has fluctuated during the 20 years after the handover, but essentially represented between 2.3 and 2.9% of the pre-primary population from 1996 to 2011. In 2016, however, the proportion of pre-primary children who spoke a Chinese language other than Cantonese or Putonghua as a usual language fell to 1.6%. The ability to use Chinese languages other than Cantonese and Putonghua, and especially Hokkien, as either a usual or additional language also remained relatively stable for 3–4-year olds between 2011 and 2016, dropping from 5.6% to 4.3%.

The number of Portuguese-speaking 3–4-year olds has severely declined in the 20 years since the handover, reflecting larger changes within Macau society. Although only 228 (1.6%) pre-primary students spoke Portuguese in 1996, that number fell to just 32 (0.2%) by 2016. Interestingly, the number of pre-primary-aged children who spoke English as a usual language increased by 560% from 82 in 1996 to 541 in 2016. This increase represents a proportional increase from 0.6% to 4.2%. As English-language curricula came to dominate younger and younger age groups during the 20-years after the handover, the proportion of pre-primary children whose parents claimed an ability for them to use English as a language ability also increased from 7.4% in 2011 to 12.4% in 2016. Figure 6.3 charts the proportion of Portuguese and English-speaking children from this age group over the past 20 years.

Fig. 6.3

Proportion of Pre-Primary-Age Population with Ability to Use English and/or Portuguese, 1996–2016. Source DSEC (1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017)

The linguistic ecology of primary-aged residents age 5–9 is very similar to those features discussed for pre-primary-aged students and results from 20 years of Macau census reports for primary students age 5–9 are recorded in Table 6.3.

Table 6.3 Usual Language and Total Language Ability of Primary Speakers, 1996–2016

As with pre-primary-aged speakers there is a slight decline in the proportion of Cantonese speakers and a slight increase in the proportion of Putonghua speakers. The numbers of speakers of Hokkien and other Chinese languages in this age group are also relatively stable and the decline in the number of Portuguese speaking primary children, from 588 in 1996 to 128 in 2016, is just as palpable among primary-aged children as it is for pre-primary children. The number of primary-aged residents who use English as a usual language has also increased substantially, from 197 (0.5%) in 1996 to 800 (3.1%) in 2016; this 406% increase represents a somewhat slower rate of change than the 560% increase observed among pre-primary children. Nevertheless, the greatest difference between the two populations of pre-primary-aged and primary-aged residents is their use of English as an additional language. In 2011 13.1% of primary-aged children had an ability to use English (as either a usual or an additional language); this proportion increased to 17.0% in 2016. The rate of increase between the 2011 census and the 2016 by-census was also very similar for these two populations: the proportion of pre-primary children using English increased by 5.1 points from 7.3% to 12.4% and the proportion of primary children increased by 3.9 points from 13.1% to 17.0% (see Fig. 6.4). This would seem to indicate that the pressure to adopt English at younger and younger ages has begun to influence the language behaviour of all PPP children at about the same time.

Fig. 6.4

Proportion of PPP-Age Population with Ability to Use English (Usual or Additional Language), 2011–2016. Sources DSEC (2012, 2017)

6.3 Pre-Primary Schools and Mediums of Instruction

According to DSEJ statistics, there are 62 school sections⁴ offering pre-primary education in Macau for 18,524 students within 654 classes (DSEJ 2019b). The vast majority of these school sections, as suggested in Table 6.4, are subsidised schools, which educate 84.4% of pre-primary students in 49 school sections. There are 7 private school sections that educate 12.0% of pre-primary students and 6 government sections for the remaining 3.6% of students.

Table 6.4 Pre-primary and Primary Enrolments by Grade in Three Types of Schools, 2018/2019 Academic Year

Government schools in Macau only use Chinese or Portuguese as teaching mediums, but subsidised and private schools are free to choose any medium of instruction (MOI). In actual practice, only one private school offers Portuguese medium of instruction (PMI); all other subsidised or private schools offer either Chinese medium of instruction (CMI) or English medium of instruction (EMI). Table 5.10 lists the 2018/2019 enrolments in three mediums of instructions within the three types of schools and these data are repeated in Table 6.5 for individual years (i.e., grade levels) of pre-primary education.

Table 6.5 Student Enrolments in Pre-primary Education by Medium of Instruction, School Type and Grade Level, 2018/2019 Academic Year

The largest proportion of students are enrolled in subsidised schools and 96.5% of these pre-primary children study in CMI subsidised schools. Government schools have the lowest enrolment numbers for pre-primary students with only 672 (3.7%) enrolled in government schools. While the majority of the pre-primary students attending government schools are in CMI sections, a significant proportion (18.8%) are enrolled in PMI education in government schools. Students in private schools account for just 12.0% of students in pre-primary education, but the focus of education in private schools is skewed toward the use of English as the MOI: 67.4% of pre-primary students enrolled in private schools are enrolled in EMI sections. The number of students enrolled in pre-primary private schools using CMI and PMI are considerably smaller proportions, 22.6% and 10.1% respectively. Figure 6.5 illustrates the distribution of pre-primary students enrolled in the three mediums of instruction without regard to whether the schools are government, subsidised or private.

Fig. 6.5

Distribution of Pre-primary Students in Chinese, English and Portuguese MOI, 2018/2019 Academic Year. Source DSEJ (2019b)

Chinese is the MOI for 87.1% of Macau’s pre-primary students. Ieong (2002) notes that in Chinese schools Cantonese is the language of instruction, and this is not expected to have changed much in pre-primary and primary schools over the years, with one exception. Escola Oficial Zheng Guanying (鄭觀應公立學校 Zheng Guanying Gongli Xuexiao ‘Zheng Guanying Public School’⁵) started offering Chinese MOI education in 2011 using Putonghua as the principle medium of instruction (Moody 2019). In the 2018/2019 school year there were 144 pre-primary students enrolled at this school, accounting for 26.4% of pre-primary students studying in government schools in Chinese, but only 0.9% of pre-primary students studying in all types of CMI schools.

English is the MOI for 11.0% of pre-primary students in Macau. The majority (75.3%) of these students enrolled in EMI school sections are in five private schools. Three of these schools offer 15-years of comprehensive education in English, but two, Colégio Perpétuo Socorro Chan Sui Ki (Sucursal) ‘Chan Sui Ki Perpetual Help College (Branch School)’ and Centro de Educação Infantil Santo António ‘St. Anthony’s Kindergarten’, only offer pre-primary education. Together, these two schools enrol 846 pre-primary students, which account for 41.5% of the pre-primary students studying in EMI schools. Because these two school sections only offer EMI education to pre-primary students, the number of spaces in EMI primary schools has become somewhat more competitive in recent years, and the 846 students at these two pre-primary schools may have difficulty finding a place in an EMI primary school section.

Finally, Portuguese is the MOI for 1.9% of pre-primary students, and this is the largest proportion of students enrolled in PMI at any grade level in Macau. There are only two schools that offer PMI education at the pre-primary level. Escola Primária Luso-Chinesa da Flora (Secção Portuguesa) ‘Flora Luso-Chinese Primary School (Portuguese Section)’ is a government school that enrols 126 (36%) pre-primary students. This school also offers six grades of primary education (i.e., P1–P6), but only 36 students are enrolled in the six primary grades. Normally, fewer than 15% of students who study in PMI government schools remain in PMI government schools for their primary education. This abandonment of PMI education in the government schools is indicative of the regard that local parents have for PMI and government schools that offer education in Portuguese. The government school sections offering PMI education generally struggles to enrol students after pre-primary grades. The remaining 224 (64%) pre-primary students enrolled in PMI education study at Jardim de Infância “D. José da Costa Nunes” ‘D. José da Costa Nunes Kindergarten’. The Macau Portuguese School (EPM) does not offer pre-primary education and, most students at this kindergarten continue to EPM for primary and secondary levels. This is indicated by the similarity in class sizes at Jardim de Infância “D. José da Costa Nunes” and primary enrolment levels at EPM.

6.4 Primary Schools and Mediums of Instruction

DSEJ statistics list 71 school sections that offer primary education, which comprises six grade levels. Altogether there are 32,352 students enrolled within 1112 classes (DSEJ 2019b). Like pre-primary education, the majority of primary students are studying in subsidised schools that educate 90.1% of primary students within a total of 61 school sections. This proportion of students is larger than the proportion of pre-primary students enrolled in subsidised schools. Four private school sections enrol just 7.6% of primary students and 6 government sections educate the remaining 2.3% of primary students. Table 5.10 lists the 2018/2019 enrolments in three mediums of instruction and these data are expanded in Table 6.6 to show the total number of students enrolled in each grade level from P1 (i.e., Primary 1) to P6.

Table 6.6 Student Enrolments in Primary Education by Medium of Instruction, School Type and Grade Level, 2018/2019 Academic YearAcademic Year

Subsidised schools, which enrol 90.14% of primary students, only offer CMI and EMI education, and the proportion of EMI educated students increases dramatically from 3.5% of pre-primary students to 15.5% of primary students enrolled in EMI subsidised schools. This increasing popularity of EMI from pre-primary to primary suggests the importance that EMI has within the local Macau community, especially as it pertains to preparation for EMI in secondary and eventually tertiary (i.e., higher) education. Nevertheless, the remaining 84.5% of students in subsidised schools are studying in Chinese MOI classrooms. Government schools are the least popular educational option and only 2.3% of primary students are enrolled in government schools. Whereas Portuguese was a valuable option for 18.8% of pre-primary students in government schools, only 4.8% of primary students studying in government schools are enrolled in PMI sections. The actual number of students in PMI at government schools is surprisingly small: 36 students (distributed across 6 grade levels) are enrolled in Escola Primária Luso-Chinesa da Flora (Secção Portuguesa) ‘Flora Luso-Chinese Primary School (Portuguese Section)’ and there are only two students in the P4 grade. These low numbers of enrolment clearly test the government’s commitment to offering PMI despite the lack of interest from Macau families. 2,460 (7.6%) students are enrolled in fully private primary schools, which offer education in either Chinese, English or Portuguese MOI. Figure 6.6 illustrates the distribution of primary students within three MOI, Chinese, English and Portuguese, regardless of the school type.

Fig. 6.6

Distribution of Primary Students in Chinese, English and Portuguese MOI, 2018/2019 Academic Year. Source DSEJ (2019b)

Chinese is the MOI for 82.2% of Macau’s primary students and this represents a slight reduction in the proportion of students in CMI pre-primary schools, where 87.1% study in school sections using Chinese as the MOI. As was noted in 6.3, Cantonese is taken as the MOI in most CMI schools. Escola Oficial Zheng Guanying is one school that has adopted Putonghua as the medium of instruction, but primary enrolments in this government school are not as strong as pre-primary enrolments. In the 2018/2019 academic year there were 144 pre-primary students enrolled in 6 classes across 3 grades (i.e., K1–K3). By contrast, only 231 primary students were enrolled in 11 classes across 6 grades (i.e., P1–P6). The enrolled classes, however, are not distributed evenly across the six grades. Table 6.7 lists the pre-primary and primary enrolments and the number of classes at the school by grade years. Because a higher level of proficiency in Putonghua is expected at Zheng Guanying Public School than what is required at other government schools, the school has not attempted to populate all grades at once by enrolling students from other schools, but has instead simply added one grade level of primary instruction annually since the Putonghua curriculum was introduced in 2011. This particular government school has also piloted a ‘bilingual education’ programme in which classes in physical education, visual arts or music are taught in Portuguese and all other subjects are taught in Putonghua (Lusa 2017). While a number of students have left the school since the announcement of bilingual education, the programme’s Putonghua entrance requirement makes it unlikely that emptied seats could be easily filled.

Table 6.7 Pre-primary and Primary Enrolments Escola Oficial Zheng Guanying, 2018/2019

Portuguese is an MOI for only 1.2% of primary students. In addition to the 357 students enrolled in EPM, another 36 students are enrolled in PMI at Escola Primária Luso-Chinesa da Flora (Secção Portuguesa) ‘Flora Luso-Chinese Primary School (Portuguese Section)’. This government school is also committed to piloting a bilingual curriculum in Portuguese and Chinese (Lusa 2017).

Finally, English is the instructional medium for 16.5% of primary students in Macau. In addition to two fully private schools that offer EMI education at six primary levels, there are nine subsidised school that use English as the MOI for primary education.

6.5 Language Curriculum and Language Policy

The Language Education Policy (LEP) introduced at the end of Chapter 5 offers very few guidelines about the teaching of languages in Macau schools (DSEJ 2017a). However, there are four basic points that motivate the policy statement, and these are derived from the ‘Fundamental Law of Non-Tertiary Education System’ (Macao SAR Government 2006). The four principles are:

• (1) Public schools⁶ should adopt one of the official languages to be the medium of teaching, and provide students with the opportunity of learning the other official language.

• (2) Private schools⁷ can use the official languages or other languages to be the medium of teaching.

• (3) Private schools that plan to use other languages to be the medium of teaching should be assessed and approved by the education authority and be confirmed that they possess adequate conditions prior to the enforcement of the language.

• (4) Private schools using other languages as the medium of teaching should provide the opportunity of learning at least one of the official languages. (DSEJ 2017c, pp. 1–2)

This section will examine the pre-primary and primary language curricula and how they are designed and implemented in in accordance of these four basic principles.

6.5.1 Pre-Primary Curriculum

The curriculum plan for pre-primary (i.e., K1–K3) education lists five learning areas: (1) health and physical education, (2) language, (3) personal, social and humanities education, (4) mathematics and science and (5) arts (DSEJ 2014). DSEJ also specifies that pre-primary classes should spend 1200–1650 min per week teaching the curriculum for 39 weeks a year for three years (and the document further specifies that total pre-primary instruction should be 140,000–193,050 min within the three years).

Whereas the pre-primary curriculum plan only specifies the number of hours of instruction to be delivered within the K1–K3 programme, the educational goals and objectives are specified within a list of Basic Academic Attainments (BAA) expected at completion of pre-primary education (DSEJ 2016d). The language learning area (coded as area ‘B’) is divided into 19 specified learning objectives for listening (coded ‘B-1′), speaking (B-2), reading (B-3) and writing (B-4). Most of the specified outcomes are too vaguely defined to be useful for understanding language curricula, as illustrated by a selection⁸:

B-1-1	Be able to distinguish different sounds, feel the different tones of voice and intonations;
…
B-1-4	Be able to understand the words in everyday use and instructions, and act according to the given instructions;
…
B-2-3	Be able to clearly express one’s living experience, needs and emotions; and to describe simple things and the sequence of their development completely;
…
B-3-2	Be able to read independently and attentively, preliminarily master the ways of reading;
…
B-4-3	Be able to use pictures, symbols or along [sic] with words, to record the experiences of life and feelings, and create stories. (DSEJ 2016d, pp. 5–6).

It is difficult to imagine how the BAA sampled here would translate into teaching lessons, but lesson development is illustrated within a series of PowerPoint slides that DSEJ provides to teachers (DSEJ 2016e). Teachers are especially encouraged to develop thematic lessons that will incorporate skills from multiple learning areas.

There is no reference to second language instruction for pre-primary students within the LEP document, which is designed to formulate an educational language policy in broad strokes. Generally speaking, the policy has the stated objective ‘to specify … the status of Chinese, Portuguese and English and put emphasis on educating students to be biliterate (to master written Chinese and Portuguese) and trilingual (to speak fluent Cantonese, Putonghua and Portuguese)’ (DSEJ 2017a, pp. 3–4). Interestingly, the specification of the status of English is ignored within the LEP. The resulting impression left by the policy appears to be to de-emphasise the importance of English as a language of Macau. But this is inconsistent with actual practice in many pre-primary schools where, if English is not the MOI, it is introduced as a school subject. Even the published BAA specify that students should ‘be able to understand and speak a simple second language’ (DSEJ 2016d, p. 5).⁹ While there is an attempt to specify that a second language should be taught in addition to the MOI, the language policy does not specify the teaching of English as a policy objective at any grade. Instead the LEP and the published BAA allow schools the freedom to interpret the learning objectives very broadly and to choose what, if any, languages they will teach in addition to the MOI. The second language might be English, Portuguese, Putonghua or even Cantonese for the 11% of pre-primary students whose first language is not Cantonese (see Table 6.2).

6.5.2 Primary Curriculum

Whereas the Language Education Policy (LEP) offers no statements about language teaching to pre-primary students, the policy does have one specific recommendation for primary students:

Fig. 6.7

Distribution of Average Weekly Instructional Hours in Primary Curriculum Plan. Source DSEJ (2014)

Educational institutions must teach students at least one language other than the medium of instruction throughout primary education. The teaching of such language should be more standardised and systematic in the fifth and sixth year of primary education. (DSEJ 2017a, p. 5).

The ‘second language’ referred to in the LEP is not defined according to individual students’ ability: second language here refers to the school language subjects taught in contrast to the MOI language. It is conceivable, therefore, that neither the MOI nor the second language are first languages (i.e., home language) for many Macau primary students. While DSEJ does not address instruction in children’s first language, it does specify the number of hours to be spent on language instruction in primary school. On average, DSEJ expects that 6–10 h per week will be spent on instruction in the language that is the medium of instruction and 5–7 h will be spent on the second language. Figure 6.7 illustrates how the average of these two recommendations (i.e., 8 and 6 h respectively) would look within a 35-h week.¹⁰ Combined language instruction in the MOI language and the second language is intended to account for 50% of the instructional hours in a week, and it would be impossible to devote less than 40.7% of the instruction hours to instruction in languages.

Table 6.8 Comparison of Primary Curriculum for Chinese, English and Portuguese as MOI and as Second Language

The primary curriculum is encoded within Macau law as ‘Dispatch of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture No. 19/2016′ (Macao SAR Government 2016). The law was posted to the Boletim Oficial ‘Official Bulletin’ on 29 February 2016 and it is archived (and accessible) from the Imprensa Oficial ‘Official Press’. DSEJ also provides a link to the legal document within their Curriculum Development Website (DSEJ 2016a). Like all laws in Macau, the curriculum law is written in Chinese and Portuguese. The document is structured around each of the learning areas described in Fig. 6.7, and each of the areas is described in detail within appendices (one per learning area) within the law.¹¹ The appendices relating to language are specific to each of the three languages discussed within the curriculum, Chinese, English and Portuguese, and the appendices are also specific to whether the language is a medium of instruction (MOI) or a school subject, which the law calls a ‘second language’ (SL). Therefore, in addition to the 6 appendices describing non-language-related teaching areas, there are another six appendices describing language curricula: two for Chinese (one as an MOI and one as subject/second language), two for English (MOI and SL) and two for Portuguese (MOI and SL). These six curricula will be referred to in this volume as Chinese as medium of instruction (CMI), Chinese as second language (CSL), EMI, ESL, PMI and PSL.

Each appendix describing a curriculum for each learning area follows the same format of three sections: (1) ‘essential ideas’, (2) ‘curricular objectives’ and (3) ‘requirements of basic academic competencies’ (BAA). ‘Essential ideas’ are often policy justifications or intentions, as there is little structure to the statements and a great deal of variability in how many points are promoted as essential to understanding the motivation and intended outcomes of the various curricula. For example, the Chinese language teaching appendices propose four essential ideas in 9 paragraphs about Chinese as a MOI, and five ideas in six paragraphs about Chinese as a subject language. The Portuguese MOI language teaching appendix, on the other hand, introduces no essential ideas about the PMI curriculum in three short paragraphs. The Portuguese as subject language (i.e., Portuguese as a second language, PSL) curriculum statement has two points promoted as essential ideas within five paragraphs of text. There is, therefore, a high degree of variability in terms of the specificity of the six language curricula. Generally speaking, the Chinese curricula have the highest degree of specificity and the Portuguese curricula have the lowest. In order to compare the degrees of elaboration within the six language curricula, the number of points, number of paragraphs and the number of words¹² (in both the Chinese and Portuguese versions) of the ‘essential ideas’ sections from each of the six language-related appendices are described in (1) of Table 6.8.

The second subsection of each language curriculum appendix contains a number of ‘curricular objectives’ that are intended to be met during the 6-year period of primary education. The CMI curriculum has the greatest number of stated objectives, 10 in all, and the PMI curriculum has the fewest, just 4. The number of words in both the Chinese and Portuguese versions of the law is also included in (2) of Table 6.8 along with the number of objectives for each of the six language curricula appendices.

The final section of each curriculum appendix is a number of basic academic achievements (BAA) that students are expected to achieve during the period of study in primary school. BAA are divided into intended learning outcomes for junior primary grades (P1–P3) and senior primary grades (P4–P6). All the language-related curricula contain BAA pertaining to four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The two Chinese curricula (the CMI and the CSL curricula) contain BAA related to two other kinds of skills: knowledge of Chinese characters and ‘general purpose’ skills. The PMI curriculum contains a number of BAA for ‘explicit knowledge’ of Portuguese and the PSL curriculum contains 2 BAA (one in junior primary and one in senior primary) related to ‘intercultural competence’. Features of the BAA for individual language curricula will be discussed in the respective sections below. Section (3) of Table 6.8 lists the number of junior and senior primary BAA for each skill area in the six language curricula as well as the number of Chinese and Portuguese words within this final section of each language-related curriculum appendix statement in the education law.

6.5.2.1 Chinese

84.8% of primary students are in government or subsidised Chinese medium of instruction (CMI) school sections and it is, therefore, no surprise that the Macau government’s educational law defining language curricula would specify more essential ideas, establish more curricular objectives and articulate more BAA for the CMI curriculum than any other curriculum. The articulation of points within the ‘essential ideas’ section of the educational law often read as observations about the social role of individual languages and the justification for specific policy decisions. The four essential ideas introduced about the importance of Chinese in Macau society reflect not only the sociolinguistic realities described throughout this volume, but also outline the aspirational goals of a language policy. The four points made within the ‘essential ideas’ section are¹³:

• (1) It is intended for all students to fully develop their qualities in the Chinese language;

• (2) Perform the basic function of the Chinese language;

• (3) Give importance to the unification between the instrumental and the humanist; and

• (4) Valuing the diversification and effectiveness of the ways and means of studying the Chinese language. (Macao SAR Government 2016, pp. 127–128)

The first point, that students should fully develop their abilities in Chinese, may be intended to justify the use of Putonghua in addition to Cantonese as a MOI, and the accompanying use of simplified Chinese characters in addition to traditional characters. In developing the point, the text continues that ‘…students should be able to use Cantonese as well as Mandarin’ and that ‘students must correctly use traditional characters and know the legally [italics added] standardised Chinese characters used in the People’s Republic of China’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 127). The educational law codifies the intended practice that is outlined within the Language Education Policy (LEP), discussed in Chap. 5 (DSEJ 2017a). Although usual practice in Macau CMI schools is to teach in the medium of Cantonese with traditional characters, the LEP suggests that students should also learn Putonghua and simplified Chinese characters. The use of Putonghua and simplified Chinese characters is justified as a requirement to correct what is presented within the appendix as previous generations’ neglect of these languages. It is further suggested that a failure to do so might be interpreted as criminal malfeasance because the simplified Chinese characters carry the weight of a legal standard within Macau. The same justification is further developed in the second point, where lawmakers add that acquisition of Chinese is intended to reflect ‘the succession of traditional culture to the promotion of contemporary civilisation’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 127). Again, the justification of Putonghua and simplified Chinese characters appeals in the second point to a modern view of the Chinese language and culture that is overlooked if the modernised language is not taught.

The third point argues that Chinese not only functions as a language of communication, but that it ‘is also a support of the culture and thought that contain a valuable human connotation’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 127). The interconnected importance of the language with the culture is emphasised in this point and the acquisition of culture as ‘connotation’ suggests that it should be effortless, natural and intuitive. Indeed, the opening paragraph of the four essential ideas makes a profound connection between the study of Chinese and moral and aesthetic developments:

The primary school curriculum should be dedicated to the training and development of the basic quality of the Chinese language of the students, with the effect not only of increasing the competence in the use of this language, but also the training of moral virtues, the cultural influence as well as increasing the aesthetic dimension of students, creating a basis for integral and permanent development in student learning. (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 126).

While the fourth and final point advocates for mixed methods of language instruction, the third point seems instead to emphasise further the necessity to make CMI education contemporary, relevant and grounded in current uses and applications.

The CMI curriculum outlines 10 curricular objectives. Although most of the objectives are related to the development of language proficiency in Chinese, the first objective asks that students develop ‘their enthusiasm for the study of Chinese characters and Chinese culture as well as the feeling of love for their country and Macau’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 128). This particular statement, interestingly, is repeated as a curricular objective in the junior secondary curriculum for CMI education, but not in the senior secondary curriculum. The statement is also consistent with the Language Education Policy’s (LEP) similar statements that, as an SAR of the People’s Republic of China, Macau inherits Putonghua and simplified Chinese characters as standard Chinese languages (DSEJ 2017a). As the first curricular objective within the earliest language curriculum (namely, the primary language curriculum), the statement allows the curriculum to continue to specify curricular objectives for the learning of Cantonese and traditional Chinese characters without any accusation or implication that the purpose of doing so would oppose this initial curricular objective. The objective also continues to state that the teaching of Chinese should ‘at the same time, guide students to be concerned with contemporary cultural life, and to respect and understand multiculturalism’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 128). While this reference to multiculturalism might seem somewhat unprecedented as a curricular objective for language acquisition, it is likely intended to counterbalance the previous statement that equates good acquisition of Chinese with patriotism.

The remaining CMI curricular objectives continue to specify a number of expected skills related to the simultaneous acquisition of Putonghua and Cantonese as well as education in the uses of both simplified and traditional Chinese characters. In particular, students are expected to know ‘the 3000 most used Chinese characters and to write at least 2000 of these’ (Macau SAR Government 2016, p. 129). The fifth objective asks students to ‘build the skill for the correct use of traditional characters and knowledge of Chinese characters legally standardised by the People’s Republic of China’ (Macau SAR Government 2016, pp. 128–129). Furthermore, the seventh objective notes the following about the choice of a Chinese variety:

Upon completion of primary education, if the medium language of subjects is Cantonese, students should be able to use Cantonese fluently and properly as well as hear and speak Mandarin. If the medium language of subjects is Mandarin, students should be able to use Mandarin fluently and properly as well as to hear and speak Cantonese. (Macau SAR Government 2016, p. 129).

Simply put, neither Putonghua nor Cantonese are to be excluded from education at the expense of the other.

Basic academic achievements (BAA) for the CMI primary curriculum are divided into the six categories described in Table 6.8, listening, speaking, Chinese characters, reading, writing and general purpose. A number of BAA require simultaneous acquisition of Cantonese and Putonghua and knowledge of both simplified and traditional Chinese characters:

A-1-8	Enjoy listening to songs, poems and children’s stories in Cantonese and Mandarin, through which you can feel the art of the rhythm of the language;
…
A-2-11	Understand daily conversation, prayers of texts, news and children’s stories, among others, in Cantonese and Mandarin;
…
B-1-10	If the medium language is Cantonese, speak Cantonese fluently; if the medium language is Mandarin, speak Mandarin fluently;
…
B-1-12	Be able to chat with others in Cantonese and Mandarin;
…
C-2-3	Know the standardised Chinese characters with the help of the “General Table of Standardised Chinese Characters” and dictionaries;
…
D-1-6	Recite texts, in Cantonese and Mandarin, correctly and fluently, with emotion and rhythm; (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 130–133).

These BAA are designed to measure the implementation of the LEP’s specific objective that Macau students learn to speak both Cantonese and Putonghua and learn to read and write both simplified and traditional Chinese characters.

The BAA for the Chinese language curricula, both as an MOI and as a language subject (i.e., second language), include several intended learning outcomes that are classified by the curriculum law as ‘general purpose’ achievements. These deserve special mention because ‘general purpose’ achievements only appear in the two curricula for Chinese. The 12 general purpose achievements listed in the primary CMI curriculum include the following:

• F-2-5 Know Chinese culture and the characteristics of other ethnic cultures through the learning of the Chinese language;

• F-2-6 Know how to use the knowledge of the Chinese language to solve the simple problems of life; (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 137).

While the first of the two suggests that Chinese cultural and linguistic knowledge can be a sufficient instrument for learning about other ethnic groups, it is not entirely clear what ‘simple problems of life’ can be solved, especially with knowledge of Chinese.

The curriculum for Chinese as a language subject, or what DSEJ refers to as Chinese as a second language (CSL), is intended for those students enrolled in PMI or EMI schools in Macau. 15.2% of students enrolled in government or subsidised schools are in either EMI or PMI education. 4,505 of those students are enrolled in English MOI; the remaining 36 students, representing 0.12%, are enrolled in the government school that uses Portuguese as the MOI. Although these 4,541 students are not exclusively first-language speakers of Chinese, most are, and CSL classes are somewhat of a misnomer for these students. Nevertheless, the essential ideas about Chinese language subject curriculum carry a somewhat different tone from the essential ideas articulated within the CMI curriculum. The five essential ideas are:

• (1) Emphasise the social function of the Chinese language, develop in students all the basic qualities of the Chinese language;

• (2) Help students to understand Chinese culture, integrating them into social life;

• (3) Respect the cultural differences of different ethnicities and value the adequacy of the curriculum;

• (4) Value the practice of the Chinese language and emphasise the use of the knowledge learned; and

• (5) Create a good environment to learn the Chinese language and increase the effectiveness of learning (Macao SAR Government 2016, pp. 137–139)

The second and fifth points are especially relevant to the group of students studying in EMI and PMI schools. The explanation and development of the second idea notes the connection between Chinese language and culture:

Since Chinese society resides essentially in Macau, the Chinese language curriculum, as a second language, should stimulate students’ interest in learning the Chinese language, helping them to understand the connotation of Chinese culture, the habits of expression in the language and Chinese cultural customs. Helping students to improve knowledge and understanding of Chinese culture, as well as to foster a taste for the language. (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 138).

Similarly, the fifth point emphasises that ‘students should be organised to participate in sociocultural activities related to the Chinese language, for example activities to celebrate traditional Chinese festivals, exhibitions’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 139). Although most of the students enrolled in the CSL curriculum would be both ethnically Chinese and speakers of Chinese, the curriculum instead emphasises that cultural difference must exist between students:

The Chinese language (second language) curriculum for primary education should take into account students’ cultural differences, reinforcing their taste for Chinese culture, constantly broadening their cultural vision, promoting deep mutual understanding and harmony between different cultures. (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 137).

The goals of the curriculum, therefore, appear to be focussed on learning Chinese as a second language when, in fact, it is the usual language of 95.3% of primary-aged children (see Table 6.3). According to the 2016 by-census, only 1,207 (4.7%) primary-aged residents do not use Chinese as their usual language. But there are 5,747 primary children enrolled in EMI or PMI school sections. Even if every primary-aged child who is not a first language speaker of Chinese is enrolled in an EMI or PMI school section (and this is not the case—some are enrolled in CMI school sections), then 4,541 (79.0%) of EMI and PMI students also use Chinese as their usual language. The primary (and secondary, for that matter) CSL curriculum, then, does not adequately focus on the students who are enrolled in the CSL classes, but instead treats them as though they have no competence in the language when, if fact, most do. Instead, the CSL curricula—that is the primary, junior secondary and senior secondary CSL curricula—appear to be motivated to teach Chinese to a small minority population of students who are not ethnically Chinese and have no competence in the language.

The seven curricular objectives described in the primary CSL curriculum are mostly focused on the improving a presumed second-language proficiency in the Chinese language. Students are expected to know at least 2000 Chinese characters and be able to write at least 800 of them. While this number would not allow them read or write very widely in the language, it would create a strong foundation for further learning in the language. Whereas the CMI curriculum specifies that both Cantonese and Putonghua are to be learned, the CSL curriculum consistently specifies that either Cantonese or Putonghua can be learned. Similarly, the CSL curriculum allows schools to choose either traditional or simplified Chinese characters as the object of instruction. This choice between Cantonese and Putonghua—related to the similar choice between traditional and simplified Chinese characters—is reinforced throughout the BAA of the curriculum. The only time that both languages are not specified is one of the BAA for senior primary:

• C-2-2 To know the traditional Chinese characters and the standard ones used in the People’s Republic of China, in an amount of not less than 2000, and of these to know how to write at least 800; (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 142).

As with the BAA of the CMI curriculum, the CSL contains eight BAA classified as ‘general purpose’ expected learning outcomes. These include:

• F-2-3 Know the characteristics of Chinese culture through the learning of the Chinese language;

• F-2-4 Know how to use your knowledge learned about the Chinese language to solve the simple problems of life; (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 144).

While the second BAA is unchanged from the CMI curriculum, F-2-3 has removed the expectation that students learn about other ethnic groups through the medium of Chinese.

6.5.2.2 English

The two Chinese language primary curricula, for CMI and CSL education, articulate the greatest number of BAA: 149 and 92 respectively. The number of BAA codified for the English as a medium of instruction (EMI) and English as a second language (ESL) curricula is 116 and 94 respectively. The Chinese BAA, however, were spread over 6 basic defined skill areas, whereas the English BAA are only across the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. There is, therefore, at least as much attention—and arguably more—given to the definition of standards in the EMI and ESL curricula as there are in the CMI and CSL curricula. This is consistent with DSEJ’s Language Education Policy (LEP), which primarily focuses on establishing standards related to English-language teacher training (Moody 2019). Whereas the LEP establishes those standards for teachers teaching in English as either MOI or second language, it suggests that similar standards for Chinese and Portuguese instructors should also be prepared in the future (DSEJ 2017a).

The curriculum for English as an MOI in primary schools articulates four essential ideas:

• (1) Develop the English language in students in order to reinforce their personal and intellectual development and their cultural knowledge;

• (2) The curriculum must be student-centred, with teaching in line with their capabilities. Through the provision of more diversified learning materials and resources and a diversified learning environment, it is intended to raise students’ motivation for studies, in order to create a basis for lifelong learning;

• (3) Through the learning of English, students must develop basic language skills, namely oral comprehension, oral expression, written comprehension and written expression, in order to achieve the objective of communicating and exchanging with other people, also developing their knowledge and creating values, during the process of learning this language; and

• (4) Diversified pedagogy should be adopted that values the formation of higher-level thinking skills and other knowledge (Macao SAR Government 2016, pp. 154–155)

The first point appears to suggest that the role of English as a lingua franca justifies its use as an MOI in Macau. The paragraph supporting and developing this point continues that the English language ‘allows students to access information and knowledge from other regions of the world relatively easily’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 154). In a somewhat related point, the third point emphasises the communicative nature of English and advocates for communicative language teaching. The supporting paragraph further argues that ‘as English comprehension skills develop, so do your creativity and cultural awareness’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 155). The two remaining points advocate for innovative pedagogical practices, namely student-centred teaching and diversified pedagogy. All nine of the curricular objectives are related to the improvement of English-language proficiency, with the possible exception of the sixth: ‘allow students to learn about different cultures, so that they learn to respect cultural differences, broaden their horizons and establish good attitudes’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 155).

The essential ideas articulated for the ESL curriculum, which is designed for students who are studying in CMI and PMI schools, are very similar to the EMI curriculum’s points within the ‘essential ideas’ section, but somewhat truncated:

• (1) Valuing the development of students’ interests and abilities in language learning;

• (2) Enable students to use English to communicate with others by developing basic English skills; and

• (3) Promote the adoption of diversified teaching methods (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 161)

  Similarly, the eight curricular objectives for the ESL curriculum are essentially the same as those for the EMI curriculum, but in truncated form.

The EMI and ESL BAA go into the most detail of any of the language curricula for specifying intended learning outcomes for primary students. Whereas the pre-primary BAA listed just 19 intended learning outcomes within the four skills (i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing), the primary BAA for schools using English as the MOI list 116 intended learning outcomes that are coded A, B, C and D respectively for the four skills. The BAA are divided to apply to two separate three-year segments of primary education. BAA for lower primary grades (comprising P1–P3) are coded as A-1-X, B-1-X, etc., and BAA for upper primary grades (comprising P4–P6) are similarly coded with the number 2 (e.g., A-2-X, B-2-X, etc.). The BAA run a full range of specificity and vagueness, as illustrated by a selection of attainments from the lower primary EMI curriculum:

A-1-3	Segment a syllable into its constituent sounds/phonemes;
…
A-1-9	Demonstrate interest in watching videos and movies;
…
B-1-1	Pronounce the 26 letters of the alphabet correctly;
…
B-1-6	Know when to use formal and informal greetings and farewells;
…
C-1-1	Recognize upper and lower case [sic] letters in print type;
…
C-1-8	Scan a textbook to look for specific pieces of information;
…
D-1-4	Begin to apply correct grammar in writing;
…
D-1-11	Complete simple practical tasks in writing; (DSEJ , pp. 3–7).

There are 32% more BAA specified for upper primary grades, which may be intended to signal increased importance of language instruction in P4–P6 grades, and the BAA run similar degrees of specificity:

A-2-1	Identity stressed syllables in words;
…
A-2-14	Understand subject matter in the content area that is delivered in English.
…
B-2-3	Show organization when presenting ideas;
…
B-2-11	Show cultural awareness while communicating with others;
…
C-2-5	Read aloud texts with meaning;
…
C-2-10	Be able to tackle a larger variety of text types;
…
D-2-7	Elaborate on main ideas;
…
D-2-13	Begin to show creativity; (DSEJ 2016f, pp. 3–7).

As with the pre-primary BAA cited in 6.5.1, it should be noted that the original and official versions are codified in Chinese and Portuguese and the DSEJ versions cited here are provided for ‘reference only’ (and this is clearly marked upon the documents).

While the BAA provide a rough outline (in varying degrees of detail) of the intended learning outcomes of the DSEJ curricula, the actual implementation document for the primary EMI curriculum is the 220-page Primary English Curriculum Guide for Schools Using English as the Primary Language of Instruction (DSEJ 2016c). The guide is prepared by a group of academics working in English-language educational research mostly from Hong Kong and Macau and the guide is only available for EMI and ESL teachers.¹⁴ The curriculum guide offers interpretations of the BAA and guidelines for developing, designing and implementing an EMI curriculum and assessing student performance within the curriculum. The guide also introduces resources for the development of relevant teaching materials. The largest portion of the guide, however, is devoted to an appendix that outlines schemes of work that are aligned with the BAA for EMI primary schools. The curriculum guide clarifies how the EMI curriculum is to be implemented in Macau: the published BAA provide the legal basis for the curriculum and the mandatory use of the curriculum in government and subsidised schools as the BAA are published as legal documents (e.g., Macao SAR Government 2006, 2016); the curriculum guide provides the details for how the various curricula are to be implemented over 6 years of primary or secondary education.

In addition to a curriculum guide for schools that use English as the MOI, DSEJ also provides a curriculum guide for primary schools that teach English as a subject/second language (ESL). Chinese is the MOI for 82.2% of Macau students and, in government and subsidised schools (the schools that the BAA and government curriculum apply to) 84.8% of students are studying in CMI school sections. The vast majority of these 25,351 primary students study English as their second language from P1 through P6. Whereas the curriculum for primary schools using English as the MOI specifies 50 BAA for lower primary and 66 for upper primary, the curriculum for schools teaching English as a subject specify 40 BAA for lower primary and 51 for upper primary. The BAA for primary school sections teaching English as a second language largely correspond to the BAA for school sections using English as the MOI; the latter simply specify a few more BAA than the former. In particular, the BAA for schools teaching English as subject (ESL) do not require students to learn to read or write cursive letters. Most of the BAA cited above from the EMI curriculum (DSEJ 2016f) can also be found with the exact same code in the ESL curriculum (DSEJ 2016g). DSEJ also prepares a 227-page curriculum guide for schools not using English as MOI (DSEJ 2016b) and there is a great deal of correspondence between the EMI and ESL curriculum guides. The curriculum guide for schools teaching the ESL curriculum is slightly longer and has additional sections describing more basic or fundamental educational principles. For example, the section on curriculum assessments adds subheadings on ‘definition of assessment’, ‘purposes of assessment’, ‘basic principles of assessment’ and ‘principles of English language assessment’ (DSEJ 2016b, pg. ii). And there are similar expansions of topics related to materials use and development. An appendix on BAA-aligned schemes of work has been slightly reduced for primary schools teaching English as a subject language, but the sample lesson plans have been greatly expanded within the ESL curriculum guide. While the reduction in work schemes is understandable (because fewer hours per week are expected to be devoted to teaching English as a subject in the ESL curriculum) the expansion of lesson plans suggests that more teachers are engaged in teaching English as a second language in Macau and that this group would benefit from more detailed directions about teaching.

6.5.2.3 Portuguese

The shortest and least specific of the three curricula designed for primary MOI is the Portuguese MOI curriculum. The majority of Macau students enrolled in PMI attend the private Escola Portuguesa de Macau (EPM) ‘Macau Portuguese School’ and these curricula do not apply to fully private schools like EPM. Since there are no subsidised schools offering PMI education, this curriculum, would only apply to the 36 primary students enrolled in PMI at Escola Primária Luso-Chinesa da Flora (Secção Portuguesa) ‘Flora Luso-Chinese Primary School (Portuguese Section)’. It is, therefore, understandable that the curriculum would not be fully developed at the time that it was passed. There are no points articulated within the ‘essential ideas’ section of the law’s appendix for the PMI curriculum; three paragraphs simply state that PMI education exists within Macau and that the DSEJ is responsible for administration of the curriculum. Similarly, the PMI curriculum articulates four curricular objectives, which the document actually calls ‘principles’.¹⁵ The first three objectives are related to proficiency in the basic skills: the first to listening and speaking, the second to reading and the third to writing. The final objective is that students should have technical knowledge of the Portuguese language structure, especially phonology, lexis, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. The primary PMI curriculum also specifies 55 intended learning outcomes for junior primary education and 40 for senior primary education. Like the English curricula, the BAA are coded for listening (A), speaking (B), reading (C) and writing (D). These BAA include:

A-1-6	Transpose oral statements to other forms of expression;
…
A-2-4	Select the necessary information for intended objective;
…
B-1-4	Expose to justify opinions;
…
B-2-7	Read clearly, fluently and with appropriate intonation texts of different types, namely in prose and poetry.
…
C-1-6	Distinguish essential information from accessory;
…
C-2-7	Read for recreation and information.
…
D-1-6	Develop dialogues;
…
D-2-5	Produce creative texts from different stimuli, namely images, music, films, advertising and videos. (Macao SAR Government 2016, pp. 146–148).

The PMI curriculum includes a fifth category of intended learning outcomes that is not included in any other primary curriculum, ‘explicit knowledge’. The BAA for explicit knowledge of Portuguese seem to apply to perceived problems that first-language speakers of Chinese may have with learning and using Portuguese, but this is not clearly expressed within the document. These explicit knowledge BAA include:

E-1-1	Properly use punctuation marks and auxiliary writing signs;
E-1-2	Properly use the graphic accentuation signs;
E-1-3	Distinguish the stressed syllable from unstressed syllables;
…
E-1-11	Transform phrases by expanding or reducing;
E-1-12	Transform sentences by changing the type and shape;
E-1-13	Identify words belonging to the same vocabulary area;
…
E-2-3	Identify different morphological processes of word formation;
E-2-4	Identify classes and subclasses of words;
E-2-5	Distinguish tense, mood and aspect of verbal forms;
…
E-2-10	Distinguish period and paragraph;
E-2-11	Find information in a text by indicating the paragraph; (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 148–149).

Because these explicit knowledge BAA incorporate a number of different language skills, the category does not appear to be coherently defined as it is expressed within the law.

While the PMI curriculum applies to a very small group of students in Macau, the teaching of Portuguese as a second language (PSL) is one of the primary initiatives of the Language Education Policy (DSEJ 2017a). All schools in Macau are required to offer both of the official languages as subject courses, so the PSL curriculum would be one that every school would need to observe and it could potentially affect a large number of primary students. Unfortunately, the PSL curriculum is the shortest, with the least number of words and fewest number of BAAs, of any of the primary language curricula. The curriculum makes two points within the essential ideas section about the purpose of a Portuguese language curriculum in Macau: (1) ‘valuing the learning of the Portuguese language’ and (2) ‘acquisition of basic communication skills in Portuguese in primary education’ (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 150). The curriculum’s opening paragraph attempts to summarise the importance of Portuguese to Macau society and education:

The globalisation to which societies are exposed today refers to an increasingly urgent need to know how to deal with diversity and otherness [italics added]. In this sense, language learning is considered to be a fundamental asset in building a harmonious society, open to pluricultural and plurilingual spaces, such as the Macau Special Administrative Region (hereinafter referred to as MSAR). (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 149–150).

Interestingly, the document does not make any reference to the fact that Portuguese is an official language of the territory. And the justification for studying Portuguese, that it will help to build a harmonious society, could easily be made about any language. Furthermore, there is no mention of a historical relationship with Portugal or the Portuguese language within the ‘essential ideas’ section of the curriculum. Instead, the document makes an oblique reference to teaching students how to deal with ‘otherness’. The Portuguese term used within the text is alteridade, and the Chinese term used is 差異性 chayi-xing. The terms, especially the Portuguese term, derive from the philosophical tradition of alterity (Spivak 2012). The term suggests a binary relationship between the ‘self’ and ‘other’ and it is frequently used in post-colonial theory to understand how colonialism imposes racist systems of oppression upon the colonised (Said 1994). Within the context of the PSL curriculum, the term harkens to the colonial relationship between Macau and Portugal and suggests that reconciliation might entail undertaking the study of Portuguese.

The curricular objectives advanced within the PSL curriculum are succinct and quoted here in entirety:

• (1) The motivation for learning Portuguese language and culture;

• (2) The desire to use the Portuguese language inside and outside the school context;

• (3) The taste for reading in Portuguese;

• (4) Proficiency in basic communication skills: oral and written comprehension and expression;

• (5) Mastering Portuguese language learning strategies. (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 150–151)

The curriculum also includes 43 BAA for junior primary students and 33 for senior primary students. These, too, are very simple and succinctly expressed, as demonstrated in a selection of some of the intended learning outcomes:

A-1-1	Identify sounds of the Portuguese language;
A-1-2	Identify different intonations;
A-1-3	Distinguish the intonation of the Portuguese language from your own;
A-1-9	Identify words to greet;
…
A-1-10	Identify ways to greet;
A-1-11	Identify words to say goodbye;
A-1-12	Identify words to thank or react to thanks;
…
A-2-6	Identify characters in a story;
A-2-7	Understand the fundamental topics in a children’s story;
…
B-1-1	Speak audibly;
…
B-1-10	Use simple forms of greeting;
B-1-11	Use simple forms of farewell;
…
B-2-10	Use treatment formulas, greetings and thanks appropriately, according to the communication situation
C-1-1	Read and understand image captions;
…
C-1-10	Read selected stories, in group;
C-2-8	Use a bilingual dictionary, with support from teachers;
…
D-1-3	Write uppercase and lowercase letters appropriately, leaving the correct space between words;
D-1-4	Use punctuation marks, in particular the period, the comma and the question mark;
…
D-2-2	Use punctuation marks properly;Use punctuation marks properly;
D-2-3	Use simple phrases to describe familiar images or topics;
D-2-4	Start the process of self-correcting your own writing;
D-2-5	Demonstrate creativity in writing; (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 151–153).

While the first 31 BAA in the primary PSL curriculum are focussed on the development of basic proficiency in Portuguese, the expectations seems somewhat lower than for those students enrolled in CSL or ESL courses.

The final set of BAA for the primary PSL curriculum is labelled within the appendix as ‘intercultural competence’. There are only two intended learning outcomes specified in this section: the first for junior primary students and the second for senior primary students. The two BAA, quoted in entirety, are:

• E-1-1 Identify the similarities and differences between the main cultures present in the MSAR;

• E-2-2 Interact with the Other, developing interest and taste for different cultures. (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 153).

These intended learning outcomes make more explicit the enduring and unique connection that the Portuguese language has with the territory. The first BAA suggests that there are only two main cultures present within Macau and that the understanding of these two can be simply and easily reduced to the learning of Portuguese. The second BAA presents the same binary approach to cultural diversity and returns to use the language of alterity to identify the Portuguese language as representative of the ‘other’. The binary opposition between the culture of the ‘self’, which is presumably Chinese, is to be contrasted with the culture of ‘the other’, which in this BAA is represented by speakers of the Portuguese language. The use of the term ‘other’ is capitalised in the translation and used with the definite article here because the original Portuguese phrase ‘o Outro’ is also capitalised within the original Portuguese text of the law: Interagir com o Outro, desenvolvendo o interesse e o gosto por culturas diversas (Macao SAR Government 2016, p. 153).¹⁶ Although the law specifically states that the purpose of studying the Portuguese language is to develop sensitivity to cultural diversity, Portuguese is to be regarded as the language of ‘the other’: not an authentic language of Macau.

6.6 Conclusion

Macau’s history of multilingualism and multiculturalism, much like the school systems that developed within the territory, developed in an environment of relative freedom from regulation. Languages have entered into the ecology and, in some cases, came to thrive and develop as important markers of ethnolinguistic identity. Others have faded and disappeared with time. The pre-primary and primary language curricula are designed to ensure that schools prepare citizens for participation within Macau society, and that language needs are adequately and effectively met. The first 10 years after the 1999 handover saw a declining birth rate at the same time that the territory grew in population size. Although the number of PPP students dwindled in the initial years after the handover, they had begun to rebound by the 2016 by-census. In the wake of the rising birth rate, DSEJ in 2014 undertook a broad-ranging revision of the curricula used in government and subsidised schools. One of the primary objectives of the revisions was presumably to ensure that schools could effectively educate students to become fluent in three written and four spoken languages, namely Chinese (spoken as both Cantonese and Putonghua), English and Portuguese. Within the revisions, Chinese and English are given the largest degree of specificity and these languages hold the highest expectations of learning. The Chinese curricula attempt to implement (or at least allow) the teaching of Putonghua, without necessarily requiring it. English curricula attempt to specify standards that will prepare most students for EMI education in secondary school and university. Unfortunately, the Portuguese curricula do not show any strong or lasting commitment to PMI or PSL education in the scheme of primary education.

Chapter 7 will continue to examine the curriculum revisions that have been introduced in Macau secondary schools, and Chap. 8 will explore the history and growth of tertiary education.