Evaluation of a support intervention for senior secondary school English immersion

This paper reports on part of an evaluation of a 2-year program providing preparatory support for 430 Cantonese Chinese-native-speaking students switching from Chinese to English-medium instruction late in their secondary schooling, mainly because of aspiration to English-medium tertiary study. Focusing quantitatively and qualitatively on scientific English achievement, the paper addresses the content or cognitive–academic dimension, so far as underrepresented in English-as-foreign-language research, as is senior secondary school immersion itself. While no direct cause-effect relationship between the program and achievement levels was to be claimed, the observed differences between program participants and non-participants were ultimately minimal. Reasons proposed for the intervention’s outcome seemed mainly related to key stakeholders’ apparent limited awareness of cognitive–academic language and its development. The discussion identifies factors arguably crucial for support programs for senior secondary school academic study through English-as-foreign-language.