What will I learn?

Programme Aims

This is an advanced programme of intellectual training in modern Chinese linguistics that is geared to Hong Kong society with relevance to various professions.

Characteristics

The programme aims to convey a rigorous body of up-to-date knowledge in linguistics, and strives to link that knowledge to the natural language situation in Hong Kong. More specifically, the programme facilitates linguistic insights that are related to the use of Chinese in Hong Kong, to sensitise students to the theoretical implications of the practical linguistic problems that are faced by professional users of Chinese in Hong Kong, and to enhance their abilities to approach and solve such language-related problems from a background of expert knowledge.

This programme is listed as a Recognised Language Major Degree Programme (Chinese Language) by the Education Bureau.

Programme Structure

Students are required to take 10 subjects (30 credits), of which 4 must be Compulsory Subjects and the remaining 6 Elective Subjects.

Media of instruction:

The media of instruction are Chinese and English.

Core Areas of Study

Compulsory Subjects

Description of Chinese I: Words and Sentences
Description of Chinese II: Sounds and Script
Language in Society
Semantics and Pragmatics

Elective Subjects

Chinese Language and Culture
Chinese Language Education in Primary and Secondary Schools
Chinese Lexical Semantics and Corpus Linguistics
Contrastive Analysis
Digital Media Communication
Experimental Phonetics
Field Studies in Discourse for Language Professionals
Intercultural Communication
Introduction to Cantonese Studies
Introduction to Chinese Language Testing
Introduction to Educational Linguistics
MACL Dissertation
Multimedia Applications for Language Professionals and Translators
Neurolinguistics
Poetry of the Tang and Song Era
Psycholinguistics
Research Methods in Language Teaching and Language Studies
Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning
Sign Language and Linguistics
Special Education Needs Associated with Cognitive, Physical and Sensory Disorders
Special Education Needs in Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing
Statistical Methods in Language Research
Teaching Chinese Grammar to Non-native Speakers
Teaching Chinese Vocabulary to Non-native Learners
Teaching of Chinese Characters and Words to Non-native Learners
The Development and Implementation of School-Based Chinese Language Curriculum in Hong Kong
Translation Studies
Using Reading to Teach Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages

Which department am I in?

Faculty of Humanities

Study options

Full Time (1 Year)

Tuition fees

HK$168,000.00 (18,22,996) per year

HK $5,600 per credit

*Price shown is for indicative purposes, please

Start date

September 2025

Venue

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

ST305, 3/F, Ng Wing Hong Building,

Hung Hom,

Kowloon City, Hong Kong, Kowloon

Entry requirements

For international students

A good Honours degree or the equivalent.

Good knowledge of Chinese.

If you are not a native speaker of English, and your Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification is awarded by institutions where the medium of instruction is not English, you are expected to fulfil the following minimum English language requirement for admission purpose, unless otherwise specified by individual programmes concerned:

A Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score of 80 for the Internet-based test or 550 for the paper-based test;
OR
An overall Band Score of at least 6 in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

*There may be different IELTS requirements depending on your chosen course.