“Language of power” is used here as a heading in preference to “language of wider communication.” In the programs described in Part V, English is a language of power because it provides the means for social, economic, and academic upward mobility. It is not acquired for purposes of ethnic solidarity or identity, or to achieve cultural or social assimilation with a community of LI speakers. The language is acquired for communication across, not within, social and cultural groups. The target variety in those cases need not and arguably should not be identified with that of any particular speech community.

In Hong Kong, English is required by Cantonese speakers (who compose 98% of the community) for academic, professional, or commercial purposes, but only where contact with the international community is in some way involved. Cantonese is the language of communication and of solidarity within the Hong Kong community, and Putonghua (Mandarin) is the Chinese national language. Robert Keith Johnson's chapter examines the educational consequences when the demand for places in late immersion classrooms goes beyond what the education system can effectively provide; hence the title “Late immersion under stress.” The result of the demand from parents for English-medium secondary education has been an education system in which the great majority of students switch from Chinese-medium primary education (grades 1–6) to a nominally English-medium secondary system (grades 7–13). In these secondary schools, the textbooks and examinations are in English and the intent is for the oral medium to be English.