Since the mother-tongue education policy was launched in 1998, administrative documents in schools, teachers’ handouts, students’ compositions, textbooks and reference books are expected to be in Chinese. However, the authors found that part of many texts being used in schools were lexically incorrect. The book especially deals with this phenomenon. It is divided into two parts: the first part offering a theoretical overview and analysing factors causing the lexical errors; the second listing a number of examples with detailed explanations to illustrate the errors found.

A key feature of the book is that all the examples are selected from actual and authentic school materials, such as textbooks, teachers’ handouts, examination questions, students’ compositions and administrative documents. These materials were collected in the beginning stage of implementing mother-tongue education in Hong Kong. The analysis was based on the latest Standard Dictionary of Modern Chinese . The book may help readers, especially teachers and students, to learn Modern Standard Chinese and avoid making unnecessary errors.