Subject matter in Hong Kong primary English classrooms: A critical analysis of teacher talk

Subject matter in Hong Kong primary English classrooms: A critical analysis of teacher talk

• He, An Hong Kong Institute of Education

Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 3(2), 169-188, 2006

Routledge

2006

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GB English Language
• F Learning & Teaching
  • FH Classroom Communication
• S School Environment & Facilities, Organization
  • SH School Culture, Teacher-Student Relations

Language Planning Criticism Young Children Discourse Analysis Foreign Countries Cultural Context English (Second Language) Classroom Communication Language of Instruction Ideology Teacher Behavior Vocabulary Syntax Teacher Student Relationship Computational Linguistics Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Primary Education

Studies of language issues in postcolonial Hong Kong are abundant. While the majority is concerned with the language policy and medium of instruction, there seems to be insufficient discussion on the subject matter of our English lessons, which, this paper argues, are ideology-ridden. Following the tradition of critical discourse analysis and ideological studies (see van Dijk, 2005; Luke, 1994), this study attempted to explore how a habitual form of communication, teacher talk in this case, was utilized as a vehicle for young children to "[learn] the taken-for-granted aspects of lived reality" (Hasan, 1996, p. 137), and what attributed to the creation, transmission and maintenance of this dominant culture/ideology in the society, resulting in narrowly-defined subject matter for the young children in the classrooms observed. The study started with a description of lexicosyntactic items in the teacher talk via a corpus approach, and moved to an interpretation/explanation of the linguistic texts in the light of the overall sociopolitical and cultural context in Hong Kong where the teacher talk was situated.
[Copyright of Critical Inquiry in Language Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15427587clis032&3_6]

• English

Journal Articles

• 15427587

• 10.1207/s15427587clis032&3_6

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/6deb25cb

2010-11-24