Teaching science in English is increasingly common worldwide. This study explores the role of language in science meaning-making during classroom interactions by drawing on video-recorded classroom observations of four biology lessons in secondary English medium instruction (EMI) settings in Hong Kong. Informed by systemic functional linguistics (SFL), we integrate classroom interaction analysis with Lemke's approach to thematic analysis. The results reveal similar interactional patterns across full- and partial-EMI science classrooms, characterised by a lack of interactivity and authoritative teacher behaviour in selecting student responses to engage with. During extended initiation-response-feedback exchanges, teachers' feedback on students' responses appears to underscore the importance of teachers' modified input - specifically input emphasising semantic relations within the field of biology - in developing students' content knowledge and language skills. The implications of the findings for applying SFL pedagogies in EMI science classrooms to improve teacher-student interaction are discussed. Copyright © 2025 De Gruyter .

The study examined the frequency and accuracy of four discourse competence (DC) parameters (i. e., establishment of a smooth old-to-new information flow, stance display, engagement with readers, and mastery of knowledge of discourse structure) in Hong Kong English-as-a-secondlanguage (ESL) secondary students' disciplinary research reports. The results showed that: (1) elements of establishment of a smooth old-to-new information flow constituted, on average, less than 9 % of the reports' length, with mean accuracy rates ranging from 64.31 % to 80.33 %; (2) elements of stance display constituted, on average, no more than 3 % of the reports' length, with mean accuracy rates ranging from 58.33 % to 98.17 %; (3) elements of engagement with readers constituted, on average, no more than 2 % of the reports' length, with mean accuracy rates ranging from 33.33% to 88.64 %; (4) the mean accuracy rates of mastery of knowledge of discourse structure ranged from 0 % to 100 %. The findings reveal the secondary students' DC in disciplinary research writing and pinpoint weak areas that instructors can work on. The proposed DC framework forms a foundation for future research on DC in discipline-specific research writing. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.

While inquiry into the relationship between linguistic features and L2 writing quality has been a long-standing line of research, little scholarly attention has been drawn to the predictive value of linguistic features in assessing the writing quality of English-medium scientific report writing. This study adds to the existing literature by examining the relation of lexical and syntactic complexity to writing quality, based on 106 scientific reports composed by Hong Kong Chinese learners of English in EMI secondary schools. Natural language processing tools were employed to extract computational indices of linguistic complexity features, followed by the use of a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to investigate their predictive power. The validity of the anticipated construct was confirmed based upon several goodness-of-fit criteria. The SEM analysis indicated that writing quality was predicted by lexical sophistication (i.e., text-based complexity: word range and academic words; psycholinguistic complexity: word familiarity and age-ofacquisition ratings), lexical diversity (i.e., MTLD and VocD), and syntactic complexity (i.e., mean length of sentence and dependent clauses per T-unit). However, the relation of lexical diversity and syntactic complexity to writing quality was mediated by lexical sophistication. Implications for scientific report writing assessment and pedagogy in EMI educational contexts are discussed. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.

One of the driving forces for a wider adoption of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education is that students may demonstrate improvements in English language proficiency through an increased English exposure from content learning. However, to what extent previous English exposure has an impact on students' learning experiences remains unanswered. This paper contributes to filling this gap by analysing quantitative data of 73 undergraduate science students from Hong Kong, classified by their prior English language exposure. Students completed a survey exploring their perceptions of their (1) exposure to EMI prior to university admission and the actual language use in classrooms; (2) English abilities in different learning activities; (3) English language challenges; and (4) learning strategies. Results showed that students' perceptions of EMI learning varied with their levels of English exposure prior to university admission. Despite encountering more difficulties in using English among first-year students with lower-level English exposure, all students perceived the importance of English skills in science education and adopted different learning strategies to overcome the EMI study challenges. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

Despite the increasing use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI), teachers who teach at EMI schools encounter significant challenges, such as difficulties in teaching content-subjects in English and students' limited understanding of content presented in English. To examine the extent of these challenges, six early-full and 14 late-partial EMI science teachers from eight schools in Hong Kong were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews on the challenges they faced as teachers of EMI science subjects. A biographic approach was used to analyse the interviews, and the results showed that despite the metacognitive overlap between the two groups of teachers, there were noticeable differences in their pedagogical strategies. These findings suggest that the implementation of EMI instruction influences teachers' metacognition and pedagogical practices. Teachers' frequent use of Cantonese (L1) further suggest that English language skills are not as prioritised compared to the subject content. Further research is needed to investigate the complex and diverse factors that influence teachers' metacognition under EMI contexts. Copyright ©2023 Routledge.

The rapid trend towards globalization has led to the expansion of English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) in tertiary education. The academic challenges faced by non-native speakers have been broadly discussed in Anglophone countries, whilst those learning through EMI in the Chinese context are still underexplored. To examine Chinese EMI university students' perceived language challenges in learning, as well as their language-related learning strategies, this study investigated 73 students studying at EMI universities in Hong Kong, taking account of their gender, EMI experience in higher education, and English exposure prior to tertiary education. Participants completed a survey to provide self-evaluations of their academic situation and their perceptions of their disciplinary learning. The study found that students perceived a relatively low level of language and learning challenges, and they showed a preference for using their second language (L2)-related learning strategies over strategies related to their first language. Specifically, male students tended to be more actively engaged in communication with their peers than females, and were more likely to search for additional learning support in English. In addition, first-year undergraduates perceived a greater degree of challenges in knowledge application and relied more on L2-related learning strategies than their senior counterparts. Although the importance of English exposure prior to higher education has been highlighted in many existing studies, this study found that prior exposure to English was neither connected with students' perceived challenges nor their learning strategies. Copyright © 2021 Public Library of Science.

The role of the first language (L1) in second language (L2) learning has been widely discussed and researched in the second Language Acquisition (SLA) literature. Benefits of L1 use have been found for vocabulary acquisition, and in facilitating comprehension thereby alleviating student anxiety. Many teachers appear to consider L1 use as a necessary option in L2 pedagogy. Disadvantages of L1 use are argued to be that it reduces exposure to the L2 thereby not enabling more implicit forms of L2 acquisition. Considerably less research has been carried out in English medium instruction (EMI) classrooms, surprisingly, as these are predicated on the benefits of massive exposure to the L2. This study investigated the effect of L1 and L2 use on teacher question types and interaction patterns in science lessons in early EMI and late EMI schools in Hong Kong. Our findings show that in late EMI, where there was much greater use of the L1, teachers tended to use higher order questions and were more interactive. In early EMI, despite students having received four more years of greater exposure to English instruction than late EMI students through the use of English as the vehicular language, teachers asked lower order questions and the interaction was more monologic. The implications for policy and pedagogy are discussed.
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