Language-in-education – including language pedagogy, an integral part of planning language-in-education – has been one of the most popular areas of policymaking in many contexts, as languages are perceived to have utilitarian values. Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the impact of individual policy cases, and the factors which contribute to their impact. However, often these studies understand a policy as a static product and the discussions are limited to a particular policy. Reflecting the current understanding of a policy as an iterative process and taking a comparative perspective, this paper presents a framework which will help investigate and discuss implementation and impact of a language-in-education policy. In particular, it shares insights from analyses of relevant policies from telling case contexts of Hong Kong and South Korea. Drawing on general policy studies as well as language-in-education research, the paper will contribute to building the knowledge base of language-in-education research and to improving the effectiveness of language-in-education policy processes, by providing a tool to help better understand and research the phenomena reflecting their situatedness and the complexities involved and to predict the trajectory of such policies. Copyright © 2018 Asia TEFL.

Drawing on self-based L2 motivation theories, the present study explored changes in the English learning motivation of eight Mainland Chinese undergraduates after their arrival at a Hong Kong university, where they took most of their courses in English. The participants were surveyed and interviewed retrospectively about their English learning experiences both in Mainland China and Hong Kong. After their relocation to Hong Kong, most participants reported heightened motivation. While their motivation generally remained stable at a high level, there were some fluctuations. The motivational enhancement may be influenced by the continuous interaction between the participants’ perceptions of different contexts of Hong Kong and their shifting actual and ideal L2 selves. The motivational fluctuations appeared to be affected by an interplay between the participants’ L2 selves and specific L2-related learning experiences such as preparation for English proficiency tests. As these activities came to an end, the participants’ motivation returned to its original state. Implications are offered to support the transitions of English as a foreign language learners to an environment where English is used as the medium of instruction.
[Copyright of System is the property of Pergamon Press. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2018.05.011]

After the handover back to Mainland China in 1997, the Hong Kong government adopted a 'biliterate and trilingual' policy to help Hongkongers develop an ability to read and write Chinese and English, and to speak and understand Cantonese, English and Putonghua. However, there are no clear government guidelines on how and when the three languages should be introduced and taught in primary schools. Based on a survey of 155 Hong Kong primary schools, it was found that individual schools have adopted their own medium of instruction (MoI) policies, but these policies are decided by the school policymakers, without much consultation with the students and their parents. In this study, questionnaire surveys and interviews on students' and parents' perceptions of trilingual education were conducted in three case-study primary schools. The research findings suggest that students' and parents' views towards the use of different MoIs vary, which will be discussed in the paper in detail. Schools need to take these factors into consideration when developing MoI policies. Copyright © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study studied the accent perception of a group of non-native pre-service EFL teachers in Hong Kong in order to see whether native English norm is of their preference for teaching and learning. Results found that participants all preferred traditional native English as learning model and seemed to have overlooked the principle of intelligibility, even there had been calls for using lingua franca core as learning model. Results show that participants all preferred using native English to be the model of teaching and learning. Among all the native English varieties, participants preferred the accent from the United Kingdom though not all could identify the accent they preferred. The study showed there was a mismatch between what the participants preferred and their ability of identifying accents of different kinds. Copyright © 2018 Academy Publication.

This study investigated the extent to which preschool teachers and children (ages 4–6) used literal and inferential language within the context of whole-group instruction in four kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong. A total of 20 sessions of videotaped classroom observations of linguistic interactions between teachers and children were transcribed and then analyzed using a coding scheme to determine the cognitive complexity of teacher questions and child responses with reference to four levels of abstraction, representing a literal-to-inferential continuum. The results indicated that the teachers' questions were predominantly literal in nature (83 %), and similarly the majority of the children's responses (77 %) were also literal. Furthermore, it was revealed that in an average instructional session: (a) teachers produced significantly more utterances than children; (b) the difference in the quantity of teachers' questions between literal and inferential levels was statistically significant; (c) similarly, the difference in the quantity of children's responses between literal and inferential levels was also statistically significant; and (d) children produced a significantly larger quantity of shorter than longer utterances. As there is distinct value in whole-group instruction as a salient context for teacher–child interactive, linguistic engagement in kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong, it is particularly vital that early childhood educators understand what types of linguistic interactions are occurring there and how to target professional development for teachers to better support language learning in young children.
[Copyright of Early Childhood Education Journal is the property of Springer Netherlands.]

Research conducted in the late twentieth century pointed to a gulf in Hong Kong's universities between institutional medium-of-instruction policy, which stipulated the use of English, and lecturers' classroom practices, which often involved the use of Cantonese to present and explain the content of English-language textbooks and teaching materials. This article examines the findings of a study which sought to determine whether the policy-practice divide had widened or narrowed in the past two decades under the pressure of two potentially competing forces: globalisation and decolonisation. The evidence suggests that the policy-practice disjunction may have narrowed significantly in recent years, with most of the participants' teachers evidently making a determined effort to instruct and interact with their students in English in lectures and seminars.
[Copyright of World Englishes is the property of Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd..]

This paper reports on a narrative inquiry of a Hong Kong female undergraduate student's second language (L2) learning experiences in an English-medium university in Hong Kong, with a focus on her participation in classroom oral activities and identity negotiation. Using ideas from situated learning theory and Norton's (2000) notions of identity and investment, the paper analyzes how the student negotiated her classroom participation and identities over the course of her studies in the university. Findings suggest that the student's classroom participation in the English-medium university appeared to be a complex and dynamic process which involved ongoing negotiations of identities, competence and membership in the classroom in response to the challenges she faced. It was found that the student's participation and identity (re)construction in the classroom were mediated by the contextual complexities in specific classroom communities and were contingent upon the agentive choices made by the student in investing in different classroom activities. Findings also indicate that the student's participation evolved over time alongside a changing sense of competence and showed signs of gradual yet non-linear progression from peripheral to full participation in the classroom.
[Copyright of Applied Linguistics Review is the property of Walter de Gruyter GmbH]

「用普通話教中文」（普教中）是香港近年基礎教育的中國語文教學新趨勢，課堂的教學媒介語由粵方言（香港人的母語）轉為普通話，同時尚有獨立的普通話科教學，且並不視為母語教學，給判別為第二語言或介於第一二語言間的語言教學。 「普教中」既構成了多方面的困境，也出現了教與學發展的契機。學生、教師由早期對「普教中」的抗拒、不適應，至近年的接受並在教與學方面的素質不斷提升，實超出教育當局、語文教育工作者的預期。多年來，先導者在「普教中」園地裏的開墾和建設，不同層次和角色的語文教育工作者所開展的各類教學和研究的探索，皆以期提升「普教中」這新語境中的語文教學效能。各方先導者積極開發的元素，由實證行動而來的經驗總結，可提供予開始了或仍未開始「普教中」的學校和教師參照和啟示。 「促進評估的學習」是20世紀80年代以後基礎教育改革的世界性取向，在教學實踐中，課堂上的提問、回饋是重要且有效促進學生學習的評估策略。本研究通過觀察及分析一位教師同時任教同一級「用普通話教中文」及「用廣州話教中文」兩班學生的課堂實踐，比較分析教師在「普教中」和「廣教中」不同教學媒介語的影響下，語文課堂的提問和回饋策略的異同，以檢視及提煉「普教中」的有效提問和回饋策略。
[Copyright © 2017 中華書局(香港)有限公司.]

隨著97回歸，普通話科成為香港中小學核心科目。世紀之交，語文課程重組，中、普兩科同被納入「中國語文教育學習領域」，「普通話教中文」更訂為語文課程的長遠發展目標。在「普教中」情境下，中、普兩科內容的重合更形突顯。除了聽、說範疇的教學目標和重點相若，兩科的朗讀訓練及拼音學習也難以明確分工和配合。本文從語文課程發展和規劃的層面出發，探討普通話科在這過渡期間，可以如何回應教學形勢的需要，在新階段的語文課程中有效蛻變和重生。
[Copyright © 2017 中華書局(香港)有限公司.]