In the summer of 1998, 234 Hong Kong student teachers attended commissioned English immersion programmes in Canada, Australia and Britain. Previous Hong Kong-focused research (Crew 1994, MacLennan and Tse 1995, Tse 1997) has indicated that participants gain temporarily in language proficiency but that attitude change is perhaps the most profound result of their overseas experience. Anxiety has been noted as a primary factor in language attainment for Hong Kong student teachers, as has culture shock in UK-based immersion programmes (Crew 1994, 1996). Recent research (e.g. Crew 1997) indicates that major sources of overseas immersion programme anxiety are not directly related to language issues, though the specific anxieties which arise may well be amenable to moderation or resolution by the use of language. The current paper expands on previous work by seeking to identify and compare the cultural and anxiety factors applicable to the more varied societal contexts now available and to report on successful coping strategies employed by participants.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Studies on cognitive process pose a breakthrough in the research of writing in recent decades. Most of them are first language studies and concentrate on the stage development of the process writing, that is to observe the behavioral level of performance of the student. However, related research in helping student aware of improving his writing skills right at the moment of composing is still lacking. This exploratory study is undertaken to investigate the transformation strategies of spoken Cantonese to written English by secondary students in Hong Kong. Students who started extended writing in Form I will be studied, and the major method to gather data is think-aloud---protocol analysis. The subjects will be asked to write a narrative essay that he is familiar to. The whole writing process will be audio-taped, and the resulting protocol will be transcribed and analyzed in comparison with the text produced. The think-aloud protocol is the intended representation of the thought of the subject during writing, while the written text is the executed representation. The discrepancies of the two representations involve the process of transformation by the subjects during writing. With the knowledge, we could have more insights on locating areas to help students the learning of second language to improve the proficiency, on the issue of medium of instruction, and on striking a better balance of our language policy as well. Some possible pedagogical implications are presented.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

This paper explores the concept of "cultural cross-currents," their implicit nature and the potential they have to effect second language literacy learning, teaching and curriculum reform in Hong Kong primary classrooms. Despite the substantive implications for learning, explorations of cultural influences upon teacher and student thinking and the resultant educational consequences, remains a largely unrecognized area. It is argued that cultural differences in attitudes, beliefs and values of cultural groups toward the way first and second languages are acquired needs to be made explicit in order to facilitate second language literacy teaching and learning.

隨著社會政治和經濟的急劇變遷，以及資訊科技的廣泛應用，兩岸四地華人社會的母語教育在過去變年不約而同地重新定位。新修訂的母語課程也逐步開始實施。通過在香港進行的一個各地母語能力指標的對比分析研究所得的數據，作者發現各地的母語課程對各學習階段的基本能力要求各有異同，顯示了各地的母語課程在歷史、社會和文化等不同的因素影響下作出的回應。