Out-of-class exposure to and use of the target language mediated by technological resources are essential to language learning, as foreign language learners very often encounter difficulty in accessing and processing target language in the immediate physical environments. Understanding how foreign language learners' out-of-class self-directed technology-enhanced language learning experience interacts with their learning beliefs helps inform educators of how these learners could be supported to take advantage of technological resources to enrich language learning. Interview responses from 20 undergraduate foreign language learners at a university in Hong Kong were elicited to shed light on the issue. It was found that learners' language learning beliefs and technological behaviors had a two-way cyclical interaction, and the interaction was manifested in both the nature of technological resources these learners used and the way they interacted with the resources. Furthermore, the interaction between the two was context-dependent and subject to the influence of the characteristics of self-directed out-of-class technology-enhanced language learning and associated self-concept and affective factors. The study calls for a contextualized and systemic approach towards supporting foreign language learners' autonomous technology-enhanced language learning beyond the classroom.
[Copyright of Language Awareness is the property of Routledge.]

English as a second/foreign language education (ESL/EFL) in the supplementary setting is under-researched despite its prevalence worldwide. This quantitative study investigated the effects of supplementary and mainstream ESL/EFL education on eleven facets from learners' secondary-level and tertiary-level perspectives. In addition, we examined learners' perception of the usefulness of supplementary and mainstream classes in equipping them for the use of English for different purposes in the tertiary setting. 203 participants studying at two tertiary institutions in Hong Kong completed a 72-item questionnaire. The MANOVAs conducted revealed significant main effects of education settings (i.e. supplementary/mainstream) and education levels (i.e. secondary-level/tertiary-level) as well as interaction effects of these variables on learners' perception. There were also significant differences in learners' views of the usefulness of the two education settings in preparing them for the use of English for specific purposes at tertiary level. This article culminates with a discussion of these findings and implications.
[Copyright of Studies in Educational Evaluation is the property of Elsevier Ltd.]

兒童天生有好奇心、愛玩、也愛結交朋友，並喜歡主導自己的學習。對兒童來說，遊戲與學習兩者實為不可分割。遊戲驅使兒童學習，兒童也從遊戲中獲得寶貴的成長經驗。因此自由遊戲是超越了教學目標的工具，而且是自我成長的空間。幼稚園教育指引（2017）的推出，鼓勵教育工作者推行自由遊戲。當大家只聚焦於時間及空間不足對推行自由遊戲的阻礙，往往忽略了成人「不當的介入」，會削弱了自由遊戲的成效。智樂與11間種子學校及香港教育大學合作，創設了一個超越時間及空間限制的自由遊戲模式。透過種子學校Playwork培訓計劃的設立，亦有助加強教育工作者實踐自由遊戲的能力。此計劃不單改變教育工作者對實踐自由遊戲的信心，更啟發他們在設計教學模式時，重視兒童的看法及自主學習。Children are born with innate curiosity, playfulness and sociability to direct their own experience. For children, play and learning are inseparable - Play drives children to learn, at the same time children also acquire valuable learning experience through playing. Therefore, play, especially free play should go beyond a learning tool but a self-development space. The implementation of the Kindergarten Education Curriculum (2017) encouraged educators to try out free play. While many teachers believe that “lacking of time and space” is the greatest barrier for free play, not many of them realize that “adulteration” – the inappropriate intervention from adult, would significantly undermine the effectiveness of free play. In partnership with 11 seed schools and the Education University of Hong Kong (EDUHK), Playright has developed a free playtime model with limited time and space. A Seed Schools Playwork Training Program was also developed to strengthen educators’ capacity of the essence of free play. A study indicated that free play opened up new perspectives about children’s abilities and thoughts. It also inspired teachers to reconstruct their understanding about free play. More emphasis on child initiated learning was promoted. Copyright © 2018 Learning & Teaching Expo.

During the past five years, the development of various technologies and the maturing of related education industries have never ceased, and the Hong Kong government continually invests into the comprehensive establishment of technology-enhanced education systems, especially those for English education. Here we then meet the point where the efforts of the past five years call for a panoramic view and an in-depth analysis of people's attitudes toward technology-enhanced language learning. This study investigated a total of 56 in-service English teachers' acceptance of technology-enhanced language learning and teaching. These teachers were from 56 different primary schools in Hong Kong. The results presented an overview of the current situation of e-learning in Hong Kong English education, showing insights into the future TELL design and development of related programs. Copyright © 2019 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Next generation of language learners need learner-centredness in higher education ELT courses. A Holistic Flipped Classroom model (HFC) has been proposed in this research for such ELT course design. The effectiveness of three key components of the model - an authentic or near-authentic language learning community, flipped teaching, project-based assessment – are examined in an interactive storytelling short course for Early Childhood Education pre-service teachers at a teacher’s university in Hong Kong. A mixed research method of pre- and post-course surveys and interviews was used to measure students’ preference for such a model and their perceived effectiveness of the model on their learning outcomes. Data collected from students' survey and interviews showed students' higher motivation in learning and overall improvement of confidence and story creation as well as moderate enhancement in learner autonomy. This paper shares the design of this holistic flipped classroom model and further recommendations on teacher training and language learning enhancement technology are made. Copyright © 2019 Author.

Achievement emotions have been identified as important psychologic constructs that are closely linked with self-regulated learning and academic achievement (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002; Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld, & Perry, 2011). Very recently, a team of researchers (Pekrun, Lichtenfeld, Marsh, Murayama, & Goetz, 2017) have identified the reciprocal relationships between achievement emotions and academic performance through longitudinal design. Despite these desirable outcomes associated with positive achievement emotions, experimental studies aiming to enhance students’ positive emotions are rare. This study extends achievement emotions research by using an experimental design. An intervention approach termed Team-based Learning (TBL, Michaelsen & Sweet, 2011) was implemented in a general breath course in a Hong Kong university. Experimental and control classes were used. Two negative emotions (anxiety and boredom) were included in order to better understand the effect of TBL as an intervention approach to promote positive and reduce negative emotions in learning. The Chinese version of learning-related Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (L-AEQ, Yang, 2017) was used to test students’ positive and negative emotions (enjoyment, hope, anxiety, boredom). The results showed in the TBL class, students’ enjoyment and hope significantly enhanced, meanwhile students’ boredom and anxiety declined. Comparatively, there were no significant changes in terms of positive and negative emotions in the control class. Implications of TBL as one of productive educational interventions to promote students’ enjoyment and hope in learning are discussed in relation to the control-value theory of achievement emotions. Copyright © 2018 ERAS-APERA International Conference.

In the last two decades there has been a growing trend of adopting English medium instruction (EMI) in universities. EMI increases the need for teaching English for specific purposes, so as to help students develop discipline-specific English language skills. Summary writing skills in such a disciplinary context are considered to be essential as students need to comprehend, synthesise and integrate source materials into their own academic writings. This paper focuses on a project supporting students’ summary writing skills through ESP summary writing workshops and an online learning platform in a university in Hong Kong. Data were collected through students’ self-reflections and post-workshop interviews. Findings reveal that disciplinary-specific summary writing training raises students’ awareness of writing skills that can be adapted to writings in their own subject courses; students also perceived that the online learning platform offers the chance for them to self-evaluate their own summaries and regulate their own learning. The present study contributes to the understanding of strategies that can support university students’ discipline-specific summary writing skills in the EMI context. Copyright © 2018 Asia TEFL.

Chinese is a tone language, i.e., pitch cues are used to distinguish different lexical meanings. Chinese tones are important but difficult for foreign learners who acquire Chinese as a second language (L2). This paper provided a systematic discussion on teaching methods, including the teaching methods and materials as well as the teaching sequence of Chinese tones. Based on the tone categories and pitch features of Chinese tones, this paper proposes several effective methods of teaching tones to second language learners. From the perspective of tone categories, there are two methods to enhance tone teaching: (1) applying minimal pairs, which consist of same segments of consonants and vowels but different tones; (2) applying meaningful phrases in the tone order. From the perspective of pitch features, there are three effective methods for tone teaching: (1) utilizing the similarities between musical tones and linguistic tones; (2) utilizing the visual assistance of pitch contours; (3) utilizing multimedia assistance of simple acoustic measurement, which can be realized by a free software called Praat. In addition to tones in isolated citation form, the teaching sequence for tones in non-canonical forms are also discussed. The teaching materials and methods proposed in this paper can help to enhance the efficiency of teaching Chinese tones to L2 learners.漢語的一個顯著特點是聲調語言，這在對外漢語教學中既是重點也是難點。本文系統地探討了對外漢語聲調教學的方法，包括教學中可使用的材料、手段以及注意事項等。從漢語聲調本身的特點出發，有兩種教學方法可以應用：第一，巧用聲調的最小語音配對，通過辨識詞義和反復朗讀讓留學生熟習國語的四個聲調。第二，巧用按聲調順序排列的詞組或成語，幫助留學生記憶和熟習漢語的聲調。若從音高的特性和呈現方式出發，以下幾種方法也可以幫助留學生掌握漢語的聲調：第一，巧用音樂音高或語調音高和聲調音高的耦合訓練學生的聲調聽辨能力。第二，巧用聲調音高曲線的視覺形象，幫助留學生掌握漢語聲調的調高和調形。第三，巧用簡單的語音測量（在免費軟體PRAAT 下完成）輔助聲調教學。除了標準字調的教學，本文還探討了變調的教學。本文提出的教學資料和方法，能幫助二語學習者更有效地學習漢語的聲調。 Copyright © 2019 The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK).