Document Type: Conference Papers
Pages: 172-182
Year published: 2006
City published: Hong Kong
Publisher: Office of Research, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong
Conference: Postgraduate Research Conference (2006: Hong Kong, China)
The two-year longitudinal case study reported in this paper documents a non- Cantonese speaking mainland Chinese student's language learning experiences in Cantonese- dominant Hong Kong, who came to pursue undergraduate studies in an English-medium university. Using a sociocultural approach, this paper focuses on three biographical episodes. which recount how the student attempted to open up alternatives within the contextual structures and seek new learning opportunities, how she came to realize her limitation and withdrew from her early active pursuits, and how she followed other mainland Chinese students in memorizing words and attached her own meanings to it. The paper highlights the social, cultural, arid politic aspects of her strategy use in the learning context and argues that learners' biographical experiences are an important avenue to understand learners' strategy use as a complicated phenomenon revealing the interplay between learners' agency and contextual structures.
