The learning of academic vocabulary, which consists of words commonly found in academic discourse across disciplines, is crucial for success in higher education. However, studies have shown that English as a second language (ESL) students face significant challenges acquiring this vocabulary, particularly during their first year of university. Given the pivotal role that learners' beliefs play in language learning, understanding their beliefs regarding their academic vocabulary learning (AVL) can provide educators with insights into the teaching strategies that effectively address the difficulties learners encounter. Accordingly, this mixed-methods study examined the beliefs of 172 first-year ESL undergraduates in Hong Kong regarding their AVL. Quantitative findings indicated that although students generally recognised the importance of developing academic vocabulary, their beliefs about their competence and effective learning methods varied. The students' English proficiency level was also found to be associated with their beliefs. An analysis of open-ended responses further revealed that the students faced challenges related to the infrequent occurrence of academic vocabulary in non-academic contexts, its complex nature, as well as the difficulty of retaining newly learned words. The paper concludes by discussing pedagogical implications and directions for future research. Copyright © 2024 Wiley.

Translanguaging has been empirically proven to have constructive and even transformative effects, as it provides linguistic minority learners with access to various educational and linguistic resources. Nevertheless, there is limited research on its use in the context of Chinese writing as a second language and, more specifically, on how it supports the co-construction of knowledge between Chinese teachers and non-Cantonese-speaking (NCS) students. This study examines NCS students' perceptions of and experiences with translanguaging in Chinese writing classrooms while illuminating the role that translanguaging plays in Chinese as a second language (CSL) writing classes in Hong Kong secondary schools. The findings of this ethnographic study indicate that NCS students' attitudes toward and experiences with translanguaging are largely positive, particularly in terms of cognitive and emotional scaffolding. They reveal that NCS students developed more complex thinking skills, metalinguistic awareness and criticality through the translanguaging space that they co-constructed in the classroom. This study also discusses the roles played by both spontaneous and planned translanguaging in NCS students' speech and writing development. Copyright © 2024 Wiley.

Students’ development of multilingual competence has attracted increasing attention from language researchers and educators. However, research on students’ interaction strategy use in group discussions across different language settings remains scarce. In this study, therefore, we examined interaction strategy use in Cantonese as a first language (L1) and Putonghua as a second language (L2) during group discussion tasks among 42 primary school students in Hong Kong. We also investigated the effects of interaction strategy use on performance in respective tasks. We discovered that students employed significantly more interaction strategies in L1 than in L2, with a higher contribution to L1 task performance. Specifically, three of the five strategies identified—Strategy 2 (S2) asking for opinions, S3 expressing attitude, and S5 non-verbal language—were employed more frequently in L1 than in L2. Furthermore, we found that strategy use had various effects on oral performance between the two languages. In the L1 task, S1 expressing actively, S3 expressing attitude, and S4 giving clarification significantly predicted students’ group discussion performance, whereas this effect was only observed in S1 expressing actively in the L2 task. Pedagogical implications for primary students’ learning of interaction strategies for group discussions in both L1 and L2 are discussed. Copyright © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The use of English in international communication has focused scholarly attention on L2 learners' development of interactional competence (IC), that is, the ability to co-construct interactions purposefully and meaningfully in specific contexts. Under Hong Kong's bilingual education policy, students mainly learn and speak English in two classroom contexts: (1) English language and (2) English-medium-instruction (EMI) content-area subject lessons, which may contribute to their IC development. This study compared the English-speaking/learning experiences of students in these two classroom settings in three Hong Kong secondary schools. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) was the recommended teaching approach in the English language subject in all these schools, but they adopted different medium-of-instruction arrangements in content-area subjects. Their students also had different academic attainments. The investigation adopted a case study approach consisting of a questionnaire and semi-structured focus group interviews (N = 160). Our findings suggest that students generally lacked opportunities to speak English, regardless of the specific school-based policies. The higher-proficiency students were given more opportunities to speak English in group/pair activities both in English language and EMI content-area subjects. In contrast, the lower-proficiency students received more explicit teaching of the linguistic forms/structures required in English examinations. The paper concludes by highlighting several critical issues concerning students' IC development in bilingual education, namely, the effects of English-medium education on students' speaking ability, implementation of TBLT, the influence of examinations on teaching practices, and teachers' role in promoting students' interactional competence through classroom interactions. Copyright ©2023 Wiley.

This study sought to investigate the impact of world Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) research on Hong Kong's ELT curricula and textbooks over the past four decades in three areas: (1) language standards, norms and models; (2) language and intercultural awareness; and (3) strategies for international communication. Based on qualitative and quantitative content analysis, the findings suggest that WE/ELF research has influenced Hong Kong's English language education mainly by accommodating to the changing role of English (from a colonial to international language) and the evolving language use contexts, but there has been little engagement with the pluricentric view of language varieties and variation. The paper offers suggestions to initiate changes that could better accommodate WE/ELF research in the gradual ELT development. Copyright ©Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Phonology in second/foreign (L2/FL) listening has not received much attention from scholars and teachers. This article reports on a mixed-methods study which set out to fill this gap by exploring the effectiveness of explicit instruction in phonology and the use of songs to enhance English-as-a-L2 (ESL) learners' listening abilities in Hong Kong. ESL learners (n = 92) aged 17-20 participated in a three-month experiment. Data from pre-, post-listening tests and semi-structured interviews were collated. The findings demonstrated the efficacy of L2 phonology instruction in improving learners' L2 listening. More remarkably, the positive effect was augmented when the instruction was coupled with phonological analyses of song lyrics. However, using songs alone for gap-filling exercises (as is commonplace in L2 classrooms) was not found to be effective.
[Copyright of International Journal of Applied Linguistics is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.]

This study investigates students' perceptions about their teachers' adoption of a new way to use feedback in writing classrooms in two elementary schools in Hong Kong. The innovation comprises three feedback stages (i.e., pre-feedback, during-feedback and post-feedback) over the course of a teaching-learning cycle to maximize the potential of feedback to the learning effectiveness of the students. Data included student questionnaires, interviews with students and teachers, lesson observations as well as documentary analysis of teaching material. Results indicate that the students considered feedback delivery in the three stages as beneficial to their interest, confidence, motivation and self-perceived performance in writing. The article highlights the need to offer feedback in all three feedback phases to maximize its effectiveness and to offer a more positive learning experience to students.
[Copyright of International Journal of Applied Linguistics is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.]