Despite the widespread use of mobile digital devices such as iPads in teaching and learning, there is little research on the ways in which content teachers make use of the technological affordances of the iPad to achieve pedagogical goals in bilingual/multilingual classrooms. This article adopts translanguaging as an analytical perspective to explore how the use of the iPad extends the semiotic and spatial repertoires for enabling the English Medium Instruction (EMI) teacher to create a translanguaging space for supporting multilingual students' learning of new academic knowledge. The data for this article is based on a linguistic ethnographic project in an EMI mathematics classroom in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Multimodal Conversation Analysis is used to analyse the classroom interactional data, triangulated with the video-stimulated-recall-interviews that are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The article argues that the iPad provides opportunities for the EMI teacher to fully exploit the semiotic and spatial resources for creating a technology-mediated space in the classroom. Such a space in turn allows the teacher to accomplish content teaching and build a more engaging environment for learning. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

The benefits of using digital storytelling are well documented in the literature. Whether and how these advantages can be extended to digital story-writing, especially for young learners, remains underexplored. Recent advancement in technology has the potential of streamlining the stages of planning and revising in a process approach to second language writing. The present study examined how English teachers in two Hong Kong primary schools adopted a process approach to teach digital story-writing. They planned eight writing lessons for 10 Primary 3-4 classes. Students were taught to use Google Slides to write their stories on iPads and complete a recording in small groups, which were then published on an online platform. Findings from focus-group interviews, lesson observations and student writings revealed that students were highly engaged in the lessons, and their writings also had fewer grammatical mistakes. However, they rarely engaged in meaningful dialogues during group work, whilst some teachers also expressed concerns about time constraints and their own readiness to use digital story-writing, which may hinder successful implementation of this innovative approach in classroom settings. Implications of how digital story-writing can be effectively deployed on young learners are discussed. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between language exposure and Chinese character handwriting (CCW) among 103 non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students in Hong Kong. Specifically, it examined the impact of academic self-concept, including students’ self-perceptions of their Chinese character competence and affect, on the complex learning process of CCW in a multilingual context like Hong Kong. NCS students were invited to complete a writing-to-dictation test, a questionnaire on CCW exposure outside of the classroom, and a self-description questionnaire of academic self-concept. Path analysis was employed to analyse the path models within the constructs. The results revealed that language exposure had both direct and indirect effects on CCW through academic self-concept. Notably, the effect of language exposure on CCW was strongly mediated by competence self-concept but not affect self-concept. This suggests that NCS students evaluate their competence in producing desired outcomes within exposure environments based on their own self-perceptions. Drawing on these empirical findings, the article discusses the educational implications for Chinese as a second language learning and teaching. It emphasizes the significance of tailored instructional methods that can enhance the competence and affective self-concepts of NCS students. By implementing such approaches, students will be better equipped to integrate into diverse multilingual societies. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s).

Effective teaching practice requires that teachers know their students not as ‘faceless average learners’, but as individuals. The most individual of learner characteristics is personality, and yet language education research has made little progress in understanding the role of personality. As the field of language learning motivation seeks to develop frameworks for motivational teaching practice, a richer understanding of learners’ individuality is crucial in shaping practices that respond to learners’ needs. The present study examines the role of learners’ personality and teachers’ practice in shaping motivation and self-efficacy in language learning. Drawing on data gathered from 277 learners of English in Hong Kong, aged 11–14 years, and 24 lesson observations, across 10 classes, the study applies hierarchical multiple regression analysis to reveal a significant role of personality and teachers’ motivational practice in predicting language learning motivation and self-efficacy. Results reveal that while personality variables demonstrated large effect sizes for motivational orientations, teacher practice variables evidenced large effect sizes for language learning self-efficacy. Implications are discussed for theorization of language learning motivation and for teaching practice, with a particular emphasis on language teacher education. © The Author(s) 2020.

Adopting a language other than the first as the medium of instruction in teaching mathematics can create significant problems for students' mathematical learning. However, there is little research on the ways in which bi/multilingual mathematics teachers can make use of diverse multilingual and multimodal resources to keep students engaged in learning abstract mathematical knowledge. This article aims to explore how an English-medium-instruction (EMI) mathematics teacher creates different hypothetical scenarios through embodied enactments to enhance students' mathematical understanding and motivate students' interest in learning mathematics. The data of this study is obtained from a focused classroom observation in a Hong Kong EMI secondary mathematics classroom. Multimodal conversation analysis is employed to analyse the classroom interaction data, and the analysis is triangulated with video-stimulated-recall interviews which are analysed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. This article aims to extend the notion of embodied enactment as a form of translanguaging to facilitate mathematical learning and develop students' motivation in learning mathematics in the EMI setting. Particularly, this article argues that embodied enactment creates a translanguaging space for the EMI teacher to achieve mathematical teaching. Copyright ©2023 Sage Publications Ltd.

As many students worldwide receive second language (L2) English private tutoring (EPT) that shadows school curricula, examining student perceptions of it is essential to understanding their L2 learning. From the L2 Motivational Self perspective, students' "ideal L2 self," "ought-to L2 self" and "L2 learning experience" are linked to student enjoyment of EPT. This study explores these links via analysis of survey responses of 2,216 Secondary Six (Grade 12) students who attended a company's L2 EPT lectures in Hong Kong. Most of these students (80%) enjoyed EPT. They were more likely to enjoy EPT if they perceived more financial resources in their families, attended schools taught in Chinese (students' first language), had internalized instrumental goals, liked English, were not influenced by advertisements to attend EPT, attended face-to-face tutoring (rather than video tutoring), had a specific tutor, or liked their EPT tutor more than their English teacher. This study offers theoretical implications and directions for further research in EPT and L2 motivation. Copyright © 2023 SAGE Publications.

Self-regulated reading-to-write (R2W) can be portrayed as learners' proactive learning of useful elements (e.g. content, rhetorical features, and conventions) from reading by using strategies, which is an effective mechanism connecting reading and writing, to improve their writing competence. In the present study, six major types of self-regulated R2W strategies, i.e. mining reading, writerly reading, cognitive strategies, purposive reading, recalling while writing, and peer revision reading that can contribute to writing competence were included in the proposed self-regulated R2W framework. Importantly, a self-regulated R2W scale was established to understand the impacts of four types of strategies. Participants were 458 primary students (9 to 13 years old, M = 10.12, SD = 0.62) in Hong Kong. They completed the self-regulated R2W questionnaire along with motivational variables and a writing competence test. The motivational variables (i.e. self-efficacy and perceived task values) were positively related to self-regulated R2W strategy use. Important differences in self-regulated R2W strategy use among the high, average, and low achievers were identified. Results indicated that self-regulated R2W strategy use had positive impacts on writing competence. This is the first time that reading-to-write is proposed from a self-regulated learning perspective in ESL/EFL school contexts. The self-regulated R2W framework, scale and positive impacts of strategy use on writing have important implications for future research and practices. Copyright © 2023 SAGE Publications.

The past decades have witnessed an increasing number of studies documenting native English teachers’ (NETs’) challenges in professional development and collaboration with nonnative English teachers’ (NNETs’) across multiple educational contexts. There are also debates in TESOL regarding the essentialized dichotomy of NETs and NNETs with insufficient recognition of the educational and cultural experiences of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) / English as a second language (ESL). Little research has been conducted on the lived experiences of transnational multilingual NETs who work in heritage contexts; and how they position themselves when they conduct their teacher identity work and negotiate between heritage identity and NET identity. This study, drawing on the notion of ethical self-formation and its application in teacher identity research as a theoretical lens, addresses the gap by investigating the identity construction of two transnational NETs of Chinese ethnicity returning to their home context in Hong Kong to teach. The findings indicate that (1) the participants negotiated their multilingual identity and the monolingual NET identity ascribed in the workplace, (2) they developed counter-strategies to turn the knowledge of the local language and culture into resources in teaching, and (3) they agentively expanded the definition of NET and situated them in the full institutional and social context to consider their identity conflict and self-empowerment. The findings have implications for education policy to accommodate and value the plural-competences of NETs and NNETs. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

The recent decades have seen enthusiastic calls for reconceptualizing English as a foreign language (EFL) education, taking into account the current socio-lingual status of English and how it is used genuinely for communication interculturally and internationally. However, a wide gap still exists between promulgation such as intelligibility over nativelikeness in pronunciation instruction and realities in the EFL classroom. The study investigated pre- and in-service teachers' cognition about accents and the incorporation of different accents in their classrooms. One hundred and sixty-six EFL teachers (89 pre-service and 77 in-service) from Hong Kong and Guangdong (a province in China) completed a questionnaire. Contrary to expectations, the teachers' overall attitude was neutral rather than positive towards General American (GA) / Received Pronunciation (RP)(1) associated with EFL teachers' accents and EFL education. Only two thirds of the teachers were certain about which accents to use and to teach in listening and pronunciation lessons (i.e. as many as one third were uncertain). Also, the participants were neutral about incorporating non-GA/RP accents into EFL lessons, with around one third objecting to doing so. Although no differences were found between pre- and in-service teachers' cognition, additional analysis revealed that teachers' individual background variables, namely teaching experience, self-rated language proficiency, and knowledge of sound systems (IPA for English; pinyin for Mandarin), have significant correlations with their cognition. Copyright ©2021 SAGE Publications.

With growing attention attached to young students' social and emotional well-being besides their cognitive development, social and emotional learning (SEL) has been increasingly researched in general school education over the past decades with its positive effects on academic performance reported. However, SEL research has not emerged in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning contexts. To bridge the void, the current research aimed to profile Hong Kong secondary school students' SEL competence level and examine the intricate relationships among the four SEL competence clusters (i.e. self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social management) and English learning achievements. The results indicated an overall medium level of SEL competence among 315 secondary school grade level 3 students and suggested a gap between the students' high level of awareness skills and their medium level of management skills. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses confirmed two mediation paths, thus highlighting the seminal mediating role of self-management skills in enhancing the effects of self-awareness and social awareness skills on English learning achievements. Important implications are discussed. Copyright ©2021 SAGE Publications.