Differentiated instruction has been advocated for embracing learner diversity, but it has been found that differentiated instruction implementation is difficult and teachers often feel unprepared. This qualitative case study explored the professional development of two English language teachers in two participating schools of a school-university collaboration project on diversity management in Hong Kong. Based on the data collected from co-planning meetings, lesson observations, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and artefacts, the study showed that research-informed teaching and teaching-informed research were both indispensable to differentiated instruction infrastructure building; school cultures and teacher efficacies both affected teachers’ attitudes towards researcher-practitioner collaboration modes for professional development. Teachers whose efficacy and professional learning community remained at a developing stage tended to rely on an expert-guided collaboration mode. Yet, those whose efficacy and professional learning community had advanced would prefer a more self-redirected learning mode. These findings shed light on bridging the researcher-practitioner divide in teacher education. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools have been argued to have transformative potential in education; yet existing literature suggests that language teachers generally lack the abilities to leverage these tools effectively and critically. Conducted in an initial language teacher education programme at a Hong Kong university, this mixed-method intervention study aims to explore the effects of explicit training for using GenAI tools for language teaching in rising pre-service language teachers’ professional GenAI competence (P-GenAI-C). 54 M.Ed students took part in an 11-week course intervention aiming to enhance the five aspects in the P-GenAI-C framework. Analysis of pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, which encompassed a mix of open and closed items to gather participants’ knowledge and perceptions of utilising GenAI tools, as well as the follow-up interviews, revealed that the intervention was effective in stretching all aspects of pre-service teachers’ P-GenAI-C. While there was greater evidence of improvement in participants’ pedagogical competence and critical awareness of GenAI tools deployment, there was less evidence of development in other aspects, such as teachers’ capacity to guide their students to use GenAI tools effectively and responsibly. This discrepancy might be attributed to the lack of such content in the course intervention. Implications for incorporating elements of P-GenAI-C into teacher preparation courses and programmes are discussed. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Mastering the skill of writing from multiple sources is essential for university students. Against today's multilingual backdrop, students not only need to engage with various sources but may also encounter materials in different languages. However, most existing research on source-based writing has focused on monolingual contexts, leaving us with a limited understanding of how students integrate cross-linguistic sources in their writing. To address this gap, we conducted a preliminary exploration of language use in the context of writing an English text based on a series of Chinese (L1) and English (L2) sources among 33 university students in Hong Kong. By utilising multiple methods (i.e., writing logs, questionnaires, and interviews), we examined students' language use as reflected in their access to sources in different languages and their self-reported writing processes. The results did not show a significant difference in the use of L1 and L2 in integrating sources, despite the final written text being in L2. Additionally, we found that the two languages dynamically interacted with each other, supporting different stages of the writing process. The study also provides pedagogical implications for source-based writing in a bilingual context. Copyright © 2024 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, generative AI tools—capable of creating human-like content such as audio, code, images, text, simulations, 3D objects, and videos—have gained significant attention. While the impact of these tools on language teaching and learning has been widely speculated, the perspective of language teacher educators concerning their influence on initial language teacher education (ILTE) remains unexplored. This study investigates how teacher educators, who play a crucial role in adapting ILTE to technological advancements, perceive the effects of generative AI tools on ILTE. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with thirteen English language teacher educators from all four Hong Kong government-funded universities offering ILTE. Findings reveal that participants believe generative AI tools will substantially affect the ILTE curriculum, instruction, and assessment. However, most participants believed they lacked the confidence and competence to address the implications of generative AI tools effectively. This study highlights the need for further research and training to support teacher educators in adapting ILTE to the emerging influence of generative AI. Copyright © 2024 The Authors.

Proficiency in speaking is one of the hallmarks of communicative competence, which is currently a key goal of many FL education curricula. The present study examined how FL-related emotions (anxiety, boredom, and enjoyment), speaking motivation, and spoken input beyond the classroom (IBC) related to young EFL learners’ speaking proficiency. One hundred and ten Grades 3–4 EFL learners from four primary schools in Hong Kong completed a questionnaire and a speaking test. Their parents/guardians also attended individual interviews. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, multiple regression, and path analysis. Overall, all three emotions were interrelated, but none was connected directly to speaking proficiency. Enjoyment had the strongest correlation with speaking motivation and proficiency, and it was predictive of proficiency only via speaking motivation (i.e., full mediation). IBC showed both significant direct and indirect predictive pathways towards proficiency. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has examined the interrelationships among the three emotions, speaking motivation, spoken IBC, and speaking proficiency holistically with young FL learners. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study takes a rarely employed learner's angle in examining how students are learning in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) classroom. Particularly, the study tapped into students' listening strategy use when comprehending the teacher input, a context that is underexplored for strategy research and yet highly important because teacher input predominates in the EMI classroom. An EMI class of Grade 11 Biology in Hong Kong was recruited. Through lesson observations and stimulated recall interviews with a purposively selected sample of eight students, a taxonomy of listening strategies in EMI was constructed. The taxonomy reveals the uniqueness of listening to the teacher in EMI context due to the non-existence of planning and prediction strategies, the identification of novel strategies, and the classification of content-mediated and language-mediated cognitive strategies. Factoring in students' linguistic knowledge and Biology achievement, the findings indicated the usefulness for students to deploy a range of language-mediated, content-mediated and metacognitive strategies in combination. This paper ends with implications for future research and pedagogy in order to make EMI learning and teaching more successful. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adopting a sociocultural perspective, this paper reports on a case study that examined how a dialogic approach contributed to Hong Kong English teachers' professional development in methods of vocabulary instruction. Data were drawn from interviews, lesson observations, professional dialogues, and reflective writing to present two in-depth contrasting cases. While one teacher reported marked change in her beliefs and practice, the other adapted her practice minimally despite reporting belief changes. The findings revealed the role of dialogic reflection in facilitating professional learning and noted the potential impact of Chinese culture on teachers' dialogic reflection. Further, they showed that changes in practice are mediated by internalising new ideas, linking teacher beliefs with clear goals and contextual factors including institutional policies, time constraints, and learner feedback. Teachers' verbal participation in professional dialogues, for example, showing agreement with the suggestions of others, was insufficient for generating changes in practices. Implications, including the important roles of reflexivity and sociocultural contexts in teacher professional development programmes, along with directions for future research, are considered. • Social interaction and idea internalisation contribute to teacher development. • Exploring beliefs based on multiple lenses fosters professional development. • Change in practice is affected by beliefs, reflexivity, and contextual factors. • Only overt verbal participation in professional dialogues does not assure change. • Culture plays a significant role in teachers' dialogic exchanges of views. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier.

This study investigates the influences of process-based instruction (PBI) on students' self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy use in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing. Participants were 1521 fourth to sixth graders in Hong Kong primary schools. The students, in response to a questionnaire, reported that their English teachers used PBI at a high frequency in the classroom, while the students employed SRL strategies at a medium frequency. No significant differences in SRL strategy use were found across the three grade levels. Results of structural equation modelling (SEM) indicate that instruction at the before-writing stage had the strongest influence on the students' use of SRL strategies; instruction at the after-writing stage significantly impacted their use of self-initiating, self-monitoring and revising strategies; teaching writing at the while-writing stage had very little influence on the students' SRL strategy use. Implications for future research are discussed and suggestions for EFL teachers to improve their students' SRL strategy use in writing through PBI are included. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Hong Kong was one of the first public school systems in the world to shift to online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary and secondary school language teachers had to adapt instruction to cater to their students' diverse linguistic and educational needs. Drawing from the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DCE), the current study examines the experiences of primary and secondary school English language teachers' digital competence as they navigated digital resources, teaching and learning, assessment, and empowering learners in an emergency remote teaching context. Using a two-stage design, this study drew from qualitative survey data (N = 73) and follow-up interviews (N = 10). Findings illuminate how language teachers responded to their students' educational and linguistic needs in online environments. Notably, educators adapted their virtual instruction to cater to students with varying English language proficiency levels and leveraged both synchronous and asynchronous platforms to best support student learning. Moreover, the current study sheds light on how the DCE framework might be used as a tool to assess the digital competencies of educators and better prepare them for virtual teaching. It concludes with a call for more research on emergency remote teaching, particularly within primary and secondary language classrooms. • The current study examines the digital competence of primary and secondary school language teachers in Hong Kong. • The study uses a Digital Competencies Framework to understand digital resources, pedagogy, assessments and learners online. • Teachers engaged in strategic decision-making about synchronous and asynchronous technologies for instruction. • Teachers also reconsidered the purpose and process of lesson preparation, student engagement and assessments. • Implications for equipping teachers with digital competence through teacher training and ongoing development are discussed. Copyright © 2021

The emergence of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has focused scholarly attention on non-native speakers' use of communication strategies (CSs) in international communication, which places emphasis on ensuring mutual understanding. With reference to previous ELF pragmatics research, this study examined the extent to which L2 learners' use of CSs reflects that in ELF interactions in a group interaction task in Hong Kong's high-stakes public examination. Our analysis of the students' CSs use was accompanied by semi-structured focus group interviews, allowing them to reflect on their own performance and prior English learning/use experience. The findings revealed an unnatural discursive pattern resulting from the assessment task design, although some CSs were found that have been identified in previous ELF studies. Students with higher academic attainment were more capable of using some higher-level CSs and diversifying their language forms, but this was mainly because of their higher English proficiency level/motivation, exposure to English and awareness of effective communication rather than their prior English-learning experience in the classroom. The paper concludes by offering suggestions for the design of communicative tasks and language learning/teaching practices to address the misalignment between L2 students' pragmatic production and naturalistic ELF situations. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier.