With the rapid development of the Internet, blended learning (online learning plus face-to-face learning) has become a model that more and more higher education institutions are intending to adopt. This chapter first compares various forms and expressions of blended learning adopted by different institutions around the world, and then reports on how blended learning has been implemented and promoted in the English Department at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) using a variety of approaches. Here, a number of projects have been carried out over the past seven years, focusing on the conversion of traditional face-to-face modules into partly face-to-face, partly online modules. In addressing these developments, the Blackboard online learning management system, which has been adopted as the main platform for the delivery of blended learning at HKIEd, is first examined. Then the design of a series of subject-specific Web sites to supplement the Blackboard system and facilitate blended learning is introduced. Finally, the implementation of innovative Wikibook projects is illustrated and discussed. Such Wikibook projects, where students are required to work in groups to write an academic textbook collaboratively online, are highly effective in promoting not only autonomous yet collaborative online academic reading and writing, but also online peer editing. This adds a new dimension to blended learning. Feedback from students shows that they greatly enjoyed the experience of collaborative academic writing through the Wikibook projects, and found that the wiki technology made peer editing much more efficient and effective. All the evidence suggests that blended learning has great potential as a vehicle for teaching and learning and is a notable current trend in higher education.
[Copyright © 2010 IGI Global.]

In this paper, we shall explore academic writing in the framework of academic literacy development among Hong Kong university ESL learners of language and education programs. We shall also discuss discipline-specific academic writing in terms of the continuum comprising academic writing in science, social science and humanities and the implications for developing academic writing skills of Hong Kong ESL learners. In particular, we shall discuss in detail a number of issues regarding academic writing in the disciplines of language and education.
[The International Journal of the Humanities Copyright © Common Ground, Zhichang Xu, Lixun Wang, Pui Man Jennie Wong, Matthew DeCoursey, All Rights Reserved. The journal web site is located at http://ijh.cgpublisher.com/]

This article highlights the benefits of multimedia and other activities through the examination of their effects in the on-going development of a first-year, team-taught module entitled “Introduction to Linguistics and Language Awareness” (ILLA) offered on an initial teacher education programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). After briefly introducing the educational and cultural context, the limited impact of government reforms on pedagogical practices in the upper secondary school is illustrated through a small-scale survey comparing the previous learning experiences and preferences of the HKIEd first-year students to data from Littlewood and Liu’s 1996 study. The strategically located ILLA module, its purposes and range of pedagogically “innovative” activities are then described and student responses gauged through a review of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) data (2002-2006). A further survey, which allowed students to rate the module activities in terms of liking and relevance, together with interview data concerning personal learning and future pedagogical practice, are next presented. The findings confirm the beneficial effects of the module activities on both students’ own learning and their professional perspectives, suggesting the application of similar approaches in other countries where the “culture of learning” (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996) is largely traditional.
[Copyright © 2008 CUHK English Lanuage Teaching Unit.]

This paper reports the results of a pilot corpus study on English classroom teaching discourse in Chinese-medium, junior secondary schools (S1-S3) in Hong Kong with a focus on the nature of intellectual demand placed upon students in the classroom. Intellectual demand is defined in this study as thinking opportunities provided for students in the classroom, including recall and recognition, comparison, abstract reasoning, analysis etc. Intellectual demand cannot be observed directly. It is mediated through language use in teacher-student interaction in the classroom. A level of intellectual demand too far below the intellectual capacity of students in their L1 is considered a barrier to L2 development. The pilot study explored the issue of intellectual demand from a cross-lingual perspective. This perspective was taken because empirical evidence has proved that literacy skills in the L1 and L2 are strongly related, and are manifestations of a common underlying proficiency (Cummins & Schecter, 2003). Cross-lingual transfer is likely to occur in developing academic language proficiency, which is of prime concern in the study context. Cross-lingual transfer occurs between languages of the same family, and between remotely-related languages such as English and Chinese (see Geva & Wang, 2001). While there is continued need for high English proficiency personnel in the high-tech economy in Hong Kong, the transferable proficiency possessed by students in their L1 such as higher order thinking skills etc. did not seem to be taken into consideration in English curriculums or classroom practice, which was a major impetus of the study. A question, therefore, arose – can Hong Kong’s English language instruction take advantage of students’ conceptual maturity in Chinese and use it for the benefit of their second language learning? To undertake such a cross-lingual investigation, we used detailed classroom interaction data as a window to observe intellectual demand. Corpus approach

With the rapid development of the Web, blended learning (online learning plus face-to-face learning) has become a model that more and more higher education institutions are exploring or intend to explore. This paper reports on how Information Technology has been integrated into a blended learning environment in the English Department at the Hong Kong Institute of Education since 2003. a number of projects have been carried out over the past six years, focusing on converting traditional face-to-face modules into partly face-to-face, partly online modules, and creating an effective blended learning environment. The Blackboard online learning management system has been adopted as the main platform for carrying out blended learning. Other resources for facilitating blended learning have also been developed, such as a series of subject-specific websites to assist module delivery, online quizzes for students’ self-assessment, and online wikibook projects requiring students to work in groups and write an academic textbook book together online. The blended learning mode has provided alternative learning spaces and increased use of written feedback from both students and staff. Data collected from these various projects and feedback from students and staff suggest that blended learning has been considered highly effective.

In Hong Kong, three principal languages co-exist: Cantonese, English and Putonghua. For more than two decades, among policy-makers and educators, there has been a substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages. Since the political transition in 1997, the Hong Kong government has made a series of language policy reforms trying to create a reasonable balance among the three languages, and a “biliterate and trilingual” policy has been adopted, with the aim of enabling Hong Kong residents to become biliterate in written Chinese and English, and trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua and spoken English. The policy is now guiding the curriculum design in Hong Kong language education. However, currently, Hong Kong primary schools do not have an agreed approach or method for the implementation of trilingual education, and there is an urgent need to explore current successful or unsuccessful models. After a comprehensive historical review of the development of language education in Hong Kong schools, this study aims to find out how the ‘biliterate' and ‘trilingual' language policy is currently implemented in Hong Kong primary schools. A large scale questionnaire survey were carried out among Hong Kong primary school principals on how trilingual education was implemented in the schools. The findings suggest that, from school to school, the implementation of trilingual education varied significantly, and the effectiveness of the trilingual education models varied as well. It is hoped that this study will help us to gain a better understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong, and the study could lead to some insightful and theoretical contributions to multilingual education in general.

Hong Kong is linguistically complex and diverse with three principal languages: Cantonese, English and Putonghua. A substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages has continued for more than two decades among policy-makers and educators. The political transition in 1997 has greatly affected Hong Kong society, including language education. Since then, the HKSAR government has made a series of language policy reforms trying to create a reasonable balance among the three languages in Hong Kong. The policies of ‘biliteracy and trilingualism’ and ‘mother-tongue teaching’ are two of the most significant in terms of controversy and impact. They are now guiding the curriculum design in Hong Kong language education. The goal of the former policy is to train Hong Kong people to be truly biliterate (written English and Chinese) and trilingual (spoken English, Cantonese and Putonghua). However, Hong Kong primary schools presently do not have an agreed method for the implementation of trilingual education. After a comprehensive historical review of the development of language education in Hong Kong schools, this study aims to find out how the ‘biliterate’ and ‘trilingual’ language policy is currently implemented in Hong Kong primary schools. 155 Hong Kong primary schools participated in a questionnaire survey on how trilingual education is implemented in the schools. The findings suggest that the implementation of trilingual education varied significantly from school to school, and the effectiveness of the trilingual education models varied as well. It is hoped that the findings will help us to gain a better understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong, and the study could lead to some insightful and theoretical contributions to multilingual education in general.
[Copyright © 2015 Wang and Kirkpatrick; licensee Springer.]

This paper reports on the development of an online inventory to measure the preferences for open education programmes among school leavers and adults in Hong Kong. The study was a collaborative effort headed by the Centre for Research in Distance & Adult Learning at the Open University of Hong Kong and included a local Student Guidance Centre (the Hok Yau Club) and eight secondary schools in Hong Kong. Trait-factor theory and personality type theory were employed. The inventory was developed by the project team and consisted of academic scholars and practitioners in education. The final version consisted of 128 items and was validated by 7 local guidance counselors and 20 international experts in psychology. 1,288 respondents in Hong Kong were surveyed. Schools were selected based on geographical location, academic level and language of instruction. Ten personal attributes were found including: Influential, Mechanical, Scientific, Sociological, Organizational, Mathematical, Literary, Musical, Aesthetic, and Social Service. The test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.72. It is hoped that the inventory could help school leavers and adults in Hong Kong in making wise decisions on their career path and strengthen their opportunity for academic success.
[Copyright © 2004 The Asian Society of Open and Distance Education.]

In recent years, Outcomes-Based Learning (OBL) is gaining increasing popularity in many parts of the world. Since 2008, OBL has been formally promoted among all higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong. A key concept of OBL is that teaching should be driven by outcomes that are desirable in students, and that greater clarity in relation to what is to be achieved simply involves adjusting teaching and assessing. This paper reports on an ongoing project on Outcome-Based Learning in the English Department at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). First, the development of a set of Programme Learning Outcomes for the Bachelor of Education (English Language) Programme at HKIEd will be introduced. Second, the design of course intended learning outcomes will be discussed. Third, the adjustment of teaching and assessing strategies to align with the learning outcomes will be illustrated in a sample course. It is hoped that this paper will inspire some thoughts on how effective teaching and learning among students in higher education institutions can be achieved through the outcomes-based learning approach.

In recent years, Outcome-Based Learning (OBL) has gained increasing prominence in many parts of the world and, since 2008, has been formally promoted among all higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong. A key concept of OBL is that teaching should be driven by outcomes that are desirable for students, and that greater clarity in relation to what is to be achieved simply involves adjusting teaching and assessment. This article reports on a project on Outcome-Based Learning in the English Department at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), and an OBL adaptation framework that has been developed. First, the development of a set of Programme Intended Learning Outcomes (PILOs) for the Bachelor of Education (English Language) Programme at HKIEd will be introduced. Second, the design of Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs) in the programme will be discussed. Third, the alignment of teaching and assessment strategies with learning outcomes will be illustrated through a sample course. It is hoped that this study will inspire some reflection on how effective teaching and learning among students in higher education institutions can be achieved through an outcome-based learning approach.
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