Studies of language issues in postcolonial Hong Kong are abundant. While the majority is concerned with the language policy and medium of instruction, there seems to be insufficient discussion on the subject matter of our English lessons, which, this paper argues, are ideology-ridden. Following the tradition of critical discourse analysis and ideological studies (see van Dijk, 2005; Luke, 1994), this study attempted to explore how a habitual form of communication, teacher talk in this case, was utilized as a vehicle for young children to "[learn] the taken-for-granted aspects of lived reality" (Hasan, 1996, p. 137), and what attributed to the creation, transmission and maintenance of this dominant culture/ideology in the society, resulting in narrowly-defined subject matter for the young children in the classrooms observed. The study started with a description of lexicosyntactic items in the teacher talk via a corpus approach, and moved to an interpretation/explanation of the linguistic texts in the light of the overall sociopolitical and cultural context in Hong Kong where the teacher talk was situated.
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In this paper, I analyse pupil-teacher dialogue, in a mixture of English and Cantonese, from a segment of a Form 2(Grade 8, 13-14yrs) English reading lesson. The lesson was video taped in a working-class school in Hong Kong, and the excerpt is taken from a larger corpus of similar lesson data videotaped in the class over three consecutive weeks. The analysis shows how these Cantonese children, with limited English, succeeded in subverting the reading lesson, which was based entirely on information extraction tasks.Instead, they negotiated their own preferred comic-style narratives by cleverly making use of the response slots of the IRF (Initiation-Response-Feedback) discourse format used in the lesson. Thus they achieved genuinely creative responses, in spite of the curriculum. The implications for teaching are discussed.
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Computer-based learning materials differ from classroom practice in that they seldom explicitly offer opportunities for collaboration. Despite this, students do collaborate, helping one another through the content and affordances of computer materials. But, in doing so, students meet with challenges. Paradoxically, these challenges can either inspire or discourage learning and second-language acquisition. This paper, based on research with twenty Hong Kong university students in a controlled experiment, evaluates challenges to collaboration at the computer as evidenced by discourse. The students were videotaped and their discourse transcribed and evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively, according to a set of discourse markers created to describe collaborative, non-collaborative and ambiguous strategies. The paper begins by exploring the differences between collaboration and similar terms such as teamwork and cooperative learning then goes on to define collaboration in the context of computer-assisted learning. It ends by presenting practical suggestions for software designers, teachers and students to enhance collaboration at the computer.
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A model of bilingual classroom discourse is presented as a set of communicational frames illustrated by data from secondary English classes in Hong Kong. The 'innermost' frame, where the second language, English, is most likely to occur, is that in which the lesson is conducted. Linked to this lesson frame is a lesson-support frame which functions to structure communication and behaviour. The teacher is the main participant in this frame, though students may also participate. Institutional messages which are not directly related to communication in the lesson frame are conveyed in an institutional support frame characterised by primary use of the mother tongue rather than the second language. The 'outermost' frame is that in which non-lesson talk occurs, generally in the mother tongue. This commentary frame may be exploited by students to develop a counter-discourse in opposition to the institutional agenda and other sorts of new discourses. The discussion addresses the difficulty faced by teachers in second language contexts in trying to encourage communication and participation in a way which does not marginalise the second language. It also suggests similarities and differences in students' off-lesson talk in other bilingual and non-bilingual school contexts.
[Copyright of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670059908666246]

This paper proposes to overcome the traditional essentialist and dichotomous ways of conceptualising language and language pedagogies, i.e. to go beyond linguistic purist perspectives. Analysing bilingual teaching practices in a science lesson, the paper proposes that practical bilingual pedagogies can be developed to help students in bilingual education programmes to access dominant linguistic resources and discourses by capitalising on their indigenous linguistic and cultural resources.
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Viewing education as a complex site for endorsing and contesting knowledges and practices we explore its critical roles in feminist language planning. Many types of language planning have relied heavily on education for the implementation and spread of the particular reform agenda largely reliant on discourses of compulsory obligation (e.g. spelling reforms). The scenario of feminist language planning reveals that education is not a mere external agent of implementation but central to the raising of awareness or provoking an 'Initiating Trajectory' (Winter & Pauwels, 2003). However, the implementation of gender-inclusive practices ('Trajectories of Practices') in education highlights contexts of conflict (and confusion) about grammatical prescriptions and social reform (Pauwels & Winter, 2006). In this paper we probe the adoption, problematisation and invigoration of 'Agency Trajectories' in (language) educators' narratives and classroom practices. Our investigation includes educators operating in diverse English-language communities (e.g. Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong).
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/cilp093.0 ]

This article is concerned with the politics of lifelong learning policy in post-1997 Hong Kong (HK). The paper is in four parts. Continuing Education, recast as 'lifelong learning', is to be the cornerstone of the post-Handover education reform agenda. The lineaments of a familiar discourse are evident in the Education Commission policy documents. However, to view recent HK education policy just in terms of an apparent convergence with global trends would be to neglect the ways in which the discourse of lifelong learning has been tactically deployed to serve local political agendas. In the second part of this paper, I outline what Scott has called HK's 'disarticulated' political system following its retrocession to China and attempts by an executive-led administration to demonstrate 'performance legitimacy'--through major policy reforms--in the absence of (democratic) political legitimacy. Beijing's designation of HK as a (depoliticized) 'economic' city within greater China must also be taken into account. It is against this political background that the strategic deployment of a 'lifelong learning' discourse needs to be seen. In the third section of this paper, I examine three recent policy episodes to illustrate how lifelong learning discourse has been adopted and has evolved to meet changing circumstances in HK. Finally, I look at the issue of public consultation. The politics of education policy in HK may be seen to mirror at a micro-level, the current macro-level contested interpretations of HK's future polity.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026037042000311497]