This paper reports an exploratory study of questions about English grammar sent in by a group of Hong Kong ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers to a teacher support computer network, TeleNex. The study examines the questions Hong Kong ESL teachers ask about the English language. Arising from the questions posed, the paper then delineates the kinds of language support that ESL teachers may need. Grammar questions sent in by teachers to the network constituted the data source. The questions were analysed in terms of the frequency of the contentwords used, linguistic categories, and teacher knowledge. The principal findings are that the teachers' grammar-related questions typically arose outof their everyday pedagogical needs and these needs seem to be shaped by their implicit models of grammar as a set of rules for 'correct' language use. Such information on 'correct' use does not seem to be easily available from major reference books. These findings confirm the value of a computer network where teachers can obtain continuous informational support and participate in collaborative discussions, which can develop an awareness of grammar as a meaning-making tool.
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When Hong Kong was returned to the sovereignty of China by the British in July 1997, the new Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) Government announced the 'Biliterate and Trilingual' policy for all schools. Hong Kong students of this generation are expected to be proficient in both written English and Chinese, and speak fluent English (the international language), Cantonese (the vernacular language) as well as Putonghua (the national language of the PRC). To find out the attitudes of secondary school students towards these three languages, a questionnaire study was conducted with 134 senior secondary students. Given also the important relationship between social class, achievement and language attitudes (Schumann, 1976; Gibbons, 1984; Gardner, 1985; Siu, 1988; Lee, 1998), this paper compares the language attitudes of two main groups of Hong Kong students, namely the middle-class elite and the working-class low-achievers. The findings showed that the former group was more inclined to use English while the latter group the vernacular Cantonese. Despite this difference, both groups of students held generally positive attitudes towards the three languages.
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This paper argues against the notion that Chinese students do not volunteer to participate in tutorial discussion. Participation in tutorial discussion by Chinese students is, to a large extent, influenced by their traditional Chinese concepts of learning. Some traditional Chinese concepts of learning that may influence students' perception and participation in tutorial discussion include education and self-realisation, learning and effort, respect for superiors, and communication preference. Interview data obtained from a group of Chinese tertiary students in Hong Kong has shed some light on the subtle relationship between the traditional Chinese concepts of learning and students' behaviour in tutorial discussion. The students believed that their rate of participation was dependent on their efforts in preparing for tutorial discussion, acquaintance with group members and tutor guidance. They were willing to use English to express their ideas if they were well prepared. With these three factors in mind, some pedagogies are suggested for teachers. It is hoped that this paper and its recommendations can contribute to the teaching of Chinese students in both Hong Kong and overseas.
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Since Hong Kong's sovereignty reverted to China in 1997, the university Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) sector has faced an array of unprecedented challenges created mainly through government policy initiatives, an associated and rapid increase in the demand for continuing education, and dramatic changes in the nature of that demand. This paper reports the outcomes of a qualitative study that examined how the sector responded to these challenges. It identifies and describes a triangle of inter-related strategies of response, namely 'building organisational strength', 'programme planning and development' and 'quality assurance'.
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This paper examines linguistic features of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) in Hong Kong. The study is based on a 70,000-word corpus of electronic mail (email) and ICQ instant messaging texts, which was mainly collected from a group of youngsters in Hong Kong. A questionnaire survey was also carried out to complement the textual findings. Some language-specific features are identified, which include Cantonese-based shortenings, common grammatical 'errors' such as inappropriate verb forms and lexical choice, subject omission, code-mixing, and creative orthographic representations of Cantonese. In addition, significant differences are found between email and ICQ texts in terms of the distribution of linguistic features. It is shown that these features are employed more frequently in synchronous communication via ICQ. The study suggests that these linguistic features may be seen as new 'literacy practices' i.e. how people use and think about texts in different contexts, within the theoretical framework of New Literacy Studies (NLS). The study further reveals that CMC texts should be analyzed in different CMC systems, as well as in different linguistic and cultural settings. It is concluded that language and literacy researchers and practitioners should recognize the novelty and the linguistic specificity of CMC texts.
The prevalence of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) has enormous impact on the growing amount of research into the distinctive features of the text-based CMC (e.g. Baron 1984, 1998, 2001, Herring 1996, Davis and Brewer 1997, Snyder 1998, Paolillo 1999, Crystal 2001). This paper focuses on the linguistic features in electronic mail (email) and ICQ (I-Seek-You) messaging which are specific to the Hong Kong context. The research seeks to examine the underlying relationship between language and literacy in the context of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) in Hong Kong.
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This paper seeks to explore, by studying their personal stories, how Hong Kong secondary school teachers make sense of who and what they are in difficult situations, especially when such situations arise as a consequence of their being a part of the institution of education. Teachers' conceptual mappings of self will be investigated via their linguistic realisations within a context of discourse. Results show that the metaphorical construction of the teacher's self is largely paradoxical. There is co-creation of a negative self and a positive self. For the negative self, the underlying principle for the coherence of the paradoxical metaphors is the highlighting of the negative aspects of the vehicle domains to explain the 'grounds' for understanding the topic in terms of the vehicles. It is constructed out of teachers' encounters with students' discipline problems, poor inter-personal relationships in the school, inadequate managerial skills of the principal and heavy demands of the education authorities. On the other hand, the positive self is constructed through the metaphorical use of reference terms understood on specific cultural basis. It is commitment, care and a great sense of responsibility which resemble those of parents that have helped to motivate and sustain teachers when they face challenges. It is suggested that teachers should be encouraged to share their experience in coping with paradoxical roles and construct a positive self in culturally appropriate terms and live by that self.
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This study assessed the profiles of eight intelligences of 133 gifted students from five perspectives based on their self-ratings and ratings by their mothers, fathers, teachers, and peers. Across different perspectives, logical-mathematical intelligence received the highest ratings whereas bodily-kinesthetic and naturalist intelligences received the lowest ratings. Based on the three profile similarity indices, elevation, scatter, and shape computed to describe each of the typical profiles of students, mothers, fathers, teachers, and peers, it was suggested that the mother perspective and the father perspective were more similar than those of teachers and peers. In addition, the indices also suggested the interpretation that mothers tended to be more sensitive to students' multiple intelligences than fathers, teachers, and peers. Students' perceived creativity and leadership were more predictable using the multiple intelligences from the student perspective. The implications of respecting multiple perspectives on students' multiple intelligences for helping to meet the needs of gifted students are discussed.
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Changes that occur in teachers' careers are typically conceptualized in research as occurring in several demarcated and sequential stages/phases. This study examines secondary schoolteachers' understandings of their careers and whether they could identify stages/phases in their career development. It is based on experienced teachers' recall of their career development and their in-depth interviews. The findings demonstrate the need to acknowledge the individual ways in which teachers develop as well as the need for the use of multiple frameworks for describing teachers' career development. Using a single a priori model to describe their career development, as has been common in certain previous research, does not do justice to teachers' understanding of their own careers. Furthermore, the findings of this study shed light on the contextualized nature of experience and expertise. Accordingly, implications for teacher education and policy-making in the area are drawn.
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The development of a humor measure was described in a brief report in this journal. In that report, a series of suitable congruous and incongruous pictures were developed with a community sample of children. The findings of that study were consistent with those reported by others (Chik, 2001; Masten, 1989; Schultz, 1972), indicating that incongruity is an essential component of humor appreciation. With a larger (n = 140) and more representative sample, we embarked on a follow-up validation study. The findings of the present study provide further support for the universality of the incongruity as an essential component of humor appreciation across age and cultures.
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