Despite the global adoption of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and extensive research on the effectiveness (product-oriented) and classroom interactions (process-oriented) of CLIL, existing studies have overlooked the motivational beliefs and metacognitive strategies of CLIL students. Hence, there is a need for a participant-oriented approach to better understand students' perspectives and enhance CLIL's success. Drawing on the social cognitive model of self-regulated learning (SRL), this study aimed to explore how students plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning in CLIL contexts by employing a novel vignette-based microanalytic assessment approach to empirically capture students' SRL processes. Participants were 108 junior secondary school students from three schools in Hong Kong. Data were analysed using structuring qualitative content analysis. Findings revealed that students employed diverse strategies to manage the demands of language and content learning, with variations in self-efficacy beliefs influencing their approaches. Furthermore, some learners faced challenges in maintaining effective self-regulation. This study argues that improving self-regulatory processes and enhancing CLIL's success requires prioritising assessment, considering the state of 'others', and fostering deeper learning beyond CLIL. This study contributes to the empirical, methodological, and pedagogical understanding of students' SRL in CLIL settings and informs future research on student-focused aspects in CLIL. Copyright © 2025 Taylor and Francis Ltd.

Previous research on cross-linguistic transfer has provided evidence about the transfer of reading performance and strategies. However, little knowledge exists regarding how motivational factors (e.g. self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation [IM], extrinsic motivation [EM]) transfer and how they facilitate the transfer of reading from the first language (L1; i.e. Chinese in this study) to the second language (L2; i.e. English in this study). Furthermore, there is little agreement on the relationship between self-efficacy, IM, EM, and reading comprehension in L1 and L2 studies. This study aimed to (1) explore the relationship between self-efficacy, IM, EM, and reading comprehension in both L1 and L2; (2) identify whether self-efficacy, IM, EM, and reading performance can be directly transferred from L1 to L2; (3) and investigate how self-efficacy affects the cross-linguistic transfer of reading comprehension. 2,894 fourth-graders from 38 Hong Kong schools participated in this study. Results found that the relationship between self-efficacy, IM, EM, and reading comprehension was consistent in both L1 and L2. For cross-linguistic transfer, IM, EM, and reading performance can be transferred directly from L1 to L2, but reading self-efficacy cannot. Findings also indicated that self-efficacy indirectly affected L2 reading through several potential pathways. Implications for bilingual reading education are discussed. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Prior research on classroom interaction has investigated how the teacher's feedback turn following students' responses can be used to transform students' turns into academic expressions during whole class discussions. Nevertheless, more empirical studies are needed to explore how teachers' translanguaging practices can play a role in shaping students' contributions into pedagogical opportunities for introducing academic terminologies in English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) classrooms. Adopting translanguaging as an analytical perspective, this study explores how an EMI history teacher deploys available linguistic and multimodal resources to connect students' responses with academic concepts and terminologies. The study draws its data from a larger linguistic ethnographic project that took place in an EMI secondary history classroom in Hong Kong. The classroom interaction data is examined using Multimodal Conversation Analysis, and this analysis is further triangulated with video-stimulated-recall-interviews that are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. This paper argues that the EMI teacher's translanguaging practices facilitate the process of transforming student contributions into academic terminology and concepts. The process of deploying translanguaging for transforming student contributions highlights translanguaging as an important component of the teacher's classroom interactional competence for constructing new configurations of language practices and achieving specific pedagogical purposes. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

In content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms, it is assumed that non-language content subjects provide more authentic communicative contexts for students to learn a foreign/second/additional language (L2). However, learning abstract concepts and academic language in an L2 simultaneously is also challenging for CLIL students. It is thus important for CLIL teachers to unpack and repack both abstract concepts and academic discourse for the students. ‘Semantic waves’, which model classroom practices of both unpacking and repacking, is arguably a key to understanding cumulative knowledge-building. Applying the concepts of semantic profiles and semantic waves, this paper analyses the classroom discourse of two CLIL science lessons in Hong Kong. In one lesson, the semantic profile mainly consists of downward shifts. The teacher adopted various useful strategies to unpack science concepts, especially with multimodalities, everyday L2 and students’ L1 resources. Yet, there was limited repacking. In contrast, some repacking was observed in another lesson, where the teacher provided explicit instruction on academic language and guided students through academic writing tasks. A semantic wave can thus be observed there. These findings on strategies for unpacking and repacking provide significant insights into knowledge building in CLIL contexts, and may hence illuminate CLIL pedagogical practices. © 2020 Informa UK Limited.

The study examined the relationships between self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies used by 2,894 bilingual primary school students and their Chinese and English reading test performance. Exploratory factor analysis of the self-reported SRL strategy use questionnaire yielded two factors of strategies (planning and monitoring) used in both Chinese and English reading. The analysis of the structural equation model indicated that the planning and monitoring strategies used in Chinese reading positively affected their corresponding strategies used in English reading. The Chinese planning and monitoring strategies directly and positively affected both Chinese and English reading test performance. The English planning had a positive effect on English reading test performance while the English monitoring strategy did not affect English reading test performance. The results contribute to the knowledge of SRL in second language and bilingual education in the Chinese context. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

The discourse around combining local, national and international languages constitutes an important issue in the global education agenda (Kirkpatrick and Chau 2008). Ideas about how trilingual education ought to be designed and implemented vary across stakeholders. This study explores (1) the beliefs which early childhood education (ECE – ECE refers to teaching of young children up to the age of six) principals, teachers and parents exhibit about trilingual preschool education in Hong Kong; (2) the challenges in the trilingual preschool implementation processes, and (3) the mechanisms employed by ECE principals for coping with these challenges. Semi-structured interviews and observations were conducted to collect data from four preschools, and these were supplemented with documentary analysis. Findings indicate that the inconsistent beliefs among stakeholders about the aims of trilingual education and language choice, curriculum design, and instruction (pedagogy and activities) in trilingual preschools are the major challenge administrators-principals encountered impacting the implementation process. Teachers who lack professional knowledge and skills in the provision of trilingual education are also problematic. Moreover, the recruitment of native-speaking teachers of the target language is difficult due to perceived heavy workloads and poor pay. Findings also make evident important implications for policymakers, principals and professional development. Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

This study draws on the activity theory to explore how bilingual first-year secondary school students appropriate resources strategically in response to linguistic challenges in learning science through English in Hong Kong. The study explored 12 bilingual students' self-regulated strategy use by conducting in-depth interviews, stimulated recalls, observation and analysis of learning materials. Through analyzing these data, we examined how and why they appropriated and used resources strategically for self-regulated learning. The analysis revealed that the participants had used various artefacts (e.g. dictionary) and rules (e.g. evaluation criteria) to negotiate their respective roles (e.g. subject content learners and language learners) in situated communities of learning that consist of subject teachers, classmates, family members, private tutors and friends. Similarities and differences were found between the high achievers and the underachievers with regard to the use of resource-mediated strategies and the underlying reasons. The results inform the development of pedagogical schemes to enhance bilingual students' self-regulated strategic learning of academic subjects through English. Copyright ©Routledge.

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, students are expected to master content knowledge and language simultaneously. The worldwide popularity of this kind of programme has called for professional development, particularly for content subject teachers who have to shoulder some responsibilities of language teaching in CLIL. There have been several frameworks or proposals for professional development of CLIL teachers. Yet, empirical studies investigating the effectiveness of CLIL professional development programmes remain scarce. This gap is particularly important, since the relationship between professional development and teacher change is complicated and there are various factors affecting whether and how teacher would change. This study implemented a 6-month professional development programme for a group of content subject teachers in CLIL in Hong Kong. With data gathered with questionnaires, interviews, lesson observations and post-lesson reflections, this paper reports the trajectory of three case teachers who seemed to experience different degrees of changes in beliefs and language awareness. These differences could be explained by the influence of such factors as school context, learning experience and subject discipline. This study yields important implications for teacher education in CLIL and teacher change.
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The role of the first language (L1) in second language (L2) learning has been widely discussed and researched in the second Language Acquisition (SLA) literature. Benefits of L1 use have been found for vocabulary acquisition, and in facilitating comprehension thereby alleviating student anxiety. Many teachers appear to consider L1 use as a necessary option in L2 pedagogy. Disadvantages of L1 use are argued to be that it reduces exposure to the L2 thereby not enabling more implicit forms of L2 acquisition. Considerably less research has been carried out in English medium instruction (EMI) classrooms, surprisingly, as these are predicated on the benefits of massive exposure to the L2. This study investigated the effect of L1 and L2 use on teacher question types and interaction patterns in science lessons in early EMI and late EMI schools in Hong Kong. Our findings show that in late EMI, where there was much greater use of the L1, teachers tended to use higher order questions and were more interactive. In early EMI, despite students having received four more years of greater exposure to English instruction than late EMI students through the use of English as the vehicular language, teachers asked lower order questions and the interaction was more monologic. The implications for policy and pedagogy are discussed.
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Content-based education programmes, in which a second/foreign language (L2) is used as the medium of instruction when teaching non-language content subjects, aim at both content and L2 learning. With such dual goal in mind, and with the rapid expansion of the programmes to contexts where students might have only basic L2 proficiency, there have been consistent calls for reconsidering the roles of first language (L1) in the teaching and learning process. The functions of L1 in content-based classrooms have been well documented, but it is necessary to have a more systematic approach to planning and using L1. This paper seeks to address this gap by applying the notions of 'curriculum genres' and 'task structure' when analysing patterns of teachers' use of L1 and L2 in a collection of content subject lessons observed in English-medium secondary schools in Hong Kong. With illustrative episodes presented in this paper, we would argue that 'curriculum genres' and 'task structure' can serve as useful tools for both researchers and teachers to analyse and critically reflect on patterns of pedagogic practices and language use in content-based classrooms. These will have significant implications for future research on using L1 and illuminate effective pedagogy in content-based education.
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