Post-colonial Hong Kong is an officially trilingual city with significant numbers of residents speaking English, Cantonese, Mandarin, or some combination of all three. Competency in these languages is promoted through educational policies and practices at all levels of schooling. Using concepts from the Deweyan framework of democracy and education, this article explores relational practices among bilingual co-teachers at a private, international early years programme in Hong Kong that emphasizes democratic philosophies of learning in their efforts to promote trilingualism. Findings point to co-teachers' interest in developing collaborative relationships, and prompting interest in additional language use through promotion of children's interests, along with tensions they experience as they grapple with instruction in multiple languages. Findings point to a need for more nuanced understandings of co-teaching dynamics in post-colonial multilingual learning contexts. Copyright ©2021 Routledge.

Learning Chinese as a second language is challenging for non-Chinese speaking population in Hong Kong. In order to facilitate the Chinese learning of this group of people, understanding their trajectory of Chinese language development is crucial. The present longitudinal study follows 88 non-Chinese speaking preschoolers in 4 time points, from their K1 to K3, in order to have a grasp of their Chinese language development in three key aspects, namely listening, speaking and reading. Results showed that non-Chinese speaking preschoolers progressed their Chinese language proficiency over time in the three domains, whereas their listening abilities have the best advancement. Though their speaking abilities were the worst at the beginning, they had significant improvement by the end of their K3. The qualitative data provides descriptors of the Chinese language proficiency of non-Chinese speaking preschoolers in different grades. The study's findings serve as a valuable reference for schools regarding school-based curriculum development, learning and teaching materials, approaches and assessments. Copyright © 2021 Academy Publication Co., Ltd.

A professional teaching development programme was established to equip multicultural teaching assistants (MTA) with skills and knowledge to teach non-Chinese speaking (NCS) preschoolers in Hong Kong. To evaluate if MTAs are perceived to be able to perform their intended roles (support Chinese and overall learning, provide pastoral support, bridge the communication between NCS parents and kindergartens, and promote social integration), questionnaires were collected from 18 principals and 74 teachers. To assess if the programme can equip MTAs with necessary skills for the planned roles, questionnaires were collected from 39 MTAs, and a focus group interview with 8 MTAs was also conducted. Results showed that principals and teachers were satisfied with MTAs' performances in supporting NCS students' learning. Moreover, the majority of MTAs agreed that the training programme helped them to perform their intended roles in preschools. Most modules taught in the training programme, apart from one exception, were well received by MTAs. The focus group interview revealed that MTAs were satisfied with the programme, though they preferred more training on Chinese writing skills and knowledge in dealing behavioral issues of children. The study shows the possibility of integrating MTAs into multicultural classrooms in Hong Kong to facilitate NCS children's learning. Copyright © 2021 Academy Publication Co., Ltd.

Ever since the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China on 1 July 1997, policy makers in Hong Kong have instituted a series of de-colonising language policies, notably Mother Tongue Education (Education Department, 1997. Medium of instruction guidance for secondary schools. Retrieved from https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr97-98/english/panels/ed/papers/ed1508-6.htm.) which emphasises the importance of the Chinese language in rebranding the city as a cosmopolitan bilingual city in Asia. One unintended consequence is that linguistically and culturally diverse pupils in the system are struggling to learning Chinese as an additional language (CAL). Against the backdrop of existing CAL policies which promote decentralisation and school-based curricula, this exploratory paper aims at examining the extent to which the language planning context has facilitated and constrained CAL teachers’ agency in Hong Kong secondary schools. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 10 CAL teachers purposively recruited from three local secondary schools, this study finds that certain features of the language planning contexts have constrained and transformed teacher agency in ways that lead to what Cummins’s (2000. Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.) refers to as ‘the narrowing of the curriculum brought about by teaching to the test’ (p.248). The resultant emphasis on the short-term CAL goals, as manifested by this maximum-variation sample of teachers, is discussed with attention to how teacher agency is ecologically achieved and claimed, and a call for restructuring existing CAL policies to attend more to the mediating impact of the ecology on teacher agency, and to purposively channel teachers’ agentive action towards the long-term goal of mainstreaming. In doing so, CAL teachers can truly be ecologically set up as agentive language planners in the face of increasing

This study explores how students in a joint process of knowledge construction through the use of multilingual and multimodal resources in groups promotes the learning of scientific concepts in the context of laboratory work. Inductive qualitative discourse analysis was conducted to examine how students’ translanguage in a group completing tasks in two Grade 10 secondary science labs (biology and chemistry) in a Hong Kong EMI secondary school and how such a joint process of knowledge construction promotes the learning of scientific concepts. Using translanguaging as a theoretical framework, the analysis shows that even though schools have imposed an English-only policy, students use their linguistic and semiotic resources to both co-construct their scientific knowledge and practise their science apprenticeship. Translanguaging plays a role in mediating the students’ understanding of science, facilitating peer work and creating an enjoyable learning environment in the lab. The result implies that translanguaging as a pedagogical tool may create a space for content subject learning in Hong Kong EMI school setting. Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

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.

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.

Recent studies on English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) classroom interaction have begun to look at the role of translanguaging as a pedagogical practice in supporting participants to exploit multilingual and multimodal resources to facilitate content teaching and learning. The present study contributes to this growing body of literature by focusing on playful talk in multiple languages and modalities in EMI mathematics classrooms in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Based on the data collected from a linguistic ethnography, we analyze how the teacher constructs playful talk in order to achieve various pedagogical goals including building rapport, facilitating content explanation and promoting meaningful communication with students. The analysis demonstrates that translanguaging appears to be a critical resource and that several social factors, including the teacher's personal belief, history, sociocultural, and pedagogical knowledge, play a role in constructing playful talk. The playful talk transforms the classroom into a translanguaging space, which in turn allows the teacher and students to perform a range of creative acts and experiment with a variety of voices to facilitate the meaning making and knowledge construction processes. Copyright © 2021 Oxford University Press.

Recent studies on classroom discourse have challenged the traditional classroom role set and emphasised equal contributions from the participants and the emergence of knowledge through active participation. Co-learning emphasises the process in which teachers and students attempt to adapt to one another's behaviour and learn from each other in order to produce desirable learning outcomes. Current research has paid little attention to the ways in which content teachers and students jointly negotiate new knowledge in bi/multilingual classrooms. Based on data collected from a linguistic ethnography in Hong Kong English-Medium-Instruction secondary mathematics classrooms, this paper uses translanguaging as an analytical perspective to analyse how the EMI teacher and students co-learn in the classroom. The data are analysed using Multimodal Conversation Analysis and triangulated with the video-stimulated-recall-interviews which are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The paper argues that translanguaging creates a safe space for co-learning that emphasises equity in knowledge construction and challenges the hierarchical relationship between the teacher and the learner. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

The rapid trend towards globalization has led to the expansion of English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) in tertiary education. The academic challenges faced by non-native speakers have been broadly discussed in Anglophone countries, whilst those learning through EMI in the Chinese context are still underexplored. To examine Chinese EMI university students' perceived language challenges in learning, as well as their language-related learning strategies, this study investigated 73 students studying at EMI universities in Hong Kong, taking account of their gender, EMI experience in higher education, and English exposure prior to tertiary education. Participants completed a survey to provide self-evaluations of their academic situation and their perceptions of their disciplinary learning. The study found that students perceived a relatively low level of language and learning challenges, and they showed a preference for using their second language (L2)-related learning strategies over strategies related to their first language. Specifically, male students tended to be more actively engaged in communication with their peers than females, and were more likely to search for additional learning support in English. In addition, first-year undergraduates perceived a greater degree of challenges in knowledge application and relied more on L2-related learning strategies than their senior counterparts. Although the importance of English exposure prior to higher education has been highlighted in many existing studies, this study found that prior exposure to English was neither connected with students' perceived challenges nor their learning strategies. Copyright © 2021 Public Library of Science.