Despite the rapid growth of English Medium Instruction (EMI) programmes around the globe, the language goals in such programmes have not been clearly defined, making it difficult to evaluate their success. Accordingly, our paper reports on a study that attempted to identify the language goals, operationalised as the vocabulary expected of learners, by investigating the under-explored area of EMI assessment. We sampled a corpus of 16 sets of examination papers in two subject areas, namely, Biology and Geography, spanning eight years in Hong Kong. The examination papers, analysed for their vocabulary profiles, indicated that students were expected to learn beyond the K3 level (the most frequent 3,000 words in English) and master mid-frequency words (K4−K8) as well as academic words. Our findings suggest that the less frequent words were not often shared by the two subjects. Analysing academic words also enabled us to showcase how some words were common across the two subjects while others were more subject-specific. Pedagogical implications are discussed, highlighting the need for teachers and students to attend to target language goals in EMI, and to consider the subject-specific nature of vocabulary items in EMI. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Natural language generation (NLG) is a process within artificial intelligence where computer systems produce human-comprehensible language texts from information. English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ use of NLG tools might facilitate their idea generation, which is fundamental to creative writing. However, little is known about how EFL students interact with NLG tools to generate ideas. This study explores strategies adopted by EFL students when searching for ideas using NLG tools, evaluating ideas generated by NLG tools and selecting NLG tools for idea generation. Four Hong Kong secondary school students attended workshops where they learned to write stories comprising their own words and words generated by NLG tools. After the workshops, they answered questions to reflect on their writing experience with NLG tools. In a thematic analysis of the written reflections, we found students may have existing ideas when searching for ideas and evaluating ideas with NLG tools. Students showed some aversion to ideas generated by NLG tools and selected NLG tools that generated a greater quantity of ideas. The findings inform our understanding of EFL students’ concerns when using NLG tools for idea generation and can inform educators’ instruction to implement NLG tools for classroom creative writing. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

Purpose: This study adopted a mixed-method approach, including a classroom experiment and 24 in-depth interviews, to investigate the effects of two feedback techniques (coded focused and unfocused written corrective feedback) on ESL learners' writing in a self-financed tertiary institution in Hong Kong. Methodology: Three intact classes of 47 students served as the experimental and control groups; the control group only received feedback on content and organization, whereas the two experimental groups also received focused and unfocused linguistic feedback, respectively. The feedback intervention was conducted over an eight-week intensive summer course, focusing on three grammar errors (articles, singular/plural nouns and verb forms). Altogether, students wrote seven pieces, four of which were analysed for the present research. Results: The study found that students who received focused written corrective feedback (WCF) significantly outperformed the other two groups, though the effects varied across error types. Meanwhile, no significant differences were found between the unfocused and control groups. In-depth interviews explored how individual learners' metalinguistic understanding and engagement affect their intake of WCF. The results revealed that learners who received focused feedback developed a deeper understanding of the linguistic nature of specific error types. Learners with limited English proficiency were less likely to apply their linguistic knowledge to revise a task or write a new one. Conclusion: Because not all errors deserve equal attention, teachers and students should consider how feedback can be used more effectively, particularly in areas where comprehensive feedback is considered obligatory. When teaching students with limited language proficiency, it is recommended that, rather than providing a wide range of error corrections, teachers provide focused feedback complemented with carefully designed metalinguistic support. Copyright © 2022 National

Theoretically, abundant conversation experiences are necessary for young children to develop their preliteracy skills – the foundation for reading comprehension. But very few studies have provided empirical evidence on it. This study investigated whether K1 children experiencing a higher quality of teacher-child conversations would perform significantly better in preliteracy skills (phonological awareness, morphological awareness and oral language) and word reading and whether the quality of teacher-child conversations could moderate the contribution of preliteracy skills to word reading. Results supported the theoretical importance of good teacher-child dialogues in developing young children’s preliteracy skills and suggested that the effectiveness of preliteracy skills training might depend on the verbal environment children experience at preschools. Copyright © 2023 AERA.

This study takes a rarely employed learner's angle in examining how students are learning in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) classroom. Particularly, the study tapped into students' listening strategy use when comprehending the teacher input, a context that is underexplored for strategy research and yet highly important because teacher input predominates in the EMI classroom. An EMI class of Grade 11 Biology in Hong Kong was recruited. Through lesson observations and stimulated recall interviews with a purposively selected sample of eight students, a taxonomy of listening strategies in EMI was constructed. The taxonomy reveals the uniqueness of listening to the teacher in EMI context due to the non-existence of planning and prediction strategies, the identification of novel strategies, and the classification of content-mediated and language-mediated cognitive strategies. Factoring in students' linguistic knowledge and Biology achievement, the findings indicated the usefulness for students to deploy a range of language-mediated, content-mediated and metacognitive strategies in combination. This paper ends with implications for future research and pedagogy in order to make EMI learning and teaching more successful. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A positive relation between English phoneme deletion skill, a measure of the theoretical construct phonological awareness (PHNA), and pronunciation accuracy (PRNA), the ability to read aloud correctly familiar English words, was found in 2 groups of Hong Kong high school students who learned English as a 2nd language. 81 7th graders and 72 10th graders were tested. The study identified 7 variables: CA, nonverbal intelligence, sight vocabulary, digit span, word span, phoneme deletion, and PRNA. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the interactions among the variables in predicting PRNA. Findings suggest that PHNA was predictive of PRNA for the 10th graders. The findings are discussed in light of the well-documented relation between PHNA and reading accuracy. Their implications for 2nd language education are also discussed. Copyright © 2016 APA, all rights reserved.

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 present study investigated 69 local Hong Kong English language education students' cross-cultural learning as a result of an Internationalization at Home (IaH) initiative that made use of international students' knowledge of English language education in contexts outside of Hong Kong. An analysis of written responses to open-ended questionnaire items revealed that most students reported acquiring superficial cultural facts related to teaching methods, testing methods, and public versus private education in international contexts; however, some students reflected more deeply on perceived cultural differences by challenging their own prior assumptions about English language education and, as a result, demonstrated cultural humility and enhanced empathy towards teachers in contexts outside of Hong Kong. This research suggests that teacher education programs should consider implementing IaH initiatives that capitalise on international student populations to satisfy program-level cross-cultural learning objectives. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

This study examines the range of cognitive processes assessed in the English language reading literacy test as part of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), the secondary school exit test in Hong Kong. Prior studies have suggested that higher order cognitive processes are often undermined in high-stakes tests and classrooms, due to what is called the “washback effect.” This prompts the following hypothesis: despite its top-performing education system, Hong Kong has failed to provide a versatile collection of test items that involve complex reasoning. To investigate the cognitive demands of the test, as well as their relationship with student performance, this study maps the test items with reference to the cognitive levels assessed using in-depth document analysis. ANOVA is used to statistically determine differences in accuracy rates to supplement the analysis throughout. Results indicate that the test has placed an overwhelming emphasis on lower order cognitive processes over the past decade (2012–2019) and that items assessing higher order cognitive skills are, as expected, met with statistically significantly poorer performance in the test. Implications for future revision of the test and curriculum policy are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

The present study reports on the effects of a self-regulated (SRL) writing strategy-based intervention supported with e-learning tools on SRL strategy use in English writing with 468 Hong Kong primary school students. The changes to the students’ motivation in English writing, and their e-learning acceptance were also measured. The study adopted a pretest and posttest design and the data was collected through a questionnaire, which consisted of three measures, i.e. SRL writing strategy use, motivation in English writing, and e-learning acceptance. The SRL writing strategy use measure included four types of strategies, i.e. planning, text-generating, monitoring, and revising. The motivation measure had two scales, i.e. interest and self-efficacy, and the e-learning acceptance measure included four scales, i.e. perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and continuance intention. The intervention saw significant improvements on the students’ use of all four types of SRL writing strategies. Positive changes also took place to one scale of motivation, i.e. interest, and three scales of e-learning acceptance, i.e. perceived usefulness, attitude and continuance intention. There was no significant improvement to self-efficacy and perceived ease of use. Additionally, the correlations between all the scales became stronger after the intervention. Important implications for teaching ESL/EFL writing through e-learning are drawn. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis.