The learning of academic vocabulary, which consists of words commonly found in academic discourse across disciplines, is crucial for success in higher education. However, studies have shown that English as a second language (ESL) students face significant challenges acquiring this vocabulary, particularly during their first year of university. Given the pivotal role that learners' beliefs play in language learning, understanding their beliefs regarding their academic vocabulary learning (AVL) can provide educators with insights into the teaching strategies that effectively address the difficulties learners encounter. Accordingly, this mixed-methods study examined the beliefs of 172 first-year ESL undergraduates in Hong Kong regarding their AVL. Quantitative findings indicated that although students generally recognised the importance of developing academic vocabulary, their beliefs about their competence and effective learning methods varied. The students' English proficiency level was also found to be associated with their beliefs. An analysis of open-ended responses further revealed that the students faced challenges related to the infrequent occurrence of academic vocabulary in non-academic contexts, its complex nature, as well as the difficulty of retaining newly learned words. The paper concludes by discussing pedagogical implications and directions for future research. Copyright © 2024 Wiley.

Due to the prevalence of information and communication technologies (ICT) among secondary school students and the increasing significance of digital reading, exploring the impact of ICT on students' digital reading performance in English seems necessary. The current research aimed to examine the effects of ICT competencies factors on secondary school students' English digital reading performance. Data were obtained from 7703 15year-old students from three East Asian economies, Macau, Hong Kong, and Singapore, from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 dataset. The results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that students' ICT literacy was negatively correlated with their English digital reading performance, while the influence of attitudes toward ICT varied across the three East Asia economies. Additionally, males had lower English digital reading achievement, while students with higher socioeconomic status (SES) had higher English digital reading performance. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.

This paper examines a new first-year EAP course in a Hong Kong university. It utilizes teacher and student reflections to understand the course's strengths and weaknesses, aiming to enhance its design and delivery. The study employed a qualitative approach whereby textual analysis was used to interpret the data collected in the form of written teacher reflections, written student reflections, and notes of teacher reflective dialogue. The thematic categories for coding the data were established based on the course's main learning outcomes: Effective Learning, Spoken Language, and Written Language. Findings reveal that teachers were more critical of the course compared to learners. Teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the pedagogical approach to Effective Learning unit, insufficient time provided in the course to teach solo speaking, and the inability to cover too many organizational and linguistic features in the writing unit. Students, however, did not have much to reflect on about Effective Learning, had mixed views about Spoken Language with some worried about reading from notes, and wrote extremely positively about their learning of Written Language. Nonetheless, their views provide valuable insights for course improvement. Consequently, the paper advocates for a reflective pedagogy approach to EAP that considers both teacher and student reflections to enhance teaching and learning outcomes. Copyright © 2024 Routledge.

We examined the associations between home literacy environment (HLE) and children's word reading in L1 Cantonese and L2 English and whether the associations were moderated by other child- and family-related factors (children's grade level, reading interest, and family socioeconomic status [SES]) in Hong Kong Chinese families. Participants were 190 children (Mage = 86.05 months; 54.7% female) in Grades 1 and 2, and they were tested on their word reading skills (accuracy and fluency) in L1 Cantonese and L2 English. One corresponding parent of each child responded to a questionnaire assessing two aspects of HLE (parent teaching and access to literacy resources), family SES, and their child's reading interest. Results showed that access to literacy resources was associated with L2 English reading but not L1 Cantonese reading, regardless of grade level, parent-rated reading interest, or SES. In addition, whereas parent teaching was positively associated with L2 English reading in Grade 1, it was negatively associated with L2 English reading in Grade 2. These results suggest that whereas access to literacy resources may be positively associated with L2 English reading across different family contexts, the role of parent teaching in L2 English reading may change during this developmental period. Copyright © 2024 Springer.

Although teachers have access to a great deal of scholarship on teaching academic vocabulary (AV), much less is known about the experiences and perceptions of English language learners regarding AV. To address this gap, we used an online metaphor elicitation survey and follow-up interviews to collect data from 432 undergraduates at a Hong Kong university on their experience of learning AV. For this paper, we focus on the 199 students whose metaphors related to difficulties or challenges. A thematic analysis of this data showed that about two-thirds of this subgroup perceived AV to be inherently difficult, while for the other third, the challenge primarily concerned their negative perceptions of their experience or abilities. We conclude by arguing for the value of understanding learner perspectives and proposing specific teaching strategies for addressing each of the perceived challenges. Copyright © 2024 Wiley.

Students' digital reading literacy has attracted increasing attention in the current digital era; however, few studies have been conducted to explore how factors at different levels influence students' digital reading achievement. Grounded by socio-ecological theory, the current comprehensively explored the relative importance of 24 individual, microsystem, and mesosystem variables in predicting English digital reading achievement through the machine learning approach (i.e. random forest regression). The secondary data were retrieved from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018, including 7,703 15-year-old students from Macao, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Our study identified 12 key factors that best predicted East Asian students' English digital reading achievement. Among them, students' socioeconomic status, subject-related ICT use during lessons, and interest in ICT ranked as the top three factors. The disparities in the roles played by disciplinary climate, gender, being bullied, immigrant status, and home language among the three economies were discussed. Copyright © 2024 Routledge.

This study examined whether two integrated reading -to -write tasks could broaden the construct representation of the writing component of Duolingo English Test (DET). It also verified whether they could enhance DET 's predictive power of English academic writing in universities. The tasks were (1) writing a summary based on two source texts and (2) writing a reading -to -write essay based on five texts. Both were given to a sample (N = 204) of undergraduates from Hong Kong. Each participant also submitted an academic assignment written for the assessment of a disciplinary course. Three professional raters double -marked all writing samples against detailed analytical rubrics. Raw scores were first processed using Multi -Faceted Rasch Measurement to estimate inter- and intra-rater consistency and generate adjusted (fair) measures. Based on these measures, descriptive analyses, sequential multiple regression, and Structural Equation Modeling were conducted (in that order). The analyses verified the writing tasks ' underlying component constructs and assessed their relative contributions to the overall integrated writing scores. Both tasks were found to contribute to DET 's construct representation and add moderate predictive power to the domain performance. The findings, along with their practical implications, are discussed, especially regarding the complex relations between construct representation and predictive validity. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.

Word reading fluency is crucial for early L2 development. Moreover, the practice of digital reading has become increasingly common for both children and adults. Therefore, the current study investigated factors that explain digital word reading fluency in English (L2) among Chinese children from Hong Kong. Eighty-six children (age: M = 9.78, SD = 1.42) participated in a digital silent word reading test using a mobile phone, a computer, or a tablet. This is a 10-minute timed test of English word reading. Overall, children’s digital word reading fluency was highly correlated with print word reading fluency, even when measured a year apart. A hierarchical regression model revealed that socio-economic status ( β = .333), grade ( β = .455), and English reading motivation ( β = .375) were positively and uniquely associated with performance in digital reading. These predictors explained 48.6% of the total variance in task performance. Two additional variables, i.e., the type of reading device and extraneous cognitive load, were included as well. Digital word reading fluency was significantly poorer when done using a phone as compared to a computer ( β = -.187). No significant difference was found between reading on a tablet and a computer. Extraneous cognitive load ( β = -.255) negatively and uniquely explained digital word reading fluency as well. Overall, the model explained 58.8% of the total variance. The present study represents the first attempt to highlight a comprehensive set of predictors of digital word reading fluency. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

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.

Despite much attention having been paid to foreign language (FL) reading and related variables such as self-efficacy, relatively few studies have focused on young learners, and even fewer on storybooks, arguably the commonest genre read by children worldwide for language learning. As FL learning commences at a young age in many contexts globally, it is of importance to examine how FL children's perceptions of storybooks and reading self-efficacy relate to their proficiency. In the present study, 96 Grade 5 English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners in Hong Kong completed a questionnaire (measuring their perceived value in English storybooks and English reading self-efficacy) and various proficiency tests (vocabulary size, word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension). Drawing on Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT), the interrelationships between the variables were analyzed using hierarchical regression and mediation. The findings revealed that self-efficacy was a significant positive predictor of all aspects of EFL proficiency while value was predictive of vocabulary and word reading only. Self-efficacy was also found to be a significant mediator between value and some areas of proficiency investigated. The study advances our understanding of EVT in which value and self-efficacy seem to have stronger predictive power of lower-order aspects of proficiency (vocabulary size and word reading) than a higher-order aspect (reading comprehension). The article ends with a brief discussion of the implications of the findings. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.