This article highlights the benefits of multimedia and other activities through the examination of their effects in the on-going development of a first-year, team-taught module entitled “Introduction to Linguistics and Language Awareness” (ILLA) offered on an initial teacher education programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). After briefly introducing the educational and cultural context, the limited impact of government reforms on pedagogical practices in the upper secondary school is illustrated through a small-scale survey comparing the previous learning experiences and preferences of the HKIEd first-year students to data from Littlewood and Liu’s 1996 study. The strategically located ILLA module, its purposes and range of pedagogically “innovative” activities are then described and student responses gauged through a review of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) data (2002-2006). A further survey, which allowed students to rate the module activities in terms of liking and relevance, together with interview data concerning personal learning and future pedagogical practice, are next presented. The findings confirm the beneficial effects of the module activities on both students’ own learning and their professional perspectives, suggesting the application of similar approaches in other countries where the “culture of learning” (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996) is largely traditional.
[Copyright © 2008 CUHK English Lanuage Teaching Unit.]

This paper advances the argument that 'cultures of learning' (Cortazzi and Jin, 1996) not only affect people's conceptions of teaching and learning – and therefore classroom practice – but may also impede curriculum reform, especially where little attempt is made at 'cultural synergy' (Cortazzi and Jin, 1995). The paper first examines the 'culture of learning' in Mainland China, since Hong Kong's overwhelmingly Chinese population is likely to share many of the expectations, values and attitudes identified here. The resulting language teaching is also briefly considered. Second, the paper reviews selected "Western" learning cultures and associated language teaching methodologies. Areas of similarity and difference are noted and a prediction attempted. The third part considers the 'culture of learning' in Hong Kong, an entity that is neither China nor Britain. This appears to possess a fundamentally Chinese 'culture of learning', much confused and confounded by factors that inevitably perhaps arise from its unique historical and international situation. After indicating, very briefly, these critical issues, the paper presents views from the literature which suggest that a lack of attention to and respect for cultural difference has impeded both curricular and language teaching reform. Supporting material from In-service assignments and reflections on lesson observations may also be touched on, if time permits.
[Copyright © 1999 Australian Curriculum Studies Association Inc.]

In this study, the authors investigated the implementation of adopted information technology (IT) policy in representative institutes of the Vocational Training Council in Hong Kong. The article first introduces the context of the government’s 1997 IT initiative. It then reviews the literature on generally acknowledged advantages and limitations of IT in education. Next, the research methodology is briefly set out. In the study, the authors attempted to achieve a degree of triangulation by employing instruments from both the positivist and subjectivist paradigms, namely, questionnaire surveys of current staff-student IT use, and focused interviews with lecturing staff concerning personal evaluations of the project’s viability. Quantitative findings suggest some initial movement in the desired direction, but the qualitative data call for skepticism. It was concluded, therefore, that full implementation will be far from unproblematic.
[Copyright © 1999 International Vocational Education and Training Association.]