This paper is primarily based on a research project on blended teaching and learning. This emerging teaching and learning mode is gaining popularity in tertiary institutions because the new technologies have integrated the classroom and online teaching and learning into a potentially productive environment. The research project adopts a discourse analysis approach and intends to investigate the discourse features of blended teaching and learning in the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). The paper starts with the development of an analytical framework for classroom face-to-face (FTF) interaction and online computer-mediated communication (CMC), followed by discourse data analysis of a number of FTF and CMC teaching and learning sessions. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of the blended teaching and learning discourse analysis for the teachers and students in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2009 Formatex.]

This chapter is based on a research project on hybrid teaching and learning. This emerging hybrid mode is gaining popularity in tertiary institutions because the new technologies have integrated the classroom and online teaching and learning into an organic productive environment. The research project adopts a discourse analysis approach and intends to investigate issues arising regarding the hybrid mode in a higher education institute in Hong Kong. These issues include 1) the discourse features of teaching and learning in the classroom face-to-face (FTF) and online computer-mediated communication (CMC); 2) the changing roles of teachers and students in the emerging hybrid environment; and 3) the implications of the hybrid mode on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. In addition, this research project also adopts questionnaire surveys among the teaching staff of a language education faculty and students of three courses offered in the hybrid mode to discover their attitudes towards the hybrid teaching and learning mode. The research findings suggest that in the hybrid environments, the traditional roles of the teachers as information providers, knowledge transmitters, supervisors and assessors, and the students as learners, participants, and respondents are still dominant. However, the teachers are also increasingly putting on new ‘hats’ as expert learners, facilitators, course designers and organizers. Apart from being learners, the students are also taking on new roles as topic contributors, meaning negotiators, information providers, strategic communicators and monitors.
[Copyright © 2010 IGI Global.]

In this paper, we shall explore academic writing in the framework of academic literacy development among Hong Kong university ESL learners of language and education programs. We shall also discuss discipline-specific academic writing in terms of the continuum comprising academic writing in science, social science and humanities and the implications for developing academic writing skills of Hong Kong ESL learners. In particular, we shall discuss in detail a number of issues regarding academic writing in the disciplines of language and education.
[The International Journal of the Humanities Copyright © Common Ground, Zhichang Xu, Lixun Wang, Pui Man Jennie Wong, Matthew DeCoursey, All Rights Reserved. The journal web site is located at http://ijh.cgpublisher.com/]

This paper reports on a research project about the emerging hybrid or blended learning and teaching environments. These new environments result from the introduction of new technologies (e.g. 'Blackboard' learning and teaching systems) into the educational setting. The new technologies, rendered as innovative tools in the education sector, have helped integrate the classroom and online learning environments into a variety of "productive spaces" referred to by researchers as "the third space" [1]. This research project has explored the major issues arising in this "third space" in a higher education institute in Hong Kong. These issues include 1) the relationship between the traditional knowledge transmission and the current technology-enhanced knowledge generation in education; 2) the changing relationship between the teachers and the students in the new learning and teaching environments; 3) the discourse nature of interactions through differing modes, e.g. face-to-face (FTF), and interactive electronic media. In addition, this project has also addressed, through a case study of two courses offered in the blended mode, the issues concerning the context and content of the two courses, and the opinions of the participants of these two courses towards the new learning and teaching mode.