In content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms, it is assumed that non-language content subjects provide more authentic communicative contexts for students to learn a foreign/second/additional language (L2). However, learning abstract concepts and academic language in an L2 simultaneously is also challenging for CLIL students. It is thus important for CLIL teachers to unpack and repack both abstract concepts and academic discourse for the students. ‘Semantic waves’, which model classroom practices of both unpacking and repacking, is arguably a key to understanding cumulative knowledge-building. Applying the concepts of semantic profiles and semantic waves, this paper analyses the classroom discourse of two CLIL science lessons in Hong Kong. In one lesson, the semantic profile mainly consists of downward shifts. The teacher adopted various useful strategies to unpack science concepts, especially with multimodalities, everyday L2 and students’ L1 resources. Yet, there was limited repacking. In contrast, some repacking was observed in another lesson, where the teacher provided explicit instruction on academic language and guided students through academic writing tasks. A semantic wave can thus be observed there. These findings on strategies for unpacking and repacking provide significant insights into knowledge building in CLIL contexts, and may hence illuminate CLIL pedagogical practices. © 2020 Informa UK Limited.

International kindergartens, which offer an immersive dual-language (English and Chinese) environment, are popular among middle-class families in Hong Kong. The international learning and teaching environment is cultivated primarily by developing a diverse workforce, in which Chinese-speaking (Putonghua and/or Cantonese) teachers with local training or from mainland China generally work with their English-speaking counterparts from overseas in the same classroom. Such heterogeneity has complicated the already challenging concept of collaborative teaching. This article presents a case study of the collaborative teaching practice in a trilingual international kindergarten which had been established for over 50 years. Through in-depth interviews, questionnaires, text messaging, document analysis, site visits, and observations, the study examined the collaborative teaching practices among international colleagues in the kindergarten. The findings revealed that collaboration among international colleagues was made successful by: (1) senior management and teachers sharing a common goal; (2) a dynamic whole-school supportive structure that embraced heterogeneity; and (3) the development of a shared culture of professional learning. The implications of these findings for management, practice, and research are discussed, including the need to foster a culture of collaboration, the importance of professional development, and the need for further research on collaborative teaching practices in diverse educational settings. Copyright © 2023 Springer.

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is characterized by using students’ additional language (L2) as the medium of instruction of non-language content subjects. In recent decades, this type of program has been gaining worldwide popularity, especially in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) contexts, because of the assumption that it can facilitate L2 learning. However, this assumption may not be realized in many classrooms in EFL contexts, where both teachers and students are often not well-prepared to cope with the heavy linguistic demands to learn content and language simultaneously. Owing to a combination of sociopolitical and socioeconomic forces, Hong Kong has a rather long history of practicing some form of CLIL in secondary schools, in the form of English-medium instruction (EMI) education. Following some recent changes in the government’s medium of instruction policies, there are different models and practices of EMI in Hong Kong schools to accommodate students with different English proficiency levels and also the expectations of different stakeholders. This chapter will illustrate these different models and practices and discuss their implications and challenges for English language learning, content learning, and teacher education. Copyright © 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

As the content knowledge of English language learners and immigrant students is assessed in their less proficient language, the validity and fairness of assessments related to those students have been widely discussed. However, such assessment issues have not received much attention in rapidly expanding bilingual education programmes, where students learn content subjects through a second/foreign/additional language (L2) and are often assessed in that language. This paper addresses this research gap by examining the mediating effect of language of testing on students’ performance in content subject assessments. 387 question items in the Biology papers of a public examination in Hong Kong were analysed according to their cognitive and linguistic demands. The performance of 480 students (half taking the test in their first language and half in their L2) on the questions with different demands was then analysed with MANOVA and multiple regression. The results show that linguistic demands, especially productive linguistic demands (e.g. writing sentences and texts), had a more significant effect on the performance of students taking the test in their L2. These results underscore the role played by language in the academic achievement of bilingual education students, which in turn illuminate valid assessment design and pedagogy in these programmes. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study draws on the activity theory to explore how bilingual first-year secondary school students appropriate resources strategically in response to linguistic challenges in learning science through English in Hong Kong. The study explored 12 bilingual students' self-regulated strategy use by conducting in-depth interviews, stimulated recalls, observation and analysis of learning materials. Through analyzing these data, we examined how and why they appropriated and used resources strategically for self-regulated learning. The analysis revealed that the participants had used various artefacts (e.g. dictionary) and rules (e.g. evaluation criteria) to negotiate their respective roles (e.g. subject content learners and language learners) in situated communities of learning that consist of subject teachers, classmates, family members, private tutors and friends. Similarities and differences were found between the high achievers and the underachievers with regard to the use of resource-mediated strategies and the underlying reasons. The results inform the development of pedagogical schemes to enhance bilingual students' self-regulated strategic learning of academic subjects through English. Copyright ©Routledge.

In this paper, I review the four articles in this special issue, elucidate the main challenges faced by bilingual teachers when helping their Cantonese-dominant students learn both the content and target language (English) through content and language integrated learning-compatible pedagogies, and give a critical appraisal of their respective contributions to good practices and theory-building in research on translanguaging or classroom code-switching.
[Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis.]

In some settings, medium of instruction (MOI) policies in multilingual education break out into public debates in mass media involving politicians, business leaders, government officials, parents, and school children. These public discussions of MOI often index struggles over the distribution of political power and economic resources, and issues such as national cultural identity, national security, equity, and social justice. Although there is a vast scholarly literature on framing and media effects, very little research has examined the role of mass media in MOI policy-making. Specifically, how do mass media shape the policies that are adopted in multilingual contexts? This article reports on a comparative analysis of the coverage in major newspapers of two important MOI controversies in multilingual education: mother tongue versus English MOI in Hong Kong and the continuing discussion of the role of English and Spanish in Arizona. Using the conceptual frameworks of representation theory, legitimization theory, and framing, I identify the major components of the ideological framing of MOI policy in these contexts, the political agendas implicit in media texts about MOI, and the implications for language policy research and practice.
[Copyright of Current Issues in Language Planning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2014.947018]

Greater China is used in this article to refer to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Macao. While a holistic approach is adopted to present and compare the rapid spread of English and development in English language education in these geographically close, and sociopolitically, culturally and economically interrelated but hugely different societies, an emphasis is placed on mainland China owing to its size and diversity of its population. Through describing and juxtaposing English language use and education, this article unfolds the stories of the spread of English in these societies in the past few decades. It draws on the research data and discussions included in the author's recent book English language education across Greater China, with evidence and findings from other recent publications. On the basis of these discussions, this article critiques the frequently cited models and notions used to describe the spread of English in post-modern societies. It argues that there is a need to come up with new conceptual models in order to catch the essence of the phenomena in the contemporary societies.
[Copyright of Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2012.661435]

Teacher-student interaction in classrooms is perceived to be crucial for learning. Previous research has compared the interaction in classrooms where a second language is used as the medium of instruction (MoI) with those where the mother tongue is used. This has been done mainly via qualitative impressions. The current study adopted a mixed method design to examine objectively and comprehensively the classroom interaction in a sample of Hong Kong secondary schools that used Chinese as the MoI from Grade 7 to 9, but then switched to English from Grade 10 onwards (i.e. MoI-switching schools). By doing so, this study aimed to identify the possible effect of a change in the MoI on classroom interaction and its potential for learning. Sixty lessons were observed in Grade 9 and 10 in three MoI-switching schools and compared to two schools where English was used throughout all the grades. The results show that, when the MoI changed from students' first to second language, lessons tended to become more teacher-centred and there were fewer opportunities for negotiation of meaning and scaffolding. These findings have significant implications for the relationship between the MoI and classroom interaction and provide important insights into pedagogy and teacher development.
[Copyright of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2011.588307]