In EFL classroom interaction, discourse markers play a crucial role. This article investigates the use and functions of discourse markers (DMs) in native and local English teachers’ talk in Hong Kong EFL classroom interaction. The 20 most common DMs are examined in this study, and 24 English lessons in the Corpus of English Language Teaching (CELT) developed at the Hong Kong Institute of Education are explored. A comparative study of the use of DMs by local and native English teachers in Hong Kong schools was carried out, and the similarities and differences in DM use are discussed. The findings suggest that there are some similarities but also distinctive differences between the two groups of teachers’ use of DMs. Possible reasons for such differences are explored. The pedagogical implications of the study are discussed at the end of the article.
[Copyright © 2015 Center for Promoting Ideas, USA.]

The Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) is widely used to assess the vocabulary size of second-language learners of English. The test assesses learners' knowledge of words of different frequencies within general English and of high-frequency words within academic texts. We used the VLT to measure the English vocabulary size of Chinese university students of English in Hong Kong where a large vocabulary is required for academic and professional success. Students achieved high scores for high-frequency words but scored poorly for low-frequency words. We consider the possibility that the low scores reflect a deficit of the test: words were selected on the basis of frequency counts from dated word lists of American words and at the lower frequency levels may not be representative of current Hong Kong English. We compiled a corpus of 14.7 million words of Hong Kong English. Cross-checking revealed a number of VLT words that do not occur in the corpus. We argue that these words are not required by English speakers in Hong Kong and that the lowest word frequency levels of the VLT should be revised to reflect modern Hong Kong English.
[Copyright of Language and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500781003642478]